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(Note: This blog entry represents a combination of writings and pictures already posted about our Cool Change II, Land Yacht Adventures 2021 through Cindy via Facebook and Rick via email. So for some of you, the following posts may be duplicative, but for others, this is the first time you are seeing them. I am repeating them here to centralize the record and share our experiences more broadly.)
CINDY’S POST
From Yellowstone we headed to Mt. Rushmore, then on to visit Cindy’s Midwest family in Nebraska and Minnesota.
Mt. Rushmore is in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which are dense with lodgepole pine and steep mountainsides. Mt. Rushmore itself is a stunningly huge masterpiece of artwork but the walk to it is very commercialized, with ice cream shops and multiple visitor centers and museums and lots and lots of maskless people crammed into small spaces, made more infectious by the fact that the sunny day we visited it quickly transformed itself into a day of thunderstorms, lightening, and raindrops the size of quarters. Everyone therefore left the outdoors and jammed inside. We had emergency rain ponchos with us but they were little more than clear plastic bags with slits for your arms and a built-in hood. Not wanting to get soaked, we didn’t make the hike to the foot of the carvings as we planned, and instead we headed down to the nearby tourist center of Keystone for an ice cream sundae for Rick’s birthday.
On our way to Nebraska, we also drove through “Badlands” National Park. Seeming to just sprout out of nowhere from the flat grasslands surrounding them, these jagged sand mountains were once at the bottom of an ocean, and store one of the biggest collections of fossils anywhere. They are called the Badlands because they are hard to cross on horseback, since there are practically no valleys, and the cliffs are slippery and too steep to create a path. I have no idea how they managed to build a road through it. We found one place where we were allowed to walk out to the edge of a cliff to look below … it took my breath away (I suffer from a bit of acrophobia).
My sister Bonnie’s younger daughter Julie Conrad Whalen and her husband Chuck Whalen live in Omaha, Nebraska and have two children, Elise and Charlie. Miraculously, the date they had planned for Charlie’s high school graduation party was the exact same date we had planned to come visit them! And nearly all of Bonnie’s other children and grandchildren were there too, plus my sister Kim Murphy and her husband Peter Murphy and two of their grandchildren, Arianna and Kiara Strickland. So it was quite the reunion.
Next we drove up to Minneapolis. Bonnie’s youngest son Kevin Conrad and his wife Eliza Conrad along with their kids Madeleine, Daphne and Sebastian have a home with a driveway that fortunately accommodated our trailer, and we stayed with Bonnie Conrad and her husband Ron in their home for the four nights we were in town. Bonnie and Ron also drove us the 6 hour round trip distance up to Duluth on Lake Superior for a day to visit their oldest son Curt Conrad and his wife Nicki Oustad Conrad and their kids Curran, Estella and Everlee on their beautiful property on a lake outside of town.
For the entire stay in Nebraska and Minnesota, my heart was bubbling over with the joy of being a part of such a wonderful extended family as Bonnie’s kids and their families. Rick and I felt so welcomed and everyone was so kind and thoughtful. We were so impressed with what Curt and Nicki have done with what used to be the summer property of a wealthy Duluth tycoon, with multiple outbuildings, an 1100 square foot dock/deck, an Architectural Digest-worthy kitchen remodel and at least three separate sitting areas in the main house with giant picture windows extending practically over the water. Their 14-year-old son Curran’s baseball team was just declared the #1 baseball team of their age in the entire country, Estella was off to soccer practice and Everlee was awash in creative art projects. And both Curt and Nicki work full time. What a busy household!
And then there was Kevin’s family. I can still feel the thrill of three children hugging me at once; I literally felt my heart so full that I was transported as if my feet no longer touched the ground. When we first saw Sebastian, he was anxious to show us his “magic trick,” which consisted of tossing a top off of its post and then declaring that the top had disappeared, whereas it was clearly just lying on the ground in front of him! But it was so precious that you just wanted to squeeze him with joy.
We brought presents for everyone: parents got a photo of our family and a bottle of wine from our local winery in California. Kids received homemade pottery gifts I made in California before we left. Depending on their ages and gender, the kids either got a coffee/beer mug, a jewelry bowl or an ornament, all with their names on them. But we bought a few little extra presents for Kevin’s kids, because they are of that age. Daphne got Barbie’s little sister Stacie, with a kayak and all her camping gear, and all three of the kids played with her together. Sebastian got a floating ferry with cars that load and unload, and Madeleine got a bracelet-making kit with beads that had letters on them. Madeleine said she was so happy so got that gift because she wanted to make a bracelet for her sister’s birthday but she didn’t have all the letters she needed! What an angel!
Next we are off to Chicago to visit my sister Kim and her family, including her daughter Erin Murphy Strickland and her family. We can’t wait.
RICK’S UPDATE
One thing you never want to do when cruising to destinations on a sailboat is to try to sail according to a schedule. This is because when you do, you will more than likely make poor decisions about when is the right time to start on a passage or, more importantly, when it is not. Though we have rarely done this while cruising, there is one incident that stands out in my mind.
We were in the Tuamotus in French Polynesia and we wanted to attend a celebration on the island of Moorea for all the sailors that had crossed the Pacific from the Americas to French Polynesia. We had consulted our weather sources and it looked like go for the 300 mile trip. Another sailor we met, who was in our anchorage at the time on the atoll of Taou, told us we should wait a few days as from his sources he was pretty sure a front was developing that would be right in our path.
We convinced ourselves that we were right and that if anything, we would have to use our engine for some long hours due to lack of wind. In the end, he was right and we got hammered by the worst weather system we had yet encountered.
What this has to do with our current land voyage is that we have a self imposed, inflexible schedule. This is mostly because we are trying to see many different family and friends all across the country. Everyone has busy lives and Cindy did the best she could to line up our visits to coincide with when people were available for us. As a result of our many planned commitments, we have been on a very tight schedule, at least through the first half of the trip. We just don’t have many extra time allowances built in to the plan.
Fortunately for us, a land trip is a much more forgiving venture than an ocean voyage and the only consequences of working hard to keep to a schedule is that it can be stressful over time to do so and at worst, something could cause us to have to cancel a planned visit.
At times the pace of it all does stress me out and I have to remind myself to take a minute to reflect that this trip is as much about the journey as it is about the destinations. We need always to give our best attempt to enjoy it all to the fullest, regardless of stresses that may be happening in the moment.
We have been fortunate in that we have not as yet had any serious breakdowns. Before we got out of Oregon, we started seeing a warning light related to our air bag system in the truck. Though it is under warranty, the dealers we called along our route all told us that they had no appointments available to us for weeks in advance. A Dodge dealer we contacted in the town of Buffalo, Wyoming suggested that we call a small Dodge dealer called White Motors in Gillette, Wyoming, which we did. The service manager offered to take a look at the truck the following day when we would be passing through the area. He cautioned that if it turned out to be something serious like needing to replace an airbag, that it could take weeks to get parts and do the work. He promised, though, that they would at least be able to diagnose the problem and that whenever we arrived that day, they would find a way to work us into their busy schedule.
Meanwhile, we had made a reservation at a private campground in Buffalo, Wyoming called “Indian Campground.” We usually try to avoid this kind of park because they are expensive, and unless your traveling with small kids who you need to entertain with pools and playgrounds, they are not very appealing. They generally are very crowded and the spaces are too close together. The reason we chose this place was that reviews claimed that they had excellent wifi ethernet, and Cindy needed that for her online French class in the morning.
In reality, it happened that the broadband connection was so slow it could barely handle email, so it was big disappointment. To rub salt in the wound, the park manager came by and told us we had to put away our ground cloth. We use it to have a place to set out our chairs rather than having to set them directly on the ground. Only because we had already paid an exorbitant price for the night and it was getting late, we decided we would stay.
A kind young man in the office arranged for Cindy use the library in town for her class the next day. It was a very nice, newer facility and the young man reserved a private study room there to attend her class using their public wifi. Since then we have used other public library facilities several times so that Cindy could continue with her class.
As soon as Cindy’s class was over, we got back on the road and headed for Gillette. I was not convinced they would actually be able to do anything for us on the airbag issue but it was our only option at that time. We arrived, and true to his word, the service manager told us to bring it right in. There was plenty of room on the street to disconnect from the trailer and pull into the maintenance bay. The service manager then put it on a analyzer, which reported that the problem was a sensing circuit whose purpose is to adjust the amount of force the front passenger side airbag uses when deployed, based on the position of that seat. He looked at all the connectors that are part of the circuit and made sure they were all secure. He told us that the problem is often caused by a bad connection or a broken wire. He gave us a print out from the analyzer that identified the problem and told us that until we get it fixed, we should just position the front passenger seat fully back to be safe.
When I started the truck to leave, the warning light was off and it has yet to reappear, so I can only assume that one of the connectors was loose and he inadvertently fixed it when he went about checking the connections. We left Gillette with about 150 miles to go to reach Sheridan Lake Campground in South Dakota near Mt. Rushmore.
Once we crossed the border into South Dakota, we soon entered the Black Hills area, famous for its Black Hills Gold. What sets this gold apart is that it comes in colors of traditional gold, rose, and green. Usually the jewelry made there displays some combination of these three colors. Though it looks different, the actual gold used in Black Hills Gold jewelry is no different than gold from anywhere else. The different colors are achieved by mixing gold with silver and copper. I remember my mom having a couple of jewelry pieces made of Black Hills Gold that she really cherished. The reason the area is called the Black Hills is because when viewed from a distance, the pine-covered steep hillsides of the area look black in contrast to the prairie that surrounds them. We had a beautiful drive through the region en route to our campground.
About 25 miles out from our destination of Sheridan Lake, we arrived in the city Custer and parked in a city lot that had just enough room for us. It happened to be my birthday and I decided I wanted to celebrate it with a good pizza rather than having to cook dinner when we reached our destination. As it turned out, only one out of the 3 pizzerias in town was still open so the decision of where to eat was easy. We were able to place our order but the young man running the register said it would be an hour before it would be ready. He took my cell number and said that they could call us when it was ready to pick up.
We had some time to kill so we took a stroll down the main street and took in the sights. There were numerous bars and restaurants, and even a well placed taco truck. The most unusual store in Custer was called “Claw Antler and Hyde”. The name says it all because it is pretty much the extent of what they sell. If animal skins are not needed, you can choose one of hundreds of antler sets that are all stacked in the bed of a pickup truck parked out front. Though it made for an interesting sight, we decided we had no need for animal skins or antlers and that the next best thing to do for my birthday would be to have an adult beverage while we waited for the call from the pizzeria.
There was an inviting-looking restaurant we came upon called the Sage Creek Grille. They were very busy and there would have been a long wait for a table but we were able to get a seat at the bar. Cindy ordered a glass of wine and I ordered an ale after tasting a couple of the local brews. Our waiter was a young man who told us he had grown up in the area. He was very experienced and personable. He told us that the town of Custer relied on tourism for its existence and also that they have some very severe winters. As such, Custer pretty much closes down in the wintertime because there are not enough tourists around to support the businesses once the snow arrives. He works during the tourist season as a waiter there at the Sage Grill and during the winter months, he works as a line cook in the only restaurant in town that stays open to serve the locals.
As we were sitting at the bar, we noticed someone unexpected: a black female server. She was in fact the only person of color we had seen in the town. We struck up a conversation with her and asked her how she came to be working in this small town in South Dakota. Her name was Alicia and she was from Jamaica. While she was in university in Jamaica, she signed up with an online youth job placement service and that is how she discovered Custer. She has actually returned to work there for several seasons now and she really likes it. Cindy asked her if she had encountered any problems as a young black woman living and working in the heart of Trump country in South Dakota and to our surprise and relief, she said she had not.
She told is she has a long time boyfriend back in Jamaica that wants to get married, but though she said she loves him, she is not ready to settle down. She is looking into continuing her education, by completing a masters program. She has already completed her undergraduate degree in international business. This year she intends to stay in Custer through the winter for the first time rather than return to Jamaica. We wished her well and offered some pseudo parental advise to stick to her emotions regarding marriage as she seemed to have much yet to fulfill in her life before making that commitment.
Apparently while we were having this discussion with Alicia, I missed the call from the pizzeria to let us know our pizza was ready! It had been well over an hour and knowing they would be closing any minute, we left the restaurant and hurried the few blocks back to the pizzeria. While on the way someone from the pizzeria called and said they had called a while ago and got no answer. I hurried ahead and when I got there, the young man I had ordered the pizza from was standing outside the closed building holding our pizza! I apologized and gave him an extra tip and we walked back to the trailer and had our dinner.
We arrived at the campground well after dark. It was pretty much pitch black as we slowly drove the narrow twisting road trying to avoid low tree limbs from scrapping the trailer roof, which could cause a leak. (Most trailer roofs, including ours, are made out of a thin waterproof membrane over the structure). When we got to the site, we found that it was a large one, so it was fairly easy to back in and set up even in the dark. We use two-way radios to communicate when we have to back into a site, which we have found to be a huge help.
Our campsite was surrounded by tall pines that are characteristic of the area, and the sites had lots of space between them, which is always a treat. In the morning we got off to what we thought was an early start to Mt. Rushmore. There is a point where you are on the local highway 244, you come around a curve and all of a sudden the mountain and the sculptures on its face come into full view. I have to admit that the sight of it brought mixed feelings.
A sculpture such as Mt, Rushmore, if it were to be considered today, would be hard pressed to get past environmental impact reviews! At the same time, it is a wonderful and deserved tribute to the presidents it represents. It is something that our children and our children’s children will be able to look upon and perhaps have a better understanding of who these men, Washington, Lincoln, Rosevelt, and Jefferson were, and how significant their contributions were to our nation. It portrays a type of patriotism that has somehow lost its way today, when many people exhibit a profound respect for our flag but have lost sight of the ideals it was meant to represent.
The short version of the Mt. Rushmore story goes that a South Dakota state historian came up with the idea to carve out old west heroes out of some granite formations in the Black Hills. He approached a renowned sculptor named Gutzon Borglum, who had already carved a bust of Lincoln in 1908 that is still on display today in Washington DC.
Ironically, at the time he was approached on the idea, Gutzon was working on a sculpture of confederate war heroes on a stone mountain in Georgia. He was a white supremacist who closely aligned himself with KKK ideology. At the time, this was not something that would disqualify him from being hired to do the job. Borglum proposed that the carvings be of US presidents and his concept was accepted. Federal and State governments approved the carving of the memorial in the Black Hills with Borglum as the lead of the project.
He began work with a team of some 400 carvers in 1927. They were paid between $.35 and $1.50 per hour. Interestingly, 95% of the carving was done using dynamite. Borglum died in 1941, just seven months before the carvings were completed. His son Lincoln oversaw the project to its completion in Oct 1941. The cost of completing the project was less than a million dollars! By contrast, a renovation done in the 1990’s cost $56 million.
When we arrived at the entrance to the memorial park, we realized that the place was already teeming with visitors.
We walked our way up some stairs until we found ourselves on an avenue of flags, highlighting each of the 50 United States. The flags were on staffs in groups of three, mounted to a single pole, and the poles lined each side of the avenue. There was a plaque commemorating each of the 50 states with the state name, the year the state was admitted into the union and a numeric value representing the order of which each state joined the union. Standing in the middle of the avenue looking down it, Mt. Rushmore is framed in the view.
The weather was looking a little threatening so we decided against taking the .9 mile Presidential trail loop that brings visitors to the closest viewpoint possible. It proved to be a good choice, as shortly later we were ducking for cover from the rain amongst the exhibit building entrances. We watched a video presentation detailing the project and took a stroll through the visitors center.
We spent a couple of hours trying to take in as many of the exhibits as possible while at the same time trying to keep our distance from people. Very few people were wearing masks and of course you have no idea who around you is vaccinated and who is not. South Dakota at that time had well less than half its population vaccinated, and the visitors to Mt Rushmore are from all across the nation and the world. Once the rain started, the protected indoor exhibits got very crowded so we decided it was a good time for us to leave.
When we left the memorial, we took a walk around the small business district in Keystone that lies nearby. There are lots of souvenir shops, Black Hills Gold jewelry stores and a couple of candy and ice cream shops. Probably the largest business on the road was a wood carving company with all sizes of carvings that are created by artists using chain saws. In our travels around town, we found a nice set of Black Hills Gold earrings for Cindy and we both had a fantastic hot fudge sundae from the ice cream shop. It was truly the best hot fudge sundae I can remember ever having!
Well after we had left the area, we found out that our friends Wayne & Lisa, who at one time lead our Rueda dance group, were in the area at the same time as we were. Not only that, but they were kayaking on the very lake that was in our campground! Wayne & Lisa have been traveling around the country for a couple of years now in their 5th wheel. We were sorry to have missed them and hope we will be able to meet up with them somewhere else along the way.
I have childhood memories of watching cheesy western movies where cowboys on a stage coach are riding through the badlands and end up being ambushed by either robbers or Indians. The villains or Indians usually have the high ground and the men in the stage coach normally are not only in a bad position, but are grossly outnumbered.
While we were driving in highway 16 through the middle of Wyoming on our way to Mt. Rushmore, we drove through just such an area. My first impression was that this must be the badlands. There were high rugged cliffs all around us as we drove up a very steep winding road and it looked as though we were right on the set of a chroma-color western, circa 1960. The area we were driving through is named Ten Sleep Canyon. It was so named by Native Americans because the junction of Norwood and Ten Sleep Creek was a rest stop that by horseback was ten sleeps away from Fort Laramie.
The road is freshly paved and in great condition but the climbs and descents were the steepest we had yet encountered on this trip, at up to a 9 percent grade. That is really steep! While we traveled uphill I was worried that we would overheat so I kept our speed to no more than 50mph. Going downhill, the diesel braking system again saved the day because without it we would have been putting a huge strain on the physical brakes.
The saving grace was that the condition of the road was very good. We learned a lesson earlier about avoiding county roads whenever possible and sticking to state and interstate highways. We were on an interstate in Wyoming and our map program warned of a delay. It wasn’t a lengthy delay, just minutes, but the detour that was being suggested was only about 20 miles would save us about 20 minutes so we decided to take it.
That decision turned out to be the wrong choice, as soon we found ourselves on a narrow one and a half lane road that was in really bad condition. The road was so bad we had to limit our speed to about 30 mph as we did our best to dodge potholes. About ten miles in, we came upon a caution sign that said words to the effect of “Road conditions worsen, advise alternate route.” There were no shoulders on the road and nowhere we could safely get turned around so we were forced to proceed. It made me think of the drive off the cliff scene in the movie Peewee Herman’s Great Adventure (https://youtu.be/lrAdpk36Bmc). In our case the road did get worse though it was passable. It probably ended up costing us at least an extra hour drive time.
Back to the Badlands. The real Badlands National Park entrance is only ninety miles distant from Mt. Rushmore, where we had been the day before. Once past Rapid City, the highway is very straight. It is interesting that they have traffic blocking arms at various points along the interstate. We had actually been seeing them since Buffalo, Wyoming. They are equipped with flashing yellow lights and a sign that instructs you that when the crossing arms are closed, you should turn around and go back to the closest city. If a person fails to heed the warnings and continues past, fines and jail time are mentioned. We have been told that what occurs along these stretches is that they often cannot keep the road clear of snow in a storm. They can plow, but it is so flat and open that the wind enables the formation of snow drifts across the road.
From Rapid City onward all the way to the turnoff for the Badlands in Wall, South Dakota, we started seeing the signs: Walls Drugs. There are 300 different billboards along the interstate advertising this store! From reading the messages on the signs, you are led to believe that Walls Drug has everything, which it pretty much does. By the time we got to the city of Wall, we were curious enough that we decided to take a look. The city itself is a small one, with a population of 800, though if you are headed for Badlands National Park, you have no choice but to pass through it coming from the west. As we threaded our way through town, we found a large RV parking area with spaces clearly marked. From there we walked a couple of short blocks and there it was. Wall Drug takes up an entire city block and is divided into several sections. There is a restaurant, a tourist souvenir section, an ice cream parlor, a leather shop and a boot store. Somewhere I am sure there is a pharmacy section but we did not see it!
There were throngs of people there, mostly unmasked. We had our masks on and did our best to keep our distance, and we did not stay for long. Even though they claim to have everything, we really did not find anything we were in need of. Regardless, it was fun to have a look anyway.
Just a few miles down the road is the entrance to the Badlands National Park. We followed Hwy 240 for the 38 mile drive from the west to the east entrance. The road has some tight turns and a few steep grades but it was well worth the drive. We pulled out in several places to take in the view and tried to imagine what it was like for people traveling through the area in the 19th century. It is rugged and unforgiving country and a place that the Sioux Indian tribe has inhabited for hundreds of generations.
The park has a rich fossil record because some 80 million years ago, the area was an inland sea. There are fossils from many extinct mammals, such as a Saber Tooth Tiger skull, which was found by a visitor in 2010. There is a fossil preparation lab run by the park service where visitors can go to watch paleontologists at work.
Leaving Badlands National Park, we had about 450 miles to go to our next stop, a county park just outside of Omaha, Nebraska. That would have been a very long day so we decided to break it in two by stopping for the night in Mitchell, South Dakota at a local Walmart. We found a quiet spot in the lot along with at least a dozen other campers and got some rest.
In the morning, we got an early start and traveled the last 250 miles to Two Rivers County Park, near Omaha. Cindy’s sister Bonnie’s daughter Julie and her husband Chuck were hosting a high school graduation party that weekend for their son Charlie, who was going away to college to study environmental science. It started with an evening get together, where Chuck BBQ’d for the early arrivals like us. Family came from nearby and as far away as Chicago, Minneapolis, and St Louis. Even though we would subsequently be seeing most of them again over the next couple of weeks, it was really fun being able to connect with most of Cindy’s family all in one place.
The county park we were staying in was inexpensive and had power and water hookups. It is situated on 300 acres and has 7 ponds. The whole area is lush with vegetation and nicely maintained. In one section there are 10 Union Pacific cabooses that have been restored to be used as cabins for overnight guests. They kept the original look of them as much as possible, which was a nice touch. They are air conditioned and sleep up to 6 people. As we have seen elsewhere, some of the people staying in the park were locals just out for a quick getaway.
Along with all the green and water, we could feel the change in the humidity. It was rising and feeling like we had arrived in the midwest. The park had some nice shower facilities except for the presence of lots of ticks hanging out on the walls, no doubt looking for a new host. We were really careful not to allow them that chance.
As we were setting up in our site, another couple pulled into a space across from us in a large 5th wheel. They were going about their set up process when the woman for whatever reason just went off on her husband, yelling at him before going inside their trailer and slamming the door. The husband seemed nonplussed like it was a regular thing and just went about his business completing the setup. Fortunately they seemed to be fine after the one flareup and did not spend the weekend throwing knives at each other as I had feared!
I had concerns at the start of this trip about how the people we would be around when camping would behave. On our shakedown trip to Beals Point in California, there was some loud partying going on at a couple of campsites near us. A young, very inebriated young man walked up to me while I was grilling and wanted to chat like we were best friends. Happily though, I can say that really, all our stays have been enjoyable and without rowdiness and loud music. Just don’t expect that should you visit Beals Point!
The second day in Omaha at Chuck and Julie’s home was the real celebration. Not only was it a treat having so much family together in one place, but it was nice having lots of one-on-one time with the people I have known for as long as Cindy and I have been together. This visit, though, was relaxed and filled with so many opportunities to really get to know the family in a way I had not experienced before.
After three days in Omaha, we set out for the home of Ron and Bonnie in Minneapolis. Bonnie is Cindy’s eldest sister. She and her husband Ron have lived in Minneapolis for over 50 years, where they raised their two sons and two daughters. They live on a street that would not be possible to park our truck and trailer on and there are no nearby campgrounds. Luckily, Bonnie’s son Kevin and family live about 20 minutes away and Bonnie had arranged with them for us to leave our rig at their home in their huge driveway.
Leaving Two Rivers County Park en route to Minneapolis, we had our first experience driving across a big city as we traversed Omaha. Fortunately for us it was a Sunday but even so, there was a lot of traffic and there were many exits and splits along the freeway to negotiate. Cindy was navigating for us and did an awesome job of keeping me from making any wrong turns. We considered the experience a primer for when we would be driving through Minneapolis or worse, negotiating the toll roads that would begin in Illinois and the traffic and maze we would encounter in Chicago.
Still, it was a relief when we finally got through Omaha and were in open country on the interstate. Soon we crossed the state line into Iowa and the road opened up to very light traffic and good roadway. The scenery as we drove through Iowa was mostly of corn fields and wind farms. Along with the vast expanses of farmland, we saw numerous crop dusters working the fields. Many of the fields were also home to power generating windmills. The windmills are close to 300 feet tall and it was fascinating watching the crop dusters not only negotiating their normal maneuvers over the fields but having to avoid the windmills as well.
We were traveling about 200 miles that day to another county campground named Little Wall Lake. It was so named because it is in the vicinity of a much larger lake named Wall Lake. It is located miles off the freeway and not a place you would find without having set out to go there. The nearest small town is Jewel, Iowa. I read that the town was grieving the loss of two Iowa State University students that were part of a rowing team after their team boat capsized in cold conditions there in March of this year.
The lake was formed by a glacier but would be a marsh today if not for artificial efforts to dredge and maintain it. It is a popular fishing lake that is stocked with Catfish, Pike, Walleye and Bass. We had a site with water and electric and a nice view of the lake for $25 a night. County parks in the midwest are generally a good bargain so if you are planning a trip through the midwest, be sure and investigate the locations of county parks. We were only staying one night, so we did not even bother disconnecting the trailer. Cindy and I had a glass of wine at sunset in a swinging love seat that was by the edge of the water, got a good rest and set out in the morning for a 200 mile drive to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
We were noticing that from Omaha Nebraska on, it seemed like a lot of road construction was happening. There were miles of interstate that were being completely torn out and replaced and paving crews were a frequent sight. When we got to Minneapolis, we not only found ourselves negotiating construction zones, but we also arrived during the evening commute. It was stressful, but once again provided more practice for Chicago.
We finally arrived at our nephew Kevin’s home and parked the rig where it would be staying for the next 4 days. After a short visit with Kevin’s wife Eliza and their young children Madeline 9, Daphne 7 and Sebastian 3, Cindy’s sister Bonnie arrived and brought us over to her and Ron’s home in Minneapolis.
Bonnie’s home was about to undergo a kitchen remodel by Ron’s nephew. At the time we were there, all the work was being done outside, so we really did not have to deal with a construction zone.
It is interesting that Ron’s nephew Brian, the contractor, had taken over the business following Ron’s retirement. Additionally, Brian’s wife Anita has a brother Eric, who owns a well known auto repair business Minneapolis. In casual conversation back in the family gathering in Omaha, Cindy had mentioned that we were having a weird problem with our AC in the truck. After several hours on a very hot day, it would stop blowing cold air. Anita insisted that when we got to Minneapolis, we contact Eric to have a look.
As it happens, Eric’s shop does all the work on Bonnie and Ron’s vehicles as well as their son Kevin’s family vehicles. Ron gave them a call and although they were backed up with appointments, Eric insisted we should bring the truck to his shop to figure out what was going on. I am really quite impressed with the Conrad family connections and how they work together to take care of each others’ needs.
We left the truck with Eric’s shop overnight. The next day, one of his techs called to let us know they had done their best but could not reproduce the issue. He said they knew it would be one of three things, each of which would be an expensive repair and they could not in good conscience guess which part it was, knowing we would be leaving the area and they would not be able to make it right with us if their guess was incorrect.
He told me that there would be no charge for the diagnostics and apologized that they were not able to repair it. I know they tried their best and I wanted to give back something for the time they had devoted to the issue so I had them go ahead and do an oil & lube service on it and we picked it up. Anita also gave Cindy the tip that Eric is partial to Irish Whisky, so on the way to pick up the truck, Ron & I stopped and found a bottle for him as a thank you and he happily accepted the gift.
While we were with Ron and Bonnie, we had some great times together. One evening they took is out to a favorite dinner place and old-fashioned resort called Lord Fletchers on Lake Minnetonka.
People can arrive by land or boat as well, using their marine dock off the patio of the restaurant. It is a big place with a huge outside patio and bar. We had drinks outside before our dinner reservation and when it was time, we went inside, upstairs to a nice dining room right in front of a window overlooking the water below.
Their specialty at the restaurant is Walleye, a midwest fresh water fish that is a favorite with most everyone. The dinner and evening was very special and unique.
During the time we were staying with Bonnie and Ron, they drove us up to Bonnie’s eldest son Curt’s home in Duluth, a two hour drive north of Minneapolis on Lake Superior. Curt and his wife Nicki and their three children live in a remarkable, large restored lake house on Sunshine Lake. Curt has been working on restoration and remodel for several years now with lots of help from his father Ron, who before his retirement was a building contractor.
When we arrived, no one was home as the kids were in school and Curt and Nicky were both at work. Ron knows the home very well from all the work he has done there and he gave us a complete tour. It is a beautiful home in the country with lots of work already complete, like a gorgeous kitchen, but lots still yet to be done. At the time we were there, the dock, which was probably 1000 sf, was in the process of being reconstructed, and that by itself was huge undertaking.
I have a good sense that this home will be their forever home, as so much of them has gone into its reconstruction. They are about 20 minutes from downtown Duluth, which is obviously a very up and coming area with a nice waterfront on Lake Superior filled with restaurants, bars and tourist activities.
On our last night in the area, we all went over to Kevin & Eliza’s home for dinner. Besides providing us with a great home-cooked meal, Eliza made us her specialty cornbread, which was out of this world. The kids all had made artwork drawings for us, which we hung up in the trailer to keep as a priceless memory of our time with them.
The next morning we returned to Kevin and Eliza’s home to pick up the trailer and get on the road. Our next major destination would be Chicago, the home of Cindy’s younger sister Kim, her husband Pete and their son Bob. Kim & Pete’s daughter Erin would also be visiting along with her husband Danny and daughters Ariana and Kiara.