Minnesota Centennial Showboat
Minnesota Centennial Showboat
Connie beside TPT van going to Showboat
Bob on Showboat with cathedral in background
Connie with Covington B&B in background
Connie with barge in background
Peter, Christopher & Jim singing"Puff the Magic Dragon"
Christopher, Peter & Jim singing
Peter singing with auction guitar
Peter taking bids for auction guitar
Peter with 2 auction guitars
Bob & Peter going up to the reception and book signing
Peter & Bob at book signing
Mary McCarthy, Bob and Mary's mother Muriel McCarthy
“Once upon a time” in the long winter of 2010/2011 we must have lost our minds- or at least the capacity to think rationally. The story goes like this:
We were channel surfing and came across a Peter Yarrow Special on TPT (Twin Cities Public Television) We don’t watch TPT too often, but it seems that when we do, there is a pledge drive. At this particular time if you pledged (a pledge more than we would ever consider (you received 2 tickets to a concert with Peter Yarrow.  Did we hear the date clearly – May 20th, 2011? We certainly would not be able to go to the concert. We talked about it for a few minutes – you don’t have until the next day you know and then Bob called hoping to get Peter on the line. He got another volunteer and we were a little bummed, but gave our pledge anyway. We decided that if we had reservations at the resort on the 20th we would have to give the tickets to someone else – that shouldn’t be a problem. As it turned out, no one wanted to stay at the resort the weekend of May 20th and it rained which in our minds made it more acceptable to leave.
To make the best use of our trip we took the lawn mower to the Ariens Dealer (Powerhouse Outdoor Equipment) in St. Joseph, Minnesota for service on the way to the concert. After that we stopped for lunch and made it to the hotel just in time to change our clothes and we were off to the Minnesota Centennial Showboat in St. Paul. Neither of us had ever been there before so it was a new adventure.. We arrived in plenty of time, so leisurely walked around the area, talked to a couple of fishermen and watched the activity on the river including a barge being moved.
At 6:50 they opened the doors to the theater. There was a seat for 1, but not 2 of us! After a few minutes of shuffling, we had seats.
Peter sang alone at first singing “Don’t Laugh at Me†joined by a young lady with MS and then his son Christopher joined him with his homemade wash tub bass. It had great sound. Jim Pagliarini from TPT joined them for “Puff the Magic Dragon†and other songs.
At the end of the concert they brought out an autographed guitar to be auctioned to raise money for TPT. The bidding went to $2500 and then $3000. Of course at that time they brought out a second guitar and the 2 high bidders each went home with one.
Bob caught Peter and Mary as they were coming out of the Theater and it was like old home week! Mary is originally from Willmar, Minnesota so they know our area well. Bob & Peter talked and then talked to Mary before we were ready to leave. It was a great night.
Saturday morning we were to get together with Stu Lee at Cannon Paddles to get kayak paddles fixed so we had to waste some time. During a lull in the rain we stopped at Menards to check out their plants. Found some that needed to live at Lake Florida and were off to the paddle repair man.
Our next stop would be to pick up the lawn mower back in St. Joseph. When we got there it wasn’t ready so we needed to waste some time. I said “we’ll have to go to lunch!†We started driving through St. Joseph and came upon a grilled hamburger fundraiser for the Knights of Columbus at the St.Joe Meat Market. They also had samples of Bratwursts and we came home with a package of those too!
Before we left on Friday we had an email to come to the New London High School on Saturday to test drive a new car. It was a fundraiser for NL-S Robotics and Cateye Productions Teams to raise money for their programs. Mills Lincoln out of Willmar brought 5 brand new Lincolns to the high school and the kids would get $20 for each test drive. Since we were going right by it was easy to do. They were also selling hot dogs so we took 2 of those home for our dinner.
Back at the resort everything was just as we had left it, but with a new inch of rain. We changed into our work clothes and got a few things done before it started sprinkling again. What a great 24 hours!
