Tag: Minnesota

Traveling again! Badlands National Park

I obviously am not terribly motivated to keep up the blog when we aren’t traveling, so it has (again) been weeks since I updated. I will try to catch up. Warning: there is a bunch!

I finally got caught up on my donation sewing, and I am taking a serious break. I made 20 isolation gowns of a horrid fabric that turns out to be designed for outdoor signs! It was a very heavy double knit fabric, and a bear to sew. Each gown took 2+ hours, so it was a considerable amount of work. I didn’t take any pictures because I don’t want any nightmares of them! I also finished a box of “Button Buddies” which are small absorbent pads to fit around a pediatric g-tube. Those were for The Preemie Project, and I completed 600 of them.

The top one is the sample. The rest I sewed.

I was also very lucky that my son in law dug out a garden for me, and a daughter in law helped me choose plants and planted most of them! It is a shady spot facing north, so shade lovers only. Obviously lots of different types of hostas, coral bells, azaleas, variegated redbud shrub, Sweet William, and some others I can’t remember.

Left an empty spot for some type of garden ornament

Still did some more piecing. I got a new die for my Accuquilt cutter, a 7” (finished) Drunkard’s Path. I ordered a fat quarter collection from Connecting Threads, and here is the first sample I made. I am thrilled! Everything went together perfectly. It certainly helps to have perfect cuts.

Look at those perfect seams

I started saying we were traveling, but gave no information. We took a trip to Badlands National Park for Kevin to take night sky photos of the Milky Way around a new moon. We left on a week ago on Wednesday morning, and spent the night in Fairmont, MN at the Flying Goose campground. Nice little place with lots of long term residents, but well kept and good sized sites. Thursday we stayed in Al’s Oasis campground in Chamberlain, SD. Not bad, but more open and close to the highway. We then made it to Badlands on Friday morning. The NPS concessionaire campground is Cedar Pass. It is a series of loops with bump outs along the road for sites; the vast majority would never have held a rig as big as ours. Site 76 fit us fine, though we had to wiggle around some to get in. It is an odd site where we had to drive to the site the wrong way down the road so the door didn’t open into the street. I liked the view from the campground.

Nice view at sunset
Rather dramatic shapes

We saw lots of wildlife, as expected. In addition to the ones pictured, we saw bats, an owl, and we heard coyotes. There was a large nursery herd of bison I didn’t get a good picture of. There were also a number of bachelors showing off. This guy was getting a belly scratch on a post.

We saw a surprising number of mountain sheep in at least two separate nursery herds and one herd of males.

Part of the first nursery herd
This girl was grazing by the road. We passed by 5’ from her in the car without her acknowledging our existence.
As good a close up as my little camera can take

Kevin found the guys, and this is from his (much better) camera.

It rained much of the time we were there, so we had to time our sightseeing carefully. The pictures show at least some of the beauty.

Vast areas of badlands
Lots of color in the Yellow Mounds area
Vistas as big as the sky
Deeply eroded
The tablelands were quite green

The whole purpose of coming was to get some Milky Way pictures, and the rain and clouds were bad until the very last night. Kevin got some spectacular pictures, though they need some post processing to get their full glory (he shoots in RAW format). Here is a taste.

Galactic core with the landscape highlighted by a passing carlight
The Milky Way core can only be seen in its entire glory in the summer. Saturn is the bright spot center bottom.

Since we lucked out with the weather on Monday night, we left this morning happy. We are staying in the KOA in Sioux Falls, SD. Pretty place with lots of trees and a huge pull through. We paid with points because $66 was expensive! Full hook up, and we will prep the rig for its next trip to Alabama next month. Oh, and while we were gone, I cut 80 blocks of Drunkard’s Path for Kevin’s lap rug. Two thirds of them are sewn, and I am very happy with my progress. I probably could have finished them tonight, but I thought I would write instead. Taking the Accuquilt and some dies seems like a very reasonable thing on long trips.

Lady slippers, small big river, very old trees, and more fun things

First, I threw away the baby bubble I was sewing. After thinking about it overnight, I decided it had too many errors for me to finish. Sigh. I will use a different pattern next time.

We left Ely on Sunday, driving to the Bemidji KOA. Nice enough place, but quite different than the privacy we had at Fall Lake. Then again, I have full hookups so we are doing laundry! We had dinner at a local bar and grill. I had fried bluegill, and it was great. Kevin’s brisket was so so, but at least the portions were big enough they covered dinner tonight too. We had a busy day driving the Lady Slipper Scenic Byway. It begins about 25 miles from the campground in the Chippewa National Forest, though it starts in the town of Cass Lake. Sadly the little museum in town was closed, but we got a view of the recreated logging camp across the street from the museum (housed in an old railway depot).

Recreated logger’s building
The museum was located in the rail depot
Nice building

We continued into town to the old Forest Service Superintendent’s office, a spectacular log building that I didn’t get a picture of! I did take a picture of the plaque, a very poor second. The building was built by the “boys” at the Rabideau CCC camp that we visited later in the day.

We enjoyed an absolute riot of wildflowers along the route. Here are just a few pictures. Note the dragonfly and bees around the flowers.

There was a restored CCC camp, dubbed the most complete in the US. It got lucky because a few years after the CCC abandoned it, it was leased by a university as a field study site until the mid 70s. It then sat vacant (and vandalized) until the early 2000s when the restoration started. The “boys” at Camp Rabideau planted something like a half million trees in the first 3 years. They also built campgrounds and buildings all over the area.

 

We also drove over the Mississippi which is much, much smaller this far north!

We took a big detour to “The Lost 40”, a patch of old growth pines now preserved as a state protected area. They were amazing! Look at the video since there is no way I could get a picture showing the entire thing.

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Back at the campground we have discovered all the other motorhomes parked near parked near us are on their way to the FMCA rally too! I will end with a (poor) picture of Paul Bunyan and Babe, a requirement if in Bemidji. Tomorrow we head to the Bismarck KOA a couple of days before on to a COE campground at Lake Sakajawea in North Dakota.

Ely, MN – Canoe capitol of the world

We arrived in Ely after a short 3 hour trip from Askov. Roads were good without much traffic. We were set up in the Forest Service campground at Fall Lake by 1:00. The site is very deep, but the entry road is narrow. Luckily Kevin got us tucked in just right with room for the Jeep up front. The site has 30 amp electric. Water is available at random spigots or when you check in (we came in full), but the dump is in town at the visitor center for a $5 fee.

Lighting was bad, but the shade is lovely

We headed to town for the Blueberry Festival. This is one of Ely’s big activities, and parking was crowded. There are vendors for food (we had a great gyro) and artisans of all types. I ended up buying a lovely silver necklace and matching earrings with a dragonfly design.

We also stopped by Piragis, a local outfitter, to buy a new daypack. Turns out we left mine at home. I won’t complain if that is the only thing we ended up forgetting.

Saturday evening we met friends at a party. Some of these folks I met online 20 plus years ago, so it was nice to catch up.  Sunday we had breakfast at Britton’s, an institution. We also went to the local Presbyterian Church, nice! We then went back to the Blueberry Festival. This time the food was Indian fry bread, another yummy. We also saw Pat Surface do two sets. He is a local standout singer/songwriter even though the sets were mostly covers of other artists. Monday we had lunch at Boathouse Brewpub. In keeping with the Blueberry Festival theme, we had nice burgers and blueberry beer which was quite good. we hung around the campground. I also sewed much of the day – a cute little bubble for the new grand baby. The sewing that day went fine, but I am ready to tear my hair out today! I am learning to make buttonholes on the new Viking, and I am fairly frustrated. We will see what I feel like tomorrow! Either I will finish the bubble, or I will throw it in the trash. The odds favor the trash right now.

Tuesday we went to Duluth. Lovely trip, but I didn’t take many pictures. We have been there so many times that it just doesn’t seem necessary.

Lake Superior looking quite calm

Wednesday day we had breakfast and chai teas at The Front Porch, a local coffee place. We had a lovely lunch at the new Insulated restaurant. Definitely a nice upscale option. I also did some cooking for friends who came over in the evening – Dutch Oven cobbler with fresh gala apples, flan in the Instant Pot, and two types of dip along with store bought chips. As usual, I made too much! I also had some very interested fauna.

Thursday we got out by 8:00 am and headed to Grand Portage National Monument, a long 150 miles away. The drive was nice though, either through a mixed deciduous forest or along the shore of Lake Superior.

Superior was still in a mild mood

I wish the pictures showed the hillsides better. Besides the green of the forest there were riots of wild flowers – yellow, white, shades of pink.

One of the highlights of the trip was lunch at the historic Naniboujou Lodge. It started out as an exclusive hunting and fishing resort, but now is a public facility. Oh my the colors! They advertise the fireplace as weighing over 200  tons, and it is huge! Oh, and the food was very good, much like it would be in an upscale eatery at a national park – lots of locally sourced items.

The National Monument was pretty good too, and well worth the drive. Native history interspersed with European history, primarily about the fur trade that drove the Grand Portage. I thought I had taken a number of pictures, but I was sadly quite wrong. I would like to spend a lot more time both at the monument and the towns we went through along the shore. Oh well, there is always time for another trip!

Today we again had breakfast and a chai at The Front Porch before I came back to sew. Ugh. I decided to quit for a while and update the blog while deciding to not cut everything up! Hope for a better mood tomorrow.

And we are off!

We baptized lovely little Callyn Rose on Sunday. She was quite well behaved (slept through the entire thing!) and very adorable.

We had a big family dinner at a good restaurant, then went home to finish packing. Monday we went to the Upper Iowa River Resort outside Dorchester, IA. It is a fairly rustic campground in a lovely river valley with the Upper Iowa River forming one of the boundaries of the campground. They have a huge spring fed pond with a sandy beach shore. We reserved two sites, one for the motorhome, and one for our tiny tent trailer where my son in law and grandson slept.

Grandson looked for lots of alternative to going to bed.
Callyn is a happy young lady, and she has learned to stick her tongue out.
Gotta have some play time

 

As you can probably guess, the campground isn’t exactly “big rig friendly”, but we managed to get settled in ok. Of course no cell service, so we had a lot of family time, and I read a lot of books. The first night folks in the cabin you can see kept waking us up until 2:30 am! I complained, and they must have been talked to, because the campground was great the rest of the time. This is the time of year Iowa is at its very greenest, and it was lovely.

The kids went home on Thursday evening, and we left Friday morning. We are spending the night at Countryside Campground outside Askov, MN not far off I-35. I definitely don’t recommend the place. Tons of loud family groups, but that is almost expected in campgrounds with a huge pool and a bar. The problem is the sites are very poorly built with the gravel being not providing even a single layer of solid surface. The first site we tried to get level 3 times, but the place was so soft that we sunk in each time, triggering the “excessive slope” warning. We moved to another site, and even then had to face forward instead of backing in as we should have. It was just too unlevel, even with multiple blocks under the tires and levelers. We have a lot more adjustability in leveling the front of the coach than the back. Oh well, it is just one night, and we are getting the laundry all done!

Tomorrow we head for Ely, MN and our campsite on Fall Lake for a week.

WordPress work plus the cat

I really, really need to update my WordPress templates so they look more like a “normal” blog with search keys and date markers so I can navigate through old posts easier. I ended up buying a book on WordPress that I picked up at Barnes and Noble. Yes, I know I can find anything I want online, but I really like books. I can skip around easier, underline, and use an index among other tasks. So I am now going through the book beginning to end. I am still working through it from beginning to end, but it is slow going. The first chapters include material I already know, but I don’t dare skip something because I undoubtably will miss something important.

I did take a break from reading for a couple of reasons. First, it was our 40th anniversary on Sunday. We spent the night at Nicolet Mansion B&B in Jordan, MN, southwest of Minneapolis. It was a lovely evening, night, and breakfast. We had dinner at an odd restaurant – Suzette’s in Jordan. The exterior and much of the interior screams “Diner!” due to the block exterior and booths with blue vinyl upholstery. The appearance is quite deceiving, though the European reproduction paintings give a hint. The chef is Cambodia by birth but European-trained, and the food was fantastic. For dessert we had ordered a chocolate fondue at the B&B which was quite fun. Of course it rain a lot the day of the anniversary and today so we didn’t get to the Renaissance Festival or the zoo like we had planned. It was still quite nice.

Our other distraction has been my poor cat. She had one surgery to remove a growth that turned out to be a skin cancer. She then had a second surgery to make sure they had got it all, and she is still recovering from that.

Doesn’t that look terrible? It is basically almost half her neck covered in a bunch of huge stitches. It is in the wrong spot to protect by an Elizabethan collar, and she pulls off any bandages we put on top of it. It must be dreadfully itchy, and she tries to scratch it. Luckily we head back to the vet tomorrow, and hopefully the stitches can come out.

On successful note, Kevin got all the solar installed. Our sons didn’t come up, so he had to do it himself. I was fairly irritated about it, but he took it better than I did. Oh, and I got a new electric bicycle, but I will talk about that next time since I haven’t got much of a chance to ride it.

Fun times with family in Minnesota

My oldest son, Alan, and his wife co-own a great lake house in southern Minnesota. We took a family weekend there along with another son and my daughter and her family. Kevin and I obviously have more time so we took off early to do some sightseeing along the way. We spent some time in Northfield, MN, a lovely little college town. We wandered around the downtown area which was full of historic brick buildings and lots of artisan-type shops. We also visited their historic museum. One of Northfield’s claims to fame is that the bank was (rather unsuccessfully) robbed by the Jessie James and Younger gang. The “guided tour” was with a high school student who obviously was very excited to be able to tell about the robbery. The old bank teller area was still original, and the little museum is well worth the $4 or $5 fee (depending on age).

Northfield also has a great olive oil and vinegar shop. Alan had told me it was a great place that he bought things from regularly. We ended up with one cooking oil and one flavored oil for dipping bread in. I admit I don’t use enough vinegars to appreciate the options of those. I intend on using both for dinner tomorrow night! We also found a great Mexican restaurant, Gran Plaza. I had Pollo Loco with the best Mexican rice I have ever had! It is a bit silly to rave about rice, but it was really outstanding. It had been cooked with grilled onions, and that was certainly a help.

The days at the lake house were fun. Alan’s BIL is a contractor, and he just finished a bathroom remodel for them hours before we showed up. Very nice! Handy too since I wasn’t looking forward to having 7 adults and 3 children sharing a single shower stall. We chose the bedroom closest to the new bathroom – surprise! This is the way I spent most of my time. (This was at the end of the day; it was sunnier most of the time.)

On Saturday Kevin, daughter Cheyenne, and grandson Clay went to the Apple Valley view in souther Minneapolis area. They had a good time, but they all said Clay’s favorite were the goats.

Everyone except Kevin and me spent lots of time in the water.

Neither Kevin or I are overly fond of lake water, but we did enjoy some fishing and boat riding. We also had some great pizza at an artisanal place in Montgomery, MN. Yummmmm.

Most of the folks left Sunday afternoon, but Alan’s family, Kevin, and I stayed until today. We got lucky, and the rain that had been forecast to start last night waited until after we left around 10:30. We ended up having a classic Midwest pork tenderloin lunch at a place called the Elbow in Albert Lea. Good, fried tenderloin sandwiches are one of the things I missed most about the Midwest when we lived in Utah.

Other than the trip, Kevin continues to be busy on the motorhome. He completed the final cosmetic work on the EMS installation, the solar controller, and the Trimetric battery monitor. Now he just needs to get one of the kids here to help install the panels. It should be one of the next two weekends.

Made it to Spearfish, South Dakota

We left Ely on Thursday around 11:00. We had just over 200 miles to go, and we weren’t supposed to check in before 4:00 so we definitely took our time. The road wasn’t too busy which is good because it was narrow and windy. I was very glad to be on a wider state highway after Virginia. We did get to see some minor wildlife. Not far outside of Ely we saw a pond with two swans on it, definitely a surprise. We also had to slow down while a momma turkey hustled a chick across the road. There were more chicks and another adult turkey waiting for them on the other side.

When we neared Itasca Lily decided she was going to be adventuresome and see what was going on. Normally she hides under the recliner, coming out rarely to express her displeasure, eat, drink, and use her box. This time she climbed right on the dash and looked outside the window for 5 minutes or so.

I was hoping this meant she would finally get brave enough to come out more, but it didn’t. She hid all day today.

We got set up at Bear Paw campground a bit before 5:00. The campsite was plenty long enough, but the interior roads were a bit narrow. It took two attempts to get it backed in correctly. Then we just enjoyed the park. We took the Wildlife Loop, but didn’t see any wildlife. We did see lovely green forests though. We ended at the big park lodge where we had a lovely dinner. I had a wonderful walleye stuffed with wild rice, cranberries, and blueberries with a side of perfect asparagus. Kevin had pot roast that he said was quite good. Here’s a picture of the campground.

The campground had a number of vacancies on a Thursday in mid summer, something that is good to remember for a future weekday trip when we can spend more time.

We left the campground by 9:00 am. We only had 300 miles to go to our destination – the Walmart in Bismarck, ND. There weren’t a lot of choices; North Dakota gets vacant really fast. The Walmart was clean and quiet though it was hot. We easily got leveled and turned on the generator since tonight was definitely going to be a night for AC. I feel pretty good about the generator since it was definitely quieter than another camper’s Honda 2000. We watched the evening news, and I was in bed by 10:15. Of course there was a little noise from the campround’s sprinklers going off at 10:00, but I took a cyclobenzoprene for back pain and was out like a light.

We left Bismarck by 8:30, headed another 300 miles to Spearfish, SD. We are at a KOA with reasonable tree cover and lots of grass. Full hookups mean that I am doing laundry in the coach. Have I mentioned how much I love the washer and dryer there? Yes, it takes a lot longer than going to a laundromat, but I get to do other things while it is running. It is lightly raining right now, and I am sitting under the awning writing this. Pretty good gig! Tomorrow we will head up Spearfish Canyon for some sightseeing. We leave on Monday morning for our first Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally in Gilllette. We will be going to a number of information sessions, seeing entertainment, and visiting friends from the RVForum.com.

I am definitely feeling more comfortable driving the coach. My arms aren’t stiff and my shoulders aren’t sore because I am much more relaxed. I do have a sore back though because of the seat. It has this odd bump out on the seat back just about where my shoulder blades are. I have started padding the lower part of the seat, and that is much better.

The rain is getting stronger and a bit of a breeze is with it. I think I will go inside, or at least take the iPad inside.

A lovely few days in the north woods

I really like the Ely, MN area. We are staying at Fall Lake campground, and it is the nicest Forest Service campground I have ever been in. The campsite had room to spare for our 40’ motorhome plus parking for the Jeep. We backed in the site, so I have a lovely view of Fall Lake from the big window. 

The campsite across the road is a tent only site, and it has been vacant for much of the time so my view is unimpeded.

We had a fun time with friends from the RVForum plus friends I know in Ely. We had a nice visit in the motorhome with one couple, lunch with another, and we also spent time with RVForum folks at the Winton Roadhouse while Pat Surface was playing. He did a great combo of covers (Elton, Dylan, the Beatles, among others) plus some of his original songs. Note for the future the pretzels are huge and the honey mustard sauce was lovely as was the stout they had on tap.

We decided to head out a day early to make the travel days to Gillette easier. We snagged a site for tonight in Itasca State Park which should be fun. The next night will probably be in a parking lot somewhere, then into the Spearfish, SD KOA for 2 nights.

Some more pics from this stay.

Friends at the Winton Roadhouse.

The road to Lake One at sunset after the rain.

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Times like this is when I wish I brought my camera instead of just my iphone. The colors of the picture does not do justice to the real thing. The sky was orange/scarlet.

 

Finally finished a quilt and back on the road

A good friend of one of my sons had a baby in April. Knowing this was coming, I started a quilt for the baby in February. Then we decided to rush moving and buying the motorhome, and the baby quilt didn’t get done on time. 😢 Little Roman (it turned out to be a boy) was born in April, and he just got his quilt yesterday. It did come out cute though.

The pattern is called Irish Chain. The parents chose not to find out the gender, and they didn’t have a theme or color picked out, so I went with the simple two color quilt. The colors aren’t true in the picture; the red is a brick red and the lighter color is a creamy golden.

I quilted it with a variegated King Tut thread with red, brown, green, and cream.

I used a feather stitch on the binding. I really like the look of this.

We also took off today for a trip! We are headed to Ely, Minnesota tomorrow. Tonight we are staying part way there at the Hinckley Grand Casino campground. It is a really nice campground with asphalt pads and patios but with grass and trees or so, but nice. We had dinner at the Casino buffet because it was easy. Food was standard “nice” buffet, but not great.

We will stay in Ely until Friday morning when we gradually work our way to the FMCA rally in Gillette, WY. Then off to Hot Springs, SD for a few days. We haven’t decided what to do after that.

I did drive the motorhome well over half the trip so far. We stopped for a CAT scale weighing to see how heavy we were. The front axle was just barely under the 12,000 pound capacity with full tanks of both diesel and water. The back axle still has 800pounds of capacity, and we are pretty full of “stuff” so I feel very comfortable with the residual capacity. Getting a real axle weight means we could adjust the tires appropriately for the weight they are carrying. The front tires were 118 pounds each, so they got lowered to 110 pounds. The rear tires were about the same, and they got brought down to 100 pounds. Wow but does it handle better! Much less tiring to drive. The motorhome is still more tiring the the truck and trailer, but it was certainly better than the first 1000 miles we drove.

RVForum.com Rally in Lanesboro, MN

We met up with friends from the RVForum on Wednesday for a mini-rally at Eagle Cliff Campground just outside of Lanesboro, MN. What fun! The first night was good weather and we had a campfire. We got to meet a number of new folks, and that is always fun. Thursday wasn’t too bad with just some light rain/mist. We did some sightseeing and had lunch at a nice little place in town. Then it started raining in earnest! It rained all Thursday night, all day and night on Friday, and most of the day on Saturday. I really should hire myself out as a rain maker since it always seems to rain when I go to Minnesota!

We did get to spend time with friends Heather and Marshall on Thursday after they arrived, and we spent a lot of time with Greg, Lisa, and their three girls after they arrived on Friday. Also on Friday  we had the traditional rally potluck, and we also had the traditional too much food! Luckily the campground had an enclosed pavilion since it rained so hard. I got to do a little singing too, always a fun thing.

By Saturday around 7:00 pm the rain finally stopped. We had a great group campfire at Eric and Max’s campsite, the rally organizers. Sunday morning saw us saying goodbye and heading south. We had hoped to do some biking and canoeing, but the weather just didn’t cooperate.

We are making our way to the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, and we drove quite a bit of the trip today. We are now camped at Indian Creek campground (Corps of Engineers) at Mark Twain Lake in Missouri. What a gorgeous place! Since it is a federal campground our senior pass meant we paid only $9 for a water and electric site. The campsite isn’t too level, but it is very large and heavily wooded. If they are open when we come back through in a week, we are thinking of staying here a few days on the way back to Iowa.

I remembered just as I started to write this post that I took exactly zero pictures at the rally. Sorry!