Beletti & Friends Reunion at Lost Island Resort
Ruthven, IA
August 5-8, 2004

Twenty-four friends and family gathered at Lost Island Resort near Ruthven, Iowa for a friends and family reunion early this August.  The weather was great (warm and sunny).  We had a relaxing time around the lake and campfire, a couple of great potluck dinners and the kids seemed to enjoy the lake, mini-golf and other things at the resort.

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The Belettis (l-r) Lindsay, Dylan Nathan, Tony & Mike	Christina, Alie and Lindsay (l-r) workin' the Karaoke crowd!	Lisa trying to get Jayce to make his debut Karaoke performance with Alie and Joey supporting them
Nancy and Lisa relaxing with coffee and hot chocolate in the morning	Sharon and Jamie posing for me on the Mini-Golf course	The Gibbs' Gang!
Annette, Angie and Alie with little Joey enjoying a round of MiniGolf	Tanya giving Lindsay and Christina a ride on the JetSki	Alie checking out the water.  It was a bit cool!
Dylan making a valiant effort on "The Log"!	(Christina) ...on your mark get ready...	Lindsay and Christina bobbing in Lost Island Lake
Jayce!  How old are ya buddy?	Mike, Alie and Ruby, taking a pedal boat tour	Nathan walking the gauntlet - "The Log"!
Tony and Dylan cruising along	A lake view of Lost Island Resort	A view of the lake and docks from behind Lost Island Resort
Ruby - completely exhausted after a weekend of being a camp dog.  And being chased by Joey the poodle!	A view of 3 of the 7 cabins at the resort	Steve!
Sandy, my Mom (everyone else's Nana) holding a little gift - a Cracker Barrel Beanie Baby Bear	Johnnie looking at Jeepin' pictures	Mike working on rounding out his farmer's tan!
While I am not in the habit of taking pictures of bathrooms, in that the one at the bar and grill on Lost Island was the smallest I have ever seen, I couldn't resist.  This is the entire room. About 3 foot by 4 foot. Small bathroom - good food!	Lindsay!	Christina!
Joey being held by his mother, Alie. He's drinking water right out of the bottle too!	Steve and Jayce	Now that's camping.  Laptop on lap, webcam connected and transmitting live to the web and updating email - all at the same time.  Who said camping was only about poison ivy!  Thanks for the FREE wireless Internet John & Denise!
Ruby mid-flight on the Mini-Golf course, chasing Joey	Lunch at A&W in Emmetsburg on the way home	Me (Jim) and Alie's puppy Joey
Hi Jamie!		Click the image above to visit Lost Island Resort online

An overview map of the trip from our home to the resort

A close-up view of the map at the resort area - north of Ruthven, Iowa

At Christmas time (2003) my Mom (Sandy) proposed having a little get together at Lost Island Resort the following summer.  It sounded like fun to me.  We discussed it further over the winter months and by the first week in March, we'd sold out the resort with friends and family.

Mom and Johnnie; Bo, Sharon and Jamie; Steve, Melanie and Jace; Tony, Mike and Nathan; Annette, Angie and Alie; Jerry and Diane; and the Jipps all stayed in cabins.  Nancy, Lisa, Dylan and I stayed in our trailer and Lindsay and Christina stayed in my tent.  That's 24 of us in total!

Most of us arrived Thursday afternoon/evening and stayed 3 nights.  The weather was pretty darned good.  Sunny and warm (with a breeze) during the day and cooler at night.  We got rain only once over this long weekend and that was some pretty light stuff Friday in the middle of the night.  Couldn't ask for much better really.

Nancy, Lisa and I and Mom, Johnnie, Bo, Sharon, Jamie and Jerry all met at the Lost Island bar/restaurant (forgot the name) for dinner Thursday evening.  The kids and I would return here a few more time over the weekend for lunch.

The only activity/event that was pre-planned was a potluck dinner for Friday night.  This was a real highlight for me.  Tons of great food!  Personally, I was really looking forward to my Mom's potato salad and Melanie's baked beans.  I was not disappointed!  

Talking around the campfire Friday night, the Fortney's and I learned we were both planning the same thing for our separate breakfasts.  So we agreed to do it together.  We made pancakes, bacon and sausage links.  Yum!

With the success of Friday nights potluck dinner and faced with all the leftover side dishes and desserts, we collectively decided to do another potluck dinner Saturday night.  Success again!  Denise, the resort co-owner gave Steve a bag of sweet corn.  Steve and I soaked it in water all day, then wrapped each ear in foil before dinner and tossed it all on a really hot grill.  Kept turning it every few minutes and after about 15 minutes, the ears had steamed quite nicely in their husks.  The husks and silk peeled down easily.  A lot of butter, some salt and pepper, then a quick spin in the foil wrapper and we had some pretty darn tasty corn on the cob. Thanks Denise and Steve!

Lost Island Resort (LIR) is located in NW Iowa, just south of the Minnesota border, outside of Ruthven, east of Spencer.  John and Denise Gochenouer own the resort and along with their daughters Tanya and ?? - they run it as a family business.  LIR is right on Lost Island Lake.  The resort offers:

I played 1 round of mini-golf and I saw other families out there too.  As for most of the kids (young and old), if they played 1, they played at least 50 rounds!  I rode one of the double-bikes and other kids rode a lot of the other bikes.

I only made it in the water once.  Jumped off the swim raft once to say I'd done it!  Lisa and I took out the pedal boat once.  It was a little windy and we had the wakes of some nearby jet skis to contend with, so we were pedaling furiously to get anywhere.  The kids spent the better part of Friday afternoon on the water though.  The raft was a big hit and the pedal boat got a good workout too.  We didn't rent the pontoon boat or the jet skis, but myself and the Jipps got a 5 minute ride on the pontoon boat when John needed to take it out after a previous rental just to make sure everything was okay.  Then Lindsay and Christina got a 10 minute lake tour on a jet ski by Tanya one morning.  That was really nice of the resort owners to offer those little freebies to us.

Saturday night is Karaoke Night at LIR.  Diane sang Teddy Bear and Lindsay, Christina and Alie (okay, I was drug onto the stage at one point) sang a couple songs too.  Other than that, there were no more singers among the rest of us.  Just the same, Lindsay took the liberty of making song assignments.  A valiant effort for sure, but it didn't get many of us up there.  Prior to turning on the Karaoke machine, John used his Karaoke computer to slide show through about 80 digital pictures we and he took of us in and around his resort.

Karaoke was fun - especially for those of us not singing.  A few times, John used some sound treatment filters so that the voices of the singers were changed (female to male, chipmunk, alien etc.).  The chipmunk filter on Lindsay and Christina was hilarious!  Within an hour or so, the neighbors and other locals had joined the party.  They weren't quite as shy to sing as some of us.  One of my favorites was when the Ruthven Fire Chief and a buddy sang Achy Breaky Song by Weird Al Yankovic when they thought they were going to be singing Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus.  It was great and the Chief really had some fancy foot work!

For other RV'ers who may consider staying here on your own or with a group of cabin dwellers like we did, I'll do my best to describe the RV area.  At this time (Aug-2004), the RV area is a fairly level gravel lot next to the mini-golf course.  There are no delineated sites, but 2 trailers can fit here and connect pretty easily.  A couple more trailers could fit, but not connect too easily.  Thirty amp power (via 20 amp outlets) is available at the base of 4 light poles around the mini-golf course.  Water is available via a garden hose that is temporarily run from a nearby building out to the RV lot.  A y-adapter on the end of the hose allows 2 trailers to connect at once.  There is an RV dump in the front corner of the lot.  For RV'ers, this is not what you'd expect at a campground, but understand that LIR is not a campground, it is a lake resort with cabins.  John and Denise are developing this RV lot over time in order to accommodate a couple of trailers should someone want to stay there with a trailer as Nancy, Lisa and I did.  So for us, it worked out.

For all of you who were part of our get together and you have pictures that can fill in any gaps from those I took, please send them to me (request my mailing address via an email to me).  Until next time.........

Jim

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Updated: 11/05/2004 10:11:40 PM
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