Monday, September 12, 2022

The Journey Home - Crossing the Border

We crossed the US border into North Dakota at Emerson, Manitoba. We both got stopped at the border, me because I had apples that US Agriculture had to check and my sister and brother in law because they once had to withdraw their application to enter the US. It did seem a bit strange to cross the border, something we did so easily in the past. US Customs never even asked about COVID, not that we had any symptoms in any case. We got off the inter-state as soon as we could and had an uneventful drive down to the Red River State Recreation Area in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. 

The Red River State Rec Area used to be a subdivision but after the flood in 1997, the state bought the land and developed a campground and walking trails. This year the floods were pretty bad and the campground had to delay opening by a month.  The sites are huge, most have water and electric and many are a pull thru.  The recreation area is also with in walking distance to restaurants, breweries and shops. We walked over to Grand Forks, North Dakota a couple times to go the two dog friendly breweries on that side. We stayed at the Red River Rec area for three days so we had time to get a laundry done before continuing our journey home.

Red River State Recreation Area

Flood Marker





The next stop was Chippewa National Forest on Cass Lake; we were in the Norway Beach Campground Loop. We were here two nights, a really nice chance to rest and relax. There were lots of nice trails between the campground loops so the boys and I did plenty of walks.

Norway Beach Campground, Chippewa Nat'l Forest

Whispering Pines

Cass Lake at Sunset

Cass Lake

While camped at Chippewa, we drove back to Bemidji, Mn, the first city on the Mississippi and alleged birthplace of Paul Bunyon. There was a sculpture tour in the town and we saw some of them while hunting for the brewery; it had moved but the town map hadn't yet been updated. All of the sculptures were for sale and despite the prices many were actually sold.


Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox


This One Goes to II

Nautilus

Bison Monolith

King Norway


Woman in the Wind

The next  stop was only for one night in Floodwood, Mn at the municipal campground. It wasn't a bad little campground, we knew when we booked they had no potable water.  The campground is located on the St Louis River.

Floodwood Campground

St Louis River

Relaxing at the end of the day.

St Louis River
We would drive straight through Wisconsin with our next stop on the journey being at Lake Gogebic County Park in Michigan for two nights. This campground had no showers and the flush toilets were way at the top of the campground although there were good vault toilets near us.  The seagulls really seemed to like the fishing pier. Dogs weren't allowed on the pier; I don't know why not, as it was covered with bird poop. People did swim off of the pier but we didn't go in. Our second day at Lake Gogebic, we took a hike at one of the nearby waterfalls. The trail wasn't very well marked and we kind of lost track of each other for a bit.

Lake Gogebic County Park

Fishing Pier

Little Pod in the Park

Sea Gulls




I'll leave off here and the next post will be the rest of our journey through Michigan. 






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