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. 

International Wolf Center

We took a drive up to Ely, MN and stopped in at the wolf center.  You get to see the wolves through big windows overlooking their outside penned area.  They have four adult wolves that roam the grounds and a few more that are in a separate area.  The ones that are seperated from the pack are in "retirement".  Normally when wolves get old they are no longer welcome in the pack so to keep them safe they put them in a separate area.  They get fed once a week -- a deer or something equally big that they feed off of for the week.  They do get some sort of "snack during the week.  You can pay extra to watch them "feed".

Our boss was coming back to the campground and stopped in the road because a big "dog" was standing in the middle of the road.  It looked just like her German shepherd.  She thought someone lost their dog.  Just as she was getting ready to open her door and call it.  The rest of the pack -- 6 more wolves-- came out of the forest to follow their leader across the road.  They say that one of the biggest wolf packs in the state is in the area by our campground. 

Beaver Action

We had a family of beavers working hard.  They took down a poplar tree that landed in the middle of one of the hiking trails.  Jim sawed it up and threw the branches in the water.  The next morning (about 4am) we went out to see if they had come back for their tree.  Sure enough all six of them were feasting on the leaves and bark of the tree branches.  All they left behind were smooth shiny sticks when they were finished.  So Jim sawed up the trunk of the tree and threw that in the water.  The next morning that was gone.  Not sure if they ate the whole thing or carried off to store it for later.  The Forest Service doesn't like the beavers taking down live trees along the shore of the campground so we have kept quiet about it.  Its too much fun watching them, listening to them chew on wood and swim away with their meal. 

Its been a little hazy here with smoke from the fires in Canada drifting down.  Last summer we ate smoke for awhile in Idaho from all the fires out west.  Seems like we can't get away from fire and smoke in late summer.

Biwabik

Biwabik is a cute little Iron Range town.  They have this nice town square park with a moose statue which is a little different from most town squares but this is moose country.  It is good to see this town surviving through the mining crisis that hit the area until China stepped in and bought most of the mines.    Now a new mining effort is trying to get going to go after precious minerals -not taconite.  Its controversial because its so close to the Boundary Waters but with proper regulation it should be ok.  The Iron Range needs the jobs -- tourism isn't enough for most of these little towns.

We were hit with a notice that our mail service was closing.  The owner of the service gave all of us (3000 customers) four days notice.  Of course your residency depends on this address.  We will still be South Dakotan's with our new address in Sioux Falls but our insurance premiums went up -- health insurance skyrocketed --even though we only "moved" 30 miles.  Now we will have to get new drivers licenses and new licenses for our vehicles because in South Dakota your license shows what county you live in and we are changing counties.  UGH!