2010-29 Minnesota Rambling

MINNESOTA RAMBLING
Duluth
Detroit Lakes
Mahnomen

Campground:  Country Campground, Detroit Lakes.  $15, ½ off Passport America.  Full hookups, gorgeous grassy sites with scattering of trees in a park like setting.  Boarders a large corn field on one site and railroad tracks on the other side of the street.  Train has not been a problem for sleeping.

Campground:  Shooting Star Casino, Mahnomen Minn.  $20 with Casino card.  $5 bonus casino $$. Nice paved sites with grass in-between each site.  Very quiet at night.

axle realignment

I finished up my projects in the Duluth area.  The campers tires are back in alignment.  Many Rv dealers will try and tell you that a trailer or 5th wheel doesn’t need aligning, but they are wrong.  You will need to go to a professional truck company for alignment of the axles and tires on a trailer/5th wheel camper.  I’ve had to have mine done twice.  The most recent was more than likely due to all the permafrost roads traveled on last year.  Or it could be something as simple and running over a curb or rough spot on the road.   Another note, your tires on your camper should be balanced or they will wear unevenly if they are not.

 My Verizon phone has been replaced and it probably was the touch screen that had gone bad.  I’ve really grown to love that Droid phone.  It’s my GPS, phone and internet access point all wrapped up into one.

Droid Phone tip:  When ever I need an address for directions, I look up the place on the internet, then cut/copy/ and paste it into a new Contact in my Google/G-mail acct.  It’s then accessible instantly on my Droid phone for calling or GPS directions.

In the hand of a big man...

Minnesota has lots of flies.  I can’t tell you how many I’ve killed in the camper as they sneak in every time I open the door.  They are also in all the stores and restaurants.  A minor annoyance but one that I’m sure the locals are not thrilled with.  I unrolled my awning the other day and there were about 50 flies hiding in the folds.  Yuck.

In the Detroit Lakes area alone there are over 400 lakes in the county.  They have a large music festival the end of July with over 70,000+ in attendance.  Kind of glad I missed that one.  I understand it’s a lot of people in the area and lots of drinking and debauchery.  I don’t know how I would fit in… I’m really only passing through the area so not much to report on the area.  There are also lots of rails-to-trails bike paths throughout the region for some great exercise opportunities.  I met a couple in their 60’s who come down into Minnesota from Winnipeg to take advantage of  all the nice bike trails.

I moved up the road about 38 miles to the small rural community of Mahnomen (Rice in the Chippewa language).  It’s on the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota.  I moved from forest to rich wind swept prairie farmland.  The community has about 1200 residences.

And today I drove around some of those country roads trying to capture some of the local scenery and farms.  Darn if I wasn’t a bit brave, even driving right up to some of the farms and asking if I could take some pictures of their barns and out buildings.  The two I stopped at and talked to the owners, I discovered were living on farms that were 4 and 5 generation homes and farms.  The first one, the owners had built a new home next to the old farm house which they now rent out to a wild rice harvester.

the horse with bullet holes

One of the owners pointed out the weather vane , with a horse on it and lighting rods on the barn.  He said “look closely, can you see the bullet holes in the horse?“  Sure could.  As he said, the farm has been here since 1918 and there has been a lot of time for folks to use it for marksmanship.  The second owners, Dave and Lois are also retired.  Dave does a college teaching course online and his wife is a painter.  She doesn’t have to leave her farm to get inspiration.  Paints on old roof shingles and has captured many of the scenes I came to take picture of.  Their farm as well as the others I took pictures of are all immaculately maintained with small vegetable and flower gardens.

What a fun way to spend a morning.
More photo's on my Picasa Site.