Road Tripping - Heading West

As many of you know, my friend, Jill, lives in Ashland, Oregon. Friends in Minnesota, Amy and Jennifer, wanted to visit Jill and Oregon for the first time. I was invited to join them. I decided I would drive out with Maggie as a practice road tripping run.

The title for this post is "Heading West" but it got off to a rough start. I made it 2 hours out of Minneapolis up I-94. I made it past Saint Cloud, MN which is the farthest I've been on I-94. When I was thinking about where we would stay the first night, I realized I did not have my wallet. Without my wallet, I did not have any credit cards, and more importantly, a driver's license.

I really had no choice but to turn around and drive back to Minneapolis. I considered bagging the trip for the day but really wanted and needed to make some progress on the first day. So I drove back to Minneapolis, left Maggie in the car, dashed in the condo, grabbed the wallet, and got back out on the same road.

We made it as far as Moorhead, Minnesota. To show how much I did not know about this part of the USA, we stayed in a motel in Moorhead but ate supper in Fargo but not knowing I was in Fargo until after eating and walking around. The two cities are so intertwined as to not really have borders...which is actually very geographically prominent - the Red River separates the two cities!

The Red River is infamous in Minnesota for flooding and overflowing which is exactly what it was doing when I passed through. I stayed in a motel called Bison Plains. It looked and smelled like the bison had just passed through the hallways. It was a unique experience. Maggie didn't seem to mind exploring all the smells.

Maggie off the floor and enjoying her first hotel stay

Fargo was a hopping town. Turns out it was graduation weekend at the University of North Dakota. Downtown Fargo is clean and vibrant. A large section of the city had burned during flooding a few years ago but there were still historic buildings along with newer ones.

I had started the journey on Friday. So Saturday was day two and now I had to get across North Dakota - a state I had never been to. If you have heard that North Dakota is flat, you have heard correctly. Crazy flat except there is a hill in the town of Jamestown.

You are going to see a lot of photos shot out of the window of my moving car

Lots of fields along I-94 were flooded. North Dakota had been getting the same rain, rain, rain that Minnesota had. The few lakes I could see were very full. Pelicans migrate through North Dakota and were enjoying all the water.

Told you it was flat

I stopped in Bismark to see the capitol. Yikes and apologies to North Dakotans but the North Dakota capitol is not pretty. I couldn't go in because it was the weekend so I cannot critique the interior. Hopefully it is awe-inspiring.

The nicest part about the North Dakota capital is the beautiful green lawn lined with big trees

Continuing west, Amy suggested a stop at Salem Sue, a giant holstein cow on the top of a very big hill. The wind was incredible. We were driving right into this same wind. The constant uphill which is the geography of heading to the mountains combined with the wind really impacted my gas mileage.

Maggie didn't think much of Salem Sue. She wanted back in the car where it wasn't windy

Another friend and North Dakota native, Kathy, suggested the Enchanted Highway. This is an interesting, off-the-interstate marketing campaign. A series of oversized metal sculptures lead you to the Enchanted Castle which is really just a motel way off the beaten path. It was worth the extra miles. In addition to the sculptures, I saw pheasants and mule deer.

The wind kept up here we are at the start of the Enchanted Highway

One example of the Enchanted Highway art (these are huge)

I really wanted to see Theodore Roosevelt National Monument outside of Dickinson and Medora, North Dakota. This was a fantastic adventure. Using my senior national parks pass, I entered for free and took the loop drive in the southern section of the park.

I like this photo because in addition to the bison you can see how the terrain has changed in the distance

Right at the first pullover there were bison and a herd of wild horses! The park also features prairie dogs and painted canyons. The loop is partially closed due to rain washouts. It was all so beautiful and especially as the sun was starting to set.

Yes, they were this close to the roadway

Maggie was interested in the wild horses

Painted canyons

We made it into Montana the second day. We stayed in a nice motel in Glendive near the Yellowstone River. Side note: the restaurant at the River Inn has fantastic food and desserts.

Sunday's goal was to get across Montana. I also decided to get off I-94. We took State 200 which followed the Lewis & Clark route. Honestly I think there are many Lewis & Clark routes.

This took us through what I called the Montana badlands...ravines and stretches of open pasture. There are no crossroads on 200S. There are only drives to ranches. There are mule deer and cattle.

The terrain changes to pine trees then to mountains. This route has very nice rest areas that are well maintained. From Great Falls to Missoula we ended up in the Blackfoot River Gorge. A beautiful drive down in to Missoula, Montana. We were to drive many river gorges on this trip.

Maggie's first time out on harness and leash and she did great

Finally mountains

We spent the night in Missoula. With the gain in an hour (mountain time) it was still light so I went for a run and found a tap room called The Dram. This name has some history for me as it was the bar in the old Guthrie Theater. Missoula is on the Clark Fork (river). It is also a college town.

Monday morning while packing up the car, Maggie escaped from the hotel room! Our room was right on the parking lot which was right on the street. There were a few minutes of panic but a couple a few doors down helped corral Maggie in their room.

Day four, Monday, is when my lost progress on the first day caught up to us. I also needed to decide which route we would take. A faster route would be to go through Bend, Oregon and down 97. This was a route I had already been on just last summer. It also might mean going through mountains with more snow than I had encountered already.

I decide to go through Portland and down I-5 through nearly the full length of Oregon. But I get ahead of myself. To get through the small section of Idaho we were going to hit, we drove down the Clark Fork Gorge. Dramatic is an understatement. The drive is very amazing and the entrance into Idaho is dramatic to put it mildly. The view of majestic snow-covered mountains though brief and on a very sharp curve is nonetheless worth it. I have no photos of this portion of the trip because all concentration was on driving.

Rest areas in Idaho were not nice. I wrote "yucky" on my notepad. From Idaho there is a long section of Washington state before you cross the Columbia River into Oregon. I haven't mentioned up to now but this time of year - mid-May brings so much color, lots of it green. And southern Washington has fields/pastures of blooming purples, pinks, red and yellows.

My unsuccessful attempt to get the Washington state fields

Next was Oregon and the decision to press all the way through to Ashland. Okay, the Columbia River Gorge is A-MAZ-ING! The other river gorges are narrow, curving, intricate and generally steep slopes with lots of trees. The Columbia River Gorge is wide with a very wide river but with sheer cliffs that block the sun and the Sirius XM satellite!

The south side of the Columbia River Gorge which is the road side

The north side with the Columbia River

Portland, Oregon lived up to its reputation of having awful traffic. This was my first big city and I had the bad fortune of driving through during rush hour. It was stop and go for miles.

Maggie all the while had been a trouper. She would look out the windows, sleep in her carrier, nap in my lap. Eat her treats, drink her water, and use her litter box. She enjoyed the motel rooms by walking from bed to night stand to chair to table to window sill to tv stand and back to bed. But the easy times had a bump in the road.

Typical daily nap in papa's lap

Many if not most restaurants closed by 7 or 9pm so getting a late supper was difficult. Monday's full throttle push to arrive in Ashland meant stopping for a quick meal at a Dairy Queen in Albany, Oregon. The drive-thru was the only option. Maggie was in my lap as we drove through and when I pressed the button to power-down the window, she freaked out. In my effort to not have her jump out the window, I grabbed her. The leap using her back feet clawed at my stomach and grabbing her caused her to bite my finger.

Without knowing all the damage, I ordered an ice-cream and french-fries. I pulled into a parking spot to investigate the damage. My t-shirt was shredded, and my stomach was slightly bleeding. My right hand and bitten finger were profusely bleeding. Fortunately, I had packed a first aid kit. I bandaged myself up and pressed on. Maggie eventually calmed down but could not bring herself to have any ice-cream.

To add to state capitols I stopped in Salem. While under renovation, it was still far better example of state capitols than was North Dakota's.

Oregon state capitol, Salem

We did make it to Ashland on Monday night.

The numbers below are mileage from my cars trip odometer and trip time (the amount of time the car is running so doesn't include when I stopped the car at rest areas, waysides, meals, etc.):

Friday - false start was 298 wasted miles - 4 hours 34 wasted minutes

Friday - productive 231 miles - 3 hours 50 minutes to Moorhead, Minnesota

Saturday - 514 miles - 9 hours 44 minutes to Glendive, Montana

Sunday - 513 miles - 8 hours 9 minutes to Missoula, Montana

Monday - 839 miles - 13 hours 49 minutes to Ashland, Oregon

Total west bound - 2105 miles and 36 hours and 18 minutes. The gas mileage averaged 21.9 mpg

Road Trip (Palm Springs to Minneapolis-St. Paul)

Retirement trip number two. Home for less than 24 hours from Door County, Wisconsin, and hopped on a plane to fly to Palm Springs, California.

Friend Dave had spent the month of January (snowbird) in warm, sunny Palm Springs. He asked if I would join him on a road trip back to Minnesota.

From cold to desert to cold in a week!

Spent a day in Palm Springs hiking. Dave had been doing a lot of adventuring and shared some of his favorite treks with me. We did three hikes in one day!

We did not plan a definite route or timeframe back to Minnesota but I needed to get back by Saturday as I was scheduled to work at the hardware store on Sunday. The only sure thing was that Dave wanted to visit a friend and cousins in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A major winter storm was forecast to pass right between us in Palm Springs and Minneapolis-St. Paul so we were going to have to be flexible as the storm's path kept being revised. We ended up going north through Colorado rather than east through Oklahoma/Kansas.

As is my custom now, I put together a video montage of the trip. It is available by clicking here.

A short recap and itinerary (though I won't guarantee my memory is serving me correctly):

• departed Palm Springs Monday, 01/31
• departed Santa Fe, New Mexico Thursday, 02/03
• departed Colby, Kansas Friday, 02/04
• arrived in Minneapolis-St. Paul Friday 02/04

We were successful in missing the winter storm. I love driving across parts of the United States. There is so much diversity. And with each season there are different things to see and do.

Root River State Trail

The Root River State Trail in southeastern Minnesota has been on my list for quite some time. My friend Bud and I got to ride (bike) the trail this past Friday and Saturday.

An easy drive from the Twin Cities down along the Mississippi River is a Fall adventure in itself. We stopped at Hanisch Bakery in Red Wing for breakfast and donuts for the road.

We arrived at the eastern end of the Root River Trail in Houston. The trail is a paved bike and walking path that is about 40 miles total from Houston to Fountain. It is primarily a rails-to-trails route and is very well maintained. The path crossed the Root River several times and has views of farms, crops and the driftless geology.

Friday was a bit drizzly and overcast but that didn't dampen (HA!) the ride too much. We were pretty much the only ones out on the trail. We road from Houston to Rushford and ate lunch in Rushford before returning to the vehicle.

From Houston to Lanesboro we drove along the same route we just biked. Are accommodations, The Guest Hus, were spot on. There was bike storage and an easy walk to the main downtown.

There was to be a bike event on Saturday so Lanesboro was busy. We ate pizza at a local bar because there wasn't any room anywhere else. We got to mix with some locals including a very friendly dog.

Saturday was sunny but not hot. The ride from Lanesboro to Peterson is very easy. There were many more other cyclers on this section. It is more popular and the weather was fantastic.

We passed a giant eagle's nest on the way out and on the way back two adult eagles were perched right near it. I can never get enough eagle sightings.

It was a great trip. Easy to do over a couple of days. We did end up with almost 60 miles of cycling but split over the two days made it enjoyable.

Click here is a short video of the two days.

BWCA 2021 Edition

 Well we did it again. The foursome of Brian, Jenny, Julie and Jeff ventured into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, BWCA, Wilderness.

This was the 20th anniversary edition. I think Jenny is the only one that has made them all.

I created a video for this year's trip. The link will be below. But a short recap...

The plan was to paddle Hog Creek from Entry #36 to Perent Lake and find an island campsite on the lake. That would be no portages. Side note - portages are where the team carries the gear and canoes from one body of water to another.

We had been warned that because of the drought our planned all paddle / no portage trip would be twice as long with several places where you had to get out of canoes and transport gear. Well, fortunately it did not turn out that way.

There were a few places we had to do just that but mostly the slow downs were caused by three large beaver dams that we would have had to negotiate anyway. Beavers are amazing architects and construction workers.

We did make it to Perent Lake and landed a very primo campsite. Nice layout on a private island.

We had an unbelievable encounter with a bald eagle. Saw a darling trumpeter swan family. Also, more loon action than we had seen in a long time. And a pesky red squirrel who we are pretty sure is now the proud owner of an orange spork.

Click here for the video. I suggest watching in landscape mode. It is 6 minutes long.

Roadtrippin' to Southwest Minnesota

I needed to get away for a bit. First let me say that I am fortunate to have work through all this weirdness and that work has been from home. However, I needed a break from the routine of getting up, having breakfast, taking a shower, then sitting in front of my laptop for hours.

I have been wanting to visit Blue Mounds State Park in southwest Minnesota for a long while. It sounded like an interesting site for three reasons: one - it has natural, undistributed prairie; two - a herd of bison; and three - it could be done safely as an outdoor event.  It did not fail on all counts.

I also got the chance to share this with my friend, Bud. We drove down through miles and miles and rows and rows of corn being harvested. It was astounding just how much corn is grown in Minnesota. There really was no other crop and very few animal farms of any kind. I would say horses out numbered cattle.

Blue Mounds State Park is the site of a geological wonder. Out of the extremely flat prairie is this palisade of red quartzite rock! And on top of all that rock is a pristine prairie. We parked at the State Park entrance and rode our bikes around the palisade to an incline up to the top. To say it was windy does not begin to describe the conditions. It was insane wind!

Once on top of the mound we hiked/walked to where we were told we could see the bison. The bison are kept within a fenced area of the prairie. It took a bit of imagination and binoculars but we did find them. We also got to see the quartzite up close.

I used the new teleconverter attachment for my Olympus Tough camera to get this shot of the bison which were very far away.

Those dark dots are bison

Selfie in front of Eagle Rock on top of Blue Mounds

Click here for a bike ride along Blue Mounds

quartzite

After getting blown off Blue Mounds, we found a corral where it looks like some bison are kept or segregated so we did get to see some of them closer. The grey barn and silo in the photo above is where the bison corral is.

We then drove to Pipestone, Minnesota about half hour north of Blue Mounds. When researching Blue Mounds State Park I came across Pipestone National Monument where there is more of the red quartzite but also pipestone stone.

Pipestone, the town, has many buildings made using the red quartzite. Here are examples...

A beautiful inn that is currently condemned

Three facades built in the late 1800's

Pipestone stone is only here in Pipestone and a small amount in Iowa and South Dakota. It is a very rare vein of stone that is used by Native Americans to make...you guessed it...pipes. It is a soft stone that is quarried from a limited vein between the very hard quartzite. Pipestone National Monument highlights the history of this stone and provides for Native Americans to maintain this in their heritage.

We were definitely past leaf peak but there was an occasional flash of color

Pipestone Creek leaving the Park

"The Oracle"

Bittersweet

Gazing at the quartzite palisades

It is a beautiful park with prairie, quartzite walls, a waterfall and historic quarries.

Click here to see the waterfall

The pipestone vein is where the gap is. This has been quarried out between the layers of quartzite

We headed back to Minneapolis through more miles and rows of corn. We could no longer tell one set of grain elevators from another. These sites along rail corridors are really big. 

We stopped in Redwood Falls to see one set of falls...apparently there are more but we didn't find them.

It was a great roadtrip and a break from work. It was also great to spend time with my friend, Bud, and to see more of Minnesota.

Kite Festival

This year's kite festival featured an enormous whale shark and octopus. There were lots of people young and old flying their own kites, too. It was all so beautiful.

Theodore Wirth winter

One of the things I love about traveling is the contrasts. Just a few days ago I was on a sunny and warm beach. Today I'm back home it was cold and it snowed over night.

The mosquito and the bald eagle

This could be a child's fable or nature battle. It is neither. Walking downtown this evening to catch my bus home, a mosquito lands on my hand. It was an easy kill. But really? A mosquito? It is early April. We DO NOT need a mosquito.

And now the eagle. Running around Lake Calhoun, I see a girl with her camera phone. I look where she is looking and there is a bald eagle not 10 feet away in a small tree right next to the path and the lake. Amazing.

Two very Minnesota things...a mosquito and a bald eagle.