Follow Us In Our Travels

Almost a month again; man, this is hard getting back into blog mode!

8/26/13, Tettegouche State Park:  We did some hikes today, both around 1-1/2 miles. It’s really hot and humid out. While at Tettegouche, we took a day and drove to Gooseberry Falls State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.  We did some hiking and got both of the State geocaches. I’m surprised the hikes to them were as long as they were (1.8 and 2.2 miles), as people with little kids might have a hard time doing them. Other than going up and down stairs, or near areas near water that aren’t too safe. Gooseberry Falls was a very busy place; it was hard to get pictures of the falls without people in them. By the time we had finished the hike at Split Rock Lighthouse, the lighthouse tour was closed and we were able to walk up around the area without paying for it (just not inside). We had done 3 long hikes that day and my shins were hurting by the time we got back. Needless to say, they hurt for a couple of days after.

We took off the morning of the 28^th and got to Minong, Wisconsin, heading back to our daughter’s place. We took the Wisconsin route since we hadn’t gone that way. We thought we’d spend Labor Day weekend with them before leaving the state. We spent the evening in a Holiday station lot, along with a lot of trucks coming and going. There were two restaurants right next door. We had remembered Wisconsin as bad roads, but these highways have been pretty good. There is a lot of road construction though, no matter what state we’re in. Back in Cottage Grove, more reading books, playing with girls, baking, cooking, washing “pink” clothes (never had a load of just pink clothes before), first day of school, watching swimming lessons, babysitting and raking leaves off of the driveway to make a pile on the grass. Guess we stayed a little longer than the weekend. I was worn out, but loved it all. 

9/11/13,: We went to Eagle Cliff Campground at Lanesboro, MN, a Passport America campground. They have the river on 3 sides and do a lot of canoe, kayak and tube rentals. There are permanent/seasonal residents on one side with the office and a hill in between the overnighters.  We took a full hookup, but the spot she gave us had trees that we wouldn’t be able to open up our slides, so she moved us a row ahead. We moved into that and Curt checked the electric and it was only 30 amp (the other one was 50 amp).  He tried our air conditioner and that worked, so figured we’d give it a try.  Curt fished (tried) one day, we went for walks. Saturday we went into Lanesboro for the Farmer’s Market and Taste of the Trail. There were some Amish buggies in town; the ladies were selling canned goods, quilts, sewed items, baskets, vegetables. We walked around town to see what the Taste of the Trail is. There were a few food vendors, some musicians. It’s a small town, old. There’s a city campground right by the river, but it’s $25 (more than what we’re paying) and not full hookups. There’s another campground at the edge of town along the river, and that looked really tight-fitting. I was planning on leaving Sunday, but the weather forecast was for wind and rain, so we stayed another night. The campground is not paved and there was water sitting around. 

 We had to stop for an accident to get cleaned up, a cement truck

 Eagle Cliff Campground

 Farmers market at Lanesboro, MN

 The largest tomatoes were the size of grapefruit

 We've never seen a volkswagen pulling a trailer!

9/16/13, Monday:  On to Albert Lea, MN, to fill fuel and stayed at Walmart.  Happy birthday to my dad of 89 years and happy 4^th anniversary to my son and daughter-in-law. The next morning I got some geocaches nearby; it was cold and windy that morning. We went to Brushy Creek State Recreation Area near Fort Dodge, Iowa. Few trees in the campground we were in (Curt doesn’t like trees and slides), and we were able to find a 50 amp, electric-only site away from others. It’s $16 electric, $19 full hookup. We went with just electric. The power here is really good. There’s a beach, fishing pier and boat ramp near by. One day Curt did some metal detecting on the beach (he looked it up in the state park rules first).  I had planned on leaving Thursday so we’d have a better chance of getting a non-reservable campsite at Lake Anita State Park, but the weather forecast again did not sound good for most of Iowa, worse south of us (where we were going). So, we waited it out. (This is why we don’t make reservations!) We got some wind, but the Des Moines area got lots of wind, up to 80 mph in some areas, and rain. Lucky we sat it out.

 Lots of road construction

 Wind generators all over

 Fuel $3.92

 Welcome to Iowa!

 Brushy Creek Recreation Area, near Fort Dodge, IA

 Trees in the water, I don't know how boats get around

 Vines covered up

Don't know what this crop is

09/20/13, Friday: On the way to the Lake Anita State Park the next morning we saw an area for about 5 miles that had been hit by the wind with broken branches, but the campground area looked fine. There were quite a few campers already in the campground, but we found an area with electric and backed in. It’s $16 electric, $19 full hookup also. We went with just electric again. This power isn’t near as good as Brushy Creek’s was. The lake is right across the road from us. It would be a real nice campground if the sites were every other one, instead of so close. The neighbor’s fire pit was right next to our bedroom, and, of course, they had a fire Friday and Saturday night. There were quite a few fires going. We don’t mind fires, it’s the smoke we don’t like, and the kid beside us had a hard time getting his fire going, so it was real smoky. So we closed windows and started the air conditioner. Sunday afternoon most of the campers left, and it was nice having most of the neighbors gone. Curt said he didn’t think he’d ever dislike weekends –  weekends are full of people and not relaxing any more! We went for some walks around the campground and if it’s nice tomorrow, just might try the 4-mile hike around the lake.

 Above & below pics after storm

 The campground was full by Friday night