Recalculating, Recalculating, Mistakes keep us humble; The Grand Circle and I’m not talking about National Parks; A week in the land of 10,000 Lakes and 78 Billion (with a B) pounds of corn production; The Badlands are Bad-Ass; Daisy Duke, the General Lee and It’s a WING DING Thing! Another great week of adventures on the Great Open Road, enjoying all that Minnesota has to offer!
The “Grand Circle” of Friends
That’s what Peder and I are affectionately calling the next few weeks of our adventure. We will be visiting friends in Minnesota, Kansas City, Nashville, and outside of Chicago! Let the Moochdocking begin!
Thank you to Dave and Amy for the impromptu invite to their summer family home in Park Rapids, Minnesota. This place is a little slice of heaven and we felt so blessed to spend a moment in time with Dave and Amy and their family. Of course the home is on a lake (we are in the state of 10,000 lakes) which provides a peaceful backdrop as you sit on the porch and enjoy your cup of coffee or on the patio sipping the delicious and refreshing Bootlegger cocktail! Perhaps our favorite part of the visit was our time actually on the lake. Pretty sure it was my first time in a pontoon and I hope it is not my last! And you gotta love the “Snackle Box” that Amy put together for us to enjoy while cruising the lake. I should mention that Charlie loved the pontoon ride as much if not more than me! Dave and Amy were such gracious hosts, including sending us off with a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies! I’m loving Minnesota!
Look at the Snackle Box! What a clever idea!!
Hot Tip #1: When you make a change to your itinerary, be sure to log it into your GPS!
Garbage In Garbage Out!
I mentioned that our trip to Dave and Amy’s was impromptu. They read on facebook that we were in Minnesota and heading to our mutual friends, Craig and Valerie’s home and they reached out to us to see if we had any flex time to visit them at their summer home on the lake. Because we are on an adventure and we are embracing spontaneity, we made some changes to our travel plans and arranged to head to Park Rapids. Easy enough to do and it was only about 120 miles from Father Hennipen’s State Park where we would be staying for a couple of days. We use this awesome trip planning app called RV Life Trip Wizard-it helps you research and plan your trip and then provides you day to day GPS for each trip. You just log into the app on the day of travel, and it automatically provides you real time navigation to your next stop. It has been a great tool for us. Well, you can probably guess what happened…I forgot to add in the trip to Dave and Amy’s, so when we left Father Hennepin’s State Park, the GPS took us to what would have been our next Harvest Host stop in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. OOPS!
I realized that something was wrong about an hour into our drive-Boy, did I feel stupid! Peder was fairly understanding, but bless him, he was looking forward to a short two hour drive and my mistake managed to almost double that drive time for him! Duh! I did point out to him that we are over 11,000 miles into our trip and this is really my first major navigator screw up…Yes, mistakes keep us humble!
The Badlands are Bad-Ass!
We made sure to drive through the Badlands National Park on our way out of South Dakota, on our way to Minnesota. We are so glad that we did! This place was just as impressive as all of our other National Park visits. Each one is so unique and special in their own way. I think what we loved about driving through the Badlands is that you are actually driving through the rock formations. The road has been carefully placed to meander right through the land formations-they are to the right of you, the left of you and in front of you-a total immersion into the landscape. So incredibly beautiful! One of our favorite things to do, especially in the National Parks is to find a beautiful place to stop for lunch. We park Coach Addy, pop out the kitchen slide, make a couple of sandwiches and enjoy the view…best “restaurant” with a view, for a fraction of the price!
The view from our kitchen/dining room window during lunch
The World Famous Auto Show in Murdo South Dakota
This place is a one of a kind find! When you stay in Harvest Hosts, you get a variety of exceptional experiences. This World Famous Auto Show Museum was no exception. It’s really hard to explain, but it boasts of having one of the largest collections of rare cars in the world. I believe it! But it really is so much more. It is like a throwback to the past told through cars and a collection of antiques and buildings that transport you back to the past. Whether it was the old JukeBox, the Space Invaders and PacMan video games, the old schoolhouse, the train station or the over 275 classic cars (including the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard, the Pontiac Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit and a 1921 Old White Motor Home), all reminders of before today. Such a wonderful tribute to our history and our past. The museum has been in the family for years and everybody who we interacted with was so friendly. We ended our tour with the best Biscuit and Gravy breakfast at the on site diner, The Covered Wagon Cafe-YUMMY!!
Cars, Cars and more Cars
The Old Schoolhouse
Old Gas Station; JukeBox look familiar: 1921 White Motor Home
Hot Tip #2: Make Memories!
We had so much fun at the museum. If not for Harvest Host, we would probably never stop at this type of a museum, and boy would we miss out on some fun, and memorable, adventures! Seek out the unusual and embrace the experiences!
Corn, Corn and more Corn
When I think of corn fields, I think of Iowa or Nebraska, I had no idea that Minnesota is one of the top corn producing states! They produce over 78 BILLION pounds of corn a year! No kidding, that’s a lot of corn! The interesting fact is that most of the corn produced here is not the sweet corn that we all like to enjoy on a hot summer’s night, but the vast majority of the corn is used for grain that is either devoured by the livestock or transported to ethanol facilities. Only about 1% of the 8 million acres harvested is for human consumption. But I will tell you that the 1% that is for us humans is pretty damn delicious!
We had the pleasure of staying at a Harvest Host, Feikema Farms, which is a 3 generation, 10 acre family farm growing, you guessed it, corn! Coach Addy sat right under the most beautiful maple tree and overlooked corn fields for as far as you could see…we half expected Kevin Kostner to emerge from the corn fields followed by all of the baseball greats…an absolutely bucolic setting celebrating all that is good in The Heartland!
Charlie living his Best Life
Father Hennepin’s State Park
We absolutely love staying in State Parks. They always provide a lovely setting, bike trails, and the friendliest neighbors. We love seeing the young families playing outside, roasting marshmallows and enjoying the outdoors; as well as other retired folks like us who are more than willing to share their adventures, while listening to yours. And of course the price is always nice also!! Father Hennipen’s State Park sits on Lake Mille Lacs and has a sandy beach, picnic areas, bike trails and plenty of fishing opportunities. So peaceful!
It’s a WING DING Thing!
Our last night before we arrived at Craig and Val’s was at a Harvest Host! Kevin and Sharon live on this great piece of property and run a wine making experience business. It really is quite a clever concept. They live in a bit of forested area and have about an acre of their property dedicated to the Harvest Host program. It is a clearing in the middle of the forested area, I affectionately named it The Secret Garden. They have it set up so cute with a large firepit, two chairs, a table and all of the fire wood you can burn. They were awesome hosts and even came to our campsite after dinner and enjoyed a couple of drinks, dessert and a huge bonfire! Yes, we do love our Harvest Host stays!
Lesson Learned: Spontaneity is good, but for heaven’s sake, remember to edit the travel app, so you get to the right place on the right day! Technology is great, but the technology is only as good as the information that the human puts into it! Recalculating, Recalculating…Oh well, we just got to see some of Minnesota that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen! Like the Big Paul Bunyan Statue and the huge Bass Fish statue!
Bummer of the Week: I guess it would be my navigational error, but to be honest, even that wasn’t that bad. Other than Peder had to drive more than we planned and I HATE to make mistakes, but as I said earlier, mistakes are humbling!
Highlight of the Week: Our time on the lake with Dave and Amy! Their family home is rich with history and sooo peaceful! I could have sat on their porch for days, just enjoying the scenery, the quiet, and relishing in the joy that I felt. Thank you again for sharing this very special place with us and for all of your hospitality!
We arrived at Craig and Val’s late Friday afternoon and we have three days to enjoy this beautiful lake view and these lovely friends. If the first night, is any indication, we are in for a terrific three days! The view, the food, the company, Oh My! Can’t wait to see what the next few days bring us, before we head to Kansas City! Let the Circle of Friends begin! So much to be thankful for…
Michael and I have really only done "point A to point B" traveling that to have National and State parks as your destination offers so much of an experience. I was so inspired by this line..."We park Coach Addy, pop out the kitchen slide, make a couple of sandwiches and enjoy the view…best “restaurant” with a view, for a fraction of the price!" These moments are priceless!
Sharing time with family and friends along the way IS also priceless...these moments will be engraved in your heart! I wonder too, do you have any desire to live anywhere other than the perfect 70 degrees of SD?
Love you! Can't wait to hear about next week! I hope you make it to…