Potholes

John was feeling well enough to hike today and we ended up doing a long hike.

This park is known for glacial potholes. The rush of the water melting from the ice age glaciers picked up grit and swirled around to make these large potholes.

  

One (the Bottomless Pit) at 60’ deep is considered the deepest glacial pothole in the world.

The campground is at the other end of the park so we hiked the River Trail there…

…and along sandstone bluffs on the Railroad Trail back to the campground.

Our BIZARRE sheriff story

First, some background…Last week I started getting stuffy. I figured it was allergies with all the flowers I was seeing. But I was tired and achy enough to sleep a lot for a couple of days and got better. Apparently it was a cold because then John started getting stuffy. He had to really push through the illness to handle the drive through Minneapolis. Once we got to Interstate State Park, he has stayed inside to sleep and get better.

So…last night at 11 pm, we are sleeping and see a flashlight looking into our RV. We hear knocking on the door. It is a sheriff! He said he was told to check to see if we were alive. He said that someone reported that no one was seen outside our RV since we’d been here and we had Florida plates. They were worried that someone had a heart attack and was lying here dead.

Now, during that time I took two hikes and took a shower at the showerhouse ( no one had seen me?). The night had been rainy and the day was cool requiring a jacket. We’d spent our time inside the RV watching TV, reading, writing, and sleeping. Plus, with the door latch being broken, I didn’t go in and out very often. And, we’d only been there a day and a half. Did we set up our RV with our last breath and then go inside to die? 

He had to see my ID and run it. Why? If he thought we were dead, an ID doesn’t tell him I’m alive. Did he think we were criminals hiding out? He left and apologized for the visit. I’m still thinking how having Florida plates mattered. They don’t have people from Florida visit Minnesota? We’re all so old we have heart attacks?

Like I said, BIZARRE!

The next morning I talked to a couple of neighbors who were wondering why the sheriff was there late at night. They thought this was all pretty weird since they had seen me the day before.

I’m throwing in wildflower pictures just to brighten up this post.

Interstate State Park

We’re at Interstate State Park in Minnesota. It’s a popular park so last week we reserved the last spot available. The camping is near the St. Croix river.

There is a nearby town that runs a boat along the river.

The park was on the other (North) side of St. Paul / Minneapolis. The drive through town was “interesting” with lots of construction.

My morning hike was more challenging than I expected. I was told that the paths were hiking only and no biking because of the many steps. The Railroad Trail supposedly had 150 steps. I thought they were kidding. No, I wouldn’t want to carry a bike up 

I hiked the Sandstone Bluffs Trail. I counted 305 steps going up. 

The falls only runs a few days a year but it is still cool to see.

Nice trail.

Spam

I forced John to go to the SPAM Museum. After all, if we’re here in Minnesota (our 43rd state!), you have to go to the SPAM Museum…even if we don’t really like SPAM. Though, after trying a couple of varieties with their free samples, there seems to be some good ones. By the way, I mean the meat in a can not the type of email!

It is a pretty big museum for just discussing SPAM. A statue outside…

…and inside there was a giant SPAM sandwich along with SPAM cans moving along a conveyor. The story is that they are attached by Velcro so no one knocks them down. There is a lot of information like there are 203,000 pounds of pork shoulder and 45 miles of labels used every day in SPAM production.

I liked the mention of SPAMALOT that played Broadway while John pointed out when the old Central States Can (now Crown Cork & Seal) took over the production of the can manufacturer and produced the easy-open lid). John and I worked at Central States. He spent literally months working on the SPAM can and lid. So it was cool to see the can display.

BTW, the picture of us at the top was taken by another couple in an RV. We just happened to meet up inside the museum. Thanks!

Clear Lake State Park

The town of Clear Lake Iowa is not very big but it is a wonderful resort town. The park is on the water. The beach is full of people along with boats anchored everywhere.

On weekends the campgrounds fill up.

The houses are neat with some interesting art. Here’s the disappearing mermaid.

This is the pyramid house. An interesting place to live!

On a scary note, the fire hydrants have sticks attached to them so they can be found in the winter snow. They were about 5’ high. A local mentioned that the snow has gotten much higher than that in the past.

The latest issue with our RV is the door. John was outside the RV when I hear him yelling to me to unlock the door. I hadn’t locked it. Turns out a part broke in the latch. John fixed it so that the lock will keep the door closed but the latch portion was removed. Until we get to an RV store, we’ll work around this and use the front cab door more.

On a better note, turns out our RV neighbors are originally from Germany and the wife’s mother’s name is the same as my maiden name. She is also fairly short. We figure we’re long lost cousins!

John Deere

On the way to our next campground we stopped at John Deere Tractor and Engine Museum in Waterloo Iowa. Since I grew up on a farm, it was quite interesting. We learned all kinds of things like John Deere originally sold plows and really were hesitant to sell tractors when they were first available.

“Traction engines” was the original name until a salesman shortened the name to “tractor”. During WWII, many John Deere workers served in the John Deere Battalion which specialized in tank and tractor maintenance.

  

The tractors and farm equipment were very colorful.

There were excellent guides who could answer questions that used to work at the John Deere plant. There were lots of things to do in the museum including being able to sit on a few of the newer tractors.

Wildflowers

We are in FW Kent Park in Iowa. One of the great things here is that they have internet! So that is why you see the mass loading of posts.

Another great thing is that the place is almost empty. The place is really dark so I was hoping to see meteors with the Perseid meteor shower. I saw a few meteors, but the skies were hazy. Turns out this is from the smoke from Canadian and California wildfires.

The wildflowers are terrific here. The trails are through masses of flowers. Plus, I saw rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and deer. Not incredibly special but seeing them all on one morning walk is always nice.

An interesting find on the path. This pony truss bridge is from Iowa City and was built in the early 1900’s.

BTW, we have been passing lots of wind turbines in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.

Weekends

Kids are back to school in many places of the country but weekends are still busy in campgrounds. We’re not on a schedule, so it is difficult to decide where we will be and get reservations. On Wednesday, we started looking at where we wanted to be for the weekend and found that most campgrounds/parks were already fully reserved for the weekend. So, I found a later stop that had walk-ins available. By coming in on Thursday we could get a spot for the weekend. So we are at Kickapoo State Park in Illinois.

While we love that we were able to get a spot, weekends can also be a hassle with “weekend people”. The camper beside us must have decided his music was the only one good enough to be heard by all the campers in the area as he cranked it up during the day. At night (12:30 pm) he must have decided that everyone needed to hear his opinions as he loudly talked around their campfire late into the night. Sigh.

We’re camping with only our RV and not pulling a car. That makes it more challenging in getting around to places. We’re also using our bikes more to see things within the park. We’ve visiting more distant places in the morning after we leave the campsite or stop on the way to the next park.

The unique part of Kickapoo is that it is reclaimed land from strip mining. The mining was done back in the 1920’s and 1930’s so the reclamation wasn’t a priority for the coal company but time has repaired the damage. Here are the remains of a slope mine.

There are quite a few ponds here…

  

…and lots of deer at this park. On one walk I saw 19 deer in smaller groups of two, three, or four. Lots of moms with their kids.

Kickapoo has quite a few hikes but they aren’t necessarily in great condition or marked well.

The best one is Spooky Hollow that had these faces in the trees. We were told they were put up high in the trees so no one would damage them.

McCormick’s Creek

McCormick’s Creek State Park in Indiana was a one-night stay. The campsites are in the trees, which can be good since it is cooler and more privacy. But we were given this site where the trees made a narrow lane for the RV. Close quarters.

I did my morning hike. I hiked out to Wolf Cave. I first questioned why I hiked more than a mile to get to a small stone shelter in the woods.

I looked inside and was about to leave until I read a sign above the cave that talked about it being OK to crawl through the cave. After more intense use of the phone light, I found this narrow cave that wound around.  The full length of it was basically a fat man’s squeeze. I was glad to be short since there were parts I could stand up in while others might not be able to stand. Very cool!

We stopped at an overlook to this falls in the park.