Since this is developing as a sort of "retirement travels" blog, I thought I better catch it up to include what we did this summer and fall. I don't intend to recreate the day-to-day adventures. However, our goal is to have stayed overnight (with friends, camping, and/or in motel/hotel) in every state of the union. And we added to our progress towards that goal in July, with a trip to Chevy Chase and brother Hank's house. We went via daughter Sarah's in Indianapolis so we could see our grandsons, stayed overnight in Maryland on our way. and then stayed with Hank and Janis. Sister Sallie and her husband, Jim, came from Ann Arbor. We drove down to see where nephew Dana attends school in St. Mary's. After a picnic supper by the pool at The Watergate, we saw the fireworks over the Mall from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Following Edgewood Camp near Lake Michigan in August, we headed north to the Mackinaw Bridge and turned west, to follow US2, eventually to North Dakota. We stopped in Naubinway at Ross & Pat's cottage and their grandsons tried to sleep the night in our camper with us, heading back inside in the middle of the night when Ethan woke-up, disoriented by the strange surroundings. We followed US2, across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin and camped for a couple of nights at Amecon Falls. We biked for several miles out from Duluth and spent the rest of the day wandering their renovated harbor area. From there we drove on to camp near Bemidji, Minnesota. We drove to the head waters of the Mississippi River and did the obligatory wade across the river. That is also the beginning of the Great River Road, which we followed for a ways, having driven another part last summer farther south in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We pressed on to Minot, North Dakota. We camped in a tiny but cheap camping area at the edge of Stanley and visited Minot, which doesn't quite live up to its impressive tourist brochure. US2 looked very different now, with broad stretches of rolling plains. We drove briefly into Montana (just so we could say we made it that far) and then dipped south. There is a nice Visitor's Center at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers which we enjoyed and then visited a nearby Encampment (in full regalia) at Fort Buford. This is also when we learned that this was a "Free" weekend at all National Parks and Sites, a lucky happenstance. Having left US2, we were now sometimes following the Lewis and Clark Trail. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, both north and south units, were our final western destinations and we had arrived! There is a lovely drive through the north unit and they were fairly sure we could do the drive and would still find room to camp at the south unit, so that was what we did. The south unit included hiking and driving opportunities where we enjoyed sighting buffaloes, prairie dog villages, wild horses, and mule deer. In the town of Midora we did more kitchy tourist activities like the Pitchfork Steak dinner and attending the show about Theodore Roosevelt at the Blazing Hills amphitheater. It was then time to head slowly east and home. Part of the time we followed winding country roads and sometimes we made time along I94. We visited the interesting and informative North Dakota Cultural museum in Bismark, next to the capitol, which we chose not to visit, since it looks like an unassuming business building. We camped at Cross Ranch State Park, on the shores of the Missouri River and had the entire park almost to ourselves! It was a good place to bike. And we were able to learn much more about the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the centers, museums and sites in this area. From there we went back into Minnesota and camped for just one night at a state forest campground on a small lake that made us wish we had our kayaks along for the trip. Returning to US2, we hurried across the rest of Minnesota and northern Wisconsin to spend two nights at Wilderness State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan on the northwest edge of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. We had hoped to take our bikes over to Mackinac Island for the day, but the weather made us decide it wouldn't be worth the trip. Instead we hiked and biked in the area and then finally headed home.
I will leave our fall adventure for another time, since this has gone on long enough, I think. But I'll cover that next time. Stay tuned!
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