July 9, 2013 Travel to Wisconsin

We woke this morning to the sound of rain drops, packed up, and headed east on US-2.  The countryside continues to be beautiful but today we could only see about 1/4-1/2 mile around - lots of fog.  So not many pictures today - .

Here we are crossing the border into Wisconsin:

The rain and fog continued much of the day.  We were going to stay at a city park in Ashland, MI that was situated on the shore of Lake Superior.  I had visions of sitting out and watching the boats going in and out.  But with this rain and the fog, I could not see very far plus I would get very wet - LOL!

So we decided to travel further east to Odanah where we are camped at their local casino RV park with electric and water.   We are also trying our refrigerator on gas only - there are a number of forest service campgrounds further on the peninsula but there are no hookups so we need to make sure (or as Andy would say - I need to feel more confident) that all is good.

Stay tuned for our next adventure and enjoy today.

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 258 Miles

Route Traveled:

Minnesota: CR-38 (Main Park Road); CR-123; US-71: US-2;

Wisconsin: US-2

July 8, 2013 Walking Across the Mississippi River

We woke to another gorgeous day , packed up and headed east on US-2 then south on SR-92.  We went thru thick forests:

To Itasca State Park.  Here is our site:

The view from our front window:

A tour boat on Lake Itasca - we may check this out:

Once we set up and had lunch we headed to the visitor center.  We watched a nice little movie on the park and the lakes and went thru a number of the exhibits.  I found this interesting:

There was a lot of information on the CCC’s influence in the park and a lot of history of the CCC.

We picked up a few maps and headed out to the Mississippi Headwater where they had a few exhibits, a store and a café.

Some background on the source of the Mississippi River:

We walked down a nice little path to....:

And of course, we walked across the Mighty Mississippi River - !

Itasca Lake:

The start of the Mississippi River:

(Now we will have to try swimming across the end of the Mississippi - NOT!)

In Anishinabe (Ojibwe) belief it is the women who are Caretakers of the Water.  “We are to respect this responsibility of the sacred work of women by keeping this precious resource pristine and renewable for all future generations to enjoy.”

This sculpture by Jeff Savage is a symbol of the “Caretaker of the Water”.

The picture does not show it but the details on the turtles were amazing.

We spent some time at the outdoor exhibits - much information on the Mississippi River.  There was a very large relief map of the entire Mississippi Watershed.  (Very hard to take a picture - sorry!)

Some tidbits:

The average surface speed of the river is 1.2 miles per hour, about one third as fast as people walk.  At that rate, a raindrop falling in Lake Itasca would take about 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico.

In the 1930’s, the Mississippi River measured 2552 miles from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.  Today, that length is 2350 miles.  In the 1940’s, straightening of the river’s channel cut off over 160 miles of bends.

We stopped at the little café for an ice cream treat - YUM!.  Then continued our day by taking the Wilderness Road. 

The trees, oh my:

This is a stand of red  pines.

This is the Big White Pine.  It was once part of of the large pine forests that stretched from Maine to Minnesota and south to Georgia and Alabama.  By the late early 1900’s many of pines had been cut down for lumber.  This pine is 112 feet high, 173 inches in circumference and over 300 years old.

Check out how the trunk:

These trees are huge and very tall.  I just missed a vehicle going down the road that would have shown the perspective.  WOW!

In the low lying areas there were many small ponds and swampy areas:

What a nice drive!

Back home we had a nice campfire and a great supper over the fire.

This was only a one night stay for us.  We don’t normally like to just fly thru a place but the cost of camping here is a little overpriced (in my opinion). So we are off to the the Great Lakes region. 

Stay tuned for our next adventure and enjoy today.

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 91 Miles

Route Traveled:

Minnesota: US-2; SR-92; SR-200; CR-38 (Main Park Road)

July 6-7, 2013 Just Hanging Out

On Saturday while I cleaned and did laundry, Andy checked out the refrigerator.  The final thing he did was changed the regulator on the propane gas tank and that seems to have done the trick.  Time will tell. 

And today, Sunday, was just one of those lazy days.  I did get caught up on the blog and emails and tried to figure out our travels for the next few weeks.

This is city park where we are camped:

The sites are huge:

Up the hill is this beautiful church - now closed:

The Red Lake River next to the campground:

AHHHHHHH!  .

Tomorrow we are on to another adventure so stay tuned and enjoy today.

July 5, 2013 Travel to Minnesota

We woke this morning and our refrigerator was still working on electric - .  We decided to move on and do more research on why it only works on electric and does not on gas.

We headed east on US-2 and once we got about 20 miles east of Minot, the countryside changed.  No oil rigs, nor construction, and very little traffic.

An old church along the way:

We made a stop in Rugby because that is the geographical center of North America:

Here it is:

We also stopped in town at the Post Office.  Everyone we met smiled and said hello. 

Rugby is a cute little town and some day we will be back.  The International Peace Gardens are not too far away (another bucket list place), plus there is a neat museum in town. So, yes, we will be back!

We continued on and saw water, water, everywhere:

Flooding???  Not sure.

The greenery was wonderful to see:

We continued thru many small towns and then into Minnesota:

We stopped in Crookston at their City Park and fell in love so decided to stay a few days.  Their sites are huge and they have 30 amp service, showers, and water.  So we are all set!  I will get pictures tomorrow.

After setting up, turning on the AC and putting the refrigerator on electric, we took a little road trip around town and made a few stops to pick up some things.  I love these small towns - everyone is so friendly and, yes, they know you are not from around here. 

At 6 PM, the ranger came around to collect the fee ($15.00/night); stayed for a while and chatted about the area; and the cats fell in love with him - it was so funny!

Enjoy today!

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 240 Miles

Routes Traveled:

North Dakota: US-2;

Minnesota: US-2