Hello from St. Paul, MN

Hello from St. Paul, MN

Saturday Afternoon July 12, 2008 (third travelogue of this trip)

In the last travelogue I said that I would discuss the Amana Colonies. The history is fascinating! The following information came from: http://www.amanacolonies.org/history.htm

The Amana Colonies was established in 1855 by German immigrants. They established seven villages and adopted a constitution which formalized their communal way of life -- one that would become one of America's longest-lived and largest religious communal society.

In the seven villages, residents received a home, medical care, meals, all household necessities and schooling for their children. Property and resources were shared. Men and women were assigned jobs by their village council of brethren. No one received a wage. No one needed one. Farming and the production of wool and calico supported the community, but village enterprises, everything from clock making to brewing, were vital, and well-crafted products became a hallmark of the Amanas.

Over 50 communal kitchens provided three meals daily to Colonists. These kitchens were operated by the women of the Colony and well supplied by the village smokehouse, bakery, ice house and dairy and by huge gardens, orchards and vineyards maintained by the villagers.

We were able to tour the woolen mill and the furniture/clock factory and the products continue to be of the highest quality.

On Monday (7/7) we drove to the Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farmington, MN (here). This was the site for our Converted Coach Chapter pre-rally. It was a very low key rally with about 14 buses. About half of the buses were factory, high dollar conversions. On Friday we had a guided tour of the neat little recreated historical town on the fairgrounds.

The weather has been both good and bad. In Iowa, on the Fourth of July, we watched the fireworks from beside the bus and needed light jackets. In general, it has not been overly hot, which is a good thing, since it is pretty darn humid. On the way to Farmington we encountered one of the worst rain storms we have been in for for a long time. Most folks pulled off the road. Thursday there was a terrible storm at the fairgrounds and a tornado traveled along the ground for over six miles not far from our location. During this past week, we had two additional days of severe weather warnings and heavy rain. I think that the weather is supposed to be pretty nice for the next few days.

We are now at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the big FMCA International Convention (here). We caravaned in with the CVC folks today (7/12). We have great parking spots. We are very close the building where our booth will be. We set-up tomorrow and Monday and the show is Tuesday – Thursday.

In the last blog, I forgot to mention that the flag pole/flag in the picture was ours. At a rally a while back, I horse traded for a flag pole so that I could use it for an cell phone antenna mount (when we are in marginal areas). I never got it out after I put it in the bay. The day before the 4th, Pat was wishing we had a flag, and I recalled that the pole came with a flag. It was really neat to display the flag on the 4^th of July!!!!

That is all for now.