Summer is over and now we move into my two favorite seasons. Fall and Winter! Yes, I know many of you love summer, but not me. Mostly because of the weather, I do not enjoy the hot and humid weather we have in Minnesota. I do enjoy what summer brings, like parades, county fairs, campfires and pontoon rides. The hot humid weather we had during Applefest weekend in Appleton was brutal for a September weekend. Summer officially ended September 22nd. I was running through my pictures on my phone and noticed that I had a pretty fun summer. So I am going to do a recap of my summer.

My summer started way back in June when I covered the state golf tournament in Becker. The Lac qui Parle Valley girls won a state championship. The LqPV boys were also in the state golf tournament and placed fifth. It was so exciting when the awards were handed out and the LqPV girls were named state champs! The smiles on the girls and even coach Besonen are imbedded into my mind. Rachel Halvorson also won the individual state title for the first time. Rachel has participated in the state golf tournament since a seventh grader. Rachel and I have taken a picture together in front of the club house each year and I’m looking forward to two more pictures with Rachel at state golf.

Each summer, Kris Kuechenmeister, the radio station office manager and I golf in many local golf events. We usually have two other golfers golf with us. Fun times golfing in Madison, Dawson and Appleton. It usually is chamber golf outings, or ag related and hospital fundraisers. It’s all good and fun times. My highlight was getting an eagle on hole number 8 in Madison during the Madison ag tournament.

My wife, Roxie and I went to Sparkle Night at the Twins game. The Twin recognized all the royalty in Minnesota before the game and have them walk around the field and then put them up on the big screen in the stadium. Miss Madison and Miss Appleton royalty along with MS. Wheelchair Minnesota Shannon Boehnke participated from our area.  The girls and their family’s had a great time. Miss Appleton Laura Baldwin even got a baseball from a Kansas City Royal before the game.

The best time this summer was spending time at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria with my whole family. All our kids and grandkids were able to come and we were all together for the first time in a very long time. We rented a townhouse, which was beautiful, and did so many things together. The weather was perfect, not hot and humid. It was very relaxing on the pontoon rides around Lake Darling and the grandkids enjoyed swimming off the pontoon in the middle of the lake. It was a great family vacation.

So many more things to mention, like all the county fairs I covered for the radio station. I love the county fairs, mostly visiting with people. A number of summer parades, pulling the Madison Chamber float. We went to Wichita, Kansas and spent some time with our son Jeremy, and grandkids. My son, Brandon, was in charge of the state junior legion baseball tournament which was held in Montevideo this year. The Montevideo community did a great job hosting a state tournament. I was very proud of Brandon pulling all that together.

I went to the Taylor Swift concert at US Bank stadium in Minneapolis with my granddaughters and daughter, along with my son and his wife. It was impressive to see a concert in such a huge stadium. The concert itself was very good and it was sold out. I enjoyed watching my granddaughters and daughter sing along with Taylor! I also look forward to the Raymo Cup golf tournament with the Raymo guys every summer. This year my son Josh hosted in St. Cloud.

I wrapped up the summer with Applefest weekend in Appleton. The Appleton Chamber is in charge of Applefest, which I am a part of. We recognized long time head football coach at Appleton and LqPV schools Bill Beck on Saturday night at the 52 Wing. He started coaching in Appleton in 1958. Fun to listen to all the football stories from all of his former players. It was a very hot and humid weekend, but that didn’t stop people from participating in all the Applefest festivities on main street. The Applefest parade on Sunday was well attended.

I enjoyed summer and that is a wrap-up of my 2018 summer!