Across the Midwest - #52-22

September 5, 2005 (Sat)
Bemidji State Park, Bemidji, MN #9 dry $15.00 + $7.00 B

Minot, ND to Bemidji, MN (333/11456 miles) Q023773

Camping here ended up being more expensive than we thought it would be. There is a $7.00 a day fee just to be in the park! The cost of the campsite was additional. $22 a night without hookups is a lot.

Up, this morning, at 6:45 and got off at 7:35 (59.7°) - It was warm when we went to bed last night, almost too warm. But it cooled off nicely during the night. It was hazy as we started out East on US-2 and there was even some light fog 20 miles out. At 8:55 we passed the geographical center of North America, Rugby, ND, a monumental passage!

About mid-morning a class A motor home came up on us from behind. At first we thought it might be friends of ours but it turned out to be a man by himself. Although he was traveling faster than we were he tended to stop at all the rest areas so he overtook us several times. And in Bagley, Minnesota he passed us going the other way! We guess that he needed fuel and discovered that the prices went up as he went out of town so was coming back for a lower price. We filled up down the road in Bemidji for $3.09/gal - not too bad compared to some of the prices we saw today - some as high as $3.34!

In general the road was good even when the four lanes narrowed to two in the construction areas. The landscape was quite flat with fields of mostly soy beans and sun flowers. There were also some fields of corn. The weather was clear but very windy. As we passed through Grand Forks, ND we discussed the fact that this is where Ray Kelley (married Mark's mother after his father died) was from. We got into Bemidji State Park at about 3:20.
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September 6, 2005 (Tue)
Bemidji State Park, Bemidji, MN (2)

It rained during the night giving us both concerns about having signed up for two nights here and maybe spending the day cooped up inside. The sky was clear when we got up though, so after breakfast we took the bicycles off the front of Q for the first time since we'd left Homer, Alaska.

The city of Bemidji is 7 miles down the paved Paul Bunyan State Trail (an old railroad bed) along the Bemidji Lake shore, a beautiful ride. There is a huge statue of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox "Babe" in town that we wanted to see. It is claimed to be the most photographed site in Minnesota. But to get there we'd have had to ride through city streets so we decided to wait until tomorrow and see it from the safety of Q's cab.

This afternoon we took our chairs down to the beach and spent a couple of hours there in the sun looking at the water and reading. It got rather windy though so we didn't stay as long as we wanted to.
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September 7, 2005 (Wed)
Wanoka Campground, Chequamegon National Forest #1 dry $5.00g B-

Bemidji, MN to Iron River, WI (222/11678 miles) Q023995

Up at 6:30 off at 8:00. Our first stop was in Bemidji to help maintain the "most photographed" reputation of the Paul Bunyan and Babe statue. The next was across town (to near where we were on bicycles yesterday) to a laundromat - a needed stop because we'll not be in comparably equipped campgrounds.

US-2 eastbound was about the same as it has been for the last two or three days, flat without much interesting scenery. After about two hours we passed the couple (we think) on bicycles whom we passed two and four days ago. Quite a trip!

We stopped for lunch in a rest stop in Floodwood, MN and found out later that there was a free WiFi hotspot there. (We must learn to check whenever we stop!) To restock the pantry we chose Super One Foods in Superior, Wisconsin (across the St. Louis River/Lake Superior from Duluth, MN). We should have gotten gas before we crossed that river! We would have saved least 10 cents a gallon. Instead we paid $3.19/gal.

We're in a National Forest Campground with the usual amenities, atmosphere, trees, few people, quiet, pit toilets, and no shower facilities. We discovered that Wisconsin is like Minnesota in that they charge a daily fee just to be in their state parks. That makes the cost equal to or greater than private campgrounds. We opted for atmosphere and a low price. After dinner we walked down the path from our campsite to the small lake that we can see from our dining room window.
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September 8,2005 (Thu)
Camp Walmart, Madison, WI

Iron River, WI to Madison, WI (321/11999 miles) Q0243116

Up at 6:30 (43.3°) off at 7:30 (45.5°) Cloudy but blue sky in the distance. In Ashland we began to see a huge pier projecting out into Lake Superior and finally determined that it was a railroad pier (probably used to load the big ships bound for the Atlantic Ocean via the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. For wildlife we saw several white tail deer in the woods and risking their lives to cross the road and a lonely pheasant strutting his stuff along the shoulder.

Finally leaving our old pal US-2 we turned south on US-51 where we saw the landscape change from mostly forest and lakes to mostly farmland - wild rice seemed to be a popular commodity as we saw it advertised for sale all along the way. At first the trees showed definite signs of fall but as we drove south the color turned back to green. Interesting. Road construction produced some slow downs and one stretch of loose gravel - no stone dings this time but one SUV tried his best to give us one. Why is it always the SUVs?

When we stopped for gas in Stevens Point, Mark found a WiFi signal so we were able to download our email. We got cut off though when we tried to download our banking data. We pulled into a Pizza Hut for lunch and found that Q was way too big to maneuver around. We almost couldn't get turned around (backing out onto a busy 4 lane highway was out of the question!) We went on and found one in Plover. Our former traveling companions will be interested to know that it was a buffet and they had blueberry pizza for desert. YES!

Our host for the night is again Walmart. As I write this (6:00 pm) there is a class A motor home nearby - here when we got here at about 3:30 - and a fellow sleeping in a beat up old Chrysler wagon loaded so heavy that the fender is barely off the rear wheel.
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September 9, 2005 (Fri)
Moraine View State Park, Le Roy, IL #C11 elec. $15.00 A+

Madison, WI to Le Roy, IL (234/12333 miles) Q024550

Up at 6:45 (For the first time in a long time it was warm enough, 63°, not to turn the furnace on when we got up) off at 8:00 (sunny & clear 68.9°).

The interstate highway system isn't known for scenery and I-39/US-50 southbound through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois is no exception. It's mostly flat fields of mostly corn - although there was a silo at one farm that was topped with a huge Jack-O-Lantern, as big around as the silo itself. South of Rockford, IL we noticed that there was no traffic northbound. We soon came upon several emergency and police vehicles supervising a front end payloader cleaning garbage off the highway. It looked like some kind of trash hauler had dumped its load. We're not quite sure why the operation required routing traffic off the interstate 10 miles down the road. Lucky for the north bounders, traffic was very light - barely a quarter mile back up. A large wind farm further on added some interest to the landscape near the village of Paw Paw, IL.

This Illinois State Park is very nice and so far unpopulated. It was so hot (92°) when we got here at about 12:30 that we haven't done any exploring. There seem to be hiking paths and it looks like we might be able to bicycle a road that goes all the way around the lake. We've left that kind of activity for the cool of tomorrow morning.
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September 10, 2005 (Sat)
Moraine View State Park, Le Roy, IL (2)

It was 74° when we got up this morning. We're not in Alaska any more! We got a phone call this morning with the news that Joy's sister Frannie is scheduled for surgery - not for the aneurysm that she's been anticipating but an unrelated minor procedure - on Monday. She preferred that we come tomorrow as planned so we will be here another night.

The road around the lake is only 3 1/2 miles long so we decided to walk it rather than take our bicycles. It was a very nice walk through woods with occasional views of the lake. We were surprised at the number of other people who were also doing it - both walking and on bicycles (and some also in cars). The thermometer was approaching 90° by the time we got back so sitting became the most strenuous activity for the rest of the day. After lunch it was naps interrupted now and then with vigorous reading. The temperature reached the mid 90s before dropping back in the late afternoon.


September 11, 2005 (Sun)
Lee and Frannie's driveway, Indianapolis, IN

Le Roy, IL to Indianapolis, IN (174/12507 miles) Q024724

Up 6:00 Off 7:30 (hazy 71.2°) After dumping the tanks and topping off the fresh water we were on our way headed East on I-74 through eastern Illinois corn fields. At 9:20 we crossed over into Indiana and proceeded through its corn fields. Off in the haze we can see a big city, but there shouldn't be a city there. Brigadoon comes to mind. Then we realize the "city" is just a bunch of grain elevators. On through more corn fields.

Back when Mark was gainfully employed he had been in Crawfordsville several times on business. We thought it might be fun to detour through there for our grocery stop. He didn't recognize any land marks but we did get groceries. Rather than getting back on I-74 we followed the less hectic US-136 into Indianapolis. In addition to corn fields we saw turkeys in the road and Llama in a yard. And for a long while we drove along side a 10 hopper car long train (2 CSX blue and yellow engines, Ed. Don't know the manufacture, model, etc.) We got to Joy's sister Frannie's at about noon. We spent the afternoon catching up.
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September 12, 2005 (Mon)
Lee and Frannie's driveway, Indianapolis, IN

Frannie and Lee left at 5:30 for Frannie's 6:00 appointment at the hospital for her out patient TGN surgery. We joined Lee in the waiting room at about 8:30. At 8:45 the surgeon stopped by and told Lee that all had gone well and that she was in recovery. We brought her home an hour later and she spent the rest of the day resting.

Q got new shoes this afternoon. We had begun to hear noises from the tires indicating that something wasn't right so Mark had it checked out. Result: two new tires in front and a promise to Q that we'd have the alignment checked when we get home.

We will be here for 3 days.