Minnesota

Today we are heading to Cass Lake, Minnesota. First we're having a look around these beautiful gardens before we head out. It is like a Garden of Eden here. So quiet and peaceful. I don't think I've ever felt such literal peace in a setting before. Our only regret was that we didn't see it in the summer because many of the flowers have already bloomed and are dyiing now.

So we move on...passed through customs the 2nd time but this time we go on through to Minnesota. I forgot to tell you the story about running into a swarm of wasps that splattered themselves all over the windshield and front of our motorhome. I've never seen anything like that before. We had a wasp guts everywhere. Grose! Then we stopped in Grand Forks, Minnesota to get groceries and when we came back out to the motorhome we noticed about 10 more wasps that found us through the scent of their dead relatives on our motorhome. Yuk!

Teddi is getting use to the motorhome and loves it! Its roomy and she feels like she is home BUT whenever we get out and go in somewhere then come back we catch her sitting in the front seat waiting for us! She knows she is not suppose to be there because she immediately jumps down and hides. So now we have to put her in the kennel everytime we both leave.

About 25 minutes from Cass Lake is a little town in Michigan called Bemidji. We stopped to have our picture taken with a legend -- Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Brian thought I was crazy but I said, 'This is something I remember from my childhood and I just have to see it'. There are other statues of this legendary lumberjack in other places in the U.S. but I don't know why Minnesota is the main state that features several statues of Paul Bunyan. Oh well, its a bit of fun on our trip.

We arrived at our campsite destination and that was quite a story. God was really watching out for us that night. We didn't have reservations for the campground on the lake we are staying at tonight and they were full up in the sites that have electricity. Brian needs electricity for his sleep apnea machine to operate and our motorhome doesn't have a generator. Anyway, we arrived at our destination tonight Chippewa National Forest on Cass Lake just outside of Cass Lake, Minnesota. They were completely full and because we didn't make reservations over the long weekend, it looked like we couldn't get it. Then I explained about Brian's medical condition needing the machine and the camp hosts told us there is only one site that might be available. It seems a man and his son come here every year for the last 30 years or so and they rent out two sites. The old man's motorhome broke down so he is staying with his son and they just parked the son's truck on this "empty" site. He's already paid for the site but maybe he would let us pay him for it for the use of one night.

Long story short, we went and talked to the son and the old man. Very nice people, retired navy. Not only did they give up their extra site but Rick, the son, helped us back in the motorhome.

We paid them for the site and threw in a couple of extra bundles of firewood that we had to buy there. Since we arrived late in the evening barely before dark, by the time Brian got the fire going to cook our hamburgers it was dark. So we haven't seen the lake yet but I'm sure it is absolutely gorgeous. It feels good to listen to the sounds of other campers and see the distant glow of campfires in the trees all around us. Temperature is a little cool but not bad overall -- late in the season but not frosty in the mornings like it would be back in Calgary.

Tomorrow is another day of adventure!