Tuesday, June 4, 2004

Jamestown, ND

Today was a full day.  

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 June 2-3, 2024

Sunday and Monday

Sunday was a day off.  It was raining when we got up, and rained off and on all morning, but then cleared off in the afternoon.  We didn't even set foot out of the RV until 5:00 p.m., when Joe decided to check the air pressure in the new tires .  And check the oil.  Both were fine.  But once he went outside, he decided we needed to do something, so we drove over to a restaurant and had dinner, then he took me to a casino (Northern Lights Casino, how could I resist that).  No winner here.  We saw one deer on our drive to the casino, and something, maybe a groundhog, on the way back.  No pictures today.  It rained again on this drive. Moving on tomorrow into North Dakota on our way to Medora to see the Medora Musical, and drive through Theodore Roosevelt National Park again.  We have reservations there on Friday, so we will be taking our time.

Monday, we got a late start heading to North Dakota. It rained lightly during most of the night but had stopped this morning.  We looked at the map again and made some more reservations for the future.  By the time we dumped and took on water, which took forever, it was just about noon.  We headed back to Walker and I finally got a picture of this fishing bobber that we had passed twice before.  This is just before Walker.  On this stretch, we saw a turkey (finally) and a groundhog (woodchuck).  And hit another bird -- I think that's 4 this trip.

Minnesota and America's Northwoods are home to many towering Paul Bunyon statues.  We had seen one in Bemidji on our last trip, but today we passed this one in Akeley, touted as the only one where Bunyon has dropped to one knee, inviting visitors to perch in his mighty palm, a perfect place to sit for a souvenir snapshot.  We didn't really stop, but Joe pulled over long enough for me to get a photo.

The only other photo I took was when we crossed the state line into North Dakota, about 3:20.  We thought we would change time zones today but apparently we have to go further west before we hit the time zone change.  We skirted around most of Fargo on the interstate, but it did look like a nice, clean city.

We drove 227 miles today, further than we expected.  Had one small detour, but otherwise it was a nice, uneventful drive, first through forests, then through flat, farmland.  North Dakota does not appear to have as many lakes as Minnesota did. We fueled outside of Fargo for $3.199, which was a little better than back at Walker.  

We got to our campground, another Corp of Engineers one, just about 5:00.  We had a reservation for site 29 so we could go directly to our campsite.  So we unhooked the Jeep, moved a picnic table out of the way, and Joe got ready to back in.  I parked the Jeep in the spot next to ours (28) and accidentally noticed that our name was on the tag for this one, not the next one.  So I got Joe stopped, and he then backed up to this one, and we called the reservation line and told them our dilemma.  They checked and said 29 was the right spot, so Joe pulled up to that one again, and we got parked.  Spot 29 was tagged with another name but that reservation doesn't start until the day we leave, so they must have just have just mixed up the site numbers.  So far, no one has come by to question us or leave us parking tags, but Joe did see a ranger drive through while ago so we must be ok.

We are here for 3 nights, so we have some new territory to explore, and new dirt roads to drive.  Jamestown is the next town and it appears to have some things to see, that that will be tomorrow's agenda.

June 1, 2024

Leech Lake, Minnesota

Today is our great granddaughter Kallie Jo's 6-month birthday, so happy birthday to her.  She is wanting to crawl so badly, so I hope today is the day.

We are staying at the Leech Lake Dam Recreation Area on Leech River.  This river is huge, and is the Muskie capital of the world.

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There is a lot of power in that water coming through the dam.  And there are a lot of boats in the campground, so we assume this is a big fishing lake.

We have also seen several of these "ice house" campers here -- they pull them out onto the frozen lakes and there are holes in the floor on the inside that they can drop their lines through.  We got to look inside one when we were in Minnesota the last time.

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After our quiet evening last night, today we thought we should look over the area somewhat, so after breakfast we took a "loop" drive into the town of Walker.  Joe had looked up things to do in Walker and it mentioned a Farmers Market on Thursdays and Saturdays, but another article said that had been changed to some kind of "green scene."   So we checked that out, but unfortunately it had been changed to a restaurant, so we just drove on by.  Perhaps it is a farmer's market later in the season.

 As we came into town, we found out that there was a walleye tournament going on, and we saw several boats on the lake.  We didn't see any boats coming in with fish, unfortunately.

We saw this goose family swimming in the lake.  It's very interesting that they always protect their babies by keeping them between the parents.  We have seen this a few times.

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They had a great dock in town, so we checked it out, and the marina beside it.  

Look how clear this water is.  We saw some minnows but no big fish from the dock.

We saw a couple fishing boats on the lake, this one was on the move.  The water was a bit choppy so we don't know how the fishing was.

And this one was of a family getting ready to go out.  I don't think they were fishing, but who knows.

This map shows how big this lake is, and the many fingers that shoot off of it.  From this town, our campground is almost directly across it.

In front of the museum is a monument entitled "Circle of Life" that is quite interesting.  There are 12 statues representing different times and what was going on at that time.  

We made a stop at the grocery store, the first real one that I been in for a while.  We filled up the refrigerator, so I guess I have to start cooking again.

As we headed back to the campground, Joe found one side road loop in the Chippewa National Forest that he thought we should check out.  But we didn't find anything of interest there.

Continuing on our way around the loop back to the campground, we passed this huge fish, a roadside attraction just west of Bena, MN.  It is a 65-foot long wooden structure in the form of a muskie.  It was built as a drive-in restaurant in 1958 but only operated a few years as a restaurant.  The Big Fish Supper Club, located next to the fish-shaped building, was opened in 1972.   

We got back to the RV mid-afternoon, in time for me to watch the Diamondbacks finally win a baseball game.  After dinner, we drove the trash to the dumpster and took a short, 45-minute drive around the countryside, but did not see any wildlife -- except a hawk.  Seemed like a perfect area for deer and turkey but nothing showed.

It was a beautiful day here, 71 I think.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 75, then rain on Monday.  The natives here are loving this nice weather -- I think they were all ready for winter to be over.

 Friday, May 31, 2024

Off to Duluth

Our appointment at the tire shop is at 8:00, so I set the alarm for 6:00 for our 35-minute drive into Duluth and through morning traffic.  Joe woke up 10 minutes before the alarm went off, and when I drug myself out of bed he was already dressed and putting stuff away to get ready to travel.  Neither of us slept well, but that is not the way my mornings usually start.  When I drove the Jeep down to throw away the trash, I did get a nice photo of the lake in the early morning.  We never did get back down there to pick up rocks-- too windy and chilly.  But plenty of other people did.  It was very annoying watching them down there getting MY rocks.

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Joe was going 90 miles an hour getting ready to travel, but I got my chores done, and we were on the road by 6:30,  As soon as we cleared Two Harbors, which isn't very big, we saw 2 deer. In fact, Joe had to stop and honk at one to keep it from crossing the road in front of us.  Shortly after that, we saw 2 more in the medium between the lanes of the highway.  Joe remarked that we probably need to be out earlier to see wildlife.  Duh.

As we drove into Duluth, still along Lake Superior, the houses had huge lilac bushes.  They are just now blooming here, and are beautiful.  The houses along here were also huge and beautiful.

Here's a view of Duluth's sister city, Superior, Wisconsin, just across the bridge.  Duluth is a very hilly town so there are views here.  We have stayed in Superior in the past.

We got to the tire shop 45 minutes early (traffic was no problem) and waited until they all got to work.  Then we left to get breakfast, and drive around a little to kill time. The restaurant had several vases of lilacs on the counters.   We figured out our exit route to get out of Duluth.

We stayed in the area but drove up and down some of the streets.  There were lilac bushes in every block.  Since I only get to see them when we travel, in the spring,  I was soaking up every one.  I still have mine in the RV so I didn't steal any today..

We wound our way back to the tire shop and they had just finished, and were walking the paperwork up to the office.  It only took them about 2 hours to replace all six tires, so we were happy about that.  By 10:40, we were back on the road.  While I was waiting for Joe to come out of the office, I watched this customer explain her needs.  I'm thinking she may have just got off her night job.  And she was no spring chicken.  We fueled here ($3.039) and got on I-35 heading west.

We made our way across Minnesota to the Leech Lake Corp of Engineering (COE) campground.  We are probably just past mid-way through the state east-west.  This is a lovely campground, we haven't been down to the water yet but will check that out today.  Lots of campers towing boats through the campground. We are staying here for $13/night with our American the Beautiful pass.  However, the bugs are bad, everywhere right now.

We traveled 153 miles today and arrived at our campsite at 1:40.  Once Joe hooked up the electricity and I parked the Jeep, we never went outside again.  It was a nice day but we just were exhausted.  It was enough entertainment watching the campers arriving and setting up.  I watched one family with kids, unloading bikes and scooters, balls, hammocks, and remembered those days when our kids were still young.  I'm always happy to see families bring their kids to these kinds of places.  This is the second COE campground we have stayed at, and we have found them to be very nice.  The Brundiges recommended them to us so we are trying to find ones on our route west.  The other one we stayed at was in Missouri last year when we went to the Tom Sawyer stuff in Hannibal.  

We have 3 nights here, then we will continue on toward Montana.  We have decided to make a stop in Medora, ND, to see the Medora Musical, which we missed when we came through here a few years ago.  We were too early in the season then, I it starts June 5 so I think we will make the beginning of the season this time.  It is right outside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which we really enjoyed and would not mind going through again, so now we have at least one destination.  We can't make that in one day from here though, so we will need to figure out mileage and campgrounds for our next stop.

My arm/shoulder is a little better.  I think my range of motion has improved, and the pain is less.  Day by day.  But my right knee continues to be a problem.  Decisions ahead on that issue.

 Thursday, May 30, 2024

Slow Day

First, 2 things I forgot from yesterday.  1) I'm thinking Cathy should change the banner to the blog from fishing to water falls.  But we haven't given up completely on fishing, so maybe not.  2) We saw a deer as we came out of the Silver Bay Marina.  No picture, thus I forgot.

Today we had what was a "down day" for us.  I think I was just worn out from bouncing around in the Jeep -- my arm, shoulder, and both knees were aching.  So I took the day off -- although I did fix breakfast, wash dishes and sweep.  Joe made a trip into town to the hardware store, and also picked up a few items at the grocery store.  In my incapacitation on this trip, I'm finding out that Joe could have been doing lots more things over the last 55 years.  He's very helpful with laundry, is capable of grocery shopping by himself, etc. He fixed a drawer today, and dumped the RV so we can get an early start tomorrow, so he did chores too.

We had our morning swimmer again.  I didn't see her in the water but got a picture as she wrapped the towel around her, then she just left.  This was before 8:00 a.m.

We did go into town for lunch, to Culvers, and we both had their chicken and wild rice soup, which was just OK.  But every restaurant in town that has soup has the chicken and wild rice.  It must be a thing up here.  Actually, they seem to use wild rice in a lot of things up here -- maybe it's a local crop.  $13.99 for 3 lbs.

I discovered that lilacs are just beginning to bloom here.  This little branch found its way into the Jeep!   We took the back way into town, and I saw a blooming bush but we didn't stop.  So then we had to go back down the back streets to find it, which we did.

It's driving me crazy watching all these rockhounders out our front windshield, so even with my 2 bad knees and my bad shoulder and arm, I decided I had to give it a try.  Unfortunately, it was chilly and very windy (white-capping), so we didn't last very long.  But if the wind dies down, I may try again this evening.  I probably only picked up 6-8 rocks.  But there's someone down there almost all the time, just a couple people or so, so there must be something worth picking up.

Our tires are in, so we have an early appointment tomorrow in Duluth.  Hope that goes well.  Then we have reservations for the weekend at a Corp of Engineers Campground at Leech Lake Dam, about 100 miles west. Looking forward to a nice weekend there, we were probably lucky to get a spot since we didn't even try until about 5:00 p.m. today, because of the uncertainty of when the tires would be done.  We will probably need to start booking camp sites a little ahead now that it will be June for our next one.