Today we drove from Wisconsin Dells to Woodruff. We are staying at the Indian Shores RV Park ( $51 per night, no discount) just outside Woodruff on Lake Tomahawk. The RV park is very wooded, streets are a bit narrow, trees are very close to the road, but paved, and it took a bit of effort to get the Wanderer backed into our wood site. Getting back out is going to be very tricky. There are trees all the way around giving lots of shade. Can’t pick up DTV sats due to all the trees. There is only WiFi at the clubhouse. But we have good cell phone coverage. 40 channels of cable is included in the price. Interestingly, we have a separate remote control for the cable box on the pole! When we first connected, we could not get it to work. But we found out that the digital TV antenna includes a signal booster. So when the Winegard Digital TV Antenna is turned on, it interferes with the external cable hookup. As soon as we turned it off, the cable began working. Water pressure is excellent. The site is dirt and gravel but pretty level. Our rig pretty much fills it up with the slide outs brushing against the pine trees on either side.
Friday, August 31, 2018
29 August 2018 Wisconsin Dells River Tour
Last night we received more heavy rain, which put the total over the last two days at almost a foot of rain! We drove into downtown Wisconsin Dells to have lunch at Dave’s Famous BBQ and then take the boat tour of the Dells. Famous Dave’s was just as good as we remember from Kansas. The tour boat was leaving out of their high water dock due to the recent rains. We learned the river was four feet higher than normal and was running at five times the volume. We took a bus down to the dock from the parking area and waited to board the boat, the General Bailey. We managed to get front row, top deck seats! The Wisconsin Dells is called the dells due to the multiple layers of rock that are laid on top of each other. Apparently, Dells is the French word for pancakes stacked on top of each other. This rock type and formation is only found in three other areas of the world, one of them being in Bavaria, Germany. David’s friend, Herbert, had taken him to see a similar canyon in Bavaria, on one of his trips to Germany, which could be this formation. The Wisconsin river runs through this narrowing in the dells. It was originally used to run White Pine logs from northern Wisconsin down to the Mississippi river in the 1800s. When the railroads came and began moving the lumber, the river traffic dropped and the old hands that used to help shepherded log rafts through the Dells narrows and the twisting channel turned to tourism. In the early 1900s, a dam was built to convert the energy of the river into hydroelectric. This flooded the rapids in the narrows but made it easier for the tourist industry. There are two tours, one above the dam and one below. We took the tour above the dam. The river was running high, so some of the rock formations that were normally above water were covered. The current through the narrows was running hard and fast which made the trip through them a bit more exciting than normal.
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| Witches Gulch |
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| The Narrows |
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| Witches Gulch |
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| Witches Gulch |
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| Witches Gulch |
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| Bennett's Rock |
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
27 August 2018 La Crosse, WI to Wisconsin Dells, WI.
We made the short drive (90 miles) from La Crosse to Wisconsin Dells. Not a lot to see along the way. We are staying at the Sherwood Forest Campground ($55 per night with Good Sam discount). The ramp down into the office area is relatively steep. But the road to get back to the pull through site we were assigned was very steep with a tight 90 degree turn at the top followed by a steep decent. The roads were narrow and lots of trees (some branches rubbing against us as we pulled through). Not my favorite. The water pressure was good, WiFi signal strong but the internet was slow. All the connections were at the back of the site making the sewer connection difficult. There is no cable hook up and we could not receive any local channels. Normally not a big deal but we had severe weather move through the area both nights with over 10 inches of rain, flash flood warnings, flood warning and tornado warnings. Luckily the AT&T signal was strong so we could pull up the weather apps.
25-26 August 2018 La Crosse, WI
We drove into town to see what there was to see of La Crosse. The downtown area was nice with lots of bars and restaurants. The place was crawling with what appeared to be new college students (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse) getting an orientation tour. We stumbled across another Duluth Trading company store and stopped so Leslie could pick up a couple pairs of slacks she did not find in her size at the store in Duluth. We then drove down to the river park and then up to the Grand Bluffs park for views over the river valley. This area (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota) is called the “Driftless”. This is because the area was not ground down and flattened by the glaciers during the many ice ages. The highlands to the north deflected the glaciers around this area so it retains its tall granite bluffs and deep water eroded canyons. Its all beautifully covered in trees. Following our visit to the bluffs we went the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadeloupe and walked the pilgrimage path to the beautiful church.
24 August 2018 Minneapolis, MN to La Crosse, WS.
The day started out rainy. This was the first time we have had to prepare the rig for the road with it wet and raining. David killed up on the roof to wipe the water off the slide roofs before we pulled them in so we would not get water in the Wanderer. The drive down to La Crosse was gray and misty with small showers here and there. But was otherwise uneventful. We pulled into the Goose Island County Campground ($33 per night, no sewer) around 3 PM. The campground is situated on the Mississippi river about 5 miles south of La Crosse, WI. It’s a nice campground but only has 3 back in spots that could handle our rig (No pull through sites). Backing in was a bit tight but we made it. The gravel pad was fairly level. Unfortunately there was a big tree that blocked our Direct TV but we could pick up enough local channels from the digital antenna to keep us up to date. But there are a LOT of Mosquitoes!! They even get into the Wanderer when we step out the door. We went into town and ate dinner at the Fiesta Mexican restaurant that had good review on line. We should have known better. We broke a cardinal rule, don’t eat Mexican food north of Oklahoma!!! It was very bland food but at least was fresh. Then it was off to Wally World to stock up.
21-23 August 2018 Minneapolis, MN
David flew out of town on business in the morning and returned late on the 23rd. Alison came and picked Leslie up for some exploration of Minneapolis and a late lunch. She chose an older and very prestigious neighborhood to drive through. The houses were beautiful; many of them were Tudor-styled with very manicured lawns. In the center of these homes was a park of rose gardens and fountains. We parked and got out to walk along the paths. The flowers were gorgeous and smelled so very sweet. It was a very peaceful place. Trees were splattered around the gardens and people brought hammocks to hang and lie in while reading or visiting with family/friends.
Once back in the car, Alison pointed to 2 thermos cups and offered me some ice water. She is just thoughtful and gracious like that. We proceeded to Lake Harriett. It is surrounded by parkland as part of the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. You could see the skyline of downtown. There were lots of bicyclists, joggers, walkers, kayakers, boaters, and people simply sitting on benches enjoying the sunny afternoon. The houses around the Lake were once again just beautiful with magnificent yards. Some houses had what looked like mailboxes made of glass. Alison explained they were part of the city’s library program. When finished reading books just put them into these boxes and the Library comes by to pick them up and return them.
We did a similar drive around Bde Maka Ska Lake which was much like Lake Harriett but a little larger. After exploring Alison took me to a charming restaurant named Coalition. We had delicious salads and desserts. She then returned me to the Wanderer. I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon with her. What a treasure she is!
20 August 2018 Hinckley, MN to Minneapolis, MN
Today we drove from the Grand Casino RV Resort in Hinckley, MN to Dakotah Meadows RV resort ($41 per night) southwest of Minneapolis. We had wanted to spend the weekends in Minneapolis but all the RV parks in the area of Minneapolis are booked on the weekends due to the State Fair. Dakotah Meadows RV resort is another casino (Indian) owned RV park. It’s another really nice RV park with paved streets and pads, great water pressure, and very good WiFi with full hook ups. We choose a back in pad at the end of a row since it had more room than the pull through sites. You can tell where the money for RV parks is in Minnesota! We would definitely stay here again.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
19 August 2018 St. Croix
Drove the scenic drive on the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix National Scenic River Way which runs along the Minnesota and Wisconsin border. Unfortunately the road is so far back from the river you don’t get to see much of it. We stopped for lunch in Taylor Falls at “The Drive In”. The food was excellent. They make their root beer fresh every morning so of course David had to have a root beer float! The burgers were excellent. This place should be on Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives. Following lunch we went back to the Wisconsin side and drove up St. Croix Falls where we found out the falls no longer exist. In the early 1900s they built a dam to contain the river for a hydroelectric plant and several grist mills. We stopped in the St. Croix National Scenic River Way Visitor Center and collected our passport stamp (#14). We did find out there were some service providers that would allow you to use your own kayak (instead of renting one of their kayaks or canoes) and provide transportation back up river. Not all of them do it, and it depends on which section of the river you are on, but it is good to know for a future adventure.
Saturday, August 18, 2018
17 August 2018 Cloquet to Hinckley
We took the short drive from Cloquet to the Grand Casino RV Resort in Hinckley MN. Getting out of the Journey KOA was difficult. The maneuvering was very tight with telephone poles, bushes, trees and stone walls making it a challenge. We made it out without damaging anything! We originally wanted to go to Minneapolis today since David has to fly out for a business trip from there, and we have friends we wanted to visit. But the state fair is running and all the RV resorts in and around Minneapolis were booked up on the weekends months ago. So we could not get a spot until Monday. So we chose Grand Casino as a good midway point. The RV resort is probably the best we have stayed in since leaving Texas. Paved roads and RV sites, manicured lawns, great water pressure, excellent WiFi (but slow speeds), all the sites are full hookups. The only slight downside is they are all back in sites. But we are getting better and backing up this beast. Hinckley is very small with just over 1000 people. Most probably work for the casino and its properties. We had dinner at a little family owned joint named Cassidy’s (Not recommended). Next door is an American Best Inn and the marquee made us laugh out loud.
16 August 2018 Duluth
David had to work most of the morning and early afternoon. After his last telecon of the day, we drove into downtown Duluth to visit the Duluth Trading Company home store and to look around. Duluth has a neat little downtown area with big stone historic buildings built to take the rough winter storms. Like Alaska, the flowers and plants thrive here in the Spring and Summer months. They are just beautiful! And surprisingly, Duluth had some very hilly streets we thought resembled San Francisco, except trying to drive them in the snow and ice. We stopped in pub for a quick beer and ended up talking to the owner for quite a while. A former US Army Major and Chicago Police Detective, turned Pub owner, we had a fun conversation.
15 August 2018 North Shore Drive
We drove the North Shore drive from Duluth to Grand Portage MN. It’s a beautiful drive with awesome views of Lake Superior. The scenic route starts at the very end of I-35 just north of Duluth and goes all the way to the Canadian border. Portage NM is just 6 miles from the border. We stopped along the way at Two Harbors to see the harbor (where they load Iron Ore for shipment east) and the historic Light House. It’s a quaint little town. The loading facilities for the Iron Ore date back to the late 1890s and are massive. The Lighthouse dates back to the early 1900s and was one of the lighthouses built along the Lake Superior North shore after the storm on 5 Nov 1905 when 11 ships were sunk or damaged from running ashore. The rock in this section of the shore contains magnetite which would deflect the magnetic compasses of the time by up to 18 degrees, coupled with deep water right up to just 20-30 yards from shore and poor viability due to blowing snow (Temperature was below zero), fooled the ships into believing they were farther from shore than the actually were. Seventy years later a similar storm on the same day sank the infamous Edmond Fitzgerald.
Further up the coast we stopped at the Split Rock Light house and took the tour. It was an interesting tour about the history of the lighthouse, how it was constructed, and the lives of the lighthouse keepers in that remote area. The North Shore road was not completed that far until 1924 so from 1907 – 1924 all supplies for the lighthouse and its keepers came by boat. All the construction material, including the unique color brick (each light house on the shore had different color brick so that navigators could recognize which light house it was by its color) was brought in by boat and hauled up the cliff. The light had a ten second interval on it and used a white light. Other lighthouses used different color light and different flashing intervals so they could be identified by the ships navigator. The Split Rock Lighthouse light could be seen up to 22 miles out on the lake before the curvature of the earth blocked it from view. The Fresno Lens for the light was made in Paris France specifically for this lighthouse. The spindle for the lens floats on mercury bearings that are so efficient they are still almost friction free today. The light mechanism is driven by a counter weight that must be wound every two hours. The foghorn, also at a unique interval, could be heard out to 7 miles. A pretty impressive piece of engineering. There were three lighthouse keepers, with their families, that manned the lighthouse during the season (Early April through late December). The house was not manned during the winter since the lake froze over and shipping was not moving. Supplies came in by boat until the early 1930s. The lighthouse was shut down in 1969 due to the availability of other forms of modern navigation and was turned over to the state in 1971 and then to the Historical Society in 1975. If you do this drive, make sure to stop for this treasure.
We ate lunch at Split Rock, walked Etta (Yes we brought her on the drive) and proceeded to Grand Portage NM. Due to the stops along the way, we did not get to Grand Portage until 3:45PM and it closes at 5. We got our passport stamp (#13), saw the park film and reviewed the exhibits in the visitor center before walking down to the recreation of the Grand Portage Stockade on the lakeshore. In the stockade there were exhibits on the fur trade, life in the stockade, canoe making and the Ojibwe Indian teepees, fur hunting tools and their lives. The stockade was part of the North West Company. This was the site of the great Rendezvous in July. Here furs brought by canoe from the west by the Voyageurs were traded for goods brought in from Montreal by the “Pork-Eaters” or “Montrealers”. The fur traders would buy the furs from the Indians, who hunted for them through the winter, load them up in the Birch Bark canoes and start east as soon as the ice broke on the lakes in late April. The Pork-Eaters would load up their canoes in Montreal with trade goods and head west as soon as the ice broke on the Ottawa River and the great lakes. Both were trying to be at Grand Portage by early July for the great Rendezvous. The stockade was abandoned by the North West Company (A Scottish owned business) in 1803 due to the line between British Canada and the new USA being drawn just 6 miles north of the portage along the Pigeon River. The Company moved its operations north of the new border to Fort William, eventually merged with the Hudson Bay Company but went out of business as the demand for Beaver Fur had dropped since felt hats were no longer in style in Europe by the mid 1800s. The NM takes its name from the 8.5 mile long portage that goods arriving from the north west were carried over from Fort Charlotte since the rapids on the Pigeon River below Fort Charlotte were not passable with the canoes. The entire NM is on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. We stopped at the Canoe making exhibit and had a wonderful conversation with one of the skilled Birch Bark canoe makers. He discussed with us the process by which the canoes are formed and sealed. One of the things we did not know was the Spruce Pitch that they used to seal the seams in the birch bark had to be reapplied every night by the Voyageurs as it would get scrapped off by rocks and flexing of the canoes under load and start leaking. So every night, after a 13-14 hour day of paddling, they would have to unload the canoes and repair/reseal them with Spruce pitch before going to sleep. We wish we had more time before they closed to talk with more of the period dressed actors. If we ever do this drive again, we definitely would plan on stopping overnight. As it was, by the time we got dinner at Voyageurs Brew Pub in Grand Marais, and started back it was 8PM with a 3 hour drive ahead of us. We were tired by the time we got back to the Wanderer but thoroughly enjoyed the excursion.
On the way back to Cloquet, we stopped to get a couple of pictures of the most fantastical front yard we have ever seen. It must have taken this man years to build all of this up and sculpt it into whatever chaos he saw fit. Check it out! We've noticed in Minnesota that folks like to set up scenes or scenarios in their yards. They might put two stuffed people in a metal boat with fishing poles in there hands. Another was two stuffed people riding in a carriage. Quite entertaining to say the least.
Notes for future travels on the North Shore:
There was a RV park right outside the Grand Portage NM at the Grand Portage Casino and Lodge. It was nothing to brag about, but it was accessible, clean and looked to have plenty of availability. We also saw there was a RV Park in Grand Marais run by the city which looked a bit packed with seasonal Rvers but is a good option. There was also a really nice RV Park (Burlington Bay Campground) at Two Harbors (about 2 hours from the NM) run by the city.
We also spoke with the rangers about the boat to Isle Royal NP which left out of Grand Portage NM. They said the boat ride is only 1.5 hours if you are going to Windago for a day trip or two hours to Rock Harbor if you are staying overnight in the lodge. The day trip to Windago allows four hours on the island before the return. The Lodge and boats book up months in advance. So some planning is required. There was nothing on the North Shore road that would be any obstacle to towing to Grand Portage. There are a couple of tunnels but there is plenty of room of vertical clearance.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
14 August 2018 Kabetogama to Duluth
We drove from Kabetogama to the Journey KOA in Cloquet, MN. The KOA is all gravel roads. Our site (#29) was a water and electric only, fairly level, back in at the end of a row. They have a dog trail and dog run not far from our site. WiFi is good, water pressure is good and it’s a 50 amp site. All good things. After getting set up, we ran to the grocery store to stock back up. There was not much available in the way of groceries in Kabetogama.
13 August 2018 Kayaking Voyageurs NP
We went out kayaking along the shore of Voyageurs National Park for two hours. The water was cool and refreshing and the Kayaking was excellent. Even though it was work, particularly after the wind came up, it was relaxing in its own way. We really enjoyed it. The rest of the day was spent preparing to leave. That evening we went down to the dock and fished for an hour. Dave caught a small perch (6 inches or so) which put him in the lead for number of fish caught since we retired (the only one) and the largest (since it was the only one so far)! Sorry, no photos since we don't have a waterproof camera.
12 August 2018 Blind Ash Bay
We went back to Ash River and hiked the Blind Ash Bay trail (3 miles). The previous day VIP Chris had explained the geology of the region. Underlying the whole area is a solid bed of 2 Billion year old (that’s not a typo, it is billions of years old) granite that has been scraped down by numerous ice age glaciers. The last ice age was roughly 10,000 years ago. It left the region scrapped clean with very little soil. So the soil we have today in the park has been the accumulation of 10,000 years of plant growth, die, decay cycles. It’s only about 3-4 inches thick before you hit granite. So all these tens of thousands of trees are living with only 4 inches of soil. So the roots hit solid granite, spread out and intertwine, digging down into the granite where they can find a crack. The Blind Ash Bay trail illustrates it with lots of intertwined roots and rocks making it a hazardous trail. Thank the lord for our hiking staffs. They saved several trips from turning into face plants and prevented a couple of turned ankles. In the deep forest, it was hot and humid. Although we could hear the wind in the treetops, there was nair a breeze on the trail. Leslie began to over heat but we pushed on until we broke out on the shore of Blind Ash Bay. The breeze coming off the bay was cool and refreshing. The views were beautiful and worth the hike. The hike back was easier but just as hot and miserable. Later that evening we made our first camp fire to enjoy the heat on a cool evening.
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| In this photo you can see how these trees pulled up the limited soil around their roots and exposed the granite underneath. |
Saturday, August 11, 2018
11 August 2018 Ash River Visitor Center
We decided to do a hike today. The best hiking opportunities are at the Ash River Visitor Center. The drive over was only about 30 minutes. The Ash River Visitor Center was much different than the others. It was originally built in the 1930s as the Meadwood Lodge. The Lodge was built by two carpenters and one stonemason using hand tools. The log walls and interior woodworking was beautiful, made out of locally harvested pine. We talked with the VIPs in the visitor center and found out Chris, one of the VIPs, was ready to do a guided tour of Sullivan Bay Overlook trail, the trail we had planned to hike. Turns out we were the only ones on the tour! Chris was a wealth of knowledge on the trees and fauna and we enjoyed our trail tour. (Leslie: I loved his story about the woodpeckers. He showed us a tree trunk with hollowed out spaces the size of a 6-inch sub from Subway. The woodpecker is the cartoonish Woody Woodpecker with the red crest. He’s about 14 to 16 inches long. His tongue HOWEVER is half his body length. HALF! So his 7 or 8-inch tongue must be dealt with. Turns out…his tongue wraps around his brain as a cushion to keep him from banging his brains out! Chris had a photo and diagram for illustration purposes.) At the end of the tour there was a beautiful view of Sullivan Bay. Voyageurs NP is at the cross roads of the northern and southern trees. It is at the northern edge of the maples, oaks, and poplar trees and the southern edge of the northern pines and birch.
10 August 2018 Grand Tour
We drove to the Rainey Lake Visitor Center (about 45 minutes), which is east of International Falls. We booked a ride on the Grand Tour cruise on the Voyageur. We arrived early enough to look over the exhibits and eat a light lunch of cheese and crackers we had brought with us. The parking lot was packed with trucks and empty boat trailers. We then lined up to board the tour boat and found a couple bringing twin 10 month old babies on the tour. I don’t understand bringing such young children on a tour. Fortunately they stayed on the lower deck so we did not get to “enjoy” their crying as much as others. The first stop on the tour was Little American Island where gold was discovered in 1892 within a Quartz vein. The boom only lasted 10 years before it was played out and the lucky folks broke even. With the gold embedded in the hard Quartz, the processing costs to retrieve the gold limited profits. We then went on to the Harry Oveson Fish Camp, the last commercial fishing operation in the area which close din the 1930s. Along the way we saw a juvenile Bald Eagle perched just above the nest where it was hatched. It was HUGE and it was only a few months old. We also saw some deer, a bank type beaver lodge and many loons. After the tour we drove into International Falls to see what there was to see. It was not much. The town is much smaller than we expected and limited in what was available. After we returned to the Wanderer and took care of Etta, we went over to Sandy Point restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious (we both had the Walleye) but the price was much more expensive than we expected. The views from the restaurant were beautiful.
9 August 2018 Kabetogama Visitor Center
The first part of the day was taken up by David working and having to drive up the hill to call into teleconferences. We then went to visit the Kabetogama Visitor Center of Voyageurs National Park. The visitor center is only a couple miles up the road from our resort. Voyageurs NP has three visitor centers spread along the vast shoreline of the lakes the compose Voyageurs NP. It’s primarily a water park so without a boat there are limits to what one can do. We got our passport stamp (#12), saw the park film and reviewed the exhibits. There are two guided boat tours in the park, one from the Kabetogama Visitor Center to Kettle Falls and one from the Rainey Lake Visitor Center, which goes to the Oveson Fish Camp. The Kettle Falls cruise books up months in advance since it is a small boat (only 16 people). We checked to see if there were any cancelations just in case and got some suggestions for hikes in the park. Voyageurs gets its name from the French-Canadian men that rowed canoes from the far west with furs to what is now Grand Portage National Monument. There, the furs were traded for pots, guns, beads and other trade goods, which would be taken west and traded to the Indians for Beaver furs. Their Birch Bark canoes were large (Called Montreal Canoes) with 12 rowers and could carry 3 tons of furs or trade goods. In an average summer, a Voyageur could row up to 3000 miles. From Grand Portage, the furs would be shipped east and then to Europe to be used in hats.
We then drove around and located a couple of the restaurants in the area.
8 August 2018 Glenwood MN to Kabetogama MN
We drove from Glenwood to Kabetogama Minnesota. Our route was mostly on US71 to just south of International Falls where we cut across on MN217 to US53. The roads were pretty good the whole way. We drove through Buena Vista and Koochiching State Forests. These reminded us a lot of the drive to Homer Alaska with boreal forests lining a straight as an arrow road for as far as you can see. It is its own type of “barren landscape” with trees as far as the eye can see. Every once in a while there would be a lone cabin and many had unique “road art” by the driveways. It reminded us of some of the art in Terlingua TX. We pulled into the Voyageurs Sunrise Resort (TBD per night with no discounts) after a 7 hour drive. We were assigned a new spot on the edge of the park that was easy to back into. We quickly found out there is NO cell service. The resort is down in a bowl surrounded by granite hills. So to get a cell signal we have to drive to the top of the hill. We turned on the cell phone amplifier but it could not pick up a signal to amplify. But the water pressure was good and the WiFi was strong (but a bit slow). As in Glenwood, most of the RVs here were seasonal and many seemed set to be in place for several years (Wood decks, etc).
Monday, August 6, 2018
2-6 August 2018 Wedding
Folks started arriving for the wedding on the second. It was a fairly busy four days. On the second we caught up with David’s Cousins (Amy, Beth and Beth’s Husband John) when they arrived as well as the bride and groom. We had a great time visiting with the family we had not seen since Christmas. We all went out to the Lakeside Restaurant (Which is where the reception was held as well) for a sunset dinner. Deborah’s, the bride, mother had arrived during the day and joined us for dinner. The food was good and the fellowship better.
The next day, Leslie and I went into Alexandria to ship off the failed RV control display back to New Horizons and to do some shopping. After we got back, we met up with the cousins for a BBQ followed by sitting around a fire by the lake and enjoying the company and the views. The big debate was which fire building technique worked better, the cabin or the tepee? Each hadd its proponents. With enough accelerant, it doesn’t seem to really matter! Leslie and I got eaten alive by mosquitoes while sitting around the fire. Couldn’t even feel the buggers but they chewed our legs up. Leslie had a mild allergic reaction to the bites which took a couple days to subside.
The fourth was more family events followed by a sunset cruise and dinner on the lake. We all had a fun time and there were lots of jokes going around. Once again, we went back to the resort for a lakeside fire. This time Leslie and I had long pants on and sprayed ourselves down with DEET to keep the friggen mosquitoes at bay.
Sunday the fifth, day of the wedding. The Lutheran Church is 45 minutes away and tucked away in a beautiful grove of trees, but it is in the middle of nowhere. So if you don’t know where you are going, its very difficult to find, even with GPS. So, Jeff and Deborah had arranged a big tour bus to take folks from Glenwood to the Church. We had a leisurely morning since the bus to the church was not until 1PM. The church was built in 1883. Deborah’s Great-Great Grandfather was a founding member of the church. The church has no running water, bathrooms, or electricity. Its is currently only used by the congregation for special occasions, Christmas, and a few times during the spring and fall. Otherwise, they meet in the new Church in town.
As the bus was driving down, we received word that the flower people had not arrived (they got lost finding the church) so we needed to delay an hour in route. So we began trying to find a gas station that was open on Sunday. Three tries later we finally found one open and everyone picked up a drink and/or snack. We shortly received word that everything was ready at the church and resumed our trip. The church was very quaint. And just the right size for the wedding. The acoustics were very good. So the joke of the day was: How many Lutheran Ministers does it take to marry two Seattle Lawyers? Answer: Four with each doing double duty! Yes, they had four ministers for their ceremony. Each had a connection to them or the church. John sang three times and did a fantastic job. After the wedding ceremony, the group went to the cemetery outback to dedicate a new headstone for Deborah’s departed father. Then it was back on the bus to Glenwood. The reception was held at the Lakeside Ballroom. The food was good, the drinks/wine better and the dancing a lot of fun. They even had an Ice Cream Bar set up in memory of Jeff and Deborah’s fathers, both of which had an affinity for ice cream. 
Thursday, August 2, 2018
1 August 2018 Glenwood, MN
We spent the day catching up and exploring the small town of Glenwood. The one block that is downtown is closed for road construction. We briefly explored the small shops. We found a great little bakery and stocked up on some breakfast sweets. Jeff and Deborah arrived in town and dropped in for a brief visit in the evening. They had been driving straight through from Ohio, where they had been attending Jeff’s mother’s funeral (David’s Aunt Marjory). She had passed away the week before and everyone had to scramble to hold the funeral and change travel plans to make the wedding. David did not go to the funeral because he did not feel it was safe to leave Leslie at the RV resort in Sioux Falls with out knowing the area. The wedding party is staying across the lake at Peter’s Resort. It’s a nice looking resort compared to Hunt’s.
The replacement RV control panel was waiting for us from new Horizons when we arrived and David installed it. It works great.
31 July 2018 Sioux Falls, SD to Glenwood, MN
We drove to Glenwood, MN today. US12 was pretty rough and jarring road which aggravated Leslie’s cracked rib (She cracked it reaching into the cooler in the back seat on the drive from Custer). The rest of the drive was uneventful. David’s cousin Jeff and his Fiancée Deborah are getting married in the Glenwood area. Deborah’s Great-Great Grandfather formed a church near Willmar, where the ceremony will be held, when he emigrated from Sweden. Her father is buried in the church cemetery. Since there is not much in the Willmar area, they decided to do the rest of the wedding events in Glenwood. We are staying at the Hunts Resort ($40 a night) since that is the only RV spot we could find. All the rest either could not handle our rig or were booked for the season. The parking spot is on a gravel parking lot next to the bait and tackle store, WiFi was slow and the water pressure would drop when a bunch of other guests arrived in the rental cottages. Its not pretty but will work for a week. We went to dinner at a local restaurant called Duffy’s. Would not recommend it. Minnesota is our 6thstate since we left Texas.
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