We had some strong thunderstorms around 3:30 a.m. this morning. There was constant lightening and several claps of thunder shook the house. Along with very heavy rains we also had some hail. This went on until daylight. After breakfast John went outside to make sure there was no damage to the house or shop. He checked the rain gauge and found we had gotten four inches of rain--the ground is just saturated and feels soggy when you walk on it.

I had heard about a big sale at one of the outfitters in Walker, so since there was nothing to be done outside and John can't do anything in the shop, we decided to take a road trip today. We left home a little after 11:00 a.m. and decided to stop for lunch in Bemidji because there is not much between there and Walker. Walker is a nice resort town located on the shores of Leech Lake--one of the bigger lakes in the northern part of the state.


Reeds sells everything under the sun for hunting, fishing, camping, etc. It is a huge store that takes up an entire block in the downtown. John was looking for the sales on ammunition and came away with several nice buys.
After spending an hour or so in Reeds, we walked through the downtown and visited several of the art galleries and shops. Since John got ammo, I found a couple of nice books that I had been wanting to read. I will set them aside to take on our trip east the end of September.

When we got tired of browsing, we headed back to the car and drove a couple of blocks to the lake shore. The day was overcast, but I did get a couple of photos of the lake and some flowers growing by the water.



It was time to head home. We made a stop at McDonald's in Bemidji for their $1 hot fudge sundaes and then one more stop at the farmers' market for a dozen ears of corn. By the time we reached home, the skies had cleared off, the sun was shining and the humidity was on the rise again. We spent the evening switching between the Twins and the Eagles pre-season game
doing some computer work.