Here we are, on the road: We’re in Deer River, MN

July 20, 2013 Lorraine’s report

Well, we're in Deer River, MN, in a parking lot by White Oak Casino, and we've been here 2 nights. Chuck was born near here in Minnesota-Grand Rapids, and has wanted to come see his birth place, so we had the time and we did just that. This place was free, but we only have power-no water or sewer, but as I said, it was free.

So we left Mystic Lake Casino, but not before spending a lot of time with our great friends, Dave & Sandy. Dave and Sandy came over on Sunday, July 14th and we all went for a very nice drive. Dave had been out on his bike, and wanted to show us some more sights. This is a very nice area; lots of green, many hills and valleys and all kinds of towns. It is really pretty here!

We ended up in Mankato, MN; we had some good ice cream along the way and just enjoyed our time visiting with them. I wanted pizza for dinner and we went to one of their favorite places and had some nice, yummy pizza. You know, I can't remember where we went to after, I think their home and we played 10,000.

We have had a lot of games playing 10,000, Chuck added the total scores, and found Dave had doubled the total of what he did. Chuck had a bunch of really bad luck, sometimes not even getting on the board, so those games didn't count. Once Chuck turned over 6 aces on the dice but one of us didn't get on the board, so that game didn't count. That was really bad luck for him.

Monday was our last day with Dave & Sandy; I did laundry in the morning, then we went over to see them for the last time until we see them in CA or AZ this winter after they pick up their new motor home. I have to say we really enjoyed our visit with you Dave & Sandy, to be so welcomed into your home, visiting with your friends and just our visits with you is so comforting to me, we love you both. Thank you for making us feel so welcomed.

Tuesday, we left Mystic Lake, we had been there since June 23, a very long time in one place for us. Since we started out on this trip, we hadn't been in any one place for too long. But then my foot wouldn't heal and we had to stay put until it was better.

Speaking of my foot, it is better, the wound has a nice scab on it as is the blister that formed after the doctor wrapped it up. Chuck has been cutting the dead skin off the blister all week.

Tuesday we went into Walker, MN, right close to the headwaters of the Mississippi. Chuck wanted to see the Mississippi headwaters, one of the things on his "bucket list". So we did that on Wednesday.

It took us a while to get to the headwaters that day. There were so many detours, we traveled far to get there. Sandy said there are two seasons in MN, winter and road construction. She was right.

Of course, I had to test the headwaters of the Mississippi, like in wading. I found them to be not cold like the waters in Alaska. And on that hot day, there were lots of people playing in the water, like they were at a beach.

The Mississippi comes out of Lake Itasca and travels all the way down to New Orleans, a very long way. I put a twig in the water and watched it head off to wherever, who knows where it will end up, and what it will go through.

Thursday we moved into this parking lot, Chuck washed the bugs and we went into Grand Rapids. We have toured it and found it to be a nice place. Chuck was born here and his older brother, Dale was born here too.

Today we went into Grand Rapids, MN again and went to a city wide out door sale’s and farmer market. Tomorrow we will travel into a town by Duluth, MN, so that is why we are writing our blog tonight. If anyone from Susan K's group reads this blog tonight, we will be in your area tomorrow and hope we can find you.

So that is it for me.

Until next time...

Lorraine

7/20/13 Chuck’s report

Yes, we are still in Minnesota, enjoying the different areas we’ve been through. Lorraine has been quite a trooper when we are out exploring and the surgery area on her foot is healing. She can’t wear a shoe or sandal on her left foot so when we go out, she wears her bedroom slipper as it doesn’t hurt as much. But she still tries to keep going as best she can.

Last Sunday, while we were writing our blog, I got a call from Dave and he asked us if we wanted to go on a “Sunday Afternoon Drive” with him and Sandy. We, of course, said we would like to; they stopped by our place to pick us up and we headed out for a three hour tour.

Dave knows the roads around here real well, he rides his motor cycles on the back roads often. So that’s where we went, the back roads to see more scenery. We sort of followed the Minnesota River for quite a ways, over the hills and through the forests with Mankato as our destination. Along the way, we stopped at a place that makes their own ice cream, we had to try that for sure. Everyone agreed they make a good ice cream!

We stopped by a pizza place for dinner than back to our rig for another rousing series of 10,000, the dice game we play. We had a good day with good friends, thanks Dave and Sandy for spending time with us!!

Monday was our last day in Prior Lake and as usual we didn’t have reservations for our next stop so Lorraine wanted to make sure we didn’t have a lot of dirty clothes, laundry was the order of the day in case our new site didn’t have water and sewer hook-ups . I did some repairs around the rig, nothing serious but just things I wanted/needed to get done.

Later we drove over to Dave and Sandy’s place where we played dice once again, then out to dinner then back to the dice game. I had a run of real bad luck on the dice, I think we played 10 games and I didn’t win one. In fact, I think I didn’t even get on the board or qualify for at least 4 games. Sure glad I wasn’t playing for money. But we all had a good time, our last day in town and spending the afternoon/evening with our friends.

Tuesday was travel day for us, we were traveling North, headed to a casino I had read about on the internet. I called them and couldn’t get to talk with anyone who knew anything about their RV park, only that they did in fact have one. But when we got there, we found they only had one site open, they were parked so close that we couldn’t have opened our slides plus the big deal breaker was they only had 20 amp service, not even enough to run one of our air conditioners.

So down the road we went and happened to find a place about 4 miles down that road that accepts Passport America, one of our memberships where we can stay for 1/2 price. Lorraine called the number on the sign and the guy said they only had one spot for one day, then we would have to move but he didn’t have anything available for the third night. After sweet talking him, Lorraine got us a site for two nights without having to move. As it turned out, there were at least two other sites that were empty for both nights we were there, must have had some cancellations.

But the place did have all we needed, 50 amp, water, sewer and even a small patch of grass for Misty. Plus we were in the area we wanted to explore the next day so we were glad to find this small park right in Walker, MN. As usual, we got set up and I washed the bugs from the front. I had been getting some water in the lube oil for the front wheel hubs and thought I had gotten all of it out the last time I changed it but when we stopped I noticed we still had water in the oil, bummer. So I got our the tools and changed oil yet once again, hoping I got all the water out this time. I left the hub caps off just in case so I could check them after our next move.

Next morning we headed out in the car to find Itasca State Park where the Mississippi river headwaters flow out of Itasca Lake. It was only about 30 minutes away, according to the GPS but that didn’t take into account the road construction and detours we ran across. It actually took us about an hour to get there but was worth the extra time, we thought.

Itasca State Park is a fairly large park, we drove in the South gate and exited the North gate but didn’t drive the big loop. We made a couple of stops at some overlooks and the visitor’s center but our main objective was to see the Mississippi Headwaters. We got to the headwaters and after a short, easy walk, we were at the start of the Mississippi river.

It flows out of the Lake with a “walkway” of rocks right at the beginning. There was over 100 folks who had the same idea and were there at the same time as we were. But I talked with one of the ranger and he told me on a real busy day there is well over 400 folks there at a time. So even though it was a very nice day, I’m sure glad we didn’t have to deal with one of the big crowds.

Lorraine has put her toes into water lots of times during our travels, mostly in oceans and bays and we didn’t want to miss this place either. Even with her foot still healing, she walked over and got in the water. We were both surprised to find the water wasn’t cold at all, in fact, it was almost warm enough to be comfortable. She didn’t want to try to navigate the slippery rocks but just walked in just downstream of them. About 50 yards downstream of the headwaters is a log bridge crossing the river and we both walked across the first bridge over the Mississippi river. We hung around the area, watching folks wade downstream 1/2 mile or so but we stayed on the pathway vs. wading the river.

Lorraine pitched a piece of tree bark into the river and sent it on its was downstream to New Orleans. Hey Mark, if you and Sue are around, maybe you drive over and see it go by. Let us know, will you?

We drove into the nearby town of Bemidji while we were up there. One of Lorraine’s brothers had married a gal from here but she has passed on and we didn’t know anything about her family or whatever here. We did, however, see the statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. We stopped at the park and waited our turn to get pictures of Lorraine with both of them. We drove around town for a short while then headed back to our place. We drove over to the casino we were originally going to stay for dinner, we tried their buffet but I wouldn’t recommend this, it was overpriced for what they had but everything was good.

Thursday we loaded up and headed out, hoping to stay at a different casino owned by the same tribe as the one we checked out on Tuesday. This place is located in Deer River, about 10 miles from Grand Rapids, MN, where I was born. My folks moved to Missouri when I was 4 so I don’t remember anything about this place; we have wanted to see it the last three times we were in Minnesota but for one reason or another, we never made it up here.

When we got to this casino, we checked out their RV hook-up sites, electric only and spread out around the parking lot. The one we picked out has 50 amp, no water or sewer but we came in with a full tank of fresh water and empty holding tanks so we should be good for about a week if we conserve water. We only plan on being here for three nights so that was even better. And to make it even better, the sites were free if you signed up for a player’s card. Later than evening I noticed a rig that was set up across the parking lot, not hooked up and running their generator so they could run their air conditioners. I walked over and told them about the free hook-ups and about 1/2 hour later, they moved into a place where they could get power.

After we got set up, an easier job for me as I didn’t have to hook up water or sewer, I got out the mop and cleaned the floors before I put out the rugs and such. Then I got another bucket of water and washed the bugs off the front, there were lots for the short distance we traveled and I like to get them washed off before they get too dried.

One good thing I found after we got set up, there was no sign of water in the lube oil on the front wheel, I must have finally gotten all the water out the last time I changed it. In fact, I went ahead and put the hub caps back on the wheels, yea.

After that, we headed out for our first trip to Grand Rapids. We drove around, checked out lots of the area and stopped by a grocery store for some things and picked up a batch of fried chicken for our dinner. I think the only thing about Grand Rapids that surprised me was how big it was, I was expecting a much smaller town. Why, there’s even a Wal-Mart here.

Friday we wanted to head back for more exploring and stopped by Pokegama Dam, one of the many dams on the river. This one appears to be for flood control only as I didn’t see any power generators at the dam. This is the 6th out of 45 on the upper Mississippi, so it’s not easy to tell just how big the river is due to the many dams and associated lakes. I read where 2/3 of the river flow at Grand Rapids is from ground water vs. runoff, at least this time of the year when there isn’t a big snow melt going on.

This time while we were in town, we stopped by Wal-Mart to fill some prescriptions for Lorraine. And just to let you in on a little secret, if you are in a Wal-Mart store, it’s tough to tell what town or state you are in except for the local area stuff for sale, they all look very similar to me.

Today, Saturday, we made another trip into Grand Rapids, we had read where there was a famer’s market on Saturday. It wasn’t too hard to find this one, located right on main street. We walked through it, Lorraine found a couple of things she wanted then we walked across the street to some other shops. One of these shops was a shoe store and we were finally able to find a sandal that Lorraine could wear (without straps across the top of her foot that rubbed the wounds on her foot) so we of course bought them and she wore them for the rest of the trip and liked them, yea.

We got back to our rig and decided to watch the newest movie Lorraine bought, 42, the Jackie Robertson story. We just hung around then started writing our blog. The reason we are writing our blog on Saturday is, once again we are planning on Sunday being a travel day for us. We don’t plan to go far, just a short drive to Cloquet, a small town just outside of Duluth. They have a nice city park with full RV hook-ups there and we hope that we can get a site on Sunday when the weekenders leave, of course, no reservations there either. But as usual, we do have a plan “B” just in case.

Lorraine has been keeping up with a blog of some friends of ours from the FMCA chapter of Lewis and Clark. They are staying a few miles from there at Barnum and we would like to stop by and say “Hi” while we are that close. Plus we want to drive the North Shore road of Lake Superior, from Duluth to the Northeast. I called Dave the other day for info about this drive and mentioned that if he and Sandy wanted, they could drive up and ride with us, ha.

This morning I got a call from Dave and he said he and Sandy were actually thinking about meeting us and going along on our drive on the North Shore. We will arrange our schedule to match theirs and with an eye on the weather and see if we can work this out, be good to see them even though it’s only been a week.

Our plans are to stay in the Duluth area for a couple of days before heading South around Lake Superior, stopping at a couple places in Wisconsin before heading to the UP of Michigan. We expect to have much cooler weather along this portion of our trip as it will be mostly along the shore of the lake with the normal winds and such. Here’s hoping it isn’t long pants and coat type weather.

Speaking of weather, we are sure liking the weather we’ve had for the last couple of days. We aren’t getting the above normal temperatures we’ve seen for some of the past two weeks, highs have been in the low 80s and the humidity has dropped back down too, very nice, comfortable weather. We have been on the very outer edge of two thunderstorms this past week but only saw lightening off in the distance and got a couple of short showers.

I don’t think I have to sort through too many pictures so I’ll do that and get them added to this blog and get it posted.

On our Sunday drive with Dave and Sandy.

A big cannery, that’s the Jolly Green Giant overlooking the trees on the far right.

We stopped for Ice cream here, good stuff too.

On old camper we saw. Still looks livable.

We went to Mankato, of Little House on the Prairie.

At Itasca State Park where the Mississippi River starts.

Those rocks separate the lake from the start of the river and is considered the first dam on the river. Lorraine getting her feet into the headwaters of the Mississippi.