Monday, September 30, 2013
Crossing over
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Red leaves, Blue sky
Friday, September 27, 2013
Gnome at the falls
Frog
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Iron factory
Another lakeside camp
Corn
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Michigan
We have arrived at my sister Laura's in the UP. Just home from seeing The Butler. Have photos and stories on the iPad so hopefully will find wifi soon.
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Sent from my iPhone
Monday, September 23, 2013
Another lakeside campground
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Oysters in Wisconsin?
Friday, September 20, 2013
Minneapolis--the Guthrie
Minneapolis
Trolley
Trolley
Duluth. The sign says "Save time and money. Read while you ride". Kit is in the people catcher. More on this later.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Annual garden at Arboretum
Minnetonka in the Rain
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Stillwater
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
More on Minnesota
This afternoon we moved from no frills Forest Camp to a Casino RV park with lots of frills. Even cable TV which we may not use. There is a shuttle to the casino for the all American buffet dinner. The weather appears to be changing so it's good we got our biking in today.
Minnesota is voted by us to the be tidiest state in the union. Today we saw one old mobile home with junk in the front yard but that is the ONLY one such. All of the farms are picture perfect with red barn and white silo. No old junky cars or tractors in the yard. Even the junkyards are tidy. Also everything we have seen is green. We have just been pine tree country but a few miles south we are back in the corn. Tomorrow we head south to the Twin Cities.
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Minnesota is voted by us to the be tidiest state in the union. Today we saw one old mobile home with junk in the front yard but that is the ONLY one such. All of the farms are picture perfect with red barn and white silo. No old junky cars or tractors in the yard. Even the junkyards are tidy. Also everything we have seen is green. We have just been pine tree country but a few miles south we are back in the corn. Tomorrow we head south to the Twin Cities.
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Moose Lake
Bike ride
Monday, September 16, 2013
Across Minnesota
I saw a fox!! Right here in our campground. We are in a state forest campground. On a lake. :). Next to a freeway:(. Close to the bike trail :). It's cheap :). Minnesota state parks are outrageously expensive. We are almost to the Wisconsin border. We are not that far from Duluth. Wasting time in Minnesota because Bill can't see us until Friday. Tomorrow we are riding the bike trail as far as we can. More about our trip across Minnesota when I next get WiFi
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Sent from my iPhone
Benson Minnesota
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Rivers and Lakes, corn and soy
We have been lucky enough to find a lot of campgrounds with rivers/lakes out our back window. Good views for frog who hangs out there. In Alice we had our table with large windows out the back but in Ida the bed is in the back. Nonetheless water views from our campsite are pretty special. Tonight we are looking at Big Stone Lake (most likely a dammed river) which sits between South Dakota and Minnesota. We are on the Minnesota side; our 3rd state in 3 nights.
Today we drove through the eastern bit of South Dakota. Pretty flat. Lots of corn and soy. Lots of grain silos which imply they grow wheat as well. We passed a biofuel refinery. And a neon sign with corn price for the day ($4.49). We detoured into the tiny town of Bowdle with South Dakota's tallest water tower--I would post a photo if I didn't have so much to do tonight already.
The last bit of SD had lots of tiny lakes/ponds--some with lots of birds. So water is a theme--although we didn't entirely get away from trains although I'll guess we'll hear no train whistles tonight.
The evening has been spent making plans for the rest of the week. It looks like we will detour north to Hinkley where there is supposed to be a great bike trail--and then return to see friends in the Twin Cities later in the week. More later.
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Today we drove through the eastern bit of South Dakota. Pretty flat. Lots of corn and soy. Lots of grain silos which imply they grow wheat as well. We passed a biofuel refinery. And a neon sign with corn price for the day ($4.49). We detoured into the tiny town of Bowdle with South Dakota's tallest water tower--I would post a photo if I didn't have so much to do tonight already.
The last bit of SD had lots of tiny lakes/ponds--some with lots of birds. So water is a theme--although we didn't entirely get away from trains although I'll guess we'll hear no train whistles tonight.
The evening has been spent making plans for the rest of the week. It looks like we will detour north to Hinkley where there is supposed to be a great bike trail--and then return to see friends in the Twin Cities later in the week. More later.
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Big Missouri
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Big North Dakota Farmee
Friday, September 13, 2013
Little Missouri
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Montana Bar
Miles City
Montana goes on forever. We followed the Yellowstone River--and the train tracks, although did not see any trains. Continued east on 90 and then on 94. Stopped midday at Pompey's Pillar National Monument as the photos I've already posted will show. When we left we had some weird sounds in Ida's low low gear. Kit gets panic attack. We head back to Billings and the Sprinter dealer but when Kit calls--he is told there is nothing they can do if it is not totally consistent--so we turn around and head east again. After all, I say, we spend more time traveling 60 mph than 3 mph. So far so good. We have stopped for the night it Miles City at a KOA in walking distance of this historic downtown. Walk into town and have a beer at the historic Montana Bar. I will post a photo of the bar and Kit has a photo of the porcelain urinal in the men's room if he can get his phone to work on WiFi. Tomorrow (Hallelu) if all goes well we will finally leave Montana.
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Sent from my iPad
View from the top
Pompey's Pillar
Monument and Lewis and Clark notable site
Counties
Montana has some lovely county names: Sweet Grass, Stillwater, Golden Valley, Wheatland. Then there is Carbon..and Petroleum.
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Sent from my iPhone
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Lunch
Trains and Rivers
We have decided Montana is about trains and rivers. We are camped along the beautiful Boulder River, a small tributary, but the interstate follows River as well. In Missoula we walked the River trail along the Clark Fork which bisects the town--University on one side and downtown on the other. We had planned to stop at the Headwaters of the Missouri--the three forks known to Lewis and Clark--but the freeway was under construction and the exits closed. It's been a dry summer and the rivers are languid but the highways and railroads follow them none-the-less. We have seen coal trains and oil trains and freight trains but mostly a mixture of the three. Even in our quiet spot several miles from any tracks I could hear train whistles in the night. We are here in the very center of Montana at the edge of mountain and forest--heading into the great grassland--but no doubt rivers and trains will follow us.
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Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
All's well
Monday, September 09, 2013
Ida gets towed
Drama continued
The mechanic from Whitehall did not have the right computer and was unable to diagnose and fix our problem though he did try a simple fix of new oil filter. So now we are back at plan A. Waiting for tow truck to take us to Missoula. We have moved to the Conoco parking lot. Since we don't expect him til around 4 we will arrive in Missoula after the dealer has closed. We can sleep in the parking lot and be there bright and early when they open. Hopefully we will be able to move east again tomorrow.
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Waiting
We are still in Deer Lodge. Waiting. Waiting for my laundry to get dry which is beginning to seem unlikely. Waiting for Kevin to arrive and hopefully fix poor Ida. The towing to Missoula was replaced by Kevin driving from Whitehall. Nothing is worse than waiting in a mostly boring place. It is too cold yet to sit out in the sun although at least there is some sun today. (unlike blowy cloudy yesterday). There is a quite nice National Historic Site nearby--the Grant-Kohr Ranch: a huge historical cattle ranch that is still a working ranch. I had to do a hurry up tour yesterday because they closed at 4:30. I could have gone there again this morning if I hadn't been waiting for the dang laundry which despite a heap of quarters appears not to be drying.
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Sent from my iPad
Sunday, September 08, 2013
Breakdown
It was such a nice day when we left Glacier. We had a route planned through forests and past many lovely lakes. Hit the rain somewhere along the way. Found a lovely free campground but early in the day and in the rain. Then a light came on our dashboard. Then Ida started slowing down majorly going up hills. We were totally out of cell coverage area. Limped along to I90 and 10 miles east to Deer Lodge where we found an RV park. Kit called Good Sam. Consultants say we are in "limp home" mode and can't make it the 60 plus miles back (ie West, the opposite of the way we are going) to the dealer in Missoula. So we are being towed tomorrow. There are only 3 sprinter dealers in the whole state of Montana and Missoula is the closest. Stay tuned.
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Glacier NP
Train hell
Friday we moved campsites to a place with a tent spot for Kirsten. We knew it was just under the train tracks but didn't hear that many trains Thursday night. Friday night they came by every 10 minutes and long trains at that. None of us got any sleep. Saturday morning we moved to the wonderful quiet campground in Glacier NP
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Friday, September 06, 2013
Bruck
Thursday, September 05, 2013
Sunset on Whitefish Lake
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
Road time
We have WiFi tonight but I didn't take any pictures today. Last night we got as far as Newhalem (National Park campground) which was quiet and idyllic. Tonight we are east of Coeur d'Alene too close to the freeway at a campground where we got to practice using our leveling blocks. We had too much road time today. 315 miles. At least the roads and traffic were good. Tomorrow we are doing closer to 200.
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Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
Ferry Lines
We were hoping the visitors would have left by Tuesday afternoon. As it is we were lucky we got here at 2 so we will probably make the 3:15 which was our plan-- high tide and all that. We were racing around madly all morning-- and afternoon when we saw the long lines. It was raining this morning when we were running back and forth with stuff -- so it's not quite so hard to leave. Still it has been a stressful week getting ready to leave on our big trip. If all goes well we won't be back until April. After we get off the island we will be heading east. Plan to meet Kirsten on Kalispell on Friday
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