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Wet to Dry to Wet Again

9/26/2017

We were here at Backbone State Park two months ago for a Midwest Glampers weekend and were unable to visit the lower part of the park because of heavy rains that resulted in three feet of water in that section. This is the final stop on our trip--one we had arranged with friends long before we planned the trip. Yesterday we checked out that area of the park to find the many streams very low or completely dry. However, storms move in last night and it's raining quite hard right now so that will help. We are also being hammered by acorns from the oak tree above, so it's a little difficult to gauge the rain.

Backbone has always been one of our favorite parks so it is a fitting finale for this expedition. From the natural beauty to the CCC structures, it is a real Iowa gem.

Sunday afternoon, I was privileged to attend the 90th birthday party of my amazing Aunt Lil before we left Minnesota. She is a polio survivor who has always been the most upbeat person I have ever known. There was a great turnout to honor her. I also got to visit with a few cousins that I don't see very often. A very nice afternoon.

We will head home today or tomorrow, depending on several factors. It has been a wonderful journey with new vistas, old friends, and a refreshed spirit.

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A Clash and Blend of Cultures

9/24/2017

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Record breaking heat notwithstanding, members of numerous Native American tribes gathered this weekend for the 45th annual Mankato Powwow. The event is held at Land of Memories Park, also called Reconciliation Park, in Mankato--the site of the largest mass execution in US history. In 1862, 38 Dakota Sioux were hanged for their part in the Sioux uprising. That uprising, where over 400 white settlers died, was the result of another treaty broken by the US government, and the loss of land in exchange for poverty on a reservation. And on it goes. But the spirit of reconciliation has resulted in this event and sacred place. We watched the Grand Entry and I was particularly fascinated by the veteran color guard, all Native Americans, marching with the same dance step as the traditionally garbed men, women, and children. A wonderful example of cultural blend.

That traditional regalia has to be especially uncomfortable in the heat but it didn't seem to slow any of the dancers down. One man carried a staff with 38 feathers in honor of the men who died in this place. Drum groups surrounded the arena and the beat accented the chants and tinkle of bells sewn on much of the apparel.

Vendors around the outside of the arena sold Native jewelry, art work, wood carvings, and clothing. Food stands provided everything from frybread and Indian Tacos to barbecue, shaved ice and kettlecorn.

An added bonus for me was meeting Timya Owen. Timya is from Minneapolis and he husband's family has been instrumental in organizing this event. She works in sports media management but is also president of the Minneapolis chapter of Sisters in Crime, a group of women mystery writers. She was one of my first readers to contact me about my books and has been very supportive since. She and her group are working on an anthology of Minnesota stories to be published next year called The Dark Side of the Loon.

We did not last much past the Grand Entry. I have never done well in heat, and the older we get, the more taxing it is. But it is a wonderful event, emphasizing both a dark stain on our history that we should always be mindful of and the hope of reconciliation.

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In Search of Laundries

9/23/2017

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It was a must. So we began our search with Janesville. It isn't very far as the crow flies, but apparently there weren't any crows around when they laid out these roads. I'm sure the smattering of lakes around this area didn't help. So we wound our way and entered Janesville from the south. The first thing that greets the eyes as you approach the railroad tracks is a large old engine on a siding and, nearby, a ten or twelve foot statue of Frankenstein. Okay. Maybe that's for Halloween.

We had Googled laundromats in Janesville and the most recent listing was a newspaper story from four years ago about one outside wall collapsing. The post office next door was not damaged. Immediately across the tracks from Frankenstein was the post office and next to it an old building with one steel siding wall. Eureka! But it is now a custom sign business.

We drove around the block and stopped to ask a woman pushing a stroller if there was still a laundromat in town. She 'wasn't from there' and didn't know. So back to the post office and I went in to ask. The postmistress 'wasn't from there' and didn't know. Down the street is Toby's Barber Shop, and we figured Toby knew all about the town, so Butch went in. Not as simple as it sounds. The entrance to Toby's is through the store next door. Toby did know that there was no longer a laundromat in Janesville but said there was a new one in Elysian on the other side of the lake and campground.

Before heading north, we checked out the locale for tomorrow's birthday party south of Janesville to see if there is parking for our trailer--more winding back roads--and then up to Elysian. We found the laundromat and got our chores done. On the way out of town, we stopped at a cute place that said "Bakery-Deli-Gifts." Our grocery stock was getting low and I figured to pick up some potato salad for supper. The shop had a wide selection of soup and dip mixes, spices, children's toys, cut flowers and potted mums, fresh bread and cakes, and served lunch. No potato salad. We did buy a loaf of 7-grain bread and a couple of large pieces of apple cake with maple cream and walnut frosting. Supper became another encore buffet. Now our grocery stock is really low.

Today is supposed to be a little cooler--only a high of 87 instead of 91. We plan to go into Mankato for the 45th Annual Mankato Traditional Powwow. It is held to honor the 38 Dakota Indians who died in 1862 in the largest mass execution in US history and the later reconciliation between the Dakota and the settlers.

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The Fly in the Ointment

9/22/2017

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After two weeks of great weather and no truck or trailer issues, that run of luck was too good to last. We left Frontenac State Park on the Mississippi yesterday morning and headed west to Madison Lake near Mankato. The reason is simple: on Sunday my amazing Aunt Lil will celebrate her 90th birthday in nearby Janesville. This is a county park and we had reserved a spot right on the lake. (There is a twenty foot bluff covered with trees between us and the lake, but whatever.) We got parked and set up, no levelers needed, everything was great. I went inside to put the slides out and the big slide started out crooked--the side nearest the door did not move. Our slides run on a cable system and one of the cables had worked loose.

These cables are above the slide and there is about a one foot or less space to work between the slide and the ceiling. We checked online--the nearest dealer is 75 miles away. So my intrepid driver, boat rower, and fix-it guy, after looking at the meager instructions, got up on the step stool with his old awning hook and managed to snag the cable and get it back on the thingamajig. That's the technical explanation. Voila! The slide extended and we are back in business. We will see whether it closes on Sunday.

After that stress, it seemed wise for both of us to take naps and then heat up some frozen stuffed peppers for supper. We did go over to the beach area, where you can see the lake, to fight the mosquitos for a view of the sunset. Quite a weather swing, too--yesterday morning we had the space heater on and this morning the AC. Mankato broke their record high temperature yesterday and the next two days look even warmer.

Today, we need to do laundry--nine days since the last bout. I looked online for a laundromat in Janesville and the most recent reference was a story from the Mankato Free Press four years ago about the outside wall of the laundromat collapsing. No word on whether it's fixed so we will have to see for ourselves.

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Shoes and Stoplights

9/21/2017

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Frontenac State Park, about 13 miles southeast of Red Wing, Minnesota, sits high on the bluffs overlooking Lake Peppin, on of the widest points of the Mississippi. The views from the picnic overlook are stunning. Ending up here for two nights was a happy accident.

We took a drive back into Red Wing yesterday with three goals: a grocery store, the Red Wing Shoe Museum, and the Ski Jump museum. The last was not to be. Red Wing claims to be the birthplace of ski-jumping and the old St. James Hotel offers exhibits on the mezzanine backing up that claim but it is apparently only open on weekends. We did get to the small shoe museum, actually in the Red Wing Store. It was an interesting display and includes the largest work boot in the world--made of all the same materials as the standard sizes. We also found a fun independent bookstore, Fair Trade Books.

Red Wing's Main Street is very busy because it also Highway 61. There are those buttons to push for the crosswalks, and this very disconcerting and imperious voice, sounding something like the AFLAC duck, orders "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" until the light changes. I didn't like him.

We had a 'small world' incident in the campground. The people across from us are from Ottumwa and lived at one time in Lone Tree, so we had several mutual acquaintances. We had a nice visit around the fire.

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Wandering Wisconsin

9/20/2017

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campsite--Copper Falls

...and ending up in Minnesota. Our plan was to spend three nights at Eau Galle, a small Corps of Engineers lake and campground on the west side of Wisconsin. We had checked before we left Copper Falls and there were plenty of sites available, so we hadn't made reservations. When we arrived, there was no check-in shack and the host was not there. According to the instructions on the board, you could take any site without a reservation tag but if the site was reserved the next night, you would have to move. We could have gone on line to find a site that wasn't reserved any of the three nights, but we had no internet reception and barely cell service.

Not being excited about moving every night, we got out the atlas and found Frontenac State Park in Minnesota just south of Red Wing--about 30 miles farther on. I got on the phone and called the Minnesota reservations number. The connection was terrible and kept cutting out, but the nice lady was very patient and found one site big enough for our camper but only available for two nights. We grabbed it and got back on the road.

Our site was very tight to get into but we made it. Apparently we are in the 'Iowa loop.' The people across the road, next to us, and behind us are all from Iowa. It was 6:00 by the time we got set up, so supper was an 'encore buffet.' Soup left from the night before and sandwiches. The big excitement for us is TV reception for the first time in a week and a half. However, tornado warnings for the west part of the state rolled across the screen all night and sometime in the night a huge system passed just north of us. This morning on the radar, it looked like the worst of it hit Copper Falls so we got out just in time.

Today we will probably check out the park and explore Red Wing. Our site in a county park near Mankato was available Thursday night also and I extended our reservation there. So tomorrow, on to our second-to-last stop on this trip and some visits with extended family.

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End of the Falls

9/19/2017

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This trip started because a niece's fiancee told us about Copper Falls State Park in Wisconsin and we expanded it to include Michigan. So now we are at the first place we intended to visit and the last of the falls. Wisconsin is one of those states that penalizes out of state campers and have also added a $10 a night electrical fee so we shortened our planned stay from three to two nights. But that worked out fine because there are just three waterfalls here and one is only accessible by a 2.5 mile hike. They are also working on the park roads and the signage is inadequate. But we made it first to Copper Falls. The only view is from a footbridge but it's a beautiful area.

Brownstone Falls is also very pretty but must be glimpsed through the trees as there is no viewing area and hikers are not allowed off the path. There is a path on the other side of the Bad River and may have better views but we weren't sure how to get there.

A rainy afternoon meant time spent inside reading and soup in the crockpot for supper--not a bad way to spend a few hours. Today we head for Eau Galle Lake in western Wisconsin--chosen as a stop by virtue of being about halfway between Copper Falls and central Minnesota where we need to be this weekend for a family event.

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Things I Learned About the UP

9/18/2017

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This was our first trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and being there a little over a week has been very enlightening. We learned the following:

1. There has been a movement to make the UP a 51st state, possibly with a little of Wisconsin thrown in. The state would be named Superior. In the 70s, a bill proposing this split only lost by one vote.

2. People of the UP refer to themselves as Yoopers and the people of Lower Michigan as ‘trolls’ because they live under The Bridge. That would be the Mackinaw Bridge.

3. I thought the statehood proposal might be behind the tee shirt I saw in the pastie shop in Munising that said “A State Divided Since 1934.” When I asked what happened in 1934, the nice manager explained that that was when the NFL started and most of the Yoopers rooted for Green Bay while most of the lower part supported the Lions.

4. There are over 300 waterfalls in the UP and only one in lower Michigan.

5. Most signs for grocery and convenience stores list bait as the second or third item they carry.

6. Even though tourism is one of the top two industries, you don’t see very many chain hotels. But there are lots of older and very well-kept motels. There is also a refreshing lack of the commercialism that you see in most touristy areas. Signs are small and discreet--except for the one we saw yesterday for “Da Yooper Tourist Trap.” It was quite large.

7. There are over 4300 inland lakes. And billions of trees. The landscape is stunning.

8. There have been so many Finnish immigrants that the TV station in Marquette broadcast a Finnish-language program until two years ago.

9. Pasties (pronounced pass-ties) seem to be the official food. Originally a way to take lunch to work for the miners in Cornwall, it’s like a beef pot pie in a thicker crust. Then there’s the fudge...

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Waterfall, waterfall, waterfall

9/17/2017

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Try saying that fast twelve times. Because there are twelve waterfalls here in the Munising area. We visited three yesterday--several are dry at this time of year and others are in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (not a state park, as I called it in my last blog) and accessible only by steep climbs and/or long hikes. The first that we saw was Wagner Falls, just south of town and a short hike back in the woods. It was very pretty with a brook that babbled away through the woods on its way to Lake Superior.

Next we stopped at Alger Falls--very nice but the only viewing is by parking on the shoulder along a busy road. It was difficult to see well or get good pictures.

Third, we went to Munising Falls on the west side of town. There's a nice visitor center there and a boardwalk and paved path back to the falls. It was a busy place. The falls are much higher than the Wagner Falls but not as much water.

There was a nice car show being held in downtown Munising so we walked around that for a bit and then stopped at Muldoon's for a pastie for lunch. Pasties, for those who haven't experienced them, are a convenience food brought here by the Cornish miners. It's basically a beef stew in a thick doughy crust, about the size of a Big Mac. They were large enough that we split one and had plenty. Quite good.

It had been cloudy off and on all day but after supper, the sun was trying to break out, and we walked down to the little beach area to see the sunset. About 40 or 50 other people in the campground had the same idea, so it was quite a crowd. And well worth it. This is a a city campground and quite nice.

Today, rain is moving in and we're hoping it will not interfere with our hookup and loading because we have a long drive to northern Wisconsin. We will be back in the Central Time Zone, so this time tomorrow won't be this time. We're headed to Copper Falls State Park and, yes, more waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls.

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Picture This

9/16/2017

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I am running out of superlatives on this trip. We made a fairly short drive yesterday from Tahquanemon Falls to Munising, Michigan. The big attraction here is Pictured Rocks State Park and a number of waterfalls. The Pictured Rocks are fourteen miles of incredible formations and rock colorations and are best viewed from the lake.

So we opted to take the sunset cruise last night. The sun was not in evidence much and probably would have made the colors even more dramatic, but we were not disappointed. The bluffs are over 150 feet high and are colored by ground water containing iron, copper, and other minerals leaching out of the rocks. The result is an amazing abstract painting.

The wind and the waves from Lake Superior have added their touch, creating caves, arches, and standing formations.

The Captain gave us an extra thrill when he pulled the 68-foot excursion boat into this formation known as the Chapel, and, even better, successfully backed it out again.

A tribute to determination was this stubborn tree atop a stone formation, surviving by roots that reached across to the bluff. Really amazing. Stupendous. Colossal. Awesome. There. I'm out of words.

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