---

Well I think that is about it for town celebrations.  Shafer held the annual Shafer Days celebration last Friday and Saturday, Wyoming held its Stagecoach Days over the weekend and Almelund hosted the very popular Apple Festival on Sunday.  The weather was spectacular with the exception of a very brief shower on Saturday.  

I want to thank all of the volunteers who put in countless hours of manpower to make all of these events so fun and easy for all of us to enjoy.

Thanks also to the Good Neighbors Club who took over the Shafer Days reenactment of the historic Shafer Bank robbery.  They did a wonderful job and were all dressed in costumes to make it realistic.  

My wife and I decided to take a little weekend trip to celebrate our anniversary over the weekend.  We try to save enough money to take a spring trip somewhere warm, so we decided to make this one easy on the pocketbook.  After searching for towns in Minnesota and West Wisconsin and finding nothing (Have you seen  prices of hotels in Duluth right now?) we decided on Walker, Minnesota.  We found a hotel with good reviews and set off with no expectations.  It has been forever since we have driven the Brainerd Nisswa roads and it was incredible to see all of the changes from when my family used to vacation up there.  

Upon arrival we noticed signs all over the place for their town celebration called “Ethnic Fest”.  We had no idea what to expect.  As it turns out it was one of the neatest celebrations I have been to.  They blocked all of the side streets off and on each street there was a theme. For example, one street would have German food, and a stage where German style dancers and music played. Another would have Irish food and dance and music and so on.  There were about seven blocks filled with ethnic food and entertainment. It was really fun.   If you are not a fisherman or a gambler (incredibly smokey small casino up there) there isn’t a whole lot to do in Walker.  But I sure had a wonderful time just spending the weekend with my wife in this picturesque town.

Our local high school fall sports season is underway.  If you are looking for some cheap, fun entertainment please consider coming out and supporting any or all of the sport teams.  

Who had the Vikings going 2-0?  I did....not.  I even had a bet with my son that the Vikings would lose the first eight games of the season.  Easy money right? Our quarterback phenom we drafted was lost for the season. How could I go wrong?  Who would guess the team would be this good and this dominant on defense.  

---