On Monday, we left our lovely (sarcasm detected) campground near Willmar, Minnesota and continued traveling north. We stopped in St. Cloud, Minnesota to see the Munsinger Gardens. These beautiful gardens sit right in the heart of St. Cloud and are free to the public. We walked around the gardens and enjoyed the well-manicured, beautiful flowers. They were very meticulous, very colorful, with such a great variety, and there were some red brick walkways and wrought iron arches, trellises, and benches throughout. The gardens were very formal yet very relaxing. There were two levels: an upper and a lower level. The upper level was more neatly arranged and tame, while the lower level had a bit of a wilder look to it. The lower level, however, was right along the Mississippi River and so had that as a nice backdrop.


 


After leaving the Gardens, we continued driving north in Minnesota, toward Grand Rapids, which was our destination for the day. As we drove along, we were checking on campgrounds that were convenient for our stay in Grand Rapids. All the campgrounds were advertised as being “on the lake”. In fact, we saw many signs for resorts, or restaurants, or gift shops, all advertised as being “on the lake”. There are so many lakes in Minnesota that it might save some time if they only advertised something NOT on the lake. For example, "Cohasset Campground and Resort, not on the lake – the only one in Minnesota". The state should have a motto about lakes. Let’s see…they could call Minnesota “The land of many lakes”, or maybe “The land of lots of lakes”, or maybe they could call it “The Land of 10,000 Lakes”. Yeah, that’s it, the land of 10,000 lakes. Oh, wait, that IS what they call it. We stopped counting after 4,329.

When we got up Monday morning, it was quite chilly – in the 50s. In fact, we went to bed with the air conditioner on and had to get up in the middle of the night to turn on the heater. The temperature on Monday was very pleasant, mostly in the 70s. Much different – and much better – than those temps in the 109 range.

We drove a lot of rural, back roads of Minnesota on Monday, and got a good feel for the countryside, which consists of green, gentle rolling hills, grassland, lots of corn fields, small farms, silos, and barns. Further south, there were a lot of fabrication shops and plants. There are lots of campers on the road, and have been since Colorado, as camping is very big in this beautiful part of the world.

Before we arrived at our campground Monday night, we made a stop at the Babe the Blue Ox statue in Brainerd. There is another statue of Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji, which we will see later in our trip, because one Babe the Blue Ox statue is not enough; you must see two. More about that when we get to Bemidji.


 


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