GRR: Grand Rapids to Lake Itasca

Another day of driving the Great River Road through mostly rural country. This is the type of area where roads had rural route numbers instead of names. When 911 decided every road had to have a name, someone had to pick those names. Several roads here appear to have been named after the people who lived along them. A bunch were named after birds. But someone with a sense of humor named some of these: “Fishy Waters Drive” “Daredevil Road” “Plum Nuts”. “Quill” made me think of Shakespeare until I saw the next one was named “Porcupine”. When I saw “Meander” I wondered if the next one would be “Wandering”. Close but no prize; it was just “Wander”. And we can all guess what’s probably down the one named “Prince of Peace”.

Greenwood Golf Course advertises itself as “A Site to be Holed.”

Dave manged not to drive off the road when we passed a car parked on the shoulder only to discover a bunch of nearly naked women on the other side of it slathering themselves with lotion. A pile of inner tubes rested beside them just waiting to wrap themselves around the women to go floating down the Mississippi River.

At last we arrived in Bemidji, Minnesota. We had planned to begin our time here at the Headwaters Science Center until we discovered it had nothing to do with the Headwaters per se. It was a typical science museum. Which we typically enjoy visiting. But this trip we are focusing on the river and the cultures around it so we decided to skip this science museum today. Maybe some day we’ll be back here and we’ll go play with their toys then.

Instead we made our first stop at the Beltrami County History Center.

They have several galleries of displays. We spent the most time in the one about transportation. This scale model of a canoe was obviously a labor of love. The maker even made woven seats for it.

The Jefferson Highway was organized from Winnipeg to New Orleans back in 1915, years before anyone decided to define the Great River Road. Check this out. Seventeen places in Minnesota offered free camping along the way and many of those also offered free fuel. Nowadays some small towns still offer free camping to tourists but I know of nowhere you can get free fuel just for stopping there.

We’ve been on the Jefferson Highway before. There’s a street named that in Osseo, Minnesota, that crosses railroad tracks we once researched and modeled. Back then we had no idea the Jefferson Highway was anything more than that city street. I enjoy learning how these bits of my life and the lives of others all fit together.

One of the things Bemidji is known for is Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. This is probably the most famous statue of them. You will find others around town and in other northern Minnesota towns as well. To get a sense of the size of these, check out the person standing right in front of them in the side view picture.

There was a detour on the Great River Road in Bemidji so we took a detour of our own to have lunch and buy groceries. We disagreed on which road would likely take us back to the Great River Road. For perhaps the only time ever, I was right!

Finally we reach our destination for this trip: Itasca State Park, Headwaters of the Mississippi River. At the campground check-in station they sell fire and ice. Both appear to be popular today. They have two sites available with electricity if we promise to only stay one night. So the next morning we pack up and leave the campsite but we don’t leave the park. We haven’t yet fulfilled the reason we came here in the first place.

The park has a really good outdoor museum with lots of signage to read. For me, the most important ones are the ones about finding the headwaters.

Then you walk, or in my case ride my Segway, 800 feet down the trail to the headwaters location.  There you can walk across the rocks or the log bridge or the waters themselves of the not-so-mighty-here Mississippi River.  If you think to take a towel you will be more prepared than 99.9% of the visitors.

Mary Gibbs gets a lot of the credit for this park and the museum is named for her.

We ate lunch there. Not because the food was any better than anywhere else but because I like to eat in park buildings. Dave had a hamburger and I had BBQ pork and we each had a desert. I, of course, only ate half my carrot cake and saved the rest for later. That’s another thing I like to do.

As we left the park we passed the North Gate Grocery & Cafe and the Itasca Campground all painted dark brown trying to pretend to be part of the park. It doesn’t look like it is working for them though.

It’s been a great trip. Lows in the 50s and highs mostly in the 70s with an occasional low 80s. Windy the first couple of days but no rain the entire time. Yes, we picked the right time to make this trip. I hope you enjoyed it.

TTYL,

Linda