WHERE DID THE TIME GO ??

 

You can Double Click on Pictures to make them larger

We just realized the other day how long it had been since we last posted to our blog. 

We did a lot of traveling during the summer but nothing we considered majorly eventful.  So mostly, this post will be pictures of our summer travels.

Our first stop was MN.  Having never been to MN before we had no idea how impossible it is to find a site in any campground along the shore or any large lake without a reservation made about a year in advance.  We did luck out & found a place in Two Harbors,  just north of Duluth for a week.  It wasn’t on the lake, but we still did some sightseeing.



Glensheen Mansion

We paid a visit to the Glensheen Mansion, which was built in 1908 & had 39 rooms.  It is situated on Lake Superior & was an interesting way to spend a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice Butler's Pantry

Breakfast Room
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty modern shower with multiple shower heads
 

 

 

Breakwall in Two Harbors
 

 

 

We also spent a couple of days just driving along the coastline.  The views were pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

Light House in Two Harbors

Silver Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to a concert in the Park one night

 

We had decided we would trek across MN & make our  way to the Mt Rushmore area in SD.  Again, since we had no reservations, we knew it would be impossible to get reservations before the end of summer.  Soooo, we found a couple of places along the way to pass our time.

Our spot in LaPorte, MN

 

 

We tried to get reservations at one of the larger lakes in MN, and there are many, but had no luck. 

 

 

 

 

Our view

 

We ended up at a small RV park on a tiny lake & did some sightseeing from there. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We found Itasca State Park, which to our surprise is the headwaters for the Mississippi River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen walking in the Mississippi Headwaters

 

 

 

We also made our way to Bemidji one day to check out Paul Bunyon & Babe his blue ox.  These things were huge!

 

 

 

 

Voyageur National Park

 

We also wanted to go to Voyageur National Park, which was in Northern MN near the Canadian Border. 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we couldn’t get a reservation for anywhere nearby, we decided to leave the RV & take a couple day car trip, staying in a hotel. 

 

We took a half day boat tour on Rainy Lake.  It was a beautiful, sunny day & we enjoyed our tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a couple of Eagles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving, LaPorte, MN we made a stop in Grand Forks, ND.  We stayed at the Air Force Base there. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collins had read about the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site not terribly far. 

 

 

 

 

 

Front entry where they could see whomever approached

 

They offered tours, so off we went.   The Oscar Zero Launch Control Center and the November-33 Missile Facilty played an integral part in the Cold War in North Dakota and the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Signatures of the last shift to work here

One of two control panels in launch room

 

 

 

This site is the last launch control center intact  (November 33 missile facility).  We were given a guided tour of topside facilities and learned how the facility managers, security forces, maintenance teams, and cooks lived their daily lives at the MAF.

 

One of the launch keys

Karen's got a launch key

 

We also were guided down the elevator shaft to the underground Launch Control Equipment Building and Launch Control Center, where we saw the front lines of the United States’ strategy of nuclear deterrence. We got to step behind the concrete blast door and witness the equipment that could have been used by the missile crews to launch nuclear missiles. 

 

 

Launch Panel

This guy had worked there

 

 

The day we went, there was another couple touring at the same time.  The husband had been stationed at the Grand Forks Air Force Base & had been sent to this missile station many times.  He had some interesting stories to tell.

 

 

 

 

While in Grand Forks, we were able to connect with Canadian friends we had made in the Dominican Republic.  They live a few hours away, but like to come to Grand Forks occasionally to shop.  It was so nice to spend some time with Dawn & Stu Kletke.  We had a great lunch at the Olive Garden.

After leaving Grand Forks, we made our way across North Dakota.  We stayed about a week at Lake Sakakawea, located in the middle of the state.  It's the largest lake in the state & 3rd largest in the nation.  We were on a high point overlooking the lake & had beautiful sunsets.

 

Earthlodge of Hidatsa Indians



Interior of Earthlodge

While we were there, we took a trip to the Knife River Indian Village National Historic Site.  It was established to preserve the historic and archaeological remnants of the Northern Plains Indians.   There are the visible remains of earth-lodge dwellings, cache pits and travois trails.  We found it to be very interesting.

 

Beds inside the Earthlodge



Inside the Earthlodge
 

 

Items found in the Earthlodge

Tools in the Earthlodge

The items found inside the Earthlodges were very interesting.

 

Lewis & Merriweather Visitor's Center

We also went to the Lewis & Merriweather Visitor's Center, which was full of interesting objects & told the story of Their journey to the Pacific Coast & back. 

 

Entrance to FT Mandan

 

 

 A little further down the road was a replication of  Fort Mandan, which they built for the winter they spent there preparing for the remainder of that journey

 

 

 

 

 

Court yard of  FT. Mandan

 

Sleeping Quarters

 

Food available at that time

 

After leaving  Lake Sakakawea, we were on our way to Teddy Roosevelt National Park on the far south west corner of North Dakota.  On our way we passed thru the Geographical Center of North America in Rugby, North Dakota.

 

 

The park is known for the South Unit’s colorful Painted Canyon and the Maltese Cross Cabin, where President Roosevelt once lived.  It's a rather stark place, but had a certain beauty of it's own.

 

Collins loved the color striations in the rocks

 

 

We enjoyed seeing the wild horses & the herds of buffalo that roamed free.  You forget how large they can be until you see them close.  They came right by the car.

 

There were thousands of Prairie Dogs there.  They're quite interesting to watch.

 

Our next stop was Rapid City, South Dakota.  From here we could visit some well known sites.

 

We started with Custer State Park.  Custer State Park is a state park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota, USA.

 

Pronghorn Sheep

The mules came right to your car

The park is South Dakota's largest and first state park, famous for its bison herds, other wildlife, scenic drives, historic sites, visitor centers, fishing lakes, resorts, campgrounds and interpretive center.  We made it thru half the scenic drive & saw some great wildlife.

 

Our next stop was Mt. Rushmore.  It was impressive.  We watched the movie about it being built & were amazed at the process.  It took approximately 14 yrs to complete.

Entrance to Mt. Rushmore Memorial

Us at Mt. Rushmore

 

 

We found the Crazy Horse Memorial to be disappointing.  The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion.  If completed, it may become the world's largest sculpture as well as the first non-religious statue to hold this record since 1967. 

 

What the memorial should look like when finished

What it looks like today.

While in Rapid City, we decided to take a side trip to Little Big Horn in Montana.  The Battle of the Little Bighorn, commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which occurred June 25–26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most prominent action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. 

 

memorial for Custer & his men

Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. The total U.S. casualty count included 268 dead and 55 severely wounded.  The National Park District showed a great movie & presented a very informative Ranger program.  It was very sobering to stand there & look out at the battleground.  Seeing the placement of the headstones, really made you think about what happened there.

Indian Memorial

 

While on our way to Little Big Horn, we also stopped at a monument called Devil's Tower.  Devils Tower National Monument, a unique and striking geologic wonder steeped in Indian legend, is a modern day national park and climbers' challenge. Devils Tower sits across the state line in northeast Wyoming.

 

 

 

The Tower is a solitary, stump-shaped granite formation that looms 1,267 feet above the tree-lined Belle Fourche River Valley, like a skyscraper in the country. 

 

 

We also saw some beautiful red stone mountains & some longhorn steer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last stop in South Dakota was a trip thru Badlands National Park.  Much like Teddy Roosevelt NP, it also was very stark.  The mountain formations & the colors in them were very interesting.  Bison, bighorn sheep and prairie dogs inhabit its sprawling grasslands.

 

 



 

The Badlands were also the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

 

 



Our last sight seeing stop in South Dakota was at the infamous Wall Drug Store.  Anyone traveling west has most likely seen the highway signs for this iconic fixture.  One of the world’s most well-known tourist stops, it’s hard to believe Wall Drug Store got its start with something we wouldn’t even turn our heads at today … the promise of free ice water. But in fact, the Husteads turned free ice water into a million dollar idea with a little determination and quick thinking. 

Collins & Snuggles check out the ladies at Wall Drug

Today, gift shop & eateries are some of the amenities on hand at this 76,000-sq.-ft. sight.

  

While spending time in Rapid City, SD, we were trying to decide where our next destination should be.  We were heading across the country to FL for Christmas, but still had a lot of time to kill.  One day I asked our neighbor where they were going & he told me the "Amana Colonies" in Iowa.  Somehow, that was a place we'd never heard about.  Thank heavens for the Internet, because that was our next stop. 

 

The Amana Colony is seven villages on 26,000 acres (11,000 ha) located in Iowa County in east-central Iowa.  The villages were built and settled by German Pietists, who were persecuted in their homeland by the German state government and the Lutheran Church.  For eighty years, the Amana Colony maintained an almost completely self-sufficient local economy, importing very little from the industrializing American economy. The Amanians were able to achieve this independence and lifestyle by adhering to the specialized crafting and farming occupations that they had brought with them from Europe. Craftsmen passed their skills and techniques on from one generation to the next. They used hand, horse, wind, and water power, and made their own furniture, clothes, and other goods. The community voted to form a for-profit organization during the Great Depression, the Amana Society, which included the Amana Corporation.

 

Today, the Seven Villages of Amana are a tourist attraction known for its restaurants and craft shops. The colony was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

Needless to say, it sounded interesting enough to make it our next stop.  And as luck would have it, we were just in time for Oktoberfest!

Getting ready to open the first keg of Oktoberfest Beer

We thought we should sample some of the festivities while we were there

We also celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary while there, so we decided to sample some good German cooking.

After a weekend of fun, Collins needed a nap.

One day we took a walk thru town & also went to Wool factory



 After leaving the Amana Colonies, we made our way to Lake of the Ozarks, MO.  We have good friends, Wayne & Sue Doornbosch, who have retired there. We decided to pay them a short visit.  The weather was beautiful so we kind of bummed around for the day & stopped at a winery on the Lake for an afternoon drink & some munchies. 

 

Collins, Sue & Wayne

Karen, Collins, Sue & Wayne

 



 

Our next stop was the Natchez Trace Parkway.  It leads you 444 miles thru 3 states.  It was a natural travel corridor developed during the late 1700's.  It bisected the homelands of the Natchez, Chickasaw, & Choctaw nations.  Growing numbers of travelers trampled the rough trail into a clearly marked path.  In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson designated the Trace a national post road for mail delivery between Nashville & Natchez. 

 

We waited until the last week of October, hoping for great tree colors.  We began our journey in Nashville.  The tree colors were not as brilliant as we'd hoped, but were probably the best we were going to get.  We missed the beautiful reds of the maples & other trees we're used to seeing in the east & Midwest.

 

Double Arch Bridge at Nashville end of the Trace



 

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We camped overnight at the Meriwether Lewis Campground located on the trace.  It was a pretty campground & surprisingly crowded.  It had nice large, pull thru parking spots.

Memorial to Meriwether Lewis

A really nice feature of the Parkway is there are no stop lights or stop signs along the way.  There is nothing commercial on the Parkway itself, so it's smooth sailing.  Of course, there are a lot of pull offs so you do have to watch for some traffic.

Check out the beaver damn

Since we made so many stops, some days we only drove 50 or 60 miles. 

We got off the Trace Parkway for a few days and went to a town called Corinth.  There, we went to a Civil War Interpretive Center & the Shiloh National Military Battlefield.   

It's very sobering to be standing in a place where such fierce fighting & bloodshed took place.

After a couple days of doing nothing in Corinth, we were back on the Natchez Parkway.

Covered with red flowers

There are seven different mound sites along the Trace. 

Emerald Mound is the largest mound along the Parkway.  It covers 8 acres and stands 70 feet at its peak.  The mound was occupied as recently as 1600.

After leaving the Natchez Trace Parkway, we stopped off for a week just outside Natchez, MS. 

We did some exploring around Natchez a couple of days.  One day we went to the visitor's center & saw a film about the development of the town.  We also took a carriage ride to see some of the sites. 

We went back a few days later to view a couple of the old mansions.  When you read books or see movies like Gone With the Wind, you think these were huge McMansion style homes.  But honestly, there are plenty of homes today that are so much larger than these.

Our first stop was Rosalie Mansion.  It was built in the 1820s and became headquarters for the Union Army in 1863.  After its Federal occupancy, it was returned intact to it's owners.  Today it is owned by the Mississippi State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Rosalie

Huge Live Oaks on the grounds

Next stop, Stanton Hall. 

It was built in 1857-59, & finished just a few months prior to Frederick Stanton's death.  It remained in the family until 1894, when it became Stanton College for women.

Longwood was the surprise. 

If you just look at the pictures from the outside, you'll think this is a true mansion.  It's an octoganal "Oriental Villa" started in 1861.

 However, with tensions over the Civil War rising, and affecting the wealth of the Nutt family, only the lowest level was ever completed.  Many of the original building materials are still there.

It probably would have been magnificent if it had been completed.

For those of you who think all we do is have fun, here's a picture of Collins varnishing many of our cabinet doors.  They tend to get scratched after so many years.  Yes, we've been on the road almost 7 years.

We had beautiful sunsets over the lake at our campground in Louisiana.

By mid Nov we were on our way to FL.  We were planning to spend Christmas with our daughter Collina, our granddaughters Lexi & Brittany, and our great grandson Blake.  We slowly meandered across the state with a stop in Pensacola. 

 

 

The weather was great & we made some new friends there, Rob & Barb Sterling.  We all had Thanksgiving Dinner at a nice restaurant on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we had moved around so much during the summer & early fall, we spent 3 weeks chilling in Pensacola before moving down the road.  Our next hop was to one of our favorite campgrounds, Mayport Naval Base near Jacksonville, FL

 

If you're lucky enough to have a front row spot, which we were, you can easily watch the ships come in & out of port.  Here are a few of the many we saw during our 2 week stay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day we took the Ferry to St. George Island. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We checked out the Kingsley Plantation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

& had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After spending a couple of weeks near Jacksonville, it was time to go to Orlando.  We couldn't believe Christmas was just around the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

Soon after arriving at our Campground, we were greeted by Collina, Blake & Lexi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen, Collins, Collina, Lexi & Blake

 

Blake

 

 

 

 

 

We were off to have dinner & check out the Christmas lights in Lake Mary.  Most of the town was decorated & put us all in the Christmas mood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We noticed these Sand hill Cranes roaming around our campground.

 

Brittany, Collina, Lexi & Blake

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve arrived before we knew it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Blake is ready to open presents



 

 

It's been a long time since we've had a 6 year old around at Christmas time.  You forget how excited they are for the big day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lot of fun spending Christmas with this part of the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collins & the dogs were worn out by the end of Christmas Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we knew it, it was New Year's Day & we were putting the RV in storage.  We were lucky enough to store it in the same park we'd spent the past couple weeks.  Collina & her boyfriend, Mike, were nice enough to come help us cover & close the RV.  After finishing, we were off to Ft. Lauderdale to stay a couple nights, put the car in storage & on Jan 3rd we left for our favorite winter home, Marbella, in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic.  Lucky for us, we've rented the same condo for 3 years.  We love our wonderful landlady, Martha, and we feel like we're coming home when we arrive.  We were ready for 3 wonderful months in the Dominican Republic.

 

 

 

 

Collins & Snuggles were in need of a rest once we got there 

 

 

Breakfast with Richard & Brenda Kamm

 

 

We've made friends who also return each winter & occasionally hang out with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Dinner with Mike & Dian Dipenti



 

This year, friends we'd met in Punta Cana, decided to check out Marbella.  Mike & Dian spent a month here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, by now, most of you are familiar with my friend from grade school, Sue Hollingsworth.  She pays us a visit every year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This year she arrived just in time for her birthday.  We planned a special night with drinks on the beach 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

& dinner at a very nice restaurant. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red snapper & shredded vegetables roasted in banana leaf & couscous

 

 

They even brought her a surprise dessert!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of her visit was spent lazing on the beach & reading as many books as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One night when we went to dinner, there was a cat sleeping under our table.  We thought it would move when we sat down, but instead it make itself comfortable on Collins feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It finally decided to move as we were leaving.  For some reason, every where we go, the animals always come to Collins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collina & her boyfriend Mike also paid us a visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As most of you already know, our 3 months in the Dominican are pretty lazy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most days are spent on the beach or at the pool.  I often had the pool to myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occasionally, we'd stay on our wonderful balcony & enjoy the view. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the gardeners knocked all the coconuts off the trees so they didn't fall on us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our friends Ellen & Vic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last Tues night Happy Hour



 

We were sad to see our 3 month come to an end, but knew we'd be back again in January 2018.