blah-diddy-blah: Off the Road #3

Fins of a windfarm turbine being delivered to Iowa.

Two days after getting home from L.A. we all piled back in the minivan and drove to Minnesota! Another two days of road tripping except much noisier. We tried to stop every few hours to give the kids a break but by the end of the day, they'd be bouncing off the walls. We got one night in MN and then drove another 4 hours to Fargo, ND for the family reunion!

Oy! Another hotel, more eating out than ever and some first meetings with Bren's family including a cousin she'd never met due to being given up for adoption 40+ years ago. Bren and her sister got the ball rolling and anonymously dropped vital information in Cory's path and he followed the trail straight to his mom.

That was neat. After the family get-together, we came back to a cold and dreary MN and got our vacation underway. The kids all had a ball together and Bren and I got some alone time. A Double Feature of Indy and IronMan is hard to beat. IronMan - Awesome. Indy - Um, yeah, about that...
Indy meets Area 51, replace Nazis who can't shoot with Russians who can't shoot. Kype some scenes from The Mummy 2, tack on the happy ending wedding and you've got a franchise that will never die. Shia LeBeouf ain't no Marlon Brando. More like the Disney version of a West Side Story Jet. Without the dancing. Lucky bastard. He's like Will Smith showing up in every major summer blockbuster 14 years ago. Bren loved it.

Anyway, we also did the MN Zoo and took the kids fishing. Ginny was so proud. Even landed a couple small mouth bass that were keepable and took them home for dinner. Even let her drive the boat around. Big day for V.

Finally, Daddy got a little fun time too going out with Bill and shooting guns! Bill had a whole stockpile of ammo he had to get rid of so we packed up his arsenal and hit out for the range. Handguns: 357 Magnum, 380 snubnose, a 22 and a glock 9 (my favorite). Rifles: a 22, a 30.06, a 30.30 and a 12 gauge shotgun that beat the shit out of my shoulder. I thought I was holding it wrong but Bill's shoulder was pretty bruised too. Plenty of spent targets and shell casings. I haven't held a gun much less shot for about 20 years but memories of Boy Scout camp came back and I managed to save some face.