Aug 28 Sightseeing in Missouri

Cuba,Missouri



Cuba,Missouri

Cuba Missouri

Meramac Springs

Wagon used to haul iron ore to the forge

Old Hay Mower

US Postal Service

Hay Baler

We got up this morning and it was still nice and cool around 63.  Around 9:30am I took Susan to meet her cousin and they went to quilt shops. I went to Cuba and walked around awhile. It is a little town on historic Route 66. In the old part of town they have many murals on the buildings and some neat old houses. When I left there I went back to the trailer and read for a little bit. I then met Susan and Delaine in Saint James for a late lunch. After lunch we went to Mermac Springs  Park  which is outside town. It had two museums which were great. One was about the history of the Springs. In the late 1800"s there was a village , iron mine and forge works located there. The other museum was about the agriculture and had a wonderful exhibit of old implements. We really enjoyed both places .After leaving there we headed to a yogurt shop to get a cool snack.  Once again I headed back to the trailer and relaxed while the others continued shopping. They showed up at the trailer later. Delaine headed home and we just chilled out.We have had a good time visiting the last two days. Got some things loaded up as we head out in the morning., Should be spending the night somewhere in TEXAS tomorrow.

Aug 27 Rolla Missouri

Delaine & Susan

Another winery

We got up this morning and neither of us was hungry.  We were still full from last night. There is just no doubt about it,  once you get to the south the food just keeps getting better. I can"t wait to get some fresh seafood. We got dressed and met Susan's cousin Delaine at an antiques mall just outside Rolla. It was a pretty neat place but i got thru it faster than the other two. I went ahead and left because I needed to get my spare tire for the trailer repaired. I had knocked the valve stem off so it was an easy fix. I goofed around town for awhile and then met Susan and Delaine for lunch. Then we headed to a couple of winery"s here to check them out. We had fun and bought a little wine. Afterwards Susan and I headed back to the trailer. Susan was wore out from the days events so we just relaxed in the evening.

August 26 Missouri

Ladybug RV Park

Miles of dried corn in Iowa

Biggest and Best sign I saw in Iowa

Another day of traveling in the rain. All the folks in Iowa and Missouri are glad to get it but its too late for the cornfields and the hay fields. We did see some pretty country on the way. The part of Iowa we drove thru had nice rolling hills, I was expecting it to be  mostly flat. We stopped in a little town in northern Missouri for lunch. It was a little family cafe and I was glad to get back to some good southern cooking. We headed on and made Cuba, Missouri around 4:00 pm. Its about 15 miles from Rolla where Susan's cousin lives. The little RV park we are staying at is call Ladybug RV Campground. Its a clean little park and the couple who run it are just nice county folks. We got all set up and Susan's cousin Delaine and her husband RD came to visit us. They took us to a BBQ place for supper and I was in heaven, nothing like this up north. After pigging out on ribs we headed back to camp for the night.

Aug 24, 25 Time to turn South

Acorn Valley Campground, Iowa

Friday was laundry day as we start our trek back home tomorrow. We have a pile of stuff to wash. We ran to Aurora where they have a Laundromat. Susan had asked a young girl working at the  store in Hoyt Lakes where the nearest washateria was and she didn’t know what a washateria was. We got all our laundry done and then got the trailer ready to roll. I had regressed on my back yesterday when I put up our inflatable kayak. It’s not heavy but just awkward putting in the compartment. Sometimes old age is just not fun. We have had a lot of fun on this trip but the last three weeks my back and Susan’s root canal has kept us from doing some things we wanted to do and see.  Oh well it could be worse and we think we will come back to Minnesota again. The northern part of Minnesota is one of my favorite places. I love all the small towns and the slower pace of life here. I don’t think I would like the winters though as it’s just too cold for me.  Saturday we got up early and hit the road. We hit rain just below the twin cities and it rained the rest of the day. We stopped at a Cabala’s and did some looking around. We ate lunch there and then headed on.  We stopped for the night just north of Des Moines, Iowa around 4:00 pm.  Our Navigation on our phones took us on an interesting route to the Corp of Engineering Park on Saylor Lake. It was still raining and I didn’t   even unhook the truck. We are leaving again in the morning headed to Rolla, Missouri.  One thing we saw today was miles and miles of corn. You could really tell the extent of the drought here as 90% of the corn we saw was dried up. All the rain today was too late for this corn crop

Aug 23 Hoyt lakes

We haven’t done much the last two days. It has warmed up a little and the temperature actually hit about 80.  We had to go to Virginia, MN as Susan got her root canal finished. We are glad to get that done and over with. If we had been home it might have been a good evening to kayak. You can tell I’m not from up north. When the temperature is in the 60”s and the wind is blowing I don’t find it much fun to get wet. There has been rain all around us but so far we have not had any. Susan has homesick fever so we decided that we would leave Saturday and start our trek back to Texas. Our next destination is Rolla, Mo. Susan has a cousin there she wants to visit. I guess Friday I will start packing up camp so we can leave early Saturday morning.  I am sure going to miss the cool weather. I hope that we don"t end up in the remannts of a hurricane. I see on the news that La may be the target of Issac.  We may have to adjust our route if it does.

Aug 20-21 Wolves

relaxing by the campfire

inside exhibit

wolves

Monday morning was a little warmer than it has been. There is a warming trend developing. The news said it’s going to be hot by midweek with the temps reaching 80. Wow, that’s about what our low is back home. I am going to miss this weather when we head back home. We stayed home today and didn’t go anywhere. I worked on some of my little projects and Susan sewed. I made a pot of taco soup for supper.  We got up Tuesday morning and headed to Ely. They have an educational wolf center there that I wanted to visit. It is a neat place with exhibits and live wolves. We went to a presentation on wolf cubs which they are introducing to their existing pack.  After that a lady went out to feed the wolves so they would come down from in the den they were in. It was neat to watch them. There are 4 wolves which live in the area which can be seen. They have 3 more wolves which are retired in another area. They have 2 wolf pups which will eventually move in with the first pack. When we left there we ate lunch and then meandered home. We had another nice evening.

Aug 19 Bear day

I found a Moose

A nice morning for a walk

Shuttle bus

Susan on the viewing platform

Bear

More bears

King of the Hill

Nap time

It was another cool morning about 42. The sky was clear blue and the sun shining bright. Maggie and I took a long morning walk. For a little dog she can set a pretty crisp pace. We haven"t seen any bears or moose on this trip, so this evening we are headed to a bear sanctuary near Orr. After lunch we loaded up and started meandering that way. We stopped in Biwibak at the city park. It has a statue of a moose in it and that's probably the only one we will see. When we got to Virginia I went into Menard's and got the parts I need to fix my trailer water fill line. This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite stores. I"m always finding things in here i want. After that we went to a little mall. They had a really good sporting goods store there. We left there and headed on. Going thru Cook there just happened to be a Quilt shop. While Susan was in there I took a power nap. She woke me up much to quick and we headed on. We decided that we should eat an early supper as the sanctuary was open from 5-8. We went into Orr (pop 592) and ate at the only restaurant there. Then we headed to the Vince Shute Bear Sanctuary. You drive a mile or so down a narrow road to a parking lot. From there they shuttle you to the viewing platform in a school bus.  It was really neat. The bears are wild and free to roam no fences anywhere except the platform you are on.  They do put out natural food for the bears to eat. This used to be a logging camp owned by Vince Shute. They tell you the history of the place and why he turned this into a bear sanctuary.Its a very interesting story. This place was definitely worth the drive up here. We saw lots of bears and several cubs. Also we got to see one bear fight. He didn"t want any other bears around him. We watched them   for over an hour then headed back home.

Aug 1 8--Saturday Night

St Louis River

Same river,different location 7 miles away

Water well

St Louis river, different location about 10 miles away 

one of the better roads

Another chilly morning today. Looks as if we could get some more rain. We decided to tour the countryside looking at the small lakes. We went down a few roads that Susan wished we hadn’t.  One really was narrow and had a lot of potholes. As long as we didn’t meet someone it would be ok. The only reason I would want a motorhome instead of a trailer is I would like to have a jeep to run around in my truck is just too long to maneuver in tight places.. We saw several small rivers and a few lakes. We did find one place that we might kayak sometime next week.  We decided to head home as it looked like the rain was coming. We made it just in time and then the bottom fell out.  Since it was raining I watched some of the Little League World Series. I would much rather watch these games than the pros. Later due to the rain we decided to go out for supper. We headed to Bibawek {pop 900} to see what they had to offer on Saturday night. It was easy to find a place since there is only one restaurant and about the only thing open except the bars.  It was a quaint little place and the special tonight was spaghetti and ribs.  That sounded like an odd combo but we took a chance and ordered it. Turned out to be pretty good .We like to try the small places to eat and most of the time it turns out well.  In all the small towns up here the restaurants seem to close by 8. That’s good for us but a lot of people eat later than that.  It was just too wet and chilly when we got home to have a fire so we both read awhile.

Auust 17--Hoyt Lakes

Fill line water leak

Our Campsite

We had no plans to go anywhere today therefore I thought that I should repair a leak I have in my fresh water fill line. It turned out not to be an easy fix. Just getting to where the leak is was time consuming. After taking two bottom panels off I could see the problem. It has a couple holes where the hose comes over the frame, it has rubbed against the construction above it, also it is a very tight fit . I am not going to be able to replace this line without taking the whole bottom of the trailer apart. I think what I’m going to do is insert a smaller hose into the fill line past the bad spot and see if that will work for me. Hope so because it only leaks while filling. I will pick up the parts when we go back to Virginia for Susan’s final dentist appointment.  I also cleaned up the kayak and put some new mooring ropes on it. While I have been working on my projects Susan has been sewing. Before lunch we took about a 30 minute bike ride. It felt good as long as you were in the sun but was chilly riding in the shady areas. We just relaxed after we got back. About six we headed into town to the only restaurant for supper.   As we have seen in Michigan, Wisconsin and here in Minnesota Friday night is fish fry night everywhere. This place was no exception and the little place was hopping. It turned out to be pretty good also. When we got back we sat by the campfire for a while and then headed in.

riding bikes in the park

relaxing by rhe campfire

Sea Eagle kayak 

Aug 16--A trip to Virginia

It was a little wet from the rain last night when Maggie and I took our first walk this morning. It was still very cloudy and windy. Even though the temperature was a little warmer around 55 it definitely felt colder and I knew I had to wear warmer clothing today. Today I was going to have to do something about our water situation. We have no water hookups here and the only potable water is up front at the shower house. I have been using a five gallon water container to put water in our trailer everyday and this would be okay except my back just cant handle the weight.  I have found online a collapsible water container that would be great. It comes in several sizes and folds up for storage. I will order one when we get home. I also decided I needed a little battery power pump to pump the water to our tank. We dressed warmly and headed out for the day. Our destination was Virginia which is a pretty good sized town near here.  It was drizzling  and from inside the truck it looked really cold outside. We went thru several small towns on the way. Once again all the small towns are neat and pretty and usually have a small lake near them. It wasn"t as far as we thought to get to Virginia about 30 minutes. Its a good sized town  with a population of about 6000.   There is a franchise up here called Menard's which is like a Home Depot or Lowe's. I found a little electric water pump there which I thought would be perfect for my needs. Susan had been wanting to get the grandkids some school clothes. and she found a store with some good sales. .When we got back I rigged my water pump up.. and it worked great. It will pump a five gallon container in just a couple minutes.  This made a sucessful day for me. It never really cleared up so we didnt get out the rest of the day.

Aug 15--Another nice day

You think it gets cold here

1910 Steam Locomotive

Yep, its a quilt shop

Another cool morning when I got up. We have been around 50 every morning for the last several days. It usually gets up to around 72 and today was no exception. After breakfast we headed out to go to  the grocery store and  ride the country for a little while. We ended up in Tower,Mn population 543. Of course Susan found a quilt shop to go to. While she was there I went to a small railroad museum there. It was a nice exhibit of a 1910 steam locomotive with a dining car, passenger car and a caboose. It took me about 45 minutes to go thru it and headed back to get Susan. Surprise, she said she needed about 20 more minutes so I just walked the little town. That only took about 15 minutes so I just sat on the front porch of the shop. There was a nice breeze blowing . When we left there we headed back to the trailer. After a little lunch I went to the grocery store for a few vegetables. I wanted to go kayaking but the wind was blowing pretty good so I just read .  I did take Maggie for her usual walks and then Susan and I rode bikes for about 30 minutes. A cold front was trying to push thru and I cooked an early supper cause the rain was threatening. Sure enough about 6:30 it started and was still raining when we went to bed.

Aug 14---Hoyt Lakes

susan is paddling away

Our trailer from the lake

The cove by our campground

I got up this morning and sat outside drinking my coffee. It was a little nippy, about 50, but there was no wind.  Susan got up a little later. She felt pretty good but her mouth was sore. Later we ran to Hoyt Lakes and filled our propane bottles, then went to an Ace Hardware in nearby Aurora to get a water container. We have no water hookups here so I figured if I put 5 gallons of water in trailer every day I won"t have to move it to refill our tank. When we got back I got our inflatable kayak out and aired it up. After lunch we did a little kayaking on the lake. It was the first time in two weeks we have went out . I figured my back was feeling pretty good now so it was time. It went okay, we only stayed out about an hour. We just relaxed around camp the rest of the day. Susan"s mouth started hurting more late in the day. Probably going to take a couple of days to get over it.

Aug 13 Root canal day

Today we headed down to Duluth for Susan's endodentist appointment. I dropped her off and went to buy grocery's. When I got back to the dentist I just rolled the windows down and took a nap. The dental assistant woke me up to tell me that the Dr wasn't sure if he could do a root canal on Susan, he might just have to pull it. He was running behind due to an emergency surgery. If he could save the tooth he would go ahead and start root canal. As it worked out he was able to  do the root canal. We now have to come back Aug 23 to finish it. This means we have to stay an extra week at Hoyt Lakes. We knew this could be the case so we were prepared to stay. Should be able to know this area very well before we leave. Anyway the weather is great and we could be in a lot worst places. Still have not found my camera.

Aug 12 Travel day to Hoyt Lakes

our campsite

view from the back of our campsite




Kristi sent this pic of our granddaughters. We really miis them. They grow up so fast.

We got up and was on the road about 9:30 this morning. Really only had about a 3 hr trip so we were in no hurry. We never get tired of the scenery along the Gun Flint trail nor along Hwy 61 on the North Shore.  We turned at Silver Bay and stopped to eat. After we left we probably drove 40 miles before we saw another car. Again the scenery was pretty. With no traffic it reminded me of driving along the Natchez Trace. We got to the campground (Fisherman's Point ) and checked in. We changed our site to a non reservable site as we don"t know how long we will be here. Susan goes to Duluth tomorrow for her root canal. That visit should determine how long we stay here. Actually after looking around yesterday we might just stay here awhile. Its a nice place with paved walking and biking trails. We are right on the lake so we can put our kayak in from our site. I really like being back on somewhat flat land. Still have not found my camera so using my phone for now.

August 7-11 Hungry Jack

Not having any cell service keeps me behind updating. There is wi-fi at the lodge but it is slow to upload pictures. We haven"t done a lot the last four days except relax around camp. We did rent a pontoon boat for one evening and cruised the lake. That was a lot of fun. We never did any kayaking due to my back and Susans toothache. We had nice campfires every evening and needed it cause it was chilly. We had to run our electric heater at night to keep the trailer warm. We never saw any moose or bears but we did get a visit from bears one night.  I got up one morning and one of my shoes were gone from the picnic table and the grease trap for my grill was gone.I thought a coon had probably taken them. Later our neighbor told us she has heard a noise during the night. She got up and opened the door and there were two bear cubs looking at her. She shut the door. Another neighbor said she saw the momma bear and two cubs.  I followed a trail behind our camp and found my shoe and grease trap about thirty yards away. They never came back after that. We did get one day where it drizzeld all day and the temp stayed around 60. We drove to Grand Marais to get cell service to call home and check on things. On Saturday we went back and did our laundry before we move on.

I have lost my camera so no pictures to download. I am sure its somewhere in trailer or truck.

Driving the boat

Susan on the Lake

Hungry Jack Lodge

8/14/12  I found my camera.

Travel day to Dentist Aug 7

We got up early today to go the the dentist in Ely. Susan has had a nagging toothache for about a week or so.  It is a 3 hr drive from Hungry Jack. We made the appointment in Ely because we thought if she had to go back we would be close to that area. Well so much for good planning, after seeing Susan he referred her to an endodontic specialist in Duluth. It looks as she might have to have a root canal. Luckily she got an appointment for next Monday. We should be in Hoyt Lakes. I think it might be only a hour and 30 minute drive from there. Oh well such is life. We got back to the trailer,built a fire and chilled for awhile. Not much else to report

Aug 5---Hungry Jack

It was about 52 outside and 62 inside the trailer. I did put the furnace on to take the chill off.  I started loading It wasn’t quite as chilly this morning when I got up. up everything a little at a time getting ready to leave. We were not in a big hurry as we only had about a 3 hour drive up to Hungry Jack.  We left about 10:30. It was a beautiful drive along the north shore of Lake Superior. The weather was great, 70 degrees and clear blue skies. We ate lunch in Grand Marais and then headed to Hungry Jack Lodge. It is located about 32 miles up on the Gunflint Trail in the Boundary Waters. The drive was pretty and we gained 1100 feet in altitude. We are definitely in the North Woods now. There are many pretty small lakes up here that you can canoe or kayak.  We got to Hungry Jack Lodge and it was better than we ever expected. It has a great lodge and great owners. Hungry Jack Lake is awesome. This place is already on our list of places we will come back to sometime. There is no cell phone service here but there is wi=fi at the lodge. It was a chilly evening and we built a nice fire to sit by.

The next morning I got up and it was about 55 degrees. We decide to just chill out at camp all day and do nothing. I’m really good at that. Took a nap in the middle of the day and then watched the Olympics. We have to get up early tomorrow because Susan has a dentist appointment in Ely.

inside the lodge

built a good campfire

relaxing



Front Entrance

view from the back of the lodge

relaxing

Hungry Jack Lake