My wife Ellen and I took a short vacation last week…so no postings to the weblog.
We drove to Devils Lake, North Dakota to visit Ellen’s younger brother. She had not seen him for several years and wanted to make a connection. I had not been to North Dakota for many years. We enjoyed the drive out, but do appreciate Minnesota all the more.
When we finished with North Dakota we drove across the north part of Minnesota, stopping for a night in Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids is a beautiful town of about 8,000 people. We had a short visit there and continued on to Silber Bay on the edge of Lake Superior. My brother Robert purchased a small motel…Whispering Pines….in April and has been operating it since that time. Ellen had not seen the motel.
Robert showed us all the improvements he has made in the past 4 months. Northfield Construction Company helped him out with some of the improvements. Rick Gates, a “do-all” employee, spent a couple weeks there creating a vending machine room and converting an unused out-building into one more rental unit. Robert thoroughly enjoyed working alongside Rick and helping him with the projects. Like many people, Robert is frustrated that his plumber has held up some of the work. The new rental unit is all set to go, but the bathroom is not finished, so the unit cannot be rented. Robert gets people stopping everyday that want to rent the single room. Hopefully, the plumber will finish his work this week and Robert will be able to rent the unit shortly.
It is wonderful having such great employees. Ellen and I could safely and confidently take a few days off knowing that work would continue and all would be under control at Northfield Construction Company.