Paul Bunyan and his babes: Remer, MN 9/20/2009

We had a wonderful evening last night hanging around the campsite and talking with Craig. He has a wonderful gregarious personality and is quite entertaining. Even though we woke up around 7:00 we didn’t pull out of the campsite until at least 10:00 – too much gabbing. (I think with Craig I met my match!) We decided to meet up at Craig’s Minnesota summer home, a drive that took about 6 hours. Ned and I had a blast driving through all the small towns and stopping at all the hokey roadside stands, like the “World”s Biggest Ox Cart”. For me the biggest thrill was arriving in Bemidji and seeing the original Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, Babe. We left the wide open great plains of North Dakota and entered into the mixed woods of Minnesota. As we drove by lake after lake we noticed some of the trees just beginning to change – hints of bright red and yellow. For the first time it really is beginning to look and feel like fall. How exciting! Craig and his wife Julie have a beautiful summer home on Lake Trelipe. Their back deck overlooks the lake where they have a couple of summer boats ready for fishing. We had a special evening getting to know them and being treated to Midwestern hospitality (this included supersize steaks, potato salad, baked beans, fruit salad and apple pie). We’re actually sleeping in a real bed tonight for the first time in over a week. Feels kinda strange to have all this space, especially since Ned and I won’t have to do synchronized turning. Tomorrow – land of cheese heads.

Center of My Universe: Graham’s Island SP, North Dakota 9/19/2009

Everyone here is so nice, like really, really SO nice. As we pulled into our campground last night, the folks hanging out in their chairs in front of their campsite all waved and said howdy. We took a bike ride last night and this morning and I felt compelled to keep waving “high” back to everyone. You can’t help but smile hearing everyone with their clipped North Dakota accents. We zigzagged between time zones (seriously check out North Dakota’s time zone line between Mountain and Central. It’s crazy!), and reached Minot at noonish. There’s a wonderful park in the middle of town that hosts the Scandinavian Heritage Center. We toured thru the miniature Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish houses and strolled through the park. It’s a bit cooler today, about 88 deg. and windy, so it felt a lot better to stroll around outside. After having lunch in Minot, we moseyed on down highway 2, our main corridor until we venture into Canada. The next town is Rugby and we couldn’t pass up a sign announcing “The Geographical Center of North America.” Today’s picture is Ned, the center of my universe, standing at the geographical center of North America. Flying overhead are flags of the US, Canada and Mexico. Classic road trip photo! Tonight’s camping destination is Graham’s Island on Devil’s Lake. It’s still pretty much prairie camping, but at least there are a few oak and elm tress scattered about. Ned’s cousin, Craig, is also doing a road trip. He’s high-tailing it from Eugene, OR to his summer place in Minnesota. He’s due to join up with us about 9ish tonight. Unlike us, Craig actually drives long distances in a day!! Tomorrow we plan on staying at his place in Remer, MN. For now, it’s happy hour so I’m pouring myself a glass of wine and signing off…