Saturday, July 23, 2016

Miscellaneous Minnesota

With Charlene & Alan


Frog on our window




Lyndon Johnson's footprints at Minnehaha Falls

Taoyateduta, known as Chief Little Crow 
Minnehaha Falls Park

With Charlene 

Dragonfly 











Minnesota!

We arrived in Minnesota a week ago today, on July 16th.



We are in Rosemount,  a few miles south of Minneapolis.  The ride was scenic on I 35, not bad for an interstate!




We're in Rosemount as guests of Alan and Charlene.  One of the highlights of our travels is making friends along the way.  We met them while camping in Livingston, Texas at Escapees, in June.  Really our cat Nevelle introduced us! We hit it off immediately & stayed in touch once we parted ways.  They are fulltime RV'ers, too. They are taking a break to visit family.   They generously invited us to their family "farm" (not actively farmed now).

What a beautiful spot, wooded (with great birds) over 10 acres.  Another area is where the farming was done.  It's a family place with Alan and three brothers all building small cabins for themselves.  Very rustic and appealing!

Alan at his cabin





On Monday, the 18th, we went to a nice historic park, named Minnehaha, featuring John Harrington Stevens, the first settler of Minneapolis.

John Harrington Stevens



The real highlight was the waterfall.  We took steps to the bottom and viewed them from the top.



During the week,  Charlene and Alan are babysitting their granddaughter, Allison.  She's 7 months young and so sweet.  We loved being around her.



On Tuesday, the 19th, we headed into Minneapolis and the huge Mall of America.  We went by the new Vikings stadium too.




Yikes!

Mall amusement park! Indoors!

Hanging out at the farm:





Today, the 23rd, we are sitting out a big thunderstorm in the trailer!








Friday, July 22, 2016

Ohhh...klahoma!


We left Livingston, Texas on Monday, July 11, after two nights at the Escapees campground.   We were hooked up to water and electricity for the first time since buying the Rpod.  The trailer got a full charge finally.  We didn't have to run the AC, but instead used the fan which was fine, even with the 90+ temperature.

Michael installed the double steps onto the trailer, removing the single step.  It's much easier now to go in and out of Katie 2 with hands full.


 

One of the highlights of our stay at Escapees campground was seeing a swallow-tailed kite in flight very low.  Although it was a quick look, we were both very excited as it was a life bird for the two of us!


The night of the 11th we found an Army Corps of Engineers campground called Clear Springs, which we got to via a long detour. This was on Wright Patman Lake (south of Texarkana, Texas) that flooded much of the campground after the spring rains.  One area was open for camping, but hiking trails were closed due to flooding.





On July 12,  we drove from Texarkana, on 59 north into Alabama and Missouri.  Along the way we stopped at a rock store (as in stones) in Wilton, Arkansas!  A zillion rocks and stones, most so beautiful.  I picked up 2 pieces of malachite, a lovely green stone, that I might have incorporated into another flute one day.

Malachite




There also was a produce stand where we bought these amazingly great tomatoes that we ate right out of the bag!



We continued on, but instead of heading north as we should have been, we discovered we were heading west into Oklahoma!  Turned out this was a terrific mistake to make.  Spontaneously, I turned down Talimena byway and ended up in Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation area.  For $2.50 we stayed at a really nice camping area by ourselves.




Red-spotted purple butterfly


Wednesday,  July 13, we headed to a Walmart for the night in Neosho, Missouri. An uneventful day, but rolling hills along the way made for a nice ride.  We skirted around busy Kansas City.

We arrived in Iowa on the 14th.  Beautiful scenery along the way.  Lots of corn fields! And other vegetation was so green!


Corn as far as you could see!




Sites along the way that make the drives enjoyable: 






Logging trucks everwhere!




Minnesota next!