Goodby Minnesota

October 15.  Time to leave Minnesota, it is getting cold!

I sure have enjoyed the fall colors.

We took several "Peeper" drives. Pretty trees were not all we saw.

 We were surprised to see these critters in a small pasture.

I wonder what they were. Based on pictures on the internet, I think they were yaks.

One of them was not satisfied with the nice grass in the pasture. He or she worked very hard to eat the grass as close to the fence as possible.

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. This was one small one. Maybe it was just a pond. The tall water grasses waved gently in the breeze.

The RV parks seemed to be telling us it was time to head south!  We stayed at Pete's Retreat for a week, up to October 1 when it closed for the season.

Many of the days were quite blustery with threatening clouds. This park, the Grand Casino Campground in Hinckley Minnesota, had shut down large areas.

The section we stayed in had only a few rigs.

Next we stayed at Lake Elmo, a small county park, and then at Dakotah Meadows Casino Campground near Minneapolis.

We enjoyed the beautiful fall color all around, but didn't do much walking because Craig was having trouble with his hip.  He is going to have it checked out when we get back to California.

While at Dakota Meadows we drove into the city to see the Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit. It was a wonderful experience. The still pictures below cannot express the full impact of the exhibit. 

There were two galleries; both had the same show. All four walls formed a continous screen. If you looked carefully you could see the screens were broken into repeated images but were blended perfectly. Van Gogh's work is all about light and movement. This projected show was made up of many layers of images from his paintings. They moved and changed and were accompanied by a fantastic sound track. 

In the first gallery (above) everyone either stood  or sat on the floor for the half hour show.

In the second gallery there were several benches. We stayed and watched the show a second time after scoring a bench the minute someone else left it. For our old bodies, it was nice to be able to sit.

 

Several of Vincent's self portraits appeared throughout the show.

This was my favorite. The flames on the candles flickered as if they were actually burning.

At one point I said to Craig: "This would really blow Van Gogh's mind!"

I appreciated the fact that everyone was required to wear a mask in the galleries. Not "recommended",  "required!"  Throughout our summer travels, we have met people who were not vaccinated. I am not afraid to ask, and if someone tells me they are not vaccinated, I just move away and don't continue any contact with them. The case numbers are going up in Minnesota, but at most stores you see very few people wearing masks. We do. 

This last week we went to a CVS and we both got our flu shots. A few days later I got my Pfizer Covid booster. Now that it has been approved, Craig will get his Moderna booster next week. All we can do is take care of ourselves. 

So now we are in Iowa at an almost empty state park in Clear Lake for three nights. The trees are just starting to turn here, but the temperatures are going down. Autumn is truly my favorite time of the year. 

[Update from Craig] Older rock fans might call Clear Lake IA "the place the music died".  In 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were killed in a plane crash near here.

More Famous Than Mt. Rushmore

Ready to Take Off 

As they say, RV plans are written in Jello.

I won't bore you with an explanation of why we decided to head northeast instead of west, but the fact is we decided to skip Mt. Rushmore for now and head to Minnesota instead. 

 Most of my fellow RV friends know who's living there this summer. 

Someone more famous than the four stone heads: 

Merikay, Judy Bell, Craig

Judy is a wonderful retired teacher who has spent many years volunteering at Wildlife Refuges thoroughout the country. She lives, and travels, with her "wild child" dog Emma in their 38' Winnebago. They spend about five months in the North, currently Tamarac Wildlife Reserve in Minnesota, and five months in the South. Judy is well know in the RV blogging community for her excellent bird photography and her down-to-earth daily blog.  My best description of Judy is that she is real.  

I found Judy's blog, Travels With Emma, almost four years ago. She has been an inspiration and role model for me in many ways. Perhaps it is because she doesn't "sugar coat" anything, but doesn't complain or grouch either.  

We were delighted to meet her, and delighted to find that in person she is no different.  What you read is what you get!  

We had always planned on visiting Judy someday, and hoped she would spend a day with us. I knew she had had a lot of visitors this summer, but when we contacted her, she replied with a welcoming email telling us she would be working at  the Visitor's Center on Saturday afternoon, but would be happy to take us on a tour of the Reserve on Sunday!

We drove from Sioux Falls, SD to an RV park across from the Itasca MN State Park on Friday. Met Judy at the VC on Saturday, and had a wonderful day with her on Sunday:

  

Driving a Reserve-owned truck, we were able to see some of the back road areas where the public is not allowed. Judy completed a couple of her usual jobs, restocking kiosk pamphlet boxes and picking up trash while checking for downed trees along the trails.  So the use of the truck was "official." 

So many ponds and lakes!  This was one of many postcard views we stopped to enjoy.

 I liked the shapes of the shoreline and the weed mat in the water. The water was crystal clear, and we could see the vegetation gracefully swaying in the currents. This picture was taken from a small but sturdy wooden bridge on the Otter Tail River. 

At one of the bridges Judy showed us claw marks and tufts of black hair caught in the rough wood of the bridge rails. It was from where the bear rub to scratch their backs.

We saw more wildlife with Judy than if we had been alone, but everything we did see was pretty far away.  That was OK. If you want to count on seeing animals or birds up close, go to a zoo. Just driving around and seeing the natural habitat was remarkable. Judy pointed out an Osprey nest with young, an Eagle nest, also with young and the parents in the distant sky. We saw beaver lodges, Trumpeter swans, and loons. Later in the evening we heard the loons while having a nice cookout at Judy's RV.

Along with the bear hair, she showed us other evidence of other unseen wildlife. This was twice the size of any domestic dog poop  we have ever seen.

Wolf Scat, This puppy wasn't eating Purina!

This entire day will hold one of the "top" positions in my list of good memories.  

Thank you, Judy. 

We will visit the stone heads another time. Probably next summer when we wander through Yellowstone.

Making plans is fun.  Being able to change them is priceless.