Terry Redlin Museum

After leaving Wadena, MN we got back on highway 210 and followed it the rest of the way across western Minnesota and into South Dakota where it dumped into interstate 29.  We stayed at a nice little campground in a cute little town called Summit.  We got stuck there an extra day because of high winds.  We made the best of it by taking the day and driving down to Watertown to the Redlin Art Museum.  The building and the grounds are impressive for being in a small town in South Dakota.   Redlin's paintings are known for showing cabin life and old homesteads with an interesting use of light.  Kind of like Thomas Kincade paintings use light.   The museum has three floors filled with paintings and two gift stores.   He passed away in 2016 after a battle with Alzhiemers.  They were displaying the last painting he was working on which he left not quite finished.   The museum is free and is well worth a stop if you are on I-29. 

We spent a few days in Mitchell, SD so I could get my routine medical care done.  The clinic is right next to Cabela's so that was convenient for both of us.  We found a tiny little hole in the wall place to have a bite to eat.  It was scary looking on the outside but it had gotten good reviews so we thought we would chance it.   It was clean and brightly painted on the inside and the burgers, fries, malts and onion rings were great.  Its nice to find a place that serves good food at a good price and is just a nice little family business. 

We are now in the Black Hills getting ready to leave and head to Wyoming and then down to Colorado.

On the road again

We said our goodbyes to Whiteface Reservoir and hit the road and are making our way slowly back to Yuma, AZ.  Our first stop for the night was a city campground in Wadena, MN.  I took a picture of our rig all hooked up with our new 4 wheeler - no more boat.  We are about six feet or so shorter now so it's a little easier traveling.  We are still longer than even a huge forty foot 5th wheel -- the longest they make- so we still have to use truck stops for fuel and stay in campgrounds with nice long pull-through sites. 

This is our first experience towing a small trailer.  We towed the 4wheeler around hitched to the truck and didn't seem to have any problems.  We hooked it up to the back of the 5th wheel and it looked good.  Well as soon as we hit bumpy road (most roads are bumpy) we noticed the trailer was rocking side to side like it wanted to flip.  We had to pull over and it looked like the 4 wheeler wanted to move back on the trailer just enough to put it off balance.  We stopped at a truck stop and bought more straps and added straps back to front.  We had it strapped rock solid side to side but that hadn't been enough so now it rides much better.

We are now in South Dakota not sure how long it depends on weather.

Beaver Breakfast

We have a family of beavers that live right across the lake from the campground.  For a few weeks they were swimming over to the campground and taking down some poplar trees.  They are building a new house in the bay directly across the lake from where we are camped.  It is amazing to watch them take down a tree, drag it to the water and swim away with it.  They also dine on the leaves and bark instead of dragging it away.  We have a fishing deck that is very popular and you could watch the beaver right from the deck.  They did not care if they had an audience. 

We are packing up and hitting the road this week.  Headed to South Dakota to take care of our mail since we had to change addresses from Madison to Sioux Falls.  We will probably go south down the east side of Colorado and enjoy some fall color.  We will be pulling our side by side 4 wheeler for the first time behind the fifth wheel instead of the boat.  We won't be quite the train we have been with the boat but we will still be pretty long.  A new adventure!

The "Root Beer Lady"

The Dorothy Molder museum in Ely is worth seeing.  Dorothy was the last person living in the Boundary Waters.  They let her stay until she died even though the Boundary Waters was a designated wilderness where no people or cabins were supposed to remain.  She became known as the Root beer lady because she made homemade root beer and sold it to the canoeists.  Thousands of people stopped to see her during the summer months. 

They moved all of her cabins and personal belongings to a museum site in Ely.  There was a very old tiny cabin and a summer cabin and a winter cabin.  You can walk through them and see all of the stuff she had obtained over the years.  It would have been difficult to get everything to her cabin because it all had to be portaged in to where she lived. 

They still make and sell her root beer and you can buy it at the museum.  We bought a six pack -- the money goes to the museum -- it was very good.