Idaho - ho - ho

 We made it through Montana... but we'll be back.

Our first stop in Idaho was Idaho Falls, at the Elks lodge. Our stay in Idaho Falls was just an overnighter so we didn't bother unhooking for the night. The disadvantage with not unhooking here was the slope we were at, it was a down hill walk to get to the bedroom, meaning an uphill walk to the bathroom.

With COVIDs going on the lodge was open for drink, but not food. A brother Elk recommended a small Mexican restaurant just up the street. After walking back from the restaurant when settled in for a quiet evening. The next morning we packed up and moved on, without knowing the little surprise awaiting us. As we religiously followed our Garmin, we found ourselves at an underpass with a height of 13' 8", the exact height of our trailer. With flashers on, I slowly went under the two bridges... no gnashing or scraping noises.

One the way to Boise we passed through Atomic City, the first city to ever be powered by nuclear power, then we stopped in Arco to eat at "Pickle's Place". The place is quaint, serving a variety of food. The food had the home cooked nature, the portions were good, and the prices were fair. There is a dirt lot across the street to park rigs. We finished lunch and headed off to Boise.

Continuing west on Hwy. 26 we took a short break at Craters of the Moon National Park. 

If the photos look a little hazy, it's because of smoke from the fires that are burning in California and Oregon. The first photo is us parked at one of the moon craters, fortunately the craters are big enough for our rig. 

The area is filled with volcanic rock, walking from the rig through the vista site is like walking on crunchy cheese puffs and broken glass... crunch, crunch, crunch. The information center is chalked full of information. There are hiking trails throughout the craters, and a campground suitable for tents and small RVs. If you plan to hike the trails, it is wise to look at spring or fall, when it's no too hot. We only spent enough time for a potty break, then back on the road.

It was a beautiful drive on to Boise, part of it along the Snake River.

We arrived in Boise, got set up in our site at Boise Riverside RV Park (boiseriversidervpark.com), and off to dinner with one of Carol's cousins and husband. I am getting spoiled with all these pull through sites... no worries if I backed halfway into my neighbors site, knocked down bushes, or caused a flood in the park.

This is a nice RV park right at the river's edge, and fairground. There is a walking path along the the river, 26 miles long, part of it through a greenbelt zone. 

I said the park was close to the river. I had to cross two bridges to get to the greenbelt, and met up with some friends playing in the water early in the morning. These were only a portion of the geese and ducks around.

Carol's cousin and husband chauffeured us around the Boise area while we there. We tried to do everything from shopping to wine tasting. 

One afternoon we visited downtown Boise, an area called "Freak Alley". Different artists paint what they feel and see. I couple of them reminded me of my past youth.

These works of art are periodically changed out, some stay for a long time. Some are whimsical, others are very deep and dark. There is a statement from Jimi Hendricks, I'll paraphrase: When I look in the mirror I only see me, so I broke the mirror, now I see the world.

For those of you that like to boat or kayak, there is a lot of water to do it in, both state park or local access. This is our tour up to Lucky Peak Reservoir, from the top of the dam.

We were in such awe of the lake behind the dam, we didn't take pictures. There were boats and picnic areas everywhere up there.

One day we all started off to downtown Boise for brunch at a place that puts bacon in everything, including drinks. The restaurant is called "Bacon". We're talking Bloody Marys, mac and cheese, and salads. 

You can't see it, but that Bloody Mary has a carrot in it the size of a small redwood, four people could eat off it for a month. My mac and cheese in the bottom right is penne noodles, sausage, bacon, four cheeses, and tomato slices on top... yes, it was very good. For those of you concerned about our health, we did eat breakfasts and dinners at home, whether theirs or ours. One night at Carol's cousins RV we had smoked pork tenderloin, grilled Idaho cheese, and green olives.

We took a few days and tried out a few breweries, then on to wine tasting.  Breweries come up with distinct names for their businesses. The first brewery we hit was "Loose Screw", a brand new brewery started in 2020. Name for some of their beers were just as wild. For example: "Screw You, Amber" - red ale, "Flocked Focker" - stout, and "Batty Bombshell" - blonde ale.  The four of us all agreed that we liked "Flocked Focker" the best (try it three times after a few glasses). The next brewery was called "Crooked Fence". Carol's cousin, husband, and I really liked their "Sins of the Father" (SOF). SOF was  a chocolate licorice stout, licorice was real light. They had a coffee stout that was pretty good too. Carol like a raspberry blonde called "Tiger Spit". We kept our breweries to two a day.

How many have ever thought about Idaho being in a high desert with temperature in the 100's... well, I didn't. A good cold beer takes the heat off, at least for a little while.

There are a lot of wineries in the area, we only hit three. Our first one was St. Chapelle, good, but didn't find anything worth buying. The second winery was Free Dog Wines. They had some good wines, we bought a few bottles. The last winery called Koenig was my favorite, they had a port wine, which was the only reason we stopped there, I walked away with two bottles.

Top photo is Koenig, bottom is St. Chapelle.

Before we left we had dinner out one night, just the four of us, went over to a relatives house for dinner, and prepped for departure. Our next stop was Grangeville Idaho.

Great drive to Grangeville, had a couple of grades that were on the steep side. 

Bear Den RV Resort (beardenrv.com) with 35 sites. Most of the sites are pull through with full hook up... and cable.

Besides large pull through sites they have cabins, and space for tents. Hot  and sweaty... they offered showers for the stinky body, and washing machines for the stinky clothes. Once you're cleaned up visit the little store in the office for a snack, or RV accessory. Grangeville itself does not have a lot to see, except farm land, however, one town over in Cottonwood Idaho, there are a couple of things to see.

St. Gertrude Monastery (stgertrudes.org) is located in Cottonwood. The monastery is still active, we were not able to visit the chapel during our visit, but the museum was open. The museum was completing the last year of a five year renovation. The museum starts with the history of the sisters coming over from Switzerland, beginning in Oregon, and moving to Idaho. There is an eclectic rhythm of the artifacts collected from all the endeavors the sisters accomplished from teaching to hospitals.

This is a view from the back side of the monastery; visitors can walk the grounds leading to the cemetery. Back to the museum, it can be walked through in a couple of hours. One area of the museum talks about the people that made the area what it is today. 

How about the man that lived in the wilderness and built this rifle from scratch. The carvings on the butt of the gun are covering knots in the wood; the figure at the upper left has what looks like a red feather tail on it, it represents animals running from a fire. There is a collection of artifacts from a couple who visited the far east. The collection was donated to the monastery when the wife pasted away.

With all the fires burning throughout the west, I was a bit set back when I walked out to see this. After the shock, I thought about it, and reasoned it was just a field being burned. I spoke with a gentleman leveling a parking lot, and he told me that farmers usually burn off the stubble from a harvested crops. The farmers were on hold from burning fields because of air quality from existing fires, this day was a good day for them.

We took the round about way through Cottonwood and past a B&B that is a bit unique. 

This beagle B&B is "Dog Bark Park" (dogbarkpark.com). Besides being a B&B, there is also an art gallery. The gallery displays all the work the owners create. As you can see the dogs do get proper care and treatment from their owners.

Off we went to Lewiston Idaho, staying at an Elks lodge. This lodge has a great view of the Snake River from the RV park.

These are views out our front door.

The lodge is equally as beautiful. All the doors in the lodge were carved by one of the members, who has since passed away.

This is one of the outside doors leading into the lobby. The inside doors have different carvings, just as fabulous. Once one enters the dining/bar area, the views are spectacular.

How 'bout this for the ladies, they have their own social area, outside of the bar/dining area... and the bathroom.

To some of you this may look familiar, your homes may have been decorated this way, back in the 70's. Yes... the seating is covered in actual cowhide. Those pillar looking things are lights hanging from the ceiling. I didn't take any pictures of the Men's room, it looks like any other Men's room. There are several other sections of the lodge, the Game Room, and the Athletic Center. The Game Room has three pool tables, card tables, and a more, however darts are in the bar area.

This lodge does serve dinner on Friday nights. Fortunately we were here to enjoy it. I had the Salmon Wellington, Carol had Steak Bites. For dessert, Strawberry Shortcake.

Another advantage of this lodge is the opportunity to slip into Washington for lunch, shopping or sightseeing, then sneak back to Idaho. Our first afternoon out we visited a Hawaiian restaurant for lunch, than a winery tasting room, both in Idaho. The winery is called "Vine 46" (vine46.com), unfortunately their website is not a secure website, but has some good information. At the time we visited their tasting room they were finishing their new facility across the street. Their new facility will process the grapes, and be their tasting room. Carol did buy a bottle of wine from them.

Today we just took a drive and ended up at a unique sculpture along the roadway.

As you can see, this is a sculpture made from canoes that are welded together.

After we visited the sculpture in Idaho, we went to lunch at Rooster's Waterfront Restaurant (roosterslanding.com) in Washington. The food was good, nothing special. Carol had a "Baked Apple Cider", I had the latest vintage of Dr. Pepper. The cider was so good, we bought a growler (1/2 gal) to take home. One of the fun parts of coming here is reading their signs.

These are just a few, you'll have to come and visit so you can read the others. After our lunch we headed back home for our happy hour. Our happy hour is on a magnet we have near the front door, it reads: You know you are getting old when happy hour is a nap. I like my happy hour so much that I have a tendency to draw it out to two hours.

Tomorrow we are going to visit some petroglyphs in Washington.

Let's Travel Through Montana

 

It's pronounced Wee bow.

These are the town's most famous pit stops, Beaver Creek Brewery  (beavercreekbrewery.com), and GEM restaurant. The brewery is part of the Harvest Host group. Because of the height of the trailer we had to take a detour around the overpass which was only 13', our trailer is 13' 8". The detour wasn't a big deal, we just had to go down a bumpy road, past a school, the public pool, over a set of train tracks, down a reeeally bumpy road, and wa la... we arrived at paradise. The parking for Harvest Host guests is a dirt lot owned by the railroad, and offered lots of sunshine. This host is a dry camping facility (no water, electric, or sewer). The train noise was not too bad, considering they were passing by above us within 20 feet of the trailer. They were only required to sound their whistle at the crossing about 100 yards behind us.

Both establishments are owned by the same family, and are very nice folks. Before the brewery was a brewery it was a grocery store. They did some remodeling, preserving some of the history on the walls. We started off with beer tasting, then we left for a short break, walking all the way across the street to our trailer.  When the restaurant opened we went back for dinner. The food at GEM's is fantastic, most of it made in house. 

The restaurant was converted from the town theatre to the present eatery. Besides serving dinner, they also provide live music from local bands... and I don't mean just Wibaux. One cool thing is an old canvas billboard hanging from one wall. The restaurant was able to display it because the town museum did not have the space to display it.

As you can see, they did little to the outside of the building. The original ticket booth is part of the kitchen area for the restaurant. The projection room was remodeled to provide a group table and their office. Let's talk dinner. 

Both meals required to go boxes... of course we had to order dessert to go also. They didn't skimp on the shrimp in Carol's meal, and they were not afraid to put meatballs on my sandwich. It was hard to tell if the meatballs were store bought or homemade, they had a dense texture with good flavor. Their bread and rolls were homemade for sure, they were outstanding.

Before we left the next morning we stopped at the town museum, you can get more info at: (https://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/museum/wibaux-museum). The museum was more about the area with a lot of artifacts donated by local residents. The town was named after Pierre Wibaux, who gave up the opportunity in his families textile business for ranching, and became one of the world's largest cattle ranchers. Pierre also owned several other businesses in town, one of course being the bank. It is a guided tour through his business office, a railroad car that was taken to a World's Fair, livery stable, and the barber shop which was moved from a different location in the town. The train car contains artifacts about the early and recent history of the area, again, a lot donated. The livery stable holds items ranging from a kitchen cupboard organizer to chain assembly for knocking down brush during fires. An interesting item found in the attic of one of the homes at the turn of the century was a french made bicycle, there were only three in America, mostly because it was a disaster to ride on dirt roads. The reason the barber shop was moved on museum grounds was because of the bathroom, the first one in Wibaux. The water for the bath tub was heated with Kerosene before filling the tub.

Splinters were at a minimum on the toilet seat, it was sanded and varnished. Some of you RVers may look at this toilet and see it as the first prototype for the composting toilet, it  required emptying too. 

Now that we had our potty break, it was time to get on the road for Billings Montana.

It was a little windy, but very nice drive across Montana. Our game plan was to spend only a night in Billings before heading to an alpaca farm. Our night stay was at the Billings Elk lodge. The lodge was not open the night we were there, they were having a wedding and reception. All we did was sit and relax outside enjoying the evening, it was nice enough that  we did not need to run the air conditioner.

The building is behind our rig. Not only can you have fun, but they have a tennis club (you can see it to the left) they run. Unfortunately the Elks are selling this facility for a smaller one.

We left Billings on our way to Belgrade Montana to stay at the alpaca farm (sentinelranchalpacas.com), which is part of the Harvest Host group. Getting to the farm was a small challenge toward the end. After traveling down a gravel road for a mile, into the driveway, we arrived... wrong. As I was driving in another rig was driving out, so I needed to back up and pull over on a side street. After the other rig left I was able to back up around the corner and drive up the driveway to check in.

After we settled in we were taken for a tour of the farm. They have their alpacas organized by groups: males, females, moms with babies, and those in "freezer camp". We were the first trailer to settle in, by the end of the day there were over a dozen RVs in two areas. The temperature was very warm, we needed to run the generator for the air conditioner. We shut the generator off at bedtime, and opened windows. WOW, when it got really dark, the stars just burst into view. We had the big dipper out our front door.

Most of our tour was in the mom/baby pasture. Those creatures eat a lot, we brought a small bucket of pellets so we could feed them. It was fascinating feeding them, their teeth look like they will take part of your hand with the pellets, but they are barely felt. The pellets were really just a treat for them, they are happy munching grass. They only have bottom teeth, four large front teeth for cutting off the grass, the rest are more molar style for chomping/chewing. They are different from goats in the respect that they cut the grass, not pull it up by it's roots.

How many wondered what "freezer camp" meant? That is where alpaca go when their hair is no longer usable. We purchased some of the "frozen camp" alpaca in the form of chops, and ground alpaca. We were told that the meat is very lean and easy to cook, we'll find out.

With the days end it was time to prepare for our next stop in our journey across America.

Can You See Sunflowers

 We made it out of Rapid City via I-90 East, so we could go north. We went east to avoid all the mayhem of the Sturgis Rally. Carol and I saw and heard enough motorcycles while we were in Rapid City. I was actually amazed at how many were trailer-ed in, vise rode in. Some of the true bikers were only tents, while others had little pop up trailers they pulled. Unfortunately most of the motorcycles were touring bikes, the customized / choppers were probably in Sturgis already partying.

North of Pierre South Dakota we celebrated 50,000 miles on the truck, which means over 15,000 miles traveling America's highway (for pleasure).

Can you see the sunflowers? While driving through South and North Dakotas we saw so many sunflower crops. Carol researched sunflower production and found out the Dakota's are the primary sunflower producing states... with this pandemic, and the major league players agreeing to no spitting, what will happen to the sunflower seed industry?

Between South Dakota and North Dakota there were hundreds of thousands of acres of sunflowers.

Our stop eastbound was a town call Presho, where we stayed at "New Frontier RV Park and Campground" (http://newfrontiercampground.com). The folks running the place are very friendly... how friendly are they... they are so friendly they gave us some of their own goodies for fighting an uninvited guest on the trip (mouse to be exact). Thanks to their kindness we were rid of the mouse the next evening in Bismarck North Dakota. Back to Presho, there isn't much to see, forget grocery shopping. The store does not stay open very long... two hours on Sunday, four to five hours the rest of the week.

From Presho we headed to Bismarck North Dakota.

We stayed at the Elks lodge in Bismarck, while we were backing in and settling down for the day, we were informed that we needed to move our rig to a different area because they were having an annual car show where we parked. After we moved the cars began rolling in... some brought back memories of our so called glory days.

There were over a hundred cars on show, most of them were either restored, or customized, some we were not sure why they were there.  The pink and grey one is for sale if anyone is interested. After the show was over we moved back to our original spot.

During COVIDS19 the lodge does not have their dining room open, but they are serving food and beverages in their patio area. Most of the food is from their regular menu, some of it served as specials each day.

We took a drive to the North Dakota Heritage Center and Museum (https//statemuseum.nd.gov). This is a large center divided into sections of time and eras on two floors. Carol and I only walked one floor before going to lunch. Our game plan is to revisit the museum and complete our tour. There is the opportunity to view fossils as well as local indigenous artifacts.

After lunch we went back home for the afternoon, and to make  plans for the next day.

Next day... the old Governor's Mansion. The governors used the home from 1893 to 1960. It is free to tour the house and carriage house. Time was taken renovating the house to it's original look wherever possible. You walk the rooms, and notice small sections of framed wallpaper, each one represents an era of the occupants that lived there. As well as meticulously removing wallpaper, they carefully exposed the different layers of paint colors. 

Back home we go to start prepping for our first stop in Montana, which will Wibaux (Wee-bow).

Rapid City SD at a Glance

This trip to Rapid City is all about the doctor's appointments. In the mean time we just settled in, then met up with some friends who were staying at the Elk's lodge. We went out one night to celebrate their 5th year anniversary of full time RVing. Downtown Rapid City is a light, fun walk on Main street, where there are statues of presidents on each street corners in a mile radius.

It has been a great time at this KOA, not because of the campground itself, because most of the activities are closed (COVID19), but because of the neighbors we had next to us.

We went shopping one afternoon at Menards (a form of home supply store) for a few items to complete some projects. I found what I was looking for, Carol found a substitute for something she was looking for. She has been looking for a blow up pool to soak our feet in during hot summer days. She found a blow up ice tray for the picnic table, used to to keep drinks and food cool at any party, however we found it to work great to cool our feet.

Our site is in the lower portion of the campground, overlooked by the office/store. Carol and I sat at our trailer one day and watched all the new rigs come in, what a hoot. While soaking our feet, in came a rush of RVs looking like a circus act gone wild. One trailer would make a move, another jockeyed for position, still another looked like they were just trying to figure out what was happening and where they were. I commented to Carol, "watch they are going to end up next to us", sure 'nough, they did.  Once they moved in around us we found out they were the greatest people we have had by us in a long time. The group consisted of 6 rigs and 6 families from Vietnam. All the families are from Minnesota. They were the most gracious hosts to us, bringing food samples for us to enjoy, truly spoiling us. The best part of their company was the opportunity to celebrate my birthday with them. They have moved on in their vacation plans, heading for Yellowstone National Park. We traded business cards so we can keep in touch with them in the future.

My 63rd Birthday Party

For my birthday we went to "Pirates Cove" for a round of miniature golf. We went early to avoid the rush, and it was a good thing we did. Social distancing has slowed down playing at this course, requiring groups to wait until the group in front has moved away from each hole before they advance to  the hole (no crowding the hole waiting). As we arrived at each hole there was some history about the various pirates that flew the Jolly Roger flag. Surprisingly, some pirates created their own flag other than the Jolly Roger. One captain was paid by the king of England to capture French ships, but because of his lack of success he decided to attack ships from any country. Another pirate did time in prison in the United States only to go back to England to be hung. Let's get to the nitty gritty, birthday boy got his butt beat. 

After a heart breaking loss we went to lunch at Fusion Sushi, a long drive all the way across the street.

Carol had the Sunshine Roll which was basically tempura shrimp dressed with panko crumbs, and a mild spicy mayo. My Volcano Roll was a little different in that it sat on a spicy sauce. The sushi was covered with scallops and fish roe (the orange stuff), which had a mild flavor. From lunch it was back home to do some maintenance.

Took a break from maintenance on the trailer, and we took a run out to the badlands. There were a lot more out this trip compared to our first trip in October last year. We took a different route this time and saw spectacular sights again. I saw only one bison this time, but we did see young mountain sheep on our drive around the rim of the badlands. What is amazing is the color variation throughout the area ranging from grey to pink to yellow.

           

Fun's over, back to work, I still have some maintenance to finish before we head to North Dakota.

Headed Back to Rapid City

After leaving the kids in Wisconsin we headed back to South Dakota via Minnesota. Our stop in Minnesota was a KOA Kampground between Austin and Albert Lea. Part of our game plan was to stop at the Hormel SPAM Museum, however, we misjudged the dates and we arrived on one of their closed days. Minnesota was just an overnighter on our way to Mitchell South Dakota. We spent three days in Mitchell so we could visit several of their attraction. 

Mitchell South Dakota is most famous for the only Corn Palace in the world. The Corn Palace was first built in 1892 after Sioux Falls went bankrupt trying to built theirs. The outside of the palace was decorated with corn and other grain plants. Each year a new theme was chosen, and off they went.

After the theme was decided an artist would create concept drawings, they would be drawn on roofing paper hung on the building exterior, and craftsmen would mount the corn cobs according to the drawing. 12 shades of corn are used in the murals. One of the few times the theme was not changed was during WWII, all food was supporting the war effort. For more info: https://cornpalace.com/.

The next day we took a drive to the Prehistoric Indian Village Site. This museum is also an archaeological dig site of Native American villages. The first building tells the story of how man migrated to North America, and the building of tribal communities. The archaeological dig site is protected within a structure but is not being actively worked due to the COVID19 pandemic. There are story boards and artifacts on display as well.

The dig site is the communal area between all the living dwellings. For more information you can go online at: https://www.mitchellindianvillage.org.

There is a man and his wife that live in Mitchell and restore Mustangs. His business (Telstar) has been at the same location for 54 years. All the cars are their personal collection, some for everyday use, others for show, and some for sale. It's funny, all my pictures are some of the other cars.

The red car he designed and built himself. It is made from a lot of different cars, and is a one of a kind. The green '57 T-bird is for sale. This is a port hole hard top (not shown in picture) that was a full restoration. The shop owner still has his 1966 Ford Ranchero. Their collection isn't big and can be viewed in about 40 minutes on a guided tour.

We drove back home and I decided I was hitting the pool for some cooling down since the temperature was over 90 degrees with 75 to 80 percent humidity. We relaxed in preparation for our drive to Rapid City.

Breezy Hill WI 2020

So much has changed since our last stay two years ago. We were on the outskirts of the campground near an empty field, now our old site is almost centered in the back section of sites, which a good portion are now seasonal. As for activities, they have not changed. We ordered in a bin of wood for cooking and camp fires. I sorted the wood, stored it under the trailer in case of rain (which it did), and split some for kindling. We didn't use all the wood so we gave it to a friend that showed up before we left.

DISCLAIMER: I will not be posting pictures of our son's family, so you need to believe we have a son who is married with children.

Our granddaughter wanted a camping birthday this year, so our son and his wife rented one of the cabins for a part of their stay, and celebrate their daughter's birthday.

Our site this year was close to the center of all the fun, and across from the pool. This year the weather was much warmer than two years ago so the grand kids spent some time in the pool, and the swimming pond. If our grand daughter wasn't swimming, she was jumping on the blow up pillow or swinging, grandson and mom hung around the trailer with the grandparents, dad went to the fishing ponds in search of the monster bass. 

When we were all together we feasted on all the meat available in the county. We ate brats of all flavors, steak from many cows, and pig galore, not much in the area of vegetables, but there was some fruit. One night we actually had pizza; one was pepperoni, the other was lasagna. One morning I cooked chorizo bacon Carol found at one of the stores here, and it was a hit with everyone. Carol and I both feel the blah from so much meat, no veggie diet. We didn't even go for ice cream this year.

This year Breezy Hill celebrated Christmas in July. They encouraged each site to decorate for the weekend we celebrated Christmas. People were told to be on the look out for Santa (as seen pulled by a tractor). Saturday evening all the folks on the hay rides were driven through the sites, then had the opportunity to vote for their favorite decorated site. The winning site received a free night of camping. Our son, granddaughter, and I went on the hay ride and saw some pretty dressed up sites. 

Some of our guests for your enjoyment. The caterpillar will turn into a Whited-marked tussock moth. The spider is a yellow sac spider, not a big threat. Not much to say about the squirrel and grasshopper. 

It was a very enjoyable time with the kids and grand kids. We are already planning for next year, but for now it is off to Austin Minnesota.

Fort McCoy Wisconsin

The drive from Jackson Minnesota to Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin was a bit windy and a tiny bit of rain, nothing serious. Ft. McCoy was another overnight stay for us. Don't believe Garmin regarding which gate to enter in, the base has made some changes, closing the original gate to the campground. The new access is more indirect, just follow the signs. Having pre-paid we did not need to stop at the office for check in, we just went to our assigned site. Once we settled in I learned that non military can also use this campground. The campground was divided into areas, and further divided into loops. Most of the sites are back in, and fairly easy to get into. Our site was like backing into a forest cave, lots of shade, 50 amp electric, water, sewer, and cable TV. Carol and I would definitely stay again for a longer period. For children and adults there is miniature golf and a playground. Pets are definitely welcome at this campground, and there are a lot of areas to walk your dog. 

From Ft. McCoy it's a 2 hour drive to Fon Du Lac Wisconsin for a week with the grand kids and their parents, and a week to recuperate.

Jackson Minnesota

I survived the "Rip VanWinkle" effect; so let's try to catch up. 

We did make it to Jackson Minnesota, where we stayed at a working farm that is part of Harvest Host. Usually most of the Harvest Host locations are dry camping (no water, electricity, or sewer), this one had a 50 amp electrical receptacle available... yes we paid the $10.00 donation for the electrical because it was muggy and very warm. The farm is a 2500 acre farm producing corn and soybeans... and fresh eggs from chickens that roam free. For a donation they will gladly provide a dozen or so. We got a dozen ourselves, and guess you could call a 12 pack of color. The colors ranged from white, green, and brown. The host also provided flowers from her garden and a small loaf of sourdough bread. Like I said earlier, we were lucky to get the 50A receptacle. The silos next to us are only half of the farm's storage. The owners were very hospitable, allowing us and another couple to roam their farm. Behind where we parked there is a vegetable garden and out buildings. The other side of the farm is the home for the chickens at bedtime. Between our rig and the chicken house is the opportunity to play corn hole, or sip/drink wine. A little rain, good rest, and on to the next stop.

4th of July

We made it to Kennabec before the rains set in... and boy did the rains set in! The first site looked to be a nice site until after the evening down pour. The rain sounded like it was dropping Volkswagens on us, with a mixture of hail and 60 mph wind gusts. The next morning I looked out to see the damage, and I knew I should have put the pontoons on the trailer the night before.

 

The campground owners were kind enough to let

us move to higher ground. We pushed the barge to shore and moved to a site up front in the same row, with a nicer view. This is a KOA campground recovering from a massive flood that took out all their tent sites, damaged buildings, washed away all their site materials. They found their washed away cabin over a mile downstream from the campground. We didn't go looking for fireworks, they came to us, in the form of residents near by firing them off.  

We did venture out to a couple of places in the area. We tried to visit the "Sioux Museum and Cultural Center, but it was closed for the 4th of July weekend, who da thunk? We were determined that the day would be a success, and it was, we visited the "Destiny Monument".

The idea of the monument is to echo the interaction between the earth, sky , and people. This monument can be seen at the Chamberlain rest stop Tourist Information Center in South Dakota. The information center talks of the Lewis and Clark expedition through this portion of the territory.

This bridge is the Lewis and Clark Memorial Bridge across the Missouri River. The expedition traveled up and down the river, sometimes having to carry their boats around rough water. At one point while the team spent many days working their way around a large bend in the river, I believe Lewis walked 2,000 yards across the bend to their agreed camp. Anyway, we left here and went home to pack up, and head for Minnesota.