Starting small and getting bigger

---

Okay, I admit it, I may have dozed off a time or two in those last 90 miles of North Dakota, but now we're in Minnesota.
Minnesota has about 2 dozen scenic byways and you know how much we like scenic byways. We happily left the interstate and headed out on the "Lake Country" scenic byway from Detroit Lakes, MN to Lake Itasca SP. Minnesota has something like 15,000 lakes and the mosquitoes that come with them. Anyway, Lake Itasca is where you find the headwaters of the Mississippi River. It's just a little stream flowing out of this big lake.
From Itasca SP we headed east to Bemidji where we set up our camper and then went out in search of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. We found them in downtown Bemidji on the shores of Lake Bemidji. We took a picture or two then headed to Blackduck for our next scenic byway.
South from Blackduck we drove the "Ladyslipper Scenic Byway," a county road that has a lot of wildflowers, including the Minnesota state flower, you guessed it, the Ladyslipper. Luckily I'm too heavy for the mosquitoes to carry me off, but they tried.
Oh yeah, we crossed another continental divide.

---

Photos

Itasca SP, MN
Lake Itasca and the headwaters of the Mississippi River

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox
Bemidji, MN...hmm... which is which

Ladyslippers
Minnesota state flower (I think one of them even has a skeeter on it.)