The boat we take decided to start on fire as I was hauling it from Wabasso to St. Peter. Brian's dad had it all shined up for us and ready to go. We were about a mile and a half from home when I looked in my rear view mirror and saw flames shooting out of the boat. So pretty calmly, I said to all the girls "the boat is on fire. I'm going to pull over and you get yourselves out of the van and run!" I couldn't believe my eyes! I called 911 and they sent 3 firetrucks, a water truck, the nicollet co sheriff and st peter policeman. Needless to say the wind was not in my favor this day. As the fire got closer to the van I could only imagine what kind of damage was being done. There was no way I would have been able to unhitch the boat trailer from the van so me and the girls just watched the flames get closer. Rachel was pretty upset, but the sheriff and I calmed her and told her the most important thing is that we were all ok. Van's and boats can be replaced. The boat as you can see was a complete loss and the vans back door needed to be replaced. So after countless phone calls, Brian got us hooked up with a rental van and Dan was nice enough to let us borrow his boat and truck so we did have a way to get up north and have fun on the water.
On Thursday before we left I ended up taking Caitlin to the doctor and she had strep throat. I felt like I was getting it too but turned out it was just a sore throat/cough and I would be ok too. I managed to get the rest of the food purchased and packed along with getting laundry done and all of our clothes packed and most everything ready to go Friday night and we were off and running Saturday morning at 10am. The trip up there was quiet since we took 2 vehicles and the trip was also uneventful which I think we both appreciated. Once unpacked we were able to enjoy the most beautiful weather we've ever had up there, met new friends, caught up with old friends and had a very relaxing week and drank just a few beers :)