August 20

View of the day-Al visiting with the owner of the V&R Toy Museum in Kenmare.

We woke to a steady tapping on the roof vent on the camper. It didn’t seem to be raining, that would have been tapping all over the roof. Squirrels and birds also move around a lot. After looking out the window the source became obvious…it was misting quite heavily, there was a power line over the camper and the low spot was right over the roof vent. It stayed misty and occasionally rained until early afternoon.

What do we do when it rains…laundry of course…but where to find a laundromat? Kenmare, 16 miles SE has two, one closed because of vandalism and the other, well, no one seemed to know the hours of operation. We opted to go to Stanley, 40 miles S. We stopped at the combine to pick up an empty oil pail to get filled at the bulk station at the Case dealer in Stanley.

We had a nice winding drive on the way down and after getting things loaded into the washers, we went over to the Case dealer to get the parts (and perhaps a farm toy) we needed. We got back to the Laundromat and filled the dryers, then went to a local café for lunch. We did find some wireless access, but Marilyn figured it was too early in the day to whip up a blog entry…a lot could happen before midnight, so we just got the email.

After the laundry was done it was back to Bowbells to put everything away. Al went out and changed the oil in the pickup while Marilyn got the camper in order, then phoned over to Kenmare to make an appointment at the V&R Toy Museum. We got to go check it out around 8pm, and what an amazing collection! A lot of scratch built toys, all out of the box in a building made especially to display them. Now Al’s thinking…

Tomorrow we get phone service…