20070728

235 miles to Moonlight Bay on Leech Lake campground near Walker, MN.

Cool, warming later to the upper 80's.

Dolores didn't feel well this morning, but we still got a decent start. She slept a good part of North Dakota and some of Minnesota. 

We went into Cavalier ND and turned south on 18 and went some 60 miles to US-2. We took US-2 east to Cass Lake, MN. Turned south on MN-371 to the campground. What could be simpler? Actually, we missed the campground going south, turned around in Walker, and found it going north - their sign faces south.

We checked in. Then we looked at our assigned site (#55). It's a nice flat concrete pad about three feet below the road behind it and four feet above the road in front of it. We decided to come down from the top rather than to try to back uphill into it. So we weaved through the trees and cut in as sharply as possible and descended onto the pad with the truck nose-down, front wheels on the bottom road. The trailer wasn't square with the pad, but that's where it's going to stay. We leveled the trailer quite easily - it's on the flat pad. We had a heck of time getting the tailgate open to pull the truck away from the trailer - it was up against the bottom of the overhang part of the 5th-wheel trailer.

Finally we got everything where it should be, found the nicely-concealed cable TV jack, and plugged everything to its mate. We settled briefly with a drink.

Then off to town (Walker). We looked around briefly, then had dinner in a Mexican food place, quite good. I dropped D at church and scouted the town. That wasn't hard - two main street blocks and five blocks lake-to-top. Found a good book store and the only supermarket (again, a good one).

We hit the market after church and got some groceries and hydrocortisone for the mosquito bites from last night.

Back to the trailer to get caught up on emails, then look to see what the world is up to (same old, same old).

The sun set over Leech Lake. Some folks took a last walk around the campground (mainly seasonal sites). It got dark, and we settled in.

Dolores perked up as we approached Walker and was fine after that.

 

20070729

At Moonlight Bay on Leech Lake campground near Walker, MN.

Cool early, but warmed up rapidly to 86*F.


We slept in and loafed the morning away. 

I watched a CSPAN2 interview of an author who wrote the book "Scorpion Down", on the sinking of that ship. It was still inconclusive, but I'll have to read the book to see if he can persuade me to his point of view. (Ed. It is a total pack of crap. He says things I know to be untrue. I offered to help correct it for any second edition and he told me whomever critiques it can write his own book.)

We also watched some of the neighbors pack up and go home. I expect later today we'll see others take their place.

In the afternoon, we went into Walker to look around. Sunday's a bad day to do this. But we did find a good bookstore and bought some (as though we didn't have enough already). We did find "Reclaiming History" by Vincent Bugliosi and got it at $50. It'll be a reference book after we've read it.

Back to the trailer. Internet (wifi) service down, no one around till tomorrow. Watch TV. Read. Eat. Loaf. Great Sunday at the lake.
 

20070730

At Moonlight Bay on Leech Lake campground near Walker, MN.

Cool early, but warmed up rapidly to 88*F.


After breakfast, I went to the lodge to get a better signal on Wifi. I was told the internet was down and would be back up later today.

So, we took off for Bemidji, the largest town around, some 30 miles away. We went to the Visitors Center, at which is displayed large-sized statues (3x real) of Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe. The legend of Paul Bunyan is explained. In back of the center is a wild-weed basin left in natural state; there's a sign explaining the function of the swamp weeds (filter out undesirables, etc.) - Dolores took a bunch of pictures of flowering weeds.

The center gave us some information (the German restaurant is closed on Mondays - drat) and away we went.

First, to the old Great Northern depot, a really neat brick structure that J. J. Hill built in 1912 to out-do the recently-built Soo Line station next door. Now, it's the Beltrani County Historical Center. The internal rooms in the structure have been redone to house exhibits, mainly about the transportation history of the county. There are sections for trains, planes, autos, and a few odd things. The offices of the center are also inside, as are meeting rooms available for hire.

It's quite a place. We couldn't resist a couple of souvenirs, and the director of the place threw in two books the center furnished to schools. Very nice.

Then we went to the Minnesota Nice Restaurant. It's a non-licensed downtown cafe with all the standard cafe food like meat loaf dinner with mashed potatoes. The food was good (and plenty) and the service outstanding (even if she had a Fargo accent).

We went shopping for a few things for the trailer. Then we took a scenic ride the visitors center had told us about. It wasn't all that scenic, since the trees have grown and you can't see through them at this time of year.

But we got back to the trailer in good shape and found the internet up. So we're doing computer chores and looking around.