Day 19: Home Sweet Home

Driving from western Pennsylvania to our home was no sweat.  Many folks have since asked us, "Was the trip all that you were hoping for?" Yes... and more.  We were much more spontaneous this time around, taking side trips and lingering in spots that called to us.  We appreciated each opportunity to learn more about the way people live, and the untouched beauty that is present in our diverse countryside.

Next year?  Maybe California's Yosemite.  Thanks for coming along on the trip with us!
~Kelly, Ron, Nick, & Greg

Day 17 & 18: Cedar Point Amusement Park

The Raptor

We took advantage of Early Entry to ride a couple of killer roller coasters: Maverick and Raptor. Maverick boasts a "Twisted Horseshoe Roll" maneuver and a 400-foot-long speed launch through a dark tunnel. This ride was, in fact, a dizzy experience. Raptor leaves your feet dangling below you and is one one of the tallest and fastest inverted coasters in the world, featuring six head-over-heels inversions.  Greg met the height restriction of 54" by an inch-and-a-half, so we were cleared to ride anything in the park!

Once Cedar Point opened to the public, we continued to tempt fate by riding four more coasters, in addition to other rides. After lunch, we relocated to the Soak City Water Park to partake in body slides, tube slides, and the lazy river. In the evening we rode a few more rides in the amusement park. The worst part of the evening occurred when we rode the lame-o bumper cars, and my car never moved. It was stuck in reverse while everyone shouted repeatedly, "Turn the wheel the whole way in the opposite direction." Meanwhile I was being pummeled by every other car in the rink. Not fun.

The next day began by Nick & Ron chickening out of riding "Dragster," the park's baddest of the bad roller coaster. This absurd ride goes 120 m.p.h., straight up, over one arch, and straight down (with some corkscrews thrown in for good measure). Truly sick. I encouraged Nick to pass because it just didn't look like a healthy choice for a growing boy. Ron's choice was on his own free will.

We left the park in the evening and drove eastward to a KOA Kampground in Grove City, Pennsylvania. This was actually quite a nice KOA, one we would go back to for a greater length of time. But at this point, we had one thing on our minds: tomorrow we would be home!

Day 16: Adel, Iowa to Sandusky, Ohio

This day consisted mostly of driving (again).  We had to cover some serious ground if we wanted the pay-off: two full days of fun at Cedar Point Amusement Park.  We finished off Iowa and raced onward through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.  Arriving at Cedar Point's Camper Village in the evening, we had a couple of hours to enjoy the hot tub & pool area.  We also became acclimated to the area, park hours, map, etc.  The campground is right at the outermost point of the peninsula that extends into Lake Erie, smack dab in the middle of the amusement park!  Roller coasters with screaming people are everywhere.  We had a nice meal of swordfish and corn-on-the-cob before heading to bed.  Ooooh, I forgot... this was our first night of cable television in over two weeks.  What a treat!

Day 15: The LONG Drive to Adel, Iowa

This was our longest driving day of the trip.  I'm not sure of the exact mileage, but over 700 miles to be sure.  Add to that the time change of moving one hour ahead, and you have an extremely long & tiring day!  One aspect of the day that kept us smiling was the Sturgis Bike Rally.  We passed right through the Black Hills of South Dakota where tens of thousands of motorcycles rule the road for one week per year.  Lucky us, we just happened to catch it in full swing.  It was a crazy scene, for sure!  We stopped for gas in South Dakota, and there must have been at least fifty bikers loitering in the parking lot.  One leather-clad gentleman swiped the last USA Today right from under me at the cash register.  I kept just a hint of bitterness with me after that episode because traveling 700 miles without a crossword puzzle is not fun for me.  Several games of UNO and mountain goat briefings (from Greg) later, we arrived at a KOA in Adel, Iowa.  We had been to this Campground of the Cornfields once before, so it felt like home... even though it was nearly dark when we arrived.  The boys and I went for a swim while Ron cooked dinner, then we all crashed.  Lights out.

Day 14: Horseback Riding in the Bighorn Mountains and Devil's Tower

The morning consisted of sleeping in, doing laundry, and cleaning the camper.  We departed the Sheridan, WY KOA at 11:00a.m. en route to South Fork Ranch in the town of Buffalo, WY.  We had to creep up about 8 miles on the eastern side of the Bighorn Mountains.  There we settled in for a two-hour trail ride.  Though we all enjoy horseback riding, it was a request from Greg that prompted this outing.  He just loves horses!  We mounted Harley (Ron), Silver (Kelly), Dandy (Nick), and Geronimo (Greg) and hit the trails with three guides and a "ranch dog" named Charlie.  The dog really cracked us up... He would run ahead of the horses and chase all the squirrels up the trees.  We traveled some scenic trails through the Bighorn National Forest, feeling a true sense of the "wild west."

After the trail ride, we ate lunch at the South Fork Ranch.  Ron & Nick rated their Thunder Burgers among the best burgers EVER, and Greg also gave high praise to his Buffalo Burger.  We were sad to leave this amazing ranch, thinking we would love to spend a whole week there.  After descending the mountain using the same  Rte. 16, we headed eastward for a three-hour ride to Devil's Tower National Monument.  This monument, which was the very first national monument established in 1906 (thanks to our friend, Teddy Roosevelt), sits in the extreme northeastern corner of Wyoming.

This unique "igneous intrusion" was formed underground by molten magma.  Over time, the sedimentary rock around it eroded, leaving the formation of columns exposed.  Devil's Tower rises 867 ft. from its base and offers a nice mile-and-a-half walking path around its perimeter.  Giant boulders are piled around the base of the tower, so the boys enjoyed climbing them as Ron & I took in the glorious sunset that bathed the tower in a golden hue.  We observed some rock climbers coming down from the day's climb.

We camped at the Belle Fourche, a well-kept campground within the monument's property.  Ron and I attempted to play Scrabble while overhearing a couple engaged in a heated argument next door.  The argument was in Spanish, which made it difficult to decipher anything but the swears.

Day 13: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

The drive from Great Falls, Montana to Sheridan, Wyoming was pretty uneventful, except for finding a biker's wallet left behind at a gas pump.  It was loaded with cash, credit cards, and Harley Davidson Club Membership Cards, so we were reluctant to give it to the gas station clerk for fear that some money would disappear.  So we did our good deed for the day and tracked down a police officer to turn in the wallet.

We arrived at the Battle of Little Bighorn National Monument around 3:00p.m.  The Visitor's Center had some really cool displays of the battle scenes, clothing, weapons, etc.  A short film also illustrated the movement of troops involved in this 2-day battle, which were more complex than I had realized.  Next we attended a SUPERB Ranger Program narrated by an ex-teacher, football coach, and Vietnam Vet who confessed to being obsessed with this battle since visiting the park at age 14.  Now retired, he explained that he was living his dream by retelling the story to visitors.  I must say that certain people just stand out due to their passion, and this was one of those occasions where we felt blessed to have spent time with this extraordinary (st)ranger!

Greg and our Favorite Ranger

Long story short, more than 260 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George Custer of the 7th Cavalry, died in this valley of the Little Bighorn River in June of 1876 as the Northern Plains Indians (Lakota & Cheyenne) made one last effort to preserve their way of life.  On Last Stand Hill, Custer and his 41 men shot their horses to use as shields, but they were ultimately surrounded and defeated.  As I recall the ranger's description, Custer's mutilated body had been shot in the chest and slashed in the thigh.  One finger was chopped off, and his ears had been pierced several times with sewing needles to symbolize that he wasn't listening to the Indians' message.

The Ranger felt strongly that Custer was misunderstood by most Americans.  He explained that the 36-year-old Custer wasn't the cocky maverick that many people believe him to be.  Rather, he was a product of his surroundings, a leader who often charged way ahead of his men during Civil War Battles, always seeking to be an inspiration to his troops.  The Ranger drew parallels between Custer and Crazy Horse, the Lakota Warrior whose horsemanship and bravery inspired many.

Well, we ended our visit to the monument by taking both the walking and driving tours.  The landscape looks eerily similar to the way it might have been 134 years ago.  You could practically see the battle being fought if you used your imagination.  We spent that evening at the Sheridan, WY, KOA, where some nasty storms prevented the boys from fishing.

Day 12: Going to the Sun Road

We chose to spend this day traversing Glacier National Park the easy way: on the free shuttle!  We boarded a large van to drive westward from St. Mary's Visitor's Center to Logan's Pass, which is close to the geographic center of the park.  The 52-mile Going to the Sun Road is an amazing feat of engineering.  Built in 1933, the narrow road runs along some treacherous terrain.  Approaching Logan's Pass, riders have an amazing view of the heart of the park- the deepest and most magnificent valley carved out by glaciers long ago.  Every June the park's workers use heavy machinery to locate and clear the road beneath many, many feet of snow.  In fact, the shuttle only operates from July through Labor Day due to weather.

We were happy to see a variety of wild life in the Logan's Pass area.  We saw several mountain goats from a distance and about 6 big-horned sheep, which were loitering in the parking lot!!  We watched a short ranger program about What constitutes a glacier?  She explained how the layers build up over time, and how the pressure actually changes the structure of the molecules via glacial crystalization. She also explained that some melting on the bottom causes glaciers to move (slowly), carrying bits of the ground.  A large portion of her lecture involved some astonishing "then vs. now" photographs of glaciers in the park.

We boarded yet another shuttle to travel to the extreme western side of the park, the Apgar Station.  There we saw the beautiful Lake McDonald and did a bit of shopping.  Huckleberry ice cream was a must!  On the return shuttle we were lucky enough to see an elusive black bear.  This huge fellow was munching on some berries roadside, and wasn't the least bit spooked by the shuttle bus.

The return trip eastward took longer than we wanted it to.  We were freezing cold in our shorts & sandals, and we just wanted to be back at the camper to eat the leftover steak from the night before.  While eating these leftovers, we observed two Ranger Cars zooming out of St. Mary's Visitor's Center with their lights flashing.  We speculated that perhaps there was an accident, a bear mauling, etc.  The next day we read the newspaper and found out that two fugitives (one escaped convict and his fiancee from Arizona) were spotted at a St. Mary's restaurant at the exact time that we saw the squad cars speed off.  How cool is that to know that a nation-wide manhunt was literally a mile away from us, and we were oblivious.

We drove for a few hours towards home in the evening and decided to boon dock at a Walmart in Great Falls since it was so late.  This was one camper-friendly Walmart with 21 other R.V.s  in the lot that night (yes, we counted).  It was so strange to see people sitting in lawn chairs and walking their dogs around the Walmart Parking Lot.  Not my cup of tea... but who knew?

Day 11: Hiking from Cosley Lake to Chief Mountain Trailhead

We chose to hike out from Cosley Lake, at a distance of 9.1 miles, rather than use our last night's reservation at Elizabeth Lake.  Our decision was based on a desire to use each of our remaining days to the fullest. The extra day would give us more options for side trips on the way home.  Since the kids were really looking forward to the "cable river crossing" en route to Elizabeth Lake, we took a detour to the fork in the Belly River to find said crossing.  The shallow water took away part of the challenge, but it was still fun to ford the river while using a "hand over hand maneuver."

We also made a rather long stop at Gros Ventre Falls where Greg, Nick, and I went for a brief & freezing swim while Ron did some fishing.  A half-dozen hippie daredevils showed up during our swim and told Greg, "Thanks for the inspiration, Man."  They proceeded to climb up and do some cliff diving into the deep pool beneath the falls.  This provided great entertainment for us, and just as you might suspect, Greg wore a wide grin of satisfaction as he egged them on.  He felt partially responsible for the show!  Changing out of our wet under clothes proved difficult with a growing audience, but we managed.  No one seemed too concerned with modesty since bathing suits are an unheard of luxury in the back country.

Trudging forward to our final destination of Chief Mountain Trailhead, we tried to take in each scenic view.  Surrounded by snowy peaks in August, there was a prevailing feeling of "we probably won't see this again in our lifetime(s)." We rested and ate lunch at another ess in the river, where Nick-the-Designated-Purifier  pumped yet another two Nalgen bottles of water.  At one point during the meal, Ron dropped a ziploc bag into the current and shouted, "Oh, no!"  Without hesitating for a nano-second, Greg did a Super Fly Snuka Swan Dive into the rocky waters to nab the errant baggie before it disappeared down river.  He was a little bit scratched up from the leap and angry to find the ziploc empty.  He later explained that he thought Ron's cell phone was in there.  We all proclaimed him the Family Hero, loyal and fearless to the core.  But just a little bit crazy.

The last couple miles uphill were draining, to say the least, but we finally emerged at the parking lot (our starting point) in the early evening.  We found a site at Johnson's R.V. Park with full hook-ups, so we could take unrestricted showers.  A steak dinner at the Cattle Supper Ranch, run by the Blackfeet Indians, capped off a spectacular day.  After devouring the hugest t-bones and ribeye ever seen, we slept like kings and queens in our bug-free, air-conditioned camper.

Day 10: Hiking from Mokowanis Lake to Cosley Lake

Another shorter hike of 5.6 miles brought us to Cosley Lake Campground, which we had passed two days earlier.  This beauty-of-a-camp is highly sought after (difficult to get a reservation), and we were surprised to find out that two out of four sites remained empty.  Our only company was a group of three college students from North Dakota.  Nick, Ron, and Greg all took a "bath" in the chilly lake water.  It's hard to express just how painfully frigid this water was, and, I'm sorry to say, we decided to keep the video footage of Ron screaming like a girl (when he submerged) as a family secret.  It could possibly be the next You Tube sensation, but some things are best kept private.

Our campsite sat directly on the rocky shore of Lake Cosley, and the fellows spent quite a bit of time fishing and skimming rocks.  Ground squirrels and rabbits were plentiful here, and Greg befriended a special squirrel he named Porker.  I enjoyed walking the beach and doing some soul searching.  With sights like these, it's hard not to.  Mostly, I was contemplating how these (almost) untouched places seem to stand still in time... how a bystander like myself could witness a similar scene a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now.  Of course the glaciers are melting (experts predict that all of GNP's glaciers will be gone by 2020), but the character of the landscape endures.  Once again, I was reminded of my status as a speck on the continuum of time.

Day 9: Hiking from Glenn's Lake to Mokowanis Lake

We were overjoyed to have only a 4.1 mile hike today since our bodies were a bit sore from yesterday.  We didn't have to rush, and it was a good thing because our lunch break locale turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in the backcountry!  The waterfall connecting Glenn's Lake to Mokowanis Lake was indescribably gorgeous!  The upper part of the falls was quite wide, spreading out over an enormous area.  The result was only inches deep water sort of cascading over a sparkling surface.  It was so sunny that everything seemed to reflect sparkles.  I dangled my aching ankles from a primitive wooden bridge, letting the wind and water restore my strength.  Nick and Ron made "just a few casts" into the lake, and Greg persisted in climbing higher up into the falls than my safety standards would allow.

Eventually, we continued hiking to Mokowanis Lake Campground.  This pristine lake was like something out of a wilderness postcard collection with log pole pines and twisty white aspens bordering blue-green waters.  A muskrat's path left the only ripples in the smooth surface.  The food prep area was the perfect viewing spot for the splendor, so we sat there for awhile, soaking it all in.  We were soon joined by a group of 5 rowdy Canadians, who appeared to have their backpacking act together (except for a lack of toilet paper which forced them to use leaves instead).  They showed us a video made the day before where they were recklessly body-surfing down a deadly ice formation.  Greg thought this group was super cool, eh, so he followed them into the icy waters of Lake Mokowanis on a dare.  Nick caught the only sizable fish of the trip later in the evening, one bull trout and one brown trout.  At one point, we attempted to take a side hike to a set of waterfalls about a mile down the trail, but aborted the mission when the weeds and berry patches were taller than our heads.  With the sun setting soon, it was not the safest place to be in Bear Country.

One of the more noteworthy aspects of this campground had to be the pit toilet, which we dubbed "the throne."  You see, this wooden box sat upon a high hill overlooking the camp.  It had no walls or cover except for what Mother Nature provided, so a patron was literally left exposed while conducting business!  Later that night, 1:00a.m. to be precise, I begged Ron to accompany me to the throne, and honest to God, it was the scariest experience of the trip.  Probably worse than last year's rattlesnake scare in the Grand Canyon.  In the PITCH darkness, I was certain that we would be mauled by a bear near the pit toilet.  Then the kids would be orphans, raised by the crazy Canadians next door.  Well, we survived to see an incredible lightning display about an hour later.  We stayed dried, though, and packed up camp the next morning without any fanfare.

Day 8: Hiking Glacier National Park's Back Country- Chief Mountain Trailhead to the Foot of Glenn's Lake

We parked Minnie Winnie in a small lot only a hundred yards or so from the Canadian Border in the extreme northeastern corner of GNP.  Descending about 700 feet in the early part of the trail, the remainder of the day's 10.3 mile hike would be relatively flat, albeit muddy, rocky, and uneven ground.  We ate a lunch of tuna wraps at the edge of the Belly River, which snaked around our trail for about 4 miles.  Next we crossed a wobbly suspension bridge [max capacity= one hiker] before traveling through a wooded area leading to Cosley Lake.


Several hikers warned us that they had spotted two Grizzly Cubs and a Black Bear in separate incidents on this stretch, so we were extra careful to make lots of noise.  No problem for Greg.  At one point, with Nick in the lead, we ran right into a deer.  This scared the living daylights out of us when we saw movement in the brush only feet away.

The views became even more breathtaking as we continued deeper into the wilderness. We entered a valley between Cosley Ridge and Mts. Kaina & Cleveland containing a chain of lakes.  There we enjoyed our first glacier sightings in the distance: White Crow Glacier and Miche Wabun Glacier.

We arrived at the Foot of Glenn's Lake Campground in the mid afternoon to find two other hiking groups.  One middle-aged couple was from Minnesota, and a younger couple hailed from Washington.  This four-site campground had its own food prep area, hanging pole (to protect the food from bears), and a rather disgusting pit toilet.  A pack of resident nuisance deer were very aggressive and would steal any salty/sweaty items left unguarded.  The Man from Minnesota had his shirt, pants, and hat stolen by the deer and proceeded to chase the hoofed scoundrels around camp.

We set up our tent, being careful not to leave anything out for the deer.  We ate some re-hydrated beef stew for dinner and played a quick game of Crazy Eights before going to bed.

Day 7: Great Falls, MT to Glacier National Park

The three-hour drive northwestward through Montana seemed like a hop, skip, and a jump.  It's all relative, I suppose.  We had some serious business to take care of- namely, to renegotiate our backcountry itinerary with a Park Ranger and to secure lodging for the night.  We couldn't make advanced reservations at an r.v. park in Glacier because the in-park campgrounds are all "first come, first served."  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Visitor's Center... A Riley Tour Bus drove into the parking lot at the same time as we did.  At first we laughed at the coincidence, thinking that this vehicle couldn't possibly be Bus #304.  After all, we were 900 miles away from the site of our previous encounter with that particular tour bus.  In synchronicity, Ron and the boys did a double take.  YES, this was the same bus that nearly side-swiped us on the Scenic Drive of Teddy Roosevelt National Park!  What are the odds?

Anyhow, we were successful in adjusting our 4-night backcountry permit to include better glacial views and less double-tracking.  We listened attentively as the ranger cautioned us to "use ONLY the pit toilets for our bathroom needs while at the backcountry camps because the nuisance animals are attracted to the salt." Yuck.  She also warned us about the possibility of hypothermia and attacks by bears and mountain lions.  All things that have already been carefully contemplated by yours truly.  $60 later (what a bargain!) we were on our way to find a home for the night.  We needed to put some finishing touches on our packs and get a good night's sleep.

Finding a place to stay proved difficult as the in-park campgrounds were all full.  We drove around the St. Mary's area, part of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, looking for a private campground.  You might expect a tourist mecca of shops, motels, & restaurants outside of the park's biggest eastern entrance.  Surprise, surprise... no luck.  We did find a few scary-looking, uninhabited r.v. parks with cobwebbed OPEN signs at the gates.  No, thank you.  That's footage for the next horror movie.  Eventually, we settled for the overflow lot at the nearby KOA.  We chowed down on a lame meal of pasta & sauce.  After showering for the last time before leaving civilization, I confess to throwing a minor fit when Ron told me I couldn't blow dry my hair due to our lack of an electrical hook-up.  It was too late to run the generator.  Hmph.  Well, I compromised and trudged a ways down to the KOA bathroom hut, which was surprisingly clean and modern.  Three other campers knocked on my single-room stall to ask, "Are you almost done?" prompting me to go even slower with the most satisfying blow-dry of my life.

Back at the camper, the fellows were nearly done preparing the packs, poles, boots, etc.  I saw them sneaking a few extra fishing lures into the case and told them that I was NOT, under any circumstances, going to skimp on underwear (to save weight) if they were going to load up on fishing gear!  We were off to bed after the obligatory ice cream, dreaming of our upcoming days in the backcountry.

Day 6: North Dakota to Great Falls, MT

Teddy Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin

Feral Horses at Teddy Roosevelt National Park

A Lone Bison at TRNP

We awoke early in order to enjoy the 36-mile Scenic Drive Loop in Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) before setting out for Montana.  Way less crowded than the other National Parks we have visited, TRNP boasts a huge bison population of 300 in the southern unit, along with 900 elk and 85 feral horses.  Oddly, we saw zero elk, but boy did we strike gold with the bison.  These beasts were everywhere, and we saw no less than 80 or 90 of them.  Not only did we get close enough to hear them grunting at us roadside (maybe 15 feet away from the camper!), but we also saw them in their natural grandeur.  My favorite scene was a small herd of about 8 bison charging full speed down a high slope in the distance.  It gave me a "flash from the past" feeling of how the Great Plains must have looked when these animals numbered in the millions before almost becoming extinct by the 1880's.  Another of my favorite sites was a lone buffalo sitting atop a high ridge... a true King of the Mountain.  Life on the road does have its challenges, though, and shortly after reveling in the bison encounters, we were nearly side-swiped by a large bus of tourists trying to pass us in a no-pass zone on the narrow Scenic Drive!  Ron just couldn't let it go and later confronted the bus driver when we met by chance at the Medora Visitor's Center later in the morning.  We debated on whether to report him to the Riley Bus Company, but ultimately decided that he wasn't worth any more of our time.  Suffice to say that this curmudgeon added a heavy pull to the dark side of our human nature experiment.

Onward we traveled through Montana.  We gambled on the smaller Rte. 12 instead of the Interstate to take us to Great Falls, MT.  Never, and I mean NEVER, have we experienced such a remote No Man's Land.  During a 100-mile stretch, driving a constant 60 m.p.h., we crossed only 8 cars and saw no signs of human beings until the last couple of miles.  No houses existed there, except for a few abandoned ones.  No power lines or side roads.  Nothing but grass and sky.  It was a little disconcerting to think about the camper breaking down in such a location, with the absence of cell service and all.  To pass the time, the kids watched Forest Gump (again) while Ron and I completed two crossword puzzles.  We arrived at Great Falls, Montana at about 7:15p.m., hungry and tired.  The kids were happy to find a mini water park at the KOA.  The evening ended with S'mores cooked on a fire built by Greg & Nick.

Day 5: Minnesota to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, ND

Driving through North Dakota

[Pardon the lack of posts lately... We've been without Internet access for several days.  We'll try to catch up soon!]

Painted Canyon

Cottonwood Campground, TRNP

An easy 9-hour drive westbound on I-94 through North Dakota brought us to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, a prelude to Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TRNP).  There we were treated to a gorgeous panorama of bluffs with multi-colored striations. The landscape resembled the Badlands of South Dakota, only with a much more "lush" feel.  There were lots of green areas- including sagebrush- dispersed between the rock formations.  Being 4:00p.m., we swiftly moved on to the gates of TRNP in order to secure a spot at the park's first come, first served Cottonwood Campground.  We shared this area with about thirty other camping families.  A short-but-thorny jaunt through some weeds brought campers to the Little Missouri River... the perfect swimming hole!  The water had a strong current, but was extremely shallow.  So a swimmer could lay on his/her back and be pulled along a la a "lazy river" attraction. Nick and Greg caught several frogs and kept them in a make-shift pen.  Of course they under-estimated the leaping power of these amphibians, so these critters were escaping quicker than they could be caught!  The frog population surely breathed a sigh of relief when we returned to our site for a meal of steaks, twice-baked potatoes, and asparagus on the grill.  In the absence of hook-ups, we had to limit our power/water consumption, so quick showers to rinse off the river scum were all we had time for.  The boys insisted upon sleeping in a tent instead of the r.v., and we all enjoyed the comfortable sleeping temperatures (perhaps 60 degrees) that the night offered.

Day 4: A Day in Minneapolis

Ding Dong got his hose back by 9:00 a.m. as promised, and we made the short drive to The Mall of America on the south side of Minneapolis. Now we are NOT the mall loving sort, but the kids have watched the t.v. show called Mall Cops, so there was a curiosity factor.  Could it be true that this mall has a full-sized roller coaster inside of it?  Well, it's not just one roller coaster; it's a whole amusement park!  Honest to God... Think of it as an indoor Universal Studios.  The place has at least 4 roller coasters, perhaps 15 or more rides in total!  Overstimulation to the max.  The mall also has an indoor aquarium and CPR Seminar on center court, where they offer CPR Training Sessions to large groups of shoppers every 15 minutes using a massive screen.  That's a brilliant idea, if you ask me.

After indulging in a single roller coaster ride aboard The Orange Streak, we traveled to Target Field, home of The Minnesota Twins baseball team.  We boarded the Light Train (yes, the Mall has its own train station) and arrived at the brand new stadium with time to spare.  Good thing, too, because Ron had to pound the pavement to score four tickets (from a scalper) for this sold-out game. We ended up with two pairs of tickets with great views of the game.  And yes, the Twins did beat the Seattle Mariners 4-0!  The kids had a blast.

Eighteen stops later on public transportation, we were reunited with Minnie Winnie, who waited patiently for us in an IKEA parking lot the size of Rhode Island.  We drove a short while in a northwestward direction and boon-docked at a Cabela's for the night.

Day 3: Naubinway, MI to Minneapolis, MN

A test run of the new Starbucks Instant Coffee gave us the energy to depart Hog's Back Island at about 8:00a.m. CST in search of "The Big Spring."  It took about 45 min. to reach this state park, which is adjacent to Indian Lake about midway across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The crystal clear spring is about 45 feet deep and 300 feet wide.  Guests ride a self-steered, wooden raft to the middle of the pool and look through the center to see fissures in the limestone bottom that spew 10,000 gallons of water per minute into the spring.  The water pressure makes white sand dance and swirl on the rocky bottom.  Not the least bit cloudy or murky, the effect was quite dazzling.  Unfortunately, our photographer on duty (who shall remain nameless) failed to recharge the batteries in his camera.  So we have only the photos in our minds to share with you!

The rest of our third day was uneventful.  We drove for another 8 hours, leaving Greg's new "favorite state" of Michigan and crossing westward through Wisconsin on Rte. 8.  Boondocks... that pretty much sums it up.  If you are a fisherman or hunter, this would be a wooded or lake-speckled paradise.  We did appreciate the smooth, ribbon-candy roads, though there was not much civilization to speak of.  I did see a family of pheasants with the most adorable babies.  (Being the only eye witness, I can't be certain they were pheasants.  Perhaps quail?  I'm not an expert on such matters:)  Ron and Greg spied two bald eagles and loads of deer while driving & navigating.  Best of all, I caught a nice glimpse of a large, tan coyote on a grassy hillside.  Other than these wildlife sightings, the ride was pretty bland.  We arrived at Minnesota's Twin Cities of Minneapolis & St. Paul in the evening and checked into another not-so-hot KOA Campground.  A spotty wireless signal forced me to catch up on email & this blog at a dark picnic table outside the campground office.  Meanwhile, Ron had to borrow an extension hose from a KOA worker who called himself "Ding Dong."  A little late night television would have lessened the pain, but alas, no cable.  Boo hoo.