June 8 - 12, 2021 - Trip to Bemidji, Minnesota, a Little More Fishing, then Home.

On Tuesday we decided to take a trip into Bemidji, Minnesota. It is the largest town around with a population of about 15,000. We first went to the Visitors Center. Paul Bunyon and the Blue Ox are a big deal in Bemidji. Here are a couple of pictures of Kellen there. (You know Grandma and Grandpa made him do it.)

We then headed to the city's Science Center which was really nice but clearly low budget. Kellen got to hold a couple of the reptiles. This one is a large lizard. Notice the blue tongue.

This one is a legless Lizard from Europe, two thirds of its body is tail.

After checking out various exhibits we walked out to the nearby dock on Lake Bemidji. The Mississippi River flows from the headwaters into Lake Itaska. From there it flows North into Lake Bemidji. Here is where it enters Lake Bemidji.

The river crosses the lake and then flows South. Here are a couple of pictures of it heading out of the lake.

Unfortunately there was no place to pull off the road to view the Mississippi starting its flow South. It is certainly not "The Mighty Mississippi" up here.

Here is a picture of Kelly, John, and Carlene out fishing on Thursday. Unfortunately, not a single bite for Kelly or John. Carlene caught one. Just too hot.

We decided to leave on Friday, rather than Saturday, so we could get settled in at home before Kelly flies out to California on Tuesday to welcome the arrival of our second grandson. Kellen and I will later either drive out or fly out. 

Whenever we make trips there are things that break or need attention. I already posted about the emergency window bracket coming off allowing the window to flop. I fixed it today with a couple of pop rivets. Here are pictures of the project. The first is the "non-broken" side.

The second is the area of the window where the bracket is attached.

The third is the bracket pop riveted back on - good for another 15 years.

I then decided to pull apart the shower skylight because the plastic trim was breaking loose on the corners. The shower skylight has a shade over it. The shade has not worked since we bought the rig because the string had broken and someone retied it making it too short to open and close. It was permanently closed. Here is a picture of what it looks like now.

I replaced the strings that move the shade and it is good as new and ready to be reinstalled once the new trim piece arrives.  Here is a picture of the current trim piece. As you can see three of four corners are broken off. Plastic is just crap as it ages.

I thought maybe I could repair the corners but there are other cracks in the trim as well. A new one should be here in about three days from Amazon.

After getting home I found that the generator is still not running well even though it was worked on before we left by a local mechanic. I am going to find a place to have the carburetor boiled out and rebuilt. If upon reinstalling it the generator still does not run correctly I will bite the bullet, pull the generator out and buy a new one.  A new one will be nice and smaller, but it will not be built in and thus not nearly as convenient as a built-in generator has been.