Another trip to the North Shore with Maggie. We drove up on Monday and back on Wednesday. Link to a short video is here.

We stayed at Solbakken Motel and Resort in Lutsen again. I like staying here because it is right on Lake Superior and is pet friendly. The motel rooms have a little kitchenette for keeping and fixing food.

We stayed in Monday night after arriving. The trip was a chance to relax outside the cities. It was forecast to snow a little and there was still snow from the winter season.

It did snow a little over night which gave everything a clean cover. Maggie and I drove up to Grand Marais to meet my friend (and former Nash Finch Company boss) Holly at Java Moose Espresso. Java Moose is owned and operated by Sarah, an Instagram poster that I follow.

Holly and I discussed the recent events in the Twin Cities and Grand Marais. Different customers overheard us speaking and offered their support and stories. Holly, who is retired now, writes poetry. April is poetry month and she has taken up the challenge to write a poem every day in April. Her April 1 poem is below.

From Grand Marais, Maggie and I drove up the Gunflint Trail to the George Washington Pines Trail - an easy 2-mile groomed trail through spectacular red and white pines. Maggie rides in a backpack and is usually fairly quiet. About halfway through she started to get antsy and very vocal. I turned the backpack around so she was in front and that seemed to satisfy her.

The fresh snow was lovely. We saw lots of animal tracks, a live grouse (always seem to see these birds), and a bizarre flying insect.

Back at Solbakken, Maggie didn't want to go out again so I hiked a trail that I had not seen before and was directly across Highway 61 from the motel. Encountered 3 deer along my way. There were lots of deer on this North Shore trip.

Tuesday night was dinner at the Cascade River Restaurant. Irish Stew was a good way to warm up.

It snowed a little more overnight, but we did see the sunrise out on the big Lake...and a deer walk by our window. We left for home after stopping at Caribou Cream to get maple syrup.

Clear here for a short (2 min) video review.

Poem (04/01/2026) by Holly Lamond:

I cannot save this world 
and the snow is still falling
my soul still wintering
I cannot save this world 
yet I ache for the parents
fear-frozen by impossible 
choices
I cannot save this world 
and my heart harbors the cold
reality that Easter is almost here 
(and you are not)
I wonder if I can save myself – 
life feels Lenten-long
winter, this world acting like 
twin thieves, robbing me of
spring
Yet today, I had coffee with an old friend
and we shared our winter stories – 
a stranger who teaches fifth grade  
overheard, shared hers and soon
we were three with tears running 
like rain 
I am reminded thaw can happen 
anywhere, anytime, and right now
 
just before green,
hope trembles
and soon it will bud

--Poetry Tracks In Snow by Holly Lamond

https://poetrytracks.substack.com

Roadtripping with Maggie - California and Oregon

It has taken me a long time to create the video, and subsequently, this blog post. This trip was back in early to mid July. The accompanying video can be found here.

Early on I had told my friends, Julie and her husband, Bob, that I wanted to meet them along their months-long thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. I figured I could meet them anywhere along the trail which runs from the Mexican board in California to the Canadian border in Washington state.

The window that opened was July 3 to July 16. As it turned out, Julie was in need of a rest and recuperation period so it was decided I would meet her in Mammoth Lakes, CA and the two of us would drive to Kennedy Meadows North to meet up with Bob who was continuing the trek.

I delayed the start of my trip to July 4 to time out better with Julie. I had wanted to see the fireworks at Mount Rushmore so this actually would help make that work out but, as it turned out, this year there were no fireworks at Mount Rushmore! They are saving them for a big event next year for the United States' 250th anniversary celebration. I didn't find this out until I had driven 574.5 miles to Rapid City, South Dakota. ☹️

But, as it turned out, the Rapid City fireworks were right outside our hotel window! Fun to watch but not fun for Maggie.

Day 2. We drove through the Black Hills of South Dakota to catch views of Mount Rushmore. I'd been to the monument years ago and figured it hadn't changed so took Monument Road and stopped to take photos now and again. We paid the park fee to drive through Custer State Park hoping to see bison or burros but didn't see either. ☹️

On into Wyoming...endless. Passed an enormous coal mining operation and some oil fields. Nearly ran out of gas 'cause they don't tell you that there is NOTHING along the way. Spent the night in Rock Springs, WY.

Day 3. Drove on into Utah, passsed Salt Lake City, and onto the salt flats (Bonneville Salt Flats) beyond the Great Salt Lake which I only caught glimpses of.

Kept going into Nevada and the Great Basin Desert. At least in Nevada, they warn you that that there isn't gas for...oh, 124 miles, then 167 miles! Our goal destination was McGill, NV but it turned out there wasn't much of anything there anymore, so we drove on to Ely, NV and the Four 7s Motel.

Day 4. Continued on through Nevada. Jill looked up some sites to see. We stopped at Lunar Crater on Bureau of Land Management land. We passed what I'm pretty sure was a missile site. Three police cars made sure we pulled off the highway to allow on oncoming wide load to pass.

The highways in Nevada are amazingly straight...like for a hundred miles. You will notice in the video that there are photos taken from inside the truck. Some are while it is moving thanks to lane keeping and adaptive cruise control. I never put Maggie in danger.

Still in Nevada, we passed a freaky solar energy site with a glowing tower. Into California and a fruit and plant check site. I hadn't had to stop for California's checks since I drove across the country in the 1980's. We drove into the Sierra Mountains to Mammoth Lakes. So very beautiful.

We met Julie at her hotel and got Maggie situated in the room. We went for a late lunch. Julie was getting as much rest as possible so while she napped with Maggie, I took a walk around the town of Mammoth Lakes. The elevation was very noticeable.

Day 5. Got some supplies before heading to Kennedy Meadows North to meet up with Bob. It is a short 110 miles mostly on California Highway 108. Incredible views going up to Sonora Pass, which is where the Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, crosses the highway. We happened to hit the summit when 3 PCT hikers landed at the crossroad/trail. We picked them up and Julie knew 2 of them! They were going to Kennedy Meadows North, too. I got to be a Trail Angel!

We were expecting Bob to arrive the next day. I took Maggie on a hike along a beautiful trout river while Julie rested. Bob had texted Julie while Maggie and I were out and said he would be arriving later that evening. We forgot Maggie's litter box at the hotel in Mammoth Lakes so the manager at Kennedy Meadows helped me figure out a substitute.... though Maggie never used it.

We drove back to the Sonora Pass summit to pick up Bob. We took another hiker who was looking to hitch a ride into another town up to the pass. More Trail Angel action! Bob hiked in just after sunset. He was with another hiker, Bespoke (trail name). We all drove back to the campgrounds and arrived just before the kitchen closed so Bob and Bespoke got a hardy meal before going to bed.

Day 6. Bob decided he didn't need to take a day of rest, so he and Julie went back on the PCT this day. I was already planning on driving to Ashland, Oregon to see Jill and her granddaughter, Ellie. It was a longer drive than I had originally thought but northeastern California is beautiful. I actually had to go back into Nevada for a bit. This is where California makes that angle jog because of Nevada. I picked up a new litter box and litter 😊

I saw two different pairs of sandhill cranes, the tall ones, and drove around Mt. Shasta. As I approached Ashland, there was a wildfire right next to I-5. I was shocked that the interstate was not closed as there were at least two large trees adjacent to the road that were completely engulfed in flames.

Days 7-10. I spent 3 days in glorious Ashland, Oregon, visiting my friend Jill and her grand-daughter. I got to see James Williams in August Wilson's Jitney at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. That was definitely a treat and highlight.

Maggie did pretty good as a house guest...at least better than last time we visited.

I knew it would be a stretch to get home in 3 days and wondered if it was really possible, but it was mostly a route Maggie and I had done before, so we went for it.

Day 11. Left Ashland and made it to Mountain Home, ID... a town we had stayed in before. Driving through eastern Oregon you realize you better have a full tank of gas. There is NO WHERE to get fuel for miles. We had to slow down twice for deer and fawns.

Day 12. We drove over 500 miles to Billings, Montana. We were on sections of I-15 and I-90 that we had previously avoided. There really was no stopping for sightseeing, however, this route goes along the Yellowstone River for tons of miles making for some lovely vistas.

Day 13. Had to decide if we were really going to get all the way home in one more day. We did! Over 830 miles and 10 1/2 hours of pretty much straight driving. There was light rain much of the way. The light rain wasn't difficult to drive in, but it meant we could only stop in specific places for Maggie to stretch her legs. This day was the most difficult for her and there were a few fits of "can we please get out of the truck!!"

But after all the miles, we made it home in advance of an event I had promised to attend. If you made it this far, congratulations and the accompanying video can be found here.

Home at last!

Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound

Quick link to video montage.

Finally, the last edition of the Las Vegas Road Trip.

Left Vegas on Tuesday, September 26. My first stop was planned in advance. I wanted to the see the Great Salt Lake. I had heard that it was fuller now than it has been for years due to huge snows in the surrounding areas over the winter.

On the way to Antelope Island, I stopped in Cedar City, Utah, to check out the Utah Shakespeare Festival site. I worked there in the mid 1980's. Yikes! The little outdoor theater is still there but now there is an enormous complex of buildings and grounds that are just for the Shakespeare Festival. What a difference.

Antelope Island is a Utah State Park that is IN in the Great Salt Lake and there is camping! I had reserved a cabin for two nights so that I could explore the area.

It turned out I needed to get home a bit earlier than initially planned so I modified my reservation to stay just one night. I only got to explore Antelope Island and not any of the other Great Salt Lake area.

The Lake was not full, but it was definitely spectacular and being on an island meant I could see the Lake from nearly everywhere.

There are lots of bison on Antelope Island and some mule deer but no antelope. There are also some waterfowl especially near the causeway that you take to get onto the island. The other thing that makes so much sense but that I hadn't considered was there are billions of mosquitoes...nothing like briny water to attract the state bird of Minnesota!

The cabin was more like a tiny house. It had a bedroom and a bunk room along with a kitchen including a full-size refrigerator.

I took what was supposed to be a short hike along the lake but turned into a long hike up and over a small mountain. I ended up doing a bit of rock climbing which I'm pretty sure I was not supposed to do. The views of the Lake were fantastic, but I was nowhere near the water. Nearly hiked right into a bison lying near the path which scared the you-know-what out of me.

I headed east from the Great Salt Lake and unfortunately was not able to visit the Utah capitol as there just wasn't enough time.

I wanted to avoid the interstates even though I was trying to cut an entire day out of the return, so I made my way up to US-30 to drive through southern Wyoming. My tourist destination was Fossil Butte National Monument. Didn't know anything about it other than it sounded interesting and would take me through the mountains off the interstate.

It was a beautiful drive as Fall was in full color in the higher elevations. I ran into (literally) some cowboys moving cattle from the higher elevations to lower. The geology of Fossil Butte is very interesting. You can read about it here. The visitors' center at Fossil Butte is really well done and informative. The trails near the visitors' center don't get near the actual fossils and there are still archeological sites within the park and regular visitors aren't allowed near them anyway.

I did take a really pretty hike that has good views and descriptions along the way.

I was hoping to make it to Cheyenne for the overnight, but I did have to end up on I-80 which was down to one lane of traffic, and I was running out of steam. I spent the night in Rawlins, Wyoming and was hoping to see some of the cowboys I had encountered on US-30...alas...no cowboys for me.

The goal of day #3 was to get to Grand Island, Nebraska. The only planned stop was Cheyenne to see the Wyoming capitol. Sorry Nebraskans but there just isn't much to see and I really wanted to get home.

The capitol is quite handsome. It was a beautiful day and I ate lunch in Cheyenne at a local café.

Back on the Interstate I realized I wasn't going to make it Grand Island. It was just that much too far for my tired eyes. I had gained two companions from Wyoming - a pair of flies - that kept me company but even they were getting bored.

I made it to Kearney. If you recall, this was the first stop on the west bound journey.

Stayed in a different hotel this time. I love those Belgian waffle makers that a lot of hotels have. Well, this one didn't have that but that had an automatic pancake maker! You know I had to try it. The pancakes were okay...the process was hilarious.

My last day was going to be a long one and I really didn't want to go back the same ole' Interstate way so I zigzag-ed my way across Nebraska to South Dakota.

I heard the falls at Sioux Falls, South Dakota were worth seeing so that's where I was headed.

There was one hiccup along the way. After driving over some railroad tracks, my tire pressure alarm went off. I was kind of in the middle of nowhere except the railroad tracks were in a small town. I turned right and wouldn't you know it, there was a tire repair garage right there in this small town! I pulled in, explained my situation, they had me pull around to the garage doors, two young people fixed my tire in 15-20 minutes, charged me $20, and I was on my way! To say I was lucky is an understatement!

I did make it to Sioux Falls and "the falls." I ate lunch next to the falls with food I had left over from all my road-food stops. I was tired but bound and determined to make it home...and I did.

Again, here is a link to the video montage for more of the photos of Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound.

The other two blog posts are here...

West Bound

Las Vegas

Las Vegas Road Trip - Las Vegas

 Quick link to video montage.

I am falling further and further behind. This is the Vegas portion of the Las Vegas Road Trip.

So, this was the reason for the road trip, an off-the-strip tour of Las Vegas call "Beyond the Neon." The tour was curated and hosted by Scott Mayer and John Zeches. You can get more information on the tour here. There is another version of the tour scheduled for next year. I recommend looking into it especially if you've been to Vegas.

The video pretty much covers the itinerary. Turns out I didn't take that many photos so the video is short.

It was nice to see parts of Las Vegas not on the Strip that showed the variety of the city. While many of the sites were casino-related, many were not and the casino-related were interesting from a historical perspective.

I'll leave it there and let the video give the review...click here.

Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound Leg

Wisconsin Roadtrip - June

Well, I've been back from a Wisconsin roadtrip over a week and finally edited the photos and put together the trip video. You can see the video by clicking here. A lot was packed into the 10 days.

First of all this was a trip with my dear friend Jill. She flew to Minneapolis where we started our driving adventure.

First stop - Madison, Wisconsin. Jill is from Madison. We visited the house she was raised in. The current owners had just sold the house and by chance, the lady of the house was there when we stopped. She graciously let us walk through the house so Jill could see it. Turns out she and her husband had bought the house from Jill's parents!

We went to the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus and met an old friend of Jill's and hung at the student Union. We spent the night in Madison. In the morning I took a run along Lake Mendota and through the campus. After that we went to the huge farmer's market that surrounds the Wisconsin capitol building. We went in the building briefly. It was a very hot day.

From Madison, we drove to Milwaukee. There we met friends that Jill knew from 35 years ago, Shannon and Will! Destination was the James Taylor concert at Summer Fest. Sheryl Crow opened for James in the ginormous American Insurance venue...23,000 James Taylor fans.

Spent the night in Milwaukee. Left for Door County, Wisconsin in the morning and stopped at another childhood friend of Jill's who has a house on the lake (Lake Michigan). Made it to Sister Bay in Door County for a week's stay at the Liberty Lodge.

The video covers the Door County portion of the adventure pretty well. But in brief and in no particular order we ... 1) took the ferry to Washington Island where we saw lavender fields, a really weird building that someone told us was a Scandinavian church?, and visited a rock beach. 2) sat out at Newton State Park (a dark sky location) to see the stars, however, the moon was so bright the stars weren't all that visible. 3) went to Cave Point County Park to see the waves (not too wavy) but saw what turned out to be a duck with all its baby ducks tucked under her wings...you had to see it. It was cool. 4) strolled in Ellison Bluff County Park where Jill and I had been a winter ago. 5) ate and drank a lot 6) went to the world premiere of a play at Peninsula Players Theater 7) listened to steel pan music at Birch Creek Conservatory 7) ate and drank a lot 8) it was crazy smoky (Canadian fires) most of the time but had a few days of clear air 9) hung out at a beach on the Lake Michigan side (beautiful) 9) drove across Door County (it is the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan) every which way you possibly could. 10) saw some beautiful sunsets. 11) and have a mentioned that we ate and drank a lot?!

After we dropped Shannon and Will off at the Green Bay airport, Jill and I drove straight back to Minneapolis. I've basically been sleeping ever since.

The weird building. It has serpents and scary things.

It also has these strange goad gargoyles.

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.

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.

Hudson WI Hot Air Balloon Festival

The word I kept repeating was "magical". So worth getting up at 5am for.