On Tuesday, we traveled home from Indianapolis to Cranberry Twp. We didn't do anything exciting, so nothing of note to blog about, but some thoughts from the trip. We weren't sure what to expect but it turned out that we didn't have any trouble finding campgrounds, for the most part. When we knew at some point during the day where we would be staying that evening, we would do a google search, and then call a campground to make a reservation. There were almost always RV sites available, and most of the campgrounds were very pleasant - lots of trees, sometimes a pond or lake, quiet and peaceful. This trip was sort of a test to see if our RV would be comfortable to live in for weeks at a time. This was a three week trip, but we will likely take longer trips, especially during the Pennsylvania winters, when we plan to go to Louisiana and spend three months at a time. Would the RV be comfortable enough to live in for three months? Our RV passed the test. It is very comfortable t...
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We spent Monday morning in Hannibal, Missouri. They might as well rename the town Mark Twain City. It’s all about him, their most famous citizen. We visited the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. The museum consisted of 7 historic properties, including the interpretive center, which contained a lot of information about Mark Twain’s life and is located in the home where Mark Twain, birth name of Sam Clemens, grew up and where the real adventures of Tom Sawyer took place. The other buildings/points of interest included restored homes of Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher, the Justice of the Peace office where Sam’s father worked, Grant’s Drugstore, and the Tom and Huck statue. That’s only six (if you’re counting) because they actually count the gift shop as building number 7. We also saw the famous whitewashed fence. When Sam and his family fell on hard times, the family moved in with some friends: Dr. Grant and his family, where they lived above his drugstore. Dr. Grant was a first co...
On Sunday, we started the day with the 7 a.m. Mass in Seneca, KS. We saw our friends from last week. They asked us if we were having a nice trip. On the way out of church, some other people, recognizing that we were tourists, began a conversation with us. They invited us to their county fair which was happening this weekend. I think the friendly people of St. Peter and Paul Church in Seneca, KS have adopted us. After Mass, we drove to St. Joseph, Missouri and went to the Pony Express Museum. The museum was excellent and detailed the history of the Pony Express and contained many interesting exhibits. In the 1860s, the extent of the westward expansion of the country was right around St. Joseph, Missouri. There were people settled further west, but they were few and far between, until California, which was more populous. Hence a sort of a gap between a north-south line going through St. Joseph, Mo. and California. The Pony Express began because the people in California needed a quicker...
On Saturday, we left Green Acres campground and continued traveling south, first through Sioux Falls and the rest of South Dakota, and then into Nebraska. We didn’t really have any sightseeing plans along our route today, but we did have one stop that we wanted to make. Our neighbor is from Pierce, Nebraska, and since we were going very near there, we decided to take a short detour (about 5 miles) into town. We drove into downtown Pierce, parked our truck and camper, and walked around to take a few pictures. We also took a picture of the “Welcome to Pierce” sign. Many times when you enter a town that a well-known person is from, there will be a sign saying “Welcome to [name of town], home of [name of person].” Because our neighbor is well-loved by everyone that knows her, we felt like there should have been a sign that said “Welcome to Pierce, home of Susan Burnet.” After our detour through Pierce, we continued driving south in Nebraska. We stopped at a farmer’s market along the road...
On Friday we left our beautiful campground on the lake to begin heading home. Because we wanted to get an early start, we were up around sunrise. The setting of the lake at this time of day was beautiful. The surface of the lake was smooth as glass, and the reflection of the early morning sun bouncing off the surface of the water was gorgeous. There were a few loons out and about splashing playfully in the early morning hours. Now you would think with Cranberry Twp. being due east of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, we would start driving east to head home. But that is not how we roll. We began our trek home by first going north and then west. That’s right…north and west. We first drove north from Grand Rapids to International Falls, Mn. International Falls is on the border with Canada, and is known for often being the coldest spot in the country. We passed about a block from the border crossing where we could see all the flags flying. The thing that struck us the most about International Fa...
On Thursday, we just hung out at the campground, getting rested up before starting the 2000-mile journey back home, with a few stops along the way. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll see a third sighting of Babe the Blue Ox! The campground where we are staying is called Sugar Bay Campground Resort and is located in Cohasset, Minnesota (near Grand Rapids) on, well you can probably guess, Sugar Bay. The bay is actually connected with other bays/waterways and together they all form a lake, of course - Lake Pokegama. As I mentioned earlier, it is a senior RV park. There are only 10 sites; only 4 of the sites are right on the lake, and ours is one of them. We took our lawn chairs out and sat next to the lake the first night we were here. While we are in the camper, we enjoy looking out the windows at the scenic lake. One morning, I happened to wake up early (5ish), and watched the sunrise over the lake. Absolutely gorgeous! Today we just hung out, kind of like we did in Loveland. We sat out by t...
On Wednesday, we took a drive known as “The Edge of the Wilderness”. This scenic drive consisted mostly of trees and lakes, and sometimes you can spot bald eagles here (which we unfortunately did not.) It is quintessential northern Minnesota, with historic sites along the way, along with some lumberjack-influenced small towns, and did I say lakes? Yes, more lakes. There are numerous resorts along the way, all seemingly very primitive, and not a lot of evidence of civilization. From our Edge of the Wilderness drive, we then returned to the Grand Rapids area and visited the Forest History Center, which contains displays exhibiting stories of forestry and lumbering in the northern part of Minnesota. We took a guided tour of a 1900s logging camp, and learned about the whole process of cutting down trees. It’s not as simple as you think. Most of the trees in this area used for logging was white pine. Logging was always done in the winter, which seems odd at first. But the reason is that t...