Lanesboro, Minnesota

Hello,
Another 100 miles of rolling hills and cornfields and we are in the beautiful town of Lanesboro, Minnesota, the Bed and Breakfast Capital of Minnesota.  We are staying at the Eagles Cliff Campground on the scenic Root River a few miles outside of town.  We are visiting my old boyhood friend Gordon Tindall who is living here with his wife Val.  It has been about 30 years since I last saw Gordon so it is quite a special reunion.  Gordon has a dinner in town called "The Spud Boy" that he personally restored and it is really a work of art.  Gordon is renowned in the diner restoration world, this is the third diner he has saved from destruction and lovingly restored.
We rented bikes a took a ride on the rail trail along the Root River.
Lanesboro is a beautiful town and if you are ever nearby, well worth visiting.

The Spud Boy Diner

It's Open

Downtown Lanesboro

The Root River waterfall at the power station

Daisies by river

Many people from Norway settled this area of Minnesota

Bike ride on the Root River Trail

River view

Wyalusing State Park, Bagley, WI

Hi, Twinkles here today, thought I'd give Gearslip a break for a change.   

We are in Wisconsin now,staying at Wyalusing State Park near Prairie du Chein.  We are high on a bluff overlooking the Wisconsin River where it and the Mississippi River flow together - its just plain beautiful.   This picture is taken 20 feet from our campsite. 

Everyday we see something new and exciting - this morning it was raining a bit and gray so we drove to Cabela's - it's a huge one here, most likely a shipping warehouse.  Looked at all of the amazing camping things that we don't need, studied lots of dead stuffed animals (ick) and each bought a new pair of hiking shoes, which we did need.

After that, a quick tour of downtown Prairie du Chein, including a small purchase at a nice local quilt store, the Pickett Fence, and then lunch at a local hotspot where we sampled the specialty - beer battered and deepfried cheese curds.  Wow - amazing!  They are similar to fried mozzerella but 231 times better.  Maybe 232 times!

To get a bit of culture after our decadent morning,  Effigy Mounds National Park on Iowa was next.  Fascinating - we learned a lot; hiked up a giant hill to see the mounds and this stunning view of the Missippi river.  I got a new stamp in my NP Passport and a new medallion for my hiking stick.  Girly girl stuff ;)

The entire trip from northern Indiana to here has been beautiful - I had no idea all of these wonderful places existed. We are staying so busy that we totally missed blogging about our last stop, Lowden State Park in Oregon, IL.   One of the prettiest towns I've ever been with super-friendly people, a giant Indian statue, the scenic Rock River, the best tomatoes I've had in years, and (of course) another quilt shop, it's not to be missed!

That's it for today tomorrow is an all day hiking day - I'm sure Gearslip will have many new pictures. If you want to meet people in this part of the country, just carry a big SRL camera.  He gets a comment or question daily!  

Elkhart, Indiana

August 7, 2012:

Mostly uneventful (good) turnpike drive to Elkhart, then setting up at the Elkhart Campground and then a few nervous moments.  I plug in the power cable, turn on the breakers and have no power ?  Then I notice that my surge protection device is indicating a fault code for reversed polarity at the campground outlet.  I then plug into an adjacent outlet and all is good.  We notify the campground staff and they come out and fix the outlet wiring, great to see that surge protector work as intended.

Tour downtown Elkhart and we are pleasantly surprised, it's a beautiful downtown, with a river walk, great history and is even clean.  There is a police event going on, they are giving out free hot dogs and water and seem to be showcasing their bomb squad vehicle, robot, radical ATV vehicles and huge mobile command center.  Is Elkhart's RV industry some kind of terrorist target ?

We go to the famous Shipshewanna Flea Market, (largest in the mid-west), lots of real Amish there riding in their horse drawn wagons.  Sorry to say that most of the flea market stuff was just cheap crap, but there was a very interesting real antique auction going and the food was really great, fresh blackberry fry pie, fresh hand rolled pretzels, fresh cut corn off the cob, homemade ice cream.  Meet some very friendly interesting people;  old guy at the flea market who had a great story of how he bought his hat from an American Indian vendor (off his head) and then there was the old couple in the line behind us at the market who practically told their life story to us and the guy on the street in who asked me "What can you see through that lens ?"  Everyone you pass on the street have a big smile and a hello, We're not in New Jersey anymore !!!  And I found a very cool straw hat to boot.
 
Next stop on the tour is Lowden State Park in Oregon, Illinois, famous for a huge statue of Chief Black Heart, it is advertised as the second largest reinforced concrete statue in the world.  More will be revealed !

Maumee State Park

August 6, 2012;
We have been at Maunee State Park on the shores of Lake Erie just across the Maumee River from Toledo, Ohio since August 2nd.  It's a very well laid out campground with a public beach and lots of natural vegetation and ponds.  We've kept busy doing all sorts of things;

Farmers Market in downtown Toledo-Fantastic
Toured downtown Toledo on Saturday; the usual deserted downtown, mostly closed up, but lots of interesting buildings and sights, vibrant minor league baseball stadium for the Toledo Mud Hens
Dinner at the "Crazy Lady Saloon" real friendly local flavor establishment, Twinkles new favorite Summer Shandy beer on tap !
Nice hike on Maumee State Park nature center boardwalk trail
Lunch at Tony Packos with the internationally famous hungarian hot dogs amidst the walls of signed celebrity hot dog buns
Toured the "Falling Timbers Battlefield" adjacent to the "Falling Timbers Mall" where General Anthony Wayne's colonial forces defeated the indians resulting in a treaty that basically gave Ohio territory to the colonists
Visited the S.S. James M. Schoonmaker, a docked Great Lakes Ship that was once the Word's largest bulk freighter
Visited the Cedar Point wildlife preserve and the Ottawa National Wildlife Preserve

Wow, I'm tired ! photos to follow.  Another move day tomorrow, to Elkhart, Indiana for a short two day stay, Twinkles excited about quilting in the area !
Goodnight

Maumee Park boardwalk trail

Want to go for a swim ?

Big old ship

Toledo farmers market

Mud Hen's fan

That's good knitting

Packos autographed Hot Dog buns

Falling Timbers Monument

Relaxing on shores of Lake Erie

August 1, 2012:

I take another ride to Cleveland for a photo shoot while Twinkles stays at the camp and cleans the RV, what a girl !   I just want to go downtown and wander around, my favorite thing.  I follow signs for downtown and pull carefully into parking garage and find a spot on the 5th floor.  I am on Euclid Street which is kind of the center of the action.  Lots of interesting architecture everywhere, really impressed by the Soldiers and Sailers Monument, the Key Center, the 4th street entertainment district, the veterans memorial plaza, the old stone church and lots more.  Then carefully working Clark back down and around those tight corners (not made for a dually) of the parking garage and back to camp.

Street guitars are all over downtown

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

Toledo Civil War soldiers names

4th Street entertainment district

Old Stone Church

4th Street area

Fountain

Strange look !

July 30, 2012:

The trouble with a black truck is it really show the dirt, so I went to Alliance , (home of the Ohio state flower, the red carnation), found a place to wash it, then had lunch at the 57 Diner which was a nostalgic automotive themed diner and it was great ! 

July 31, 2012 - Famous as the birthday of Twinkles. Another little known fact is : The Ohio State rock song is "Hang on Sloopy", can you believe it  ?

Trip to Canton, Ohio famous as the home of the Football Hall of Fame.  They had a special inductees event going on and city work crews were putting up bleachers downtown and cleaning everything. Everything in town is very sports oriented, especially football and the Hall of Fame draws lots of tourists and money.  No, we didn't go to the Hall, instead we wandered around downtown and explored the interesting Arts district and had lunch at the Arcadia Grille which claims to be the oldest eatery in town. I put Canton on the recommended list, something for everyone there.

Rock and Roll-July 29, 2012

July 29, 2012:

Beautiful sunny day for a trip to Cleveland following GPS, it gets us almost there, but in a slow way, then gets us lost in a construction area.  I have determined that a good physical map is still best to find the most practical way to a destination.  We eventually get back on track using another GPS program on our phone and get parked in a nice convenient lot near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I love this technology !!!  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a modernistic looking all glass building right on the Lakefront, very bright and airy.  The exhibits are very well done, highlighting the history and roots of the music in an educational way without being boring.  I was personally intrigued by the punk rock period as I kind of missed that period entirely and in some weird way find it appealing.  The featured exhibit is currently; the Grateful Dead, the long strange trip and that it was. This was a band that was totally on another level of consciousness, possibly from another planet, in a class all by themselves.  I kind of missed them too, didn't really appreciate the free flowing, improvisational, soft melodic nature of their music but always thought the whole "Deadhead" thing was mystical and fun.  Strangely, I'm feeling a little "deadhead" spirit in this RV life?

  

Then as we go outside onto the street we see an endless line of mostly young people on their way to the Kenny Chesney concert.  A sort of an interesting parallel; the Gratefull Dead and the "deadheads" in the tie dyed clothing and the parade of young girls in their super tight short Daisy Dukes, brown cowboy boots and the signature Kenny Chesney cowboy hats.  Also quite a lot of beer drinking in this country crowd, reported latter as 46,000 in the paper.

Then back to the parking lot, now totally full of cars, I wonder if I can maneuver Lewis out, the space from the back of the truck to the car behind looks shorter that the length of the truck.  I told Twinkles we may be there until the concert is over, maybe we should buy tickets from that nice scalper guy down the street ?  Twinkles didn't even crack a smile, no country music allowed !  It was very tight, inches to spare, but we eventually worked it out.  These are things to always consider when parking this monster.

Then a stop at a store to buy a new drip coffee pot, can't deal with the french press pot any longer.  It gets put away until we truly boondock with no power.

Front view of the Hall

The long strange trip

Lobby interior

Harbor view of the Hall

Great Lakes ship docked next to the Hall

Street mural along route 14 heading into Cleveland