Friday involved an easy 238-mile trip to Larimore, North Dakota. At the border, our snotty Customs people had the audacity to ignore our statement that we had bought nothing while in Canada and actually confiscated vegetables from our refrigerator. How rude!!! Other than that, it was nice to get back to the USA.
It’s not that I don’t like Canada. I do. The scenery is spectacular and the people are delightful. But, based on very recent experience, some of the roads here are better. And I can now listen to Rush on the radio, again.
We are staying in the Larimore Dam Recreation Area Campground,
an absolutely beautiful place with huge, grassy, pull-through sites adjacent to a lake and to an arboretum containing more than 500 trees. It’s too bad that we are scheduled to stay here for only two days. We quickly ventured to the nearby town of Larimore to replace the confiscated vegetables. It’s not much of a place.
Becky went to Grand Forks, North Dakota (25 miles away) on Saturday to get her hair done and to hit Petco, Kohls, and Wal-Mart for some shopping.
I stayed back to relax and walk Ramsey. Altogether, a nice day for all three of us. Tomorrow, it’s on to Bemidji, Minnesota, 150 miles away (and the home of reportedly the most famous Paul Bunyan/Babe The Blue Ox statues in the country).
The trip to Bemidji was quick and easy, passing through areas with lots of farms and lots of trees. Very nice scenery. This is our first time in Minnesota with a rig, so we can now add that state to our map. We are staying at Hamilton’s Fox Lake Campground, a nice place out in the woods, adjacent to a lake.
Before heading to the refrigerator fixit place (Higgins Heating) on Monday, I called to make sure the part was in. It was not. Several frustrating phone calls later, I determined that the part had never been sent from the factory because Higgins did not call to order the part. In fact, the idiot at the factory had specifically told both Higgins and me a week ago that we didn't have to do that. (The current man at the factory did not appreciate my yelling at him about that.) The upshot was that we had to take the trailer to Higgins to confirm the diagnosis, then have Higgins order the part, then wait for the factory to send the part to Higgins, then take the trailer back to Higgins to have the part installed.
Fortunately, Kyle, the man at Higgins, was very cool and decided to install in our trailer the (same) replacement part he had previously ordered for another customer, which was due to arrive on Tuesday, so we didn't have to wait until who knows when for our part to arrive from the factory. Thus, on Tuesday morning we went back to Higgins and had the part installed, and all is now well. But for the fact that we will have now had to take the trailer for a ride on four successive days, including tomorrow, this has been a relatively easy stay in a pretty area.
Monday afternoon, Becky took a 27-mile bike ride to the center of town and looped back around about ten lakes on her way back. What a star.
Tuesday afternoon, we went back to Bemidji to get the truck washed and to have lunch. It's a nice place. Lunch was at the Sparking Waters restaurant---a lovely place across the street from Lake Bemidji. We both had delicious mussels.
Next stop: Crane Lake.
The 150-mile trip on Wednesday to Crane Lake, in the northeast corner of Minnesota, was through some pretty national forests and along many impressive lakes. It’s easy to see why they call Minnesota the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Other than having to travel on some very bumpy roads (I hope it has something to do with the cold weather damaging the roadway, rather than the ineptness of the government) the trip was easy. We are staying at the Waters Edge RV Park. It’s a simple, small, nice park, adjacent to the lake. They gave us a lovely site backing right up to the lake.
Wednesday evening, we traveled all of one mile to the center of the teensy town of Crane Lake, to have dinner at the Voyagaire Lodge. (Wednesday is Prime Rib Night there, great advantage of which we took.)
The reason for coming to Crane Lake, other than for its natural beauty and solitude, is its proximity to Voyageurs National Park. The land area in the park, representing only 10% of the park area (the rest is water, of course, including more than 30 lakes), has been kept in pristine condition. The park's mission is to preserve the area in the manner of its early days---which was used by French-Canadian fur trappers who traversed the area by canoe. They were known a Voyageurs. Hence the park’s name.
The national park, which abuts the Canadian border, is only a mile away from our RV park, accessible by boat through two sets of narrows. Access by other than boat or float plane is at least 65 miles away. On Thursday, we chose to avoid the water route and take the land route. We stopped at two of the three Visitor Centers in the park. To get to the Ash River Visitor Center takes you through some beautiful parkland to get you to a lovely area that was a rustic guest lodge before the park was acquired by the federal government in the ’70s.
It was a very worthwhile trip to the park. We are glad we came.
One of the burgs we went through on our trip to the park was Buyck, pronounced "bike" and signified by their placing bicycles on top of the signs heading into the town. Cute.
Tomorrow, we head for Wisconsin.
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