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The Winnebago rally is over but we are still sitting on the rally grounds taking advantage of a couple of nights free camping and trying to catch up on all our internet stuff now that there’s not as much competition for bandwidth. Our connection still drops occasionally so it’s slow going but we are getting there.

As I mentioned before I missed most of the rally but we did get to see the new Winnebago Via built on the Sprinter platform and decided we don’t want one which saved us a bunch of money.

We do want the new microwave/convection/range hood that puts it down where I can safely use it but hours of research and discussion with the service people indicate it won’t fit in the space we have available so we saved that money, too. I would rather have the oven, though.

And we picked out our next window shades. They are miles better than what came in our RV but they have to be ordered and can’t be sent to General Delivery so we have to have a place to send them to by UPS at a time we’ll be there to get them. They also require something to hide the mechanism so I need to buy curtain rods and make valances to have ready before we get the shades. Fortunately, I have made valances before so I know I can do that when I get somewhere that offers access to a sewing machine. I just need to get all our excess sheets and pillowcases from our storeroom to see what can be adapted to this new use.

My face is healing but I still have numb and swollen lips which means watching me eat is not pretty.  I can’t tell I’m dribbling.  It’s a good thing I don’t have to do this in public; it’s bad enough that Dave sees the mess.

This week we are headed back to Minneapolis to see the doctor, dentist, optometrist, and audiologist. What?! You don’t want the details of those visits? OK. But, don’t fuss if I don’t post for awhile, OK?

TTYL,

Linda

We are in Forest City, Iowa, for the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers’ Grand National Rally. We arrived here Saturday, just in time to pick up our registration packet before they closed at 2:30. I spent the rest of the afternoon entering data into a spreadsheet to help me analyse where I wanted to be when then we spent the evening visiting with neighbors and meeting internet friends.

Sunday morning I took advantage of the last time I’ll have all week to hang out in my pajamas then we went next door to the Heritage Center for a traditional Norwegian lunch. Meatballs, potatoes, vegetables, lefse, and wonderful deserts served in the Heritage Center’s church basement, of course.

I rode my Segway over and back. Well, I only rode it most of the way back. I could see the edge of the asphalt road I needed to cross was a little higher than I should probably try to ride up but I tried anyway. Splat! I kissed the asphalt. Scared everyone around me.

Once a wonderful lady brought me a bag of ice, I was quite content to lay there face down for about ten minutes before changing to a sitting position. Someone called 911 so the emergency vehicle arrived before I was ready to get all the way up. They checked me over and said I didn’t appear to have any broken bones but I had sure messed up my face. It was a one point landing right on the nose.

They insisted on taking me to Mercy Hospital in Mason City, Iowa, which is about 30 miles away. Fortunately, they did that in a security company jeep rather than the ambulance since I’m sure my insurance would not pay for an amulance ride for a smashed face.

We spent several hours in the emergency room since people in worse shape than I was kept coming in. But they did clean me up, take x-rays, give me meds plus prescriptions for more, and teach me how to care for my wounds.

I look like I just came out of a boxing ring. And I wasn’t the winner. I have a black eye, a broken nose, a chipped tooth, another lose tooth, and a fat lip that’s split in two places.  Be glad you don’t have to look at me.

And the pain pills act on me like knock-out drops so I’m getting lots of sleep but I’m sure not seeing much of the rally we came here for. Fortunately, the group gathers outside our RV every evening so I am able to join in the socials. I put a bandage over the worst part of my face before I go out so they don’t all have to look at my messy face. I think everyone here is going to remember me.

TTYL,

Linda

We found a WalMart that actually does prescriptions right!  It’s in Shakopee, Minnesota. We ordered five prescriptions between the two of us and they were all ready on time. Because, when one of the on-line orders did not come in clearly, they called me to ask which ones I wanted filled. Maybe it’s because we are in home territory so it was a local call. All I really know is, they made me happy by not making us jump through any hoops this time. And our insurance covered the cost so we didn’t have to pay anything. Doubly happy.

You all know I have a Segway on the back of our RV.

The straps that hold it in place are wearing out.

I need to do something to keep my Segway secure. I called the business I bought it from and they said they could get some of the straps for $50 each. So I set about looking for alternatives.

My first research was into alternative tie down straps. Not so good. Mine are more narrow than standard straps and are mostly continuous loop straps. I could only find one of those and it was about twice as wide and 200 feet long! That wouldn’t slide into the fittings on my mounting system.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_32963_32963

So I started looking at hitch mounted platforms with ramps that I could load my Segway onto instead of the system we have now. I thought Northern Tool + Equipment would be a good place to find that. So I did a Google Maps search for them around here and found a bunch. We set off to see what we could see.

First, we found their warehouse.

Second, we found their corporate headquarters.

Third, we finally found a retail outlet. So Dave started measuring things to see how big a platform I would need while I started shopping Northern Tool’s on-line site so I’d know what to ask for when we went in.

Northern Tool doesn’t sell what I was looking for. We left without ever going inside their store.

More research on-line discovered that Harbor Freight does sell a platform that would work for me and they have a retail outlet in West St Paul.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=66303

So we headed there but stopped for lunch along the way.

While we were stopped Dave decided to try something else with the current mounting. Then he dragged me out to see what he found. By putting the main strap on at a different angle it stopped rubbing where it was previously tearing the strap. And it bounced less at this angle so it wouldn’t be stressing the other straps as much either. And we figured out how we could use some double sided Velcro we have as an emergency backup system if we need to do so.

So we stopped shopping without having spent any money. That’s our favorite kind of shopping.

TTYL,

Linda

Having finished the northern part of the Great River Road we headed back to the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metro area.

US Hwy 10 was part of our route. This was a very bumpy road–Minnesota winters make all the expansion joints expand and contract until, by Spring, you feel like you are driving down a railroad track. So we were pleased to see some of the nation’s stimulus money being used to repave part of US Hwy 10. It made for a much more pleasant ride. I even got to nap on part of that section.

We stopped at Dower Lake Recreation Area. We had made tentative plans to meet new friends here but our schedules were not meshing well. Still, we stopped to check it out. The internet there was very slooow so we decided to move on to Lindbergh State Park again, back in Little Falls, Minnesota. We knew we’d get better better internet there, not the fastest still, but better. We only registered for one night; we are anxious to get back to the Twin Cities where we know what we will find where in most cases.

Like the Minneapolis Northwest KOA. This is not one of the cheaper campgrounds around but we’ve been going there off and on for many years so we knew we could do laundry there and I could exchange my paperback books.

Do you remember me mentioning a billboard for Morries.com where Morrie voted himself #1? I saw another Morrie’s billboard. This one said, “Don’t worry. Buy Happy,” and suggested we hum along.

I saw a car towing what looked like a large cage behind it. When we got closer to it, it turned out to be a giant shopping cart. I mean I’ve heard of shopaholic but really?!

One advantage of being back in our previous home territory is we know where to find a laundromat with a machine big enough to wash our comforters. We parked next to their dumpster which had this sign on it:

Of course, I looked up.  And saw this:

Yup, kids, throwing your tennis shoes over a power line can be dangerous. If you don’t believe me, ask your mother.

Another advantage of being in familiar territory is knowing a better route than the one suggested by the GPS. We saved ourselves some real traffic hassles by not taking the suggested route.

And knowing where to go to get a good haircut without having to make an appointment. At least, we used to know that. My hairdresser was not there and I got butchered. You win some and you loose some. In this case, I lost a lot. My mother would cry and say I look like a boy. Of course, I don’t help that a lot by wearing mostly gender-neutral clothing. Nowadays, comfort is more important to me than feminine.

Then we tried to go to a park new to us in an area new to us and our GPS tried to send us down a dead end road. We managed to fumble our way though that one, though and finally found Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Regional Park. This is an Anoka County Park which is very quiet weeknights but filled to capacity on weekends. So we stayed there Thursday night and paid to come back on Sunday night.

Friday I saw a sign that said this section of road is maintained by “The Daughters of Penelope.” I wonder who Penelope is? I keep thinking I’ll Google that but I don’t seem to have time to do so.

Also on Friday, we went to William O’Brien State Park to check it out. They’d had a cancellation for a site we could have had if we’d arrived about an hour earlier but they had nothing for us now. We drove around the campground anyway, picking out a site we want to reserve for next month.

Yes, I said reserve. I know. We never make reservations. Make that almost never. We are going to host a wiener roast for Dave’s family so we need a site close to guest parking with a big enough area around the fire rings for all the chairs we hope to need. So we reserved a site. We even got some internet signal there even though this park has a reputation for getting NO signals. I guess our antenna and booster occasionally pay off. My phone doesn’t work there, though, even with the boost.

So, Friday night we wound up back in our friend’s driveway again and Tom and Dave went off to another model railroad operating session.

Saturday we spent the afternoon visiting with more friends. This couple is about to move to New York City and we’d left a bunch of our model train stuff with them for them to sell on eBay. Neither of us particularly wanted them to move it to New York with them. So now all that is in our storeroom with other things we have yet to be able to part with. The storeroom is getting full.

We were invited to an ice cream social Saturday night but we spent too much time visiting instead of moving boxes of train stuff Saturday afternoon so we were going to get there too close to ending time for us to be comfortable going. Oh, well. I like ice cream even though it doesn’t like me and it was a fund raiser for a group we would have liked to support. I guess I’ve become so used to doing everything on a whim, it’s hard for me to remember some things have schedules that means I will miss out if I don’t pay attention to time. It’s been so long since we paid attention to time we even put both our watches in the storeroom. Of course, you already know that about me since I keep reporting we arrived somewhere at the wrong day or time to see the things we planned to see. I guess I can’t relearn to be time conscious. Or subconciously don’t want to do so.

According to banners hanging along the streets, Money Magazine voted Plymouth, Minnesota, as “America’s Best Place to Live.” I hope the people who bought our house there appreciate that. We liked it before the urge to roam hit me so strongly.

“For Lease: Office, Medical, Dental.” It’s a cornfield!  Someone must be feeling optimistic.

I saw a small motorhome with a system that appealed to me. Lots of RVers have carpets they put outside to help keep from tracking in so much dirt. But we don’t have any place to store a carpet. This one had rolled it up and fastened it between the ladder and the back of the RV so it rested on the bumper. We could do that. If we could find something to get rid of to offset the weight of the carpet.

Sunday we went to a party of some Dave’s former co-workers and their spouses.  Dave worked for the same company from 1970 until retirement so we’ve known a lot of these people a long time. Plus several of them are part-time RVers with the time spent traveling increasing as they’ve started retiring as well.

It was a lot of fun. The hosts live on a lake and took those who wanted to go out for a boat ride. One of the couples also brought a game I watched to learn how it is played. And we talked and talked and talked giving each other a lot of grief and laughing each time. The grief they gave me was mostly about how long it’s been since I’ve updated my blog, so this is for you George and Jeff.

Then we went back to Thursday night’s park which is close to George’s house where we did manage to get all hooked up before dark thanks to Denise getting us all moving out of George and Sharon’s place in a somewhat timely manner.

We are visiting several parks in the Twin Cities area to get a feel for what our options are for future visits. Today we moved down to Prior Lake, Minnesota, to the Dakotah Meadows RV Park at Mystic Lake Casino. We have a paved, pull-through, full hook-up site for $30. They also offer paved, pull-through, dry camping for $10. And they have gas/diesel pumps, laundry, and storm shelter on site. And a $5 a day rate at their fitness center. And, of course, a free shuttle to the casino. But the thing that really brought us here is a self-serve RV wash. Our home is much cleaner now. Outside anyway. I still need to do more cleaning inside.

Tomorrow we will spend getting the 20K mile check-up on our vehicle and another front-end alignment. It seems like our to do list is not getting any shorter even though we keep deleting items from it.

For instance, I need to get new straps to hold my Segway to its mount on the back of our RV. So I called the dealer Friday to check on availability of them. He just called back and said he can get two of the three I need at $49.95 each! So now I need to find a place I can get custom webbing straps.

And Dave ordered prescription refills on-line and I got a call saying two of them didn’t come through so they needed to know which ones I was trying to refill. So they should have those ready for pick-up Wednesday when we’ll move to another park to check it out.

Then Friday we need to do laundry and buy groceries because Saturday we head to Forest City, Iowa, for Winnebago’s Grand National Rally.

Then we come back here for doctor, dentist, audiologist, and optometrist appointments.

Am I making you tired yet? This retirement stuff can be hard work.

TTYL,

Linda

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