Rain on the Mississippi - LaCrosse, Wisconsin

Today's plan was to go do some sightseeing in LaCrosse around the historic downtown, and then stop back by the mall on the way home. We saw an ad for some sheets on sale and wanted to check them out. Since we moved into the Castle, we haven't had a back-up set of sheets.


At 3:00 this morning, we had a wild thunderstorm move through, with a lot of rain. But that passed and we went right back to sleep. When we got up around 7:00 it was gray and damp, but not raining. The weather man on tv assured us the rain was on it's way out, although there might be a few more showers in the morning. We set out on our adventure.


Amarillo has it's painted horses, Custer has it's painted Buffalo. LaCrosse has painted Herons. We saw several and got pictures of 3. Later, after we got home, I was able to find a little information about them. They are a public art and fund raising project. People can vote for their favorite Herons for $1.00 per vote.

This is my favorite. There are scenes from around LaCrosse painted on it.

It was gray, but not raining when we took these pictures of the river:

We decided to take a drive to the south, on a road that indicated it would take us close enough to the river to have some good views. Of course, as we proceeded south, the rain started falling for real. We found a county park called Goose Island, so we had to explore that. On a clear, sunny day, I think it would be beautiful.

We went on a few more miles and got to watch the rain falling on the Mississippi River for quite a while before we turned around and headed to the mall.

We ran into the mall in the rain and stayed there long enough that the rain quit. We did get the sheets. We also found a 2009 trucker's atlas. We get a little nervous not knowing whether we're going to get into a situation where we'll come to a low underpass on some road and not be able to get through. This atlas shows all the truck-approved routes, with low underpasses identified for each state.

We had lunch at the Olive Garden before heading home. We'd been back for maybe an hour when I noticed the clouds were disappearing and the sun was trying to shine. We grabbed the cameras to get some pictures of Lake Neshonoc.

This is one of the boat docks for the campground:


Looking back towards an area of summer homes:


Tomorrow is another travel day, to Brussels, Wisconsin, a little town on Green Bay. Somehow I never realized that Green Bay is a real bay, not just a town where the Packers play! We'll be there for 3 nights.

A Challenging Travel Day and a Really Big River

The first 30 miles weren't bad. But all of a sudden the pavement changed on I-90 and we were were on a washboard. We got bounced around for miles and miles. We kept wondering what Minnesota is doing with it's federal highway dollars. Every so often, we'd hit a patch of smoother road and everything would quiet down for awhile until the next rough patch. All in all, I guess we had 40 or more miles of really bad pavement. We also had a strong crosswind to deal with, so traveling today presented some opportunities for practicing patience.

Finally, we came to the end of Minnesota at the mighty Mississippi River. This is a view of part of the river as we crossed:

We arrived at Neshonoc Lake Campround, about 8 miles outside of LaCrosse, Wisconsin about 12:30. We traveled 197 miles and got 8.3 mpg, which I think is fairly good considering the awful road conditions. We bought fuel just before leaving Minnesota and paid $4.359 per gallon, cash price.

This campground is pretty large, with over 300 sites and 2 pools. It is situated along Neshonoc Lake. We're on the upper level at the end of a row. Below is our view in front of us. We don't have a lake view:

Below is our site. There is plenty of space between sites. We'll be here 2 nights. This is definitely an improvement over the campground we just left, but it should be - we're paying almost 4 times more per night!

I think tomorrow we'll do some exploring around LaCrosse and the river. We're just glad to be off I-90 in Minnesota!

Welcome and Fairmont Minnesota

Minnesota is known for lakes, about 10,000 of them. We've now seen 5, so I guess that leaves us 9,995 left to see. Fairmont, about 9 miles from Welcome, where we're staying, is known as the City of Lakes. Today, we explored the five lakes that are part of the City of Fairmont.

First is Amber Lake:

The much larger Hall Lake:

Lake Sisseton:

Budd Lake:
Finally, Lake George:
Driving around these lakes took us by some beautiful lakefront properties. This house really caught my eye, even though it isn't on a lake:

And, of course, the Martin County Courthouse. I have thing about courthouses. I like to take pictures of them, not spend time in them!

We also got the laundry done and shopped a little at the local mall.

I wish I'd been able to take a picture of the encounter between Mr. BoJangles and a local kitty who appears to live at this campground. While we were walking this morning, I spotted the kitty in a shady spot near the dumpster. I needed to dispose of a bag, so I went around the dumpster. As I rounded the corner of it with the dogs, the kitty and Mr. BoJangles surprised each other and they each jumped a couple of feet in the air. I think they were both embarrassed, as well!

Tomorrow is a travel day. We'll be just a little east of LaCrosse, Wisconsin for the next 2 days. On to more adventure!

Motorcycles, Corn, and a Reminder of "Home"

We didn't wake up until around 7:30 this morning, which is a little unusual for us on travel days. Could it be that we're getting used to traveling? Or, maybe we were just tired. Whatever, we still were on the road just after 9:30 for our 175 mile driving day.

As we headed east on I-90, we saw a nearly continuous line of traffic going west, towards Sturgis. While there were some cars, trucks and RV's, it was mostly motorcycles. There were motorcycles that were being towed in trailers or in the back of pick-up trucks. Motorcyles of every color, shape and size being ridden. Some were towing little trailers, some just had saddle bags. Tall handlebars, short handlebars. Men, women, tall, short, by ones and by twos. We knew a lot of the rv's either contained motorcycles in the "toy" section or in the trailers they were towing, even if we couldn't actually see them. Mile after mile, we saw motorcyles. Every once in awhile we'd see motorcycles going east. We wondered if they were lost, or just don't like crowds.

The other common sight was corn. Lots and lots of corn, on the north side of the interstate, and the south side of the interstate. Every now and then we'd see a different crop, probably soybean. But mostly corn.

We arrived in Welcome, Minnesota shortly after noon. We drove 177 miles and got 8.3 mpg. We didn't buy fuel today, but noticed the price of diesel in this area is $4.429 at most places. Welcome doesn't offer much, but we're close to the town of Fairmont. We picked this location simply because it's a Passport America park. We paid $25 and some change for 2 nights here. We'll get caught up on cleaning, laundry and rest while we're here.

After we got set up, we went to Fairmont for a few groceries and a meal. We stopped at the Ranch Family Restaurant, because it was the last place along the road we were on.

The restaurant itself isn't terribly impressive:

But when we walked in, the sight in front of me took me right back to Old Colorado City, to Michael Garmin's Gallery! Here's the display we saw, right inside the entrance to the restaurant:

They have many figures for sale:

I really love the style of this art:
Garmin's work takes me back to my childhood memories, with his "sittin' on the stoop" simplicity:


The waitress told us this is the only place other than Colorado Springs where Michael Garmin's work is on display! Another wonderful "small world" experience for us to enjoy, right here in rural Minnesota. Gotta love this life!