The River Gets Wide

Traveling on down the Mississippi River we entered Wisconsin where the river road moved more inland.  The scenery changed from the forests to large farms miles and miles of corn.  It was interesting to see how the scenery could change just moving off of the river a few miles.

The River begins to widen now and there is more river traffic with towboats pulling or pushing up to 15 barges at a time.  The main cargo is grain but they also transport iron, coal petroleum, fetilizer and sugar.  A single barge can hold 1500 tons of freight, the same as 15 train cars or 58 semi-truck trailers!  Some of the towboats even look like old padde-wheel boats which somehow look just right on the River.

We enjoyed our campsites that are right on the Mississippi-some city-owned others part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) the federal agency that operates the locks and dams on the river.  They often manage nice small campgrounds near the dams. The mosquitos and bugs and irritating and Karen had her first experience being bitten by chiggers on the bottom of her foot!

about 12 chigger bites-unbelievably itchy and painful!

The small village of Stockholm (pop.66) owns this campground on Lake Pepin
The Stockholm Pie & General Store has received national accolades for their pies and we had our share!

We stopped in Nelson (pop. 374) at the Nelson Cheese Factory where they made cheese for over 100 years.   The factory is now closed but they have a nice store with cheese, wine & ice cream.  We tried two kinds of Cheese Curds--yummy.

the factory is closed but they still sell delicious cheeses

Garlic flavored cheese curds

local beer-Spotted Cow was delicious

And of course we had to stop in Pepin, home of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and Laura's 1867 birthplace.  While the museum was small and actully didn't have any original "Laura" stuff, they made a good attempt with "many items Laura and her family would have reognized and recalls the era in which she lived."  The book, "Little House in the Big Woods" is a charming look at where she was born.  There are a total of 9 books in the Little House series.

We camped at another beautiful COE spot along the Mississippi near De Soto, WI called Blackhawk Park.  This is in an area of Wisconsin within the Driftless area along the upper Mississippi River.  The Driftless Area was not covered by glaciers during the last ice age and consequesntly has different geology.  There are high limestone bluffs, deep river valleys and sand plains.

sunset on the Mississippi from our campsite

Davenport was heaviy affected by the flooding earlier in the spring/summer

farm that was flooded when a river levee broke

a small church that was completely destroyed

Chester, Illinois, home of E. C Segar who wrote the Popeye cartoon comic

There are about 15 statues throughout the town

The Home of Popeye

We have been criss-crossing the Mississippi River several times to visit something in each state.  On the Missouri side we went to Hannibal, the birthplace of Samuel Clements-Mark Twain.  Many of the buildings, settings and even his friends became inspiration for Mark Twain's stories of Tom Sawyer and Huckeberry Finn.

the actual fence in front of Mark Twain's home

Becky Thatcher was based on Laura Hawkins a friend of Samuel Clemens who really lived across the street

Before we left the upper Mississippi River, we hit some strong thunder storms.  So what do we do when it rains?

 .....pull over in the rain and give the Airstream a bath.

Shiny-at least for a while

The Great River Route

The source of the Mississippi River was hotly controversial with explorers offering several different theories. While we often think of the “source” as percolating out of the ground or a tiny stream from no where, the source of the Mississippi River actually flows out of a glacial lake that a few tributaries feed all year round. 

The river's channel appears much as it did when Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, in 1832, was guided by Ojibwe chief Ozawindib to the beginnings of “Gichizibbi,” an Ojibwe word meaning “great water.” Mississippi derives from the Algonquin word “Misiziibi.”  (Source: GARY GARTH | SPECIAL FOR USA TODAY 11/4/16)

The mighty Mississippi River begins its winding journey to the Gulf of Mexico as a mere 18-foot wide knee-deep river that flows out of Itasca Lake in northern Minnesota. We found this source and even walked on a short boardwalk following its beginning. 

From here the river flows north to Bemidji, where it turns east, and then south near Grand Rapids. It will flow a total of 694 miles before working its way out of Minnesota.  We will drive the entire length down to the Gulf of Mexico over the next 6 weeks on two-lane "national scenic byways" back roads.  

The Great River Route skirts the Mississippi River ducking in and out around the bends occasionally giving us a glimpse of the meandering river that is still rather narrow.  For miles along this two-lane road we were the only vehile.  We passed signs pointing the way to fishing lodges through the dense forest of maple, river birch, bur oak, green ash, hackberry, cottonwood and swamp white oak.  Apparently what these lodges lack in comfort they gain in location!

A quick stop in Bemidji the home of the "original??" Paul Bunyan statue from 1937.  Seems that old time lumberjacks in Bemidji claim that Paul Bunyan was born here.  'Course so does Bangor, Maine and even several other states!  





Lumberjacks sitting around their camps told a story that Paul Bunyan and Babe wandered throughout Minnesota and their large footprints caused deep holes in the earth.  Rainwater filled them which created Minnesota's 10,000 lakes.  Another story told that a huge water cart that Babe was hauling sprung a leak and dribbled all the way to New Orleans, causing-you guessed it- the mighty Mississippi River!

We are having fun stopping to see the largest this-largest that roadside attraction.  Amazing what the little communities come up with!

Where The Dinosaurs Roam

After returning from Europe on June 5, we picked up our trailer & truck that we had left stored in Desert Hot Springs, CA and made a bee-line north to visit family in California, Idaho & Oregon.

Liam & Ethan with German pretzels Karen made

Liam's birthday party at a Lego store!

A first for all of us-we took Liam & Ethan to a Monster Truck & racing show-they were so excited!

Billy, Melissa & the boys-we took the ferry across the bay to San Francisco for a day

a movie, ice cream & cookies at a bakery for Isaac & Owen-spoiling our grandkids???

East Coast-West Coast cousins meet for the first time!

Bert (in the driver's seat) Jack & Billy cruisin' in Bert's rental

It was great to spend several weeks with each of our childen but we after 6 weeks we needed to “hit the road” in our trailer while summer still lingered.  The only commitment is an RV Rally in August in North Dakota so we are free to wander for several months.  

Our first stop was one of our favorite “hidden gems” at Lake Tahoe, a COE (Corps of Engineers) campground near Truckee.  But we were surprised that they started requiring reservations rather than “walk-ins”. We lucked out and were able to reserved two nights as we sat at the entrance of the campground.

bear up the tree

When we came back from a hike to the campground we had some excitement.  A bear visited our campground In The Middle Of The Day.  We heard a couple of guys shouting and they were chasing the bear away because the man found the bear INSIDE his trailer!  The bear somehow opened the screen door and rummaged around while the man was gone. Boy was he surprised when he went to open the door and the bear jumped out with a bag of marshmellows in his mouth.  The bear was pretty calm and really wasn’t too interested in leaving so climbed a tree for a bit. Eventually he ran off. Unfortunately this bear has become way too comfortable around people and will need to be captured to be moved deeper into the forest where hopefully he’ll stay.

another wild animal??  chipmunk checking his reflection in our solar panel

Boardwalk in the Tahoe Meadows

Heading east we spent several days in Utah at the Dinosaur National Monument and the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  We had never visited either of these areas and they were absolutely spectacular. While it was in the high 90’s and very hot to walk around, we camped at Steinaker State Park with electricity where we could use our air conditioner.  

Definately one of the "little known" national monuments

 

we went on a Ranger-Led hike & saw bones & fossils just in the rock/dirt cliff next to the path

The Quarry Site in Dinosauer N.M. was where the work began in 1910 and by 1926  there were 150 dinosauer species discovered. The side of the hill is now enclosed and available for visitors to view the 1,500 fossils still embedded in the rock.

I just had to learn more! Great Book

Yep!  Jack is sitting on a dinosaur bone bench!!

The historic Green River flows in the Colorado River

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Site

We camped one more night on the Wyoming side of the Flaming Gorge at a campsite with stunning geography and views of the River

 there are a few other campers but the spaces are very wide apart