August 25, 2013, Sunday – Wow, has it been a long time since
I’ve been on here!
To continue from where we were back in June – Fort Peck Downstream Campground. It’s a pretty, green campground, lots of room. Only $18
a night with 50 amp. We were only able to stay 2 nights as it was booked for
the weekend. So we decided to go on to Cottonwood Campground north of Medora in
the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Cottonwood .
It isn’t real big rig friendly. We spent 3 nights there @ $10/night. I was
disappointed this time. The grass was real tall, looked like they hadn’t mowed
some areas at all. They mow only around the immediate camping area and picnic
area. We were parked on the asphalt and our picnic table was in the grass and
it wasn’t mowed around the table so we didn’t use it. There were a few trails
mowed, to the restrooms and the amphitheater area. It was completely full Saturday and they even let some campers
park on the parking lot area. There was a pickup and horse trailer that came in
about dark and parked in the lot. The people got out and went to the amphitheater
for the ranger program. After that the guy from the pickup came over to our
grill/picnic table area and was going to start a fire in the grill area. Curt
told him that that was our grill and we didn’t want a fire in it. He asked us
what we were camping for if we didn’t have a fire? Shortly after that we saw a park ranger
coming toward us with a flashlight so Curt went out to talk to him and told him
what happened. The ranger said they’ve had problems with his gentleman before
and he couldn’t park where he was at and was told to leave. That morning we had
a couple and their dog tenting across the road from us. The dog was let out of
the tent in the morning and was running around for about a half hour before
they got up and he went back. When I looked out the window a little bit later
the couple was standing by their car, which was parked by a couple of bushes,
and the man was peeing in the bushes. The restroom was a campsite away.
Really?! Curt told the ranger about that
too. He said that things have changed a lot in the last year. I guess. They also had found 3 rattle snakes in the campground that weekend.
Sunday we went to Dickinson
and checked in to North Park Campground. We paid for a week and told them we
weren’t sure how long we would be there, probably 2 weeks, if we could pay on
an as-you-go basis. They had no problem with that. We had some friends come
over for the evening and I talked to my dad for father’s day and we were
meeting the next morning for breakfast.
The next morning I found out my stepmother had a stroke during the night and that changed everything. We spent two weeks in the St. Alexius Medical
Center parking lot in Bismarck and then 3-1/2
weeks in Dickinson
for/after a funeral. Got to see a lot of relatives, not that that’s the way we
want to see them though. The town keeps growing due to the oil activity and
it’s changing a lot.
In Montana
we had gotten a rock chip in our RV window. While sitting in the parking lot at
St. Alexius it cracked all the way up. We
contacted our insurance and got a windshield ordered, which we had put in in Bismarck after leaving Dickinson . We stayed at Sweet Briar Recreation Area
a couple of miles out of Bismarck
the night before. It’s a small lake, kind of cozy. There are some fire rings
and picnic tables, areas to fish and put a boat in. There were two other
campers that night in the area we were in. You’re able to drive around most of
the lake to park/camp, if you don’t mind the roads. We did it with the Jeep
once and decided that we wouldn’t do it with an RV. The camper that came in after us was a pickup
pulling a trailer. It looked like a car trailer, and when they opened up the
back there was a motorcycle and lots of boxes in there. They unloaded almost
everything and laid a mattress down. There were cupboards inside for a living
area. The next morning they loaded
everything back in. He had a fire that night, I don’t know if he cooked on it
or not, but it was really windy out. The next morning they had a fire again and
they left with it still burning and it was windy again. Curt took a bucket and
went to the lake to get some water and put out the fire. On his second trip
there he fell in the lake (the rocks were slippery I guess). I had just gotten
up and looked out the window and he was walking towards the RV and was soaking
wet. I couldn’t imagine what had happened. We took off to Bismarck to get our windshield put in. They
had originally told us that it could take up to 5 hours; having it put in and
waiting for it to seal. We were only there an hour. So on to Fargo we went.
On Saturday, the 27th, we went to Curt’s sister and brother-in-law's cabin in Minnesota.
They’ve completely redone it and it’s gorgeous. They had a lot of people out
for the weekend, which they usually do, including their family. We got to see
all of their kids and their grandchildren. It was a cold and windy weekend, but
Sunday night it was beautiful out (like usual, on a Sunday when everyone has to
go home). We weren’t able to park in their driveway, but we were able to park
in a neighbor’s. We stayed the week there, fishing with them. A couple of days
were so nice and calm. We caught a lot of sunfish and a few rock bass. They
were small, but we kept them and ate them. It was a calm, relaxing and fun
week.
On to kids and granddaughters!
Lots of giggles and screams! We were able to park at our daughter’s place
thankfully. They did have to do a little tree cutting. Our son and
daughter-in-law flew in from Virginia
for a week. We had fun hiking, geocaching and sight-seeing, building volcanoes,
reading books and playing computer games (of course). And eating constantly. We
went to Canterbury
Park Como
Park
On to William O’Brien State Park, we stayed there from the
12th through the 18th. It was a nonreservable site, so we
were able to keep paying for it nightly as long as we wanted. It’s $28 night
with electricity, $22 without. We went with the electricity. Korene and Jason
and the girls came for the weekend and we did some more hiking. There was a
kid’s program Saturday afternoon where they made a fishing rod with a pop can
and fish line and it actually worked. The fish were pretty tiny. After that the
girls played on the beach for a while. It was pretty warm that day. We hiked
almost every day we stayed there.
We decided to go up north toward Duluth . We went to Pokegama Lake RV Park at Pine City, MN. It’s a Passport America campground for $17.10 a night for full hookups. They
have a pool, a pavilion, office and game room and a golf course. It’s across
from Pokegama Lake Canal Park and downtown Duluth . With the prices of the campgrounds in
the Duluth area, we decided to just drive and
spend the day in Duluth
and it probably would be cheaper. And being a weekend (our timing wasn’t too
good) everyone was booked for Saturday. We parked on the other side of the lift
bridge (free) and walked across to Canal
Park Scenic
North Shore Drive up to Two Harbors and then 61
back down again.
Today, 8/25/13, we are TettegoucheState Park near Silver Bay , MN
I'll add pictures when I get through them all.
