RV Vacation to Whitewater State Park in Minnesota

RV Vacation to Whitewater State Park in Minnesota

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 11, 2015

We rented an RV to get a taste for how much we would like this lifestyle.  The first 3 nights of our trip was to Clear Lake and the next 3 nights were spent in Whitewater State Park in Altura, Minnesota.

My co-worker, Nicole, made this photo in honor of our trip.

We drove into Whitewater State Park Sunday evening.  They tell me these rock walls are called Bluffs, but I don't think they're fooling anyone.

Since we were all confined together in a small living area, we thought it would be best to leave the puppy at home, but we couldn't go on a camping adventure without Sunny.  He loved peeing in the park!

We went to Mystery Cave in Fillmore County to get a glimpse at a hole in the ground that's nearly a million years old.  I would have sworn it didn't look more than 800,000.

Our guide told us this was his first day on the job.  I thought what a perfect time for a roof collapse to happen and trap us inside.  Lucky for us, that didn't occur.

He told us a lot of the formations were formed by something called Calcite, but they looked more like caramel covered dragon heads to me.  I kept having the desire to lick the walls.

Every time I walk by a deep hole in a cave, I always wonder if that's the gateway to hell.  I didn't see any fire or devil horns or anything down there, so it probably wasn't.

This cave had an underground pool of clear water that was really beautiful.  I wish I could have taken a bath in there, but Miss Sheri thought it would be inappropriate for me to get naked in front of the other cave visitors.

Luke and Avery took advantage of our camping trip to work on their Cooking merit badges for Boy Scouts.  It worked out great for their mother and I because they ended up cooking every one of our meals.

They had to do everything from meal planning, shopping for the ingredients, preparing the food, cooking it, serving it, and cleaning up afterwards.  We could really get used to living like this.

The boys discovered that one of the biggest challenges to cooking outside is keeping a consistent fire that gives enough heat for cooking, but doesn't flame up too much to burn everything.  It's more challenging than it looks.

I had low expectations for the quality of the results, but we were actually pleasantly surprised that every meal ended up tasting great!

The beef and chicken kabobs were the best!

We told Avery that he and his brother were going to now become our full time cooks.  Not sure if he likes that idea or not.

My biggest annoyance with the trip was the fact that we had no cell service or wifi in the park.  Everyone tells me that they think that sounds like heaven, but not to me.  I love being connected and know what's going on in the world and it's unsettling to me when I don't have that access.  Although, waking up and walking out to see this every morning didn't suck.

On our second day, we went to a nearby campground called LazyD Campgrounds.  They had a magic pillow which we just could resist.

We had a shocking coincidence happen to us when we went to schedule our horseback riding adventure.  The next time we could go was at noon and the lady told us their was another group going at the same time.  Suddenly Dawn Barragy walked into the place and we discovered that we were going horseback riding with some old friends.  It was a very pleasant surprise.

I've known Dan Barragy since I was a sophomore in high school and we were in cross country and wrestling together.  He used to give me a ride to school every day also, so it was great to have the chance to get on a horse with him and his family.

The ride was supposed to be an hour, but ended up closer to 90 minutes of fun walking through the hills, pastures, and woods of southeastern Minnesota.  I highly recommend Lazy D Campgrounds to anyone in the area.

They also had a really cool petting zoo that gave us the opportunity to touch tongues with creatures we hadn't touched tongues with before.

The llama and the alpaca weren't quite sure what to think of us.

Luke has become fascinated with fishing lately so we thought we'd give it a try in the creek.  Lucky for us, we didn't catch anything.

I thought I had something for a little while, but it turned out to be a weed.

All in all it was a great vacation and a wonderful time spent with the family that I love dearly.

Why IBM's Breakthrough 7-Nanometer Chip Matters To Partners

"I would love to see system builders on the cutting edge of technology like this," said Todd Swank, senior director of product marketing at Equus Computer Systems, a Minneapolis-based system builder. "It's a good thing for everyone, for system builders as well as consumers and users of technology. If IBM is making advances like this, companies like Intel will soon be able to do it as well in one way, shape or form," Swank said.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/300077387/why-ibms-breakthrough-7-nanometer-chip-matters-to-partners.htm?itc=hp_todays_news

Intel's Massive Reorg, Exec Shakeup: Getting Ready For Mobility, Communications

Intel's big exec changes and reorganization come as Intel and other manufacturers like it have to adjust to a new paradigm being caused by cloud and mobility, said Todd Swank, senior director of product marketing at Equus Computer Systems, a Minneapolis-based custom system builder.

Intel is doing what it needs to do to be ready for the shift, Swank told CRN. "The industry is shifting from the client architecture model to the cloud," he said.

Read Full Article:
http://www.crn.com/news/mobility/300077340/intels-massive-reorg-exec-shakeup-getting-ready-for-mobility-communications.htm?itc=refresh

4th of July 2015 in Clear Lake, Iowa

4th of July 2015 in Clear Lake, Iowa

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 5, 2015

Blue learned how to swim this week.  Kind of.  He loves following Sunny so we sent Sunny in after the ball and Blue followed him.  Until the water was over his head.  Then the puppy proceeded to lift his paws up and down in overly-large swings, reversed course, and headed back to shore.  Then he barked with major concern at Sunny for swimming in water over his head.  I'm sure he'll get it down real soon.

We've always talked about buying an RV to travel the country some day, but we felt we should probably try it first to see if we even like it.  So we rented an RV from Brambilla's and headed down to our favorite 4th of July destination, Clear Lake, Iowa.

We were very concerned with hooking up with the electricity, water, and sewage, but were very blessed to park next to Roger and Jen who were RV veterans and were so very nice.  They helped us get our connections set up and ready to go for the first time.  Roger also gave us good advice like it probably makes sense to wear rubber gloves when handling the poop tube.  That probably should have been common sense, but I haven't dealt with a lot of poop tubes in my days.

Krazy Kory and young Harli were the first visitors to our camp site.  We had fun playing bean bags and other camping type activities.

We had planned to do a lot of cooking outside, but the OP in Clear Lake was calling our names instead.  I just love their Grinder sandwich!  So Spicy!

Which way do we go?

Our first night ended at the Clear Lake Carnival.  Avery won back our money that night playing Bingo.  That game takes a lot of skill and he's really, really good at it.

Friday morning brought us to my favorite gold course on the planet, Oak Hills.  It was a beautiful day for golf, but not a beautiful golf game.

Luke likes to get his balls stuck in really weird places.

There's a new garden spot where old Central Elementary School was torn down.  It was beautiful and my boys just love flowers.

Miss Sheri and I like looking at gardens and reciting poems to one another.  It helps enrich our love.

Later that afternoon, we took Luke fishing.  Lucky for us, he didn't catch anything.

We don't have Iowa fishing licenses, but Luke isn't quite 16 yet so he was able to go legally.  Sheri was pretty bummed that she didn't get a chance to go.

To ease her sadness from missing out on fishing, we let her lose at some rigged carnival games.  This seemed to make her happy again.

On Saturday morning we went to see the parade.  We bumped into the City Mayor, Nelson Crabb.  Mayor Crabb always likes to remind me about the time I ruined his rose bushes back in high school.  It wasn't one of my prouder moments.

We watched the parade at some friends of Krazy Kory's.  We were excited to see Kory's dad, Gene, there mixing up the Bloody Marys because you just can't watch a parade without some spicy tomato juice to kick-start the morning!

Clear Lake's parade is always huge and extremely well attended.  Usually there's some national politicians marching the route to get a jump-start on the Iowa electorate before the Iowa caucus. This year we were saddened to discover that none of the presidential candidates were there unlike in year's past.

  We'd heard rumors that Hillary was going to be there since she and Bill had attended a few years back, but no luck.  She didn't show.   Instead, her float consisted of a bunch of youngsters singling songs and chanting phrases I couldn't understand.  I'm sure they were very meaningful.

No Hillary this year, but we did get to this colorful lady on a horse which was nice also.

We ended the night by losing more Bingo games.  I swear that game must be rigged.

The best part of going to Clear Lake is getting the chance to see so many good friends from our past.  Here's pictures of some of them that I was lucky enough to capture: