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The next morning we stopped at the Saskatchewan capitol building in Regina for a tour and learned a little bit about the history of the place, and a lot about Canadian politics. Regina (pop 180,000) is a beautiful little town. It would have been nice to spend a lot more time there. But alas, Oshkosh wouldn't wait.

      The land between Calgary and Winnipeg is similar to the American mid-west. It is flat, with hundreds of miles of fertile farm land. Wheat, canola (which is a bright yellow flower), corn, and hay seem to be the crops of choice. They even farm the land between the east and west bound lanes of the freeway. That's when there were more than two lanes. About half the distance the Trans-Canada highway is two lanes, half the time four lanes. Considering that this is the main east-west highway in the country, we were surprised to see that the highway is in such disrepair. The road is crap and we had to drive 45-50 miles an hour most of the time because the RV was getting beat to death.

      We arrived in Winnipeg after dark so we decided to spend the majority of the next day in Winnipeg and then leave in the afternoon. We must not have seen the good part of Winnipeg because it reminded us of Tijuana (although it was nicely landscaped).

      It was absolutely GREAT to be back in the good ol' U.S.A.

      We crossed the border at the junction of North Dakota and Minnesota and headed directly southeast on state highways. After being in Canada all that time, the American secondary highways were an absolute delight. Like driving on glass. As we passed through little town after little town, we were struck by how clean and well-kept every single town in Minnesota was. It was like one Norman Rockwell painting after another. Too bad we didn't have time to stop.

      Minneapolis and St. Paul were delights. Especially downtown St. Paul. Both are modern cities with a sense of their past. We only had four days there and it wasn't nearly enough. We spent all our time with Cindi's relatives that we haven't seen in many years, and some of my cousins that I haven't seen since 1963. The Family reunions were really special and we had a great time catching up. We definitely will be back. Oh yeah, the RV Park was very near the Mall of America. That's quite the place.

      We continued to pass through neat little towns on the way to Wisconsin Dells as we continued our practice of avoiding the Interstate Freeways. Wisconsin Dells is a very popular family tourist town built around a huge lake. Not much there for us. We didn’t bring any kids, and we don’t do water sports. But we enjoyed walking around and getting our exercise.

      We have been in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this week attending the EAA Air Venture Fly-in. The Oshkosh Fly-in is a seven day annual event attended by private individuals who own airplanes (and people like me who have an interest in airplanes). They get together to show off their airplane to other pilots, look at other people's airplanes, talk about airplanes, buy airplane stuff, and visit with airplane manufacturers. It's by far the largest gathering of its kind in the world. That week sees 11,000 - 12,000 airplanes and 770,000 people show up at this little airport just outside of town. To give you an idea of the scale, we talked to people from other countries where they do the same thing, and they say 200 - 300 airplanes attend. We paid a little extra to stay at the temporary RV Park that they had set up at the airport so we were within walking distance to everything.

      Many of the pilots bring tents with them and camp next to, or under, their airplane. They park the airplanes together by type. For example, planes built before 1925 are in the antique area, the warbird area has all the old military planes, the jet area has jets, and many areas are dedicated to specific popular models of airplanes. There is even an ultra-light area with its own runway. That makes it real easy for pilots and people who have an interest in a specific type of plane to get together and compare notes. We just wandered around and looked at the planes and talked to the owners. Everyone there is there to socialize, so tourists like us are welcome.

      We arrived 3 days before the Fly-in started, which turned out to be a good thing because none of the spectator fences were put up yet. We spent the afternoons sitting under the wing of a DC-3 or a B-25 that were parked next to the taxiway that connects the runways to the parking ramps. From that vantage point we were able to see all the planes up close as they landed and taxied by. It was too cool!

      When the Fly-in formally started there was an airshow everyday. We would wander over to the runway every afternoon, look for a wing to sit under, and watch the show. It's incredible how many planes they put in the air at the same time. Good thing my camera is digital or I would be going broke buying film. And even the weather has cooperated, it has been beautiful.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAA_AirVenture_Oshkosh

      We are starting to learn some facts of life about RVing. One thing that is becoming clear is that our best meals, far and away, are in the RV, not in restaurants. Another thing is that it takes 15 days to have mail forwarded to a Canadian address vice 3 days in the U.S. We still love the RV and the lifestyle... a LOT. We don't like rain because it's difficult to keep the RV clean.

      We did without TV news, radio talk shows, and newspapers all the while we were out of the country and felt much happier in our ignorance. Now that we are back we are still doing without those things and don't miss them at all.

      Friends & Family...

      When last month ended, we were sitting in an open field in Wisconsin at the Oshkosh airport, surrounded by many hundreds of other RVs, listening to the roar of airplane engines. As this month ends, we are sitting all alone in quite, rural, southern Virginia. We’re at Cindi's sister's house. They recently bought an older house on fifty-two acres of land, and they're in the process of making improvements. One of the first things they did was build a RV pad with full hook-ups for visiting relatives. The set up here is as nice as any RV park we have stayed at, ...and better than most. I'm sitting at the dining room table in the RV as I type this and when I look out the window my view is across their "backyard" to a 2 acre pond about 150 yards away. We have been here for 10 days visiting and resting up. It's by far the longest we have ever stopped in one place since we started RVing.

      After we left Oshkosh, we stopped in southern Wisconsin for a couple of days to see the rest of Cindi's aunts, uncles, and cousins that she hasn’t seen in forever. It was good to see them again and catch up on what they have been doing. I even got a chance to play some golf with Uncle Dave. Then it was off to northern Indiana to tour the factory where our RV was born and get some repairs made.

      Along the way to Indiana we decided to stop in Chicago for a few days to see the city. We found a nice little RV Park in the southwest suburbs about 30 miles from downtown. There was a commuter train terminal about a mile from the park, so we took the 55 minute train ride into the city every morning with the commuters. One of the first things we did was take the Grayline city tour and learn about Chicago's important contributions and rich legacy in the world of architecture. Chicago is a very vibrant city. Plenty of commerce and shopping. Lots of hustle and bustle. Lots of people on the streets all day long.

      Chicago is a walkable city so we did PLENTY of walking. Chicago is also a very livable city, and they are building expensive high rise apartment buildings like crazy. Downtown Chicago is called the Loop. It got its name when they built an elevated subway track around the perimeter of the downtown business district and shopping area. As soon as the elevated subway extension was completed it became desirable for businesses to be located in this downtown area. Hence the term, "Being in the Loop," was introduced into the American lexicon. The weather was absolutely perfect every day, and we couldn't have asked for a better time. We left thinking that we would surely be back for another visit when we could spend more time here and really see it in depth.

      Our RV was built in Nappanee, Indiana. We decided to go there for a factory tour and get some minor repairs made. As it turned out, the factory was booked up for repair services, so they sent us 25 miles up the road to a repair center in Elkhart that handles their overflow. Fortunately, the repair facility had a place for us to stay for free while the repairs were being done. Too cool! The money we saved on RV parking paid for the repairs that weren't covered by the warranty. We arrived in Elkhart on a Saturday afternoon, and decided to spend the first

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