On September 21 we departed for our long awaited trip to see the polar bears at Churchill, Manitoba. On the way we "detoured" to Minneapolis so Marge could attend the annual breakfast held by the Women's Physical Education Alumnae Association and to visit her sisters, Sue and Pat. On October 1 we headed for Dunseith, ND and the International Peace Garden to meet the Fantasy RV group going to Churchill.
The trip pictures and descriptions are organized so you may look at the whole trip or any of the parts separately.
Minneapolis and the Fantasy RV Polar Bear Express Tour
Tues., 9/21/10 – Estes Park to Valentine, NE
We left Estes Park and drove all day arriving at Fishberry Campground, a Good Sam Park 5 miles north of Valentine, at 7 PM central time. We lost one hour to the time zone and another hour to an accident and asphalt paving on US 83 about 40 miles south of Valentine but it was a beautiful day to travel and the scenery is wonderful.
Wed., 9/22/10 - Valentine, NE to Pipestone, MN
It started to rain - poured hard - at about 5 AM and kept raining all day. We hitched up when it let up for 10 minutes and drove north on US 83 to Murdo, SD, then east on I-90, and north on MN 23 to Pipestone. It poured the whole time. Visibility on I-90 was sometimes very poor but there is just no place to get off the road and stop.
Thurs., 9/23/10 - Pipestone, MN to Montrose, MN (Sue and Dan Beulke's)
It rained all night. The campground was practically under water in the morning. We took the camper with us and drove over to Pipestone National Monument and spent some time in the visitors’ center - it was too wet to take any of the trails. We watched the movie, read the exhibit signs, and watched two Lakota Sioux crafting pipestone. Pipestone is still quarried here by Native Americans only and made into ceremonial pipes and souvenir items. The stone has the perfect texture for cutting, shaping, and drilling into pipes. The pipe stem is made from sumac or ash branches with the center core burned out. Very interesting place. We will have to visit when everything isn't under water.
The rangers told us that the rivers were cresting and some roads were being closed, so we changed our tourist plans and just stopped at Lange’s Café and Bakery and then headed on to Montrose. We bought a delicious cinnamon bun (eaten in the car before lunch), a slice of “traditional sour cream and raisin pie” (Marge and I had never heard of it), and 2 half pies (apple and pecan) to take to Sue’s.
We drove in light rain most of the day and saw many flooded fields and creeks over their banks. We parked the camper at the Beulke’s about 3:30 PM.
Fri., 9/24/10 - Montrose and Warrens, WI
Friday Marge stayed in Montrose and Gale and Sue picked up Pat and drove to Warrens, WI, (about 3 ½ hours) to attend the annual Cranberry Festival. The weather was cold and misty but we took the one-hour “cranberry marsh tour” anyway. Our school bus took us to a cranberry farm and the process of growing and harvesting cranberries was explained to us. We walked down into a bog and looked at the growing berries. The bogs are dry while the berries grow and are only flooded to harvest them.
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Cranberry harvesting equipment
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Cranberry "bog" |
Ripe cranberries
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Back in town we wandered through some of the streets filled with 850 booths selling arts and crafts, food, farmer market things, and flea market items. We stayed at the Three Bears Hotel and drove to Tomah for dinner at a supper club instead of eating at the hotel buffet.
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On the "midway"
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Sat., 9/25/10 - Warrens, WI and Minneapolis
Gale, Sue, and Pat went back to the festival most of Saturday and had pancake breakfast with cranberry syrup, sauce, jelly, and juice. We walked up and down the town and aisle after aisle of booths and bought some things and were amazed at how large this festival was and how many people were attending. We visited the cranberry museum and ate gyros and cranberry ice cream.
At 3 PM we were worn out and drove home. It was a fascinating festival and worth going again sometime.
Marge drove into Minneapolis to attend her PE alumnae breakfast. After the breakfast, the College of Health and Human Resources (Education) provided a bus so the breakfast attendees could go over for one last tour of Norris Gymnasium for Women where the Women’s Physical Education Department was housed for many, many years.
Class of '61
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Norris Gymnasium for Women |
It was fun to wander through the place and remember events that happened during our undergraduate years. The building will be “decommissioned” - that means torn down – in the near future.
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In the evening Dan, Jake, and Marge went to the Univ. of Minn. vs Northern Illinois football game at the new university stadium. The game was not very good – the Gophers lost – but what a beautiful new on-campus stadium they have built! In the past several years I have been to a couple of the Gopher games, which were held in the Metrodome. A place that I thought was totally unsuited for college football. I’ll take the good old outdoors anytime to the artificial lights and everything that goes with indoor football.
Mon., 9/26/10 - Montrose
A day of relaxation which included a trip to a local apple/dairy farm where we observed cows being milked and strolled among the scarecrows set out for Halloween.
"Sweet relief!" |
Turkey - getting ready for the big Day?
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Scarecrow gallery |
Scarecrow gallery
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Tues., 9/27/10 - Montrose
Lunch with college classmates.
Wed., 9/28/10 - Montrose
Sue, Marge, and I went to the Minnesota Zoo. We stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way. It is quite a food store and had all kinds of different things. I bought banana chips and sweet potato chips. It was my first time in the market.
The zoo was wonderful. It was a beautiful day and not crowded. The animals were enjoying the weather as well and were very active. The grizzly bears were play fighting in the water, the sea otters were swimming, the tiger came and paced right next to the viewing glass, the monkeys and gibbons were playing acrobatics, etc. The zoo has very nice enclosures for the animals.
We went to Pat and Jason’s for dinner. It was Sue and Pat’s birthday and we had a great meal with pumpkin bars for dessert.
Thurs., 9/30/10 - Montrose
This evening we went to the Minn. Twins baseball game. Target Field is a beautiful new park and it was a beautiful evening except the Twins lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 13 - 2 having hit 6 home runs!
Fri., 10/1/10 – Montrose, MN to Aberdeen, SD
We hitched up, said our goodbyes to Sue, and drove to Wylie Park in Aberdeen, SD. We will stay two nights at this great RV park. It is one of my favorites.
Marge has laryngitis and a fever so she went straight to bed. I walked for an hour and only covered a small part of this park. I walked around the swimming and fishing lake, then up and around the zoo. They have large fields and keep Sitka deer, white tail deer, elk, bison, emu, llamas, and reindeer (I did not spot any of the reindeer), and all kinds of ducks and geese. I walked back through the walk of flags but all of the state flags were put away for the winter.
Sat., 10/2/10 - Aberdeen, SD
Another beautiful day and I went for another pleasant walk over to where a new campground is being added and then into Storybook Land. Frank Baum (author of the Wizard of Oz books) lived in Aberdeen in the late 1880’s so there is a yellow brick road as part of Storybook Land. I walked the road past Auntie Em’s house and on to the scarecrow’s cornfield, the tin woodsman’s forest, the lion’s den, the wicked witches castle and on to the Wizard and the balloon ride. In Storybook Land I tried to remember the poems that went with the large fiberglass characters like Hey Diddle, Diddle and Jack Be Nimble.
Sun., 10/3/10 – Aberdeen, SD to the International Peace Garden on the US-Canadian Border
We arrived about 2:30 PM and joined our Fantasy RV group. We parked in a wooded pull-through slot and joined the group for snacks and margaritas.