Blogs from Minnesota, United States, North America - page 3

We pulled out of camp around 9:30, making the local Walmart our first stop. We got fuel and then went into the store to pick up a few small items, including fresh raspberries and fresh sweet cherries.Yum! While we were in the parking lot we made a phone call to Melissa D to welcome her to the blog. Since we had sorta kinda learned a lesson about finding campgrounds in Minnesota during high season yesterday, we called a KOA fairly close to Minneapolis and made reservations for tonight. On our drive today we crossed the Mississippi River about three times—each time we crossed it, it was a little bit wider! Amazing. We passed many, many lakes which made one of our discoveries later make a little sense once we realized what we were looking at. We ... read more

Arnold’s RV Campground, International Falls, Minnesota As I predicted, yesterday was very much a down day. We had a late pancake-bacon-and-egg breakfast and managed to grill up some T-bone steaks and corn-on-the-cob for dinner. And I we got the dishes done and the sewage tanks dumped. Otherwise, it was a do-nothing day. Partly, we are waiting for our last two boat rides in the park, but they aren’t until Thursday and Friday. So we have a couple of days that we’ve assigned to just resting up in preparation for the drive back home. Based on the weather reports, its going to be a hot one, and I think its at least 1500 miles driving, so it will take us a few days. We have a couple stops along the way to break it up, but still, ... read more

Voyageurs National Park, International Falls, Minnesota We took our first ‘cruise’ yesterday in Voyageurs National Park. The Grand Tour of Rainy Lake, I think it was called, aboard the Park Service boat Voyageur. It wasn’t a huge boat, compared to many we’ve been on up here, but it was still nearly full with around fifty people. The upper deck was where the best views were, but we didn’t scramble up there fast enough, so we spent most of our time on the outdoor portion of the lower deck, standing or leaning against the siding. (We could have sat in the enclosed lower deck, but that was too confining for the gorgeous day. The tour doesn’t pretend to see all of the park - that would take a couple of days, I’m sure, but it did cover ... read more

Rainy Lake Visitor Center, Voyageurs National Park, International Falls, Minnesota When we get near the end of a trip, I admit that we get really tired. It becomes increasingly difficult to sustain the same level of energy and excitement as we get further and further into the trip. As exciting as each of these parks might be, there is a certain amount of shell shock that sets in and there is a definite risk of shortchanging a park and not giving it as much attention as it deserves. We are definitely facing that problem here at Voyageurs partly because we are so tired. But also because this is a very difficult park to explore if you don’t have a boat. The park literature is very clear about that as they tell you that there are no ... read more

Ely, Minnesota and Arnold’s Fishing Camp, International Falls, Minnesota We moved almost 200 miles northwest to an RV Campground just a mile or so from the Canadian border. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen ‘International Falls’ on weather maps, usually in winter reporting the coldest temperatures in the continental US. Well, here we are staying at a campground that apparently doubles as a fishing spot. When Joan called to make reservations, last January, she asked the guy if he was freezing his ‘nose’ off. The reply was a simple ‘yes’, as if the question was so obvious as to be insulting. Anyway, it isn’t cold here now - temps last night when we came in were in the 70s, and it is forecast to get in the 80s today. This is a private campground, ... read more