Month: August 2016

South Through Wisconsin onto Indiana

Time to say goodbye to North Shore of Lake Superior and the tourist town of Grand Marais Minnesota and head south toward Indiana for the RV repairs.  Going by way of Wisconsin we stay in the Chippewa Falls County Fairgrounds.  Very strange place but a good deal for this part of the country, $20 includes electric and water.  It is basically a field with spaced out hook ups.  It is self-registration, you just fill out the envelope and put your money in the box.  The place is kind of eerie with the empty building used to house livestock during the fair.  The restrooms are in a big red barn-looking building.  We were able to walk into town and get some dinner but there is a distinct lack of healthy food and vegetables in this part of the country.  We end up with a veggie pizza.  The next day we meet up with a former colleague of mine who is currently working in the Chicago Office spending weekends in Wisconsin.  It was great to get caught up on the state of affairs at the old office.

IMG_1797
Camping at Chippewa Falls County Fairgrounds
IMG_1803
Empty Livestock Building, Chippewa Falls County Fairgrounds

Heading further south we make a stop in Madison, Wisconsin.  I have always heard it is a cool college town so we figured why not stop.  We were able to do some healthy grocery shopping at a Whole Foods which was like coming home.  In the Whole Foods we were approached by an older lady who wants to know if we are the people with the Sprinter in the parking lot.  With pencil and paper in hand she starts asking us questions on how we decided on the van and how it is working out for us.  She wants to get out of Madison and is considering hitting the road on her own but not sure what type of vehicle to get.  We also talked about getting rid of stuff verses keeping it in storage.  We gave her our view of how stuff just holds you down and she said we are wise beyond our years.

In Madison, we stayed in a county park which had a paved bike path running right near it.  With the path right there and a campground with showers and no rain in sight we were out of excuses for not riding our bikes.  After Tim pulled the bikes out of the van, put on the front wheels and seats we sprayed ourselves down with bug spray (something we NEVER had to worry about in Scottsdale) and hit the bike trail.  It was great to be on the bike again.

IMG_2068
Capital City Bike Trail Going into a mosquito infested area!

On to Huntington, Indiana where Sportsmobile has one of three of their facilities.  Looking forward to staying at the Comfort Inn with some AC.  It turns out the Sportsmobile shop is much smaller than the Fresno California location where we actually purchased the van.  In Indiana they can only fit two vans in the shop at a time, in Fresno they work on 12 – 20 at a once.  The guys in Indiana are able to fix some of our problems but cannot replace the warped cabinet door because they use a different color wood for their cabinets.  That will have to wait until we get back to California.I forgot to get a picture of the Indiana facility but here is the Fresno facility.

IMG_1417
Production line in Fresno, California
IMG_1407
Sportsmobile, Fresno, California

Looking for cooler weather, the closest place I see on the map is the Adirondacks in upstate New York.  That is where we are going!

 

 

Minnesota

Heading East from North Dakota we start seeing more trees and some small hills in Minnesota.  Finding a place to camp in Minnesota on the weekend in August is very difficult.  All the Minnesotans are out with their trailers, boats, canoes, kayaks, kids, fishing poles and dogs (love the dogs) camping for the weekend.  We stayed near Duluth one night on the St. Louis River but it is a muddy, stinky, mess.  Walking around the local area it is moldy smelling with old houses and old sidewalks grown over with grass. I am reminded of my childhood in rural Connecticut and thinking if you grow up here, you know no different.

The next night we find ourselves at a casino in Hinckley, Minnesota.  In an attempt to get a good deal on a hotel room Tim fills out a form to get a player’s club card.  It just so happens it is his birthday and they give you a room for $54 on your birthday, what a deal!  Tim also won $7.50 on some video poker, so a win all the way around.

We then decide to head back to Bemidji which we passed through earlier and it seemed like a great town, with a natural food co-op, brewery, Paul Bunyan, biking around Bemidji Lake and a college.  Turned off by the heat and humidity, we then head north to Grand Marais which is right on Lake Superior and close to the Canadian border.  As promised, it is much cooler in Grand Marais but still high humidity, cool and damp as they say.  The Grand Marais town campground is right on Lake Superior, which is an unbelievably huge lake by the way.  There is a marina there as well.  On our second day we get up early and wait in line to get a lake side camp site, it was worth the wait, very nice.  The town itself is within walking distance of the campground and is like a seaside tourist town with restaurants and shops, so here we go again blowing the budget on dining out.  The lake is so large with crashing waves it feels as if you are at the ocean.  We managed to get in a local hike near the lake one day. Unfortunately, it is now raining and tomorrow we plan to start moving toward Indiana for the RV repairs.

IMG_1710.JPG
Bemidji, Minnesota
DSC01248.jpg
Hike near Lake Superior
IMG_3844
Camping on Lake Superior in Grand Marais

 

IMG_3839
Grand Marais, Minnesota
DSC01225
Grand Marais, Minnesota

A local food in Minnesota I keep seeing is wild rice.  I had a wild rice burger at one meal and wild rice toast at another.  So what’s with this wild rice?  Well apparently it is not rice at all but a grain that grows in the cold waters of Minnesota lakes and rivers.  There are specific rules about harvesting wild rice in public waters. Wild rice was the staple in the diet of the Chippewa and Sioux Indians,native to the region.

IMG_2055

If I did not come to Minnesota I would never experience the vast ocean like feeling of Lake Superior.  I am reminding myself to experience the uniqueness of each area and to stay open-minded and not compare everything to my former Scottsdale lifestyle or the mountains of Colorado which have been romanticized in my mind because of so many great memories of trips watching the USA Pro Challenge (a professional bike race), summiting two Colorado 14ers myself – La Plada (14,343 feet) and Mt Elbert (14,439 ft), Tim and I cycling up Maroon Bells road and visiting great breweries like Steamworks in Durango… ahhh Colorado….

 

North Dakota, West to East

Since we have enjoyed ourselves at other national parks in the past and there always seems to be a lot to do in the parks we thought we would try Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the western border of North Dakota.  There is a South Unit and a North Unit to the park.  We entered the South Unit.  Normally, we like to stay right in the park and check out the ranger programs maybe do a few suggested hikes in the brochure.  It so happens we tried to enter Theodore Roosevelt on a Friday night around 5 PM, big mistake.  No room at the inn – campground is full.  Who would have thought -Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota is a popular place to go on the weekend – campground is FULL!  Really?  We ended up staying a mile down the road outside the park in Medora.  We went into the park the next day and traveled the 36-mile Scenic Loop Drive and saw lots of bison, prairie dogs and most exciting, wild horses!

DSC01131
Prairie Dog
DSC01171
Wild Horses!
DSC01180
Baby Bison
DSC01136
Bison
DSC01145
Prairie Dog
DSC01146
Wild Horses!

Disgusted by the summer crowds that seem to be everywhere we move on to Bismarck North Dakota.  We stayed in the municipal campground there, it is run by the town itself.  We are finding that we really like the town campgrounds.  They usually have showers, are close to town, sometimes walking distance and normally a great deal.  In Bismarck the trailer sites with hookups were full so we stayed in the tent area for $12.  It was pretty quiet and they had showers – what a deal! Humidity was high in Bismarck, in the 80% range.

IMG_2047

Town Campground, Bismarck, North Dakota

Oil is still a driver of business here.  Tim started a conversation with a couple guys at the laundromat who work on the oil pipeline.  They work six days a week.  Sunday is their only day off so they had to do their laundry!  As the construction of the pipeline moves they have to move with it, living in a fifth wheel along the way.  A lot of that time is spent out in the middle of nowhere so they were happy to be near Bismarck, a real town where there are services.  There’s an alternative lifestyle for you, chasing the money, working the oil.  The guy we talked to was married with kids and grandkids but only sees them once in a while.

Agriculture is also big in North Dakota. We drove across endless flat fields of corn, sunflowers, flax seed.  Fargo was the next stop.  It is the biggest city in North Dakota and actually had a restaurant with organic and vegetarian food which made me very happy.  Healthy food has been hard to come by!  Since it was my birthday and it was hot and humid I celebrated by staying in a hotel with AC and a shower.  Working our way across North Dakota we end up on the eastern border in Grand Forks.  We were able to meet up with some friends who moved away from the Phoenix area a couple years ago.  They shared their small town North Dakota lifestyle with us.  In contrast to big city Phoenix, they said the people in small town North Dakota are very nice, friendly and caring, however there is not a lot to do there and very few restaurant choices which I experienced first hand.

North Dakota shares a border with Minnesota, divided by the Red River.  While visiting Grand Forks, North Dakota we actually stayed on the Minnesota side of the river at Red River State Recreation Area in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. The facilities seemed more modern than a lot that we have encountered in our travels. What we discovered is the buildings are newer because this whole area was flooded in the late 90’s and had to be rebuilt. There used to be a neighborhood where the campground is located today and all the homes here were destroyed.  Then the park was built in it’s place and they actually left the streets in place when they put in the campground.  It was strange to have wide paved roads in a campground.  Other buildings in the area are new as well like the public library that was built in 1999.

IMG_1684
Red River
IMG_1699
Campground in East Grand Forks, Minnesota

Moving east, Minnesota is next where we should start to see some hills.

 

Losing Our Way

I haven’t posted in a while because truth be told we are struggling to find our way in this new lifestyle.  Every place we go we seem to have a reason why we don’t like it or why we have to move on.  It is too hot, it is too cold, it is raining constantly, it is too humid, there are too many mosquitoes, it is flooded, muddy and stinky.  Keep in mind we are sleeping in a van with no air conditioning, we do have heat but there is little escape from the elements.  Also, there are still appointments in certain locations that cause us to drive long distances on certain days to get to a particular location.  There is now a looming deadline in Indiana for some RV warrantee work.  Indiana in August, really??  Not interested!  I knew the Midwest was humid in the summer, but I did not think about how much it would affect us.  When we are driving all the time, then sitting in some campground in the stinky mud, it is very depressing.

With all these long days of driving we are not getting enough of something very important to me – exercise!  Back in Scottsdale I had my Jazzercise several days a week which I loved then hiking on the weekend, sometimes a hike during the week before work when the sun is up early.  Tim is also missing his cycling.  I am definitely missing my old life.

We will need to work on changing things up and figure this all out.  We had the idea we could park the van in a place and be able to go for road bike rides, hikes, walk or take the bus into town for a craft brew.  Sounds nice, but the reality is different.  I will let you know how we attempt to rectify the situation in further posts.

Now to our ongoing travels.  In South Dakota we stayed at Custer State Park where we did see some animals, which we are always looking for, however unlike the natural habitat setting you expect in a park, it was very reminiscent of the wild animal parks we toured as kids.  They even told us we could feed the “wild” burros anything we wanted.  We found them begging for food in the street and people were feeding them from the car windows.  We gave them some carrots and they were very gentle taking the food.  The babies looked scared standing in the street while their mom was begging for food.  This was all very cute, but just did not set well with us.  The park also has an annual roundup of bison in order to “cull” the herd.  The spectacle is open to public viewing.  I believe they auction off the ones they don’t want, Bison meat is popular here.  Bison calves born in the park are branded with an “S” and the year they were born.  This all seems like a very unnatural environment.  Seems all wrong to me.

DSC01044
Begging Burros
IMG_3831
“Wild” Burros
DSC01063
Bison in Custer State Park

Since we were so close, we had to check out Mount Rushmore, picture at top of the post.  My family visited the memorial over 50 years ago on a cross country camping trip in our VW camper from Connecticut to California and back.  I was only a year old so I have no recollection of the trip but I have seen the pictures and heard the stories over the years.  Camping was a staple throughout my childhood.  We spent many a weekend on Cape Cod and there were a few longer trips to Maine and Virginia that stick out in my mind.  I think Dad had a travel bug and camping was the only way we could afford it.

There is another mountain rock carving not far away that is much bigger than Mount Rushmore and is still in progress.  It is a carving of Crazy Horse on a horse.  You can see the head and the start of his arm but there is a long way to go.  This memorial is not affiliated with any government project and is funded privately and by donations.  The project has been ongoing since 1948, the original sculptor is dead and his children are continuing the work.  The mission of the memorial goes beyond the immense rock carving.  The mission is “to protect and preserve the culture, tradition and living heritage of the North American Indians”.  There is a museum there and they have plans for a university.  It is a huge project.

Crazy-Horse-20150830-_ALL5539-copy
Crazy Horse Memorial – picture from internet
DSC01104
Model of what the Crazy Horse carving will look like when it s finished, and the current state of the real carving in the background

 

I think I could have spent more time in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  It was a small pocket of cool weather and pine trees, it seemed very nice, but we are moving on to get to our next stop, North Dakota.