Well here we are in 2013!  Hard to believe Christmas has come and gone & we are back at Auxiliary business again.  This time it was a REALLY long trip to Minneapolis on January 11th for the official Hospital visit at the Minneapolis VA.  WOW what a facility!  It is very large and really nice.  We were greeted by Legionnaire John Miller for the start of the tour.  The PR Director joined our group and explained a lot of the history of the facility.  He took us on a very interesting tour of the spinal cord injury area and the poly-trauma units.  One of the nursing staff gave us a detailed account of how TBI and stroke patients are helped in her area.  In the spinal cord injury area, our guide showed us the wonderful innovations that are used to treat these patients.  There was a really special pool that I would enjoy, a therapy pool where the floor moves up and down. 

After a pleasant walk around this facility, we arrived at the office of the Volunteer Director to present the check for our donation this year.  After a nice chat with this woman, it was time to head to the Hilton in Bloomington for the rest of our weekend of ALA Mission Training.  Just something to note:  our visit to the Minneapolis VA was set with the Legion for February 1st.  When I mentioned to Commander Wayne that we would be in Minneapolis already this weekend he was gracious enough to have this official tour arranged for me so I would not have to spend the Department's $$ to head the 6 hours back there again in 2 weeks.  So thanks to Wayne & Angie at headquarters for making our official Auxiliary visit happen now.

Mission Training was great!  Good chance to see some ladies I haven seen in some time and meet a few new people.  Good sessions with lots of information provided.  Saturday was a full day of program info presented in "pods".  We even got to watch the Packer game Saturday night!:( Sunday Wisconsin's own Diane Duscheck led the session on the Family Support POD.  Lots of good information was presented.  I think everyone left there with great information and a better understanding of how things work. 

The only down-side to the weekend, if you want to call it that was the weather!  It was extremely foggy in places all the way the our destination, mild temperatures, but major fog.  I think I should have been happy with that because by the time we left there @ 12:20 on Sunday, it was 3 degrees outside, with a lovely wind!  We had a good drive back with some major flurries in places but nothing that decided to stick to the car, windshield or pavement.  Always concerned about the weather on those 300+ mile drives.