Ranch Lane has an annual block party and they alternate which end of our street is having it every year.  This year it was at the “dead end” of our street.  Mark and I only had a short walk to get there.

The invitation was left inside our screen door several weeks ago.

The house at the end of the street is where the original ranch (Ranch Lane) was located. They just got a new barn quilt on their barn.

I saw this log cabin in the corner of their yard and asked Mike about it.

This log cabin was built in 1875.  This whole street used to belong to the Wickman’s who lived in this cabin.  Over time, they began to parcel out their land so that people could build houses here.  Behind our street is the Wickman House, an upscale restaurant located on Mink River Rd.

Mike said the log cabin is being used by his wife, Sharon, as a “she shack”. He said I could go inside and look.

Mike brought his Gator out for people to play with if they’d like.

These are our neighbors across the street from our house, Karen and Lynn.

These adorable girls live on the other side of the highway from Lakeview Rd. which is at the far end of our street. People often invite other guests to our block parties.

I caught a candid photo of Mark actually laughing with someone behind Karen.

The woman in the center is Sharon, our hostess for the evening.

Mark and Kim posing for me. Kim is the resident massage therapist on our street and we’ve gotten massages from her several times.

Everyone was having such a good time visiting that we didn’t get around to eating until it started turning dark.

Mark grilled our chicken.

You can just barely make out Mark’s cowboy hat on the left near the bonfire.  Beyond the bonfire was a group of people visiting at one of the tables.

I had made name tags because I hardly know anyone on our block.  I also made a sheet for people on our street to put down their name, house number, and contact information so that I could make a block directory.  When I told Sharon I wanted to do this, she thought it was a great idea.  It just seems like it would be a good way to get to know each other a little better and to be able to keep in touch.

We hated to leave while everyone was still having a good time, but I was getting eaten up by mosquitoes.  My body was almost completely covered with thick clothing, but one even bit me on the palm of my hand!

There was a continuation to the train reservation saga today.  Mom called me as I was driving to work this morning and said, “There’s been a terrible mistake!  I just looked at our tickets and they gave us tickets for this month instead of next month.”  I asked her to trying calling Amtrak back and seeing if she could get them to fix the mistake.  She was dubious after all the trouble we’ve had getting these tickets, but she called me back this afternoon to say that she had gotten hold of someone who changed the dates on our tickets.  As a result of pushing the dates back by a month, she even got a $500 refund.  Apparently, October is a less popular month for train rides than September is.  Hopefully, we’re all set now as far as our train tickets go.