Nothing but the Wheel

Daily Mileage= 153; Trip Mileage = 10,005 (WE HAVE BROKEN THE 10K Mark!!!) and still going....

OK. Tommy and Bernie F. got the Devil's Tower question right. The movie in which the tower plays a part is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The movie came out in 1977 and I can't remember it that well but to answer Bernie's question, we did see it from all sides (as Richard Dreyfus recommends). It is quite awesome, aliens or not!

Today we started out by driving around the Detroit Lakes which are comprised of a "small" and "large" lake. They merge together and are overall quite large from our viewpoint. There was a bad thunderstorm last night with winds as high as 65mph and you could see the result of it around the lake. Several of the infamous pontoon boats that are used up this way were flipped over and ripped up. We also saw many trees that had fallen on roads, boats and in the wooded areas. It was worse than we knew as we soundly slept in our hotel room (on the same lake). Guess we better pay more attention to the weather channel!

Then we drove around the numerous 10,000+ (some say 15,000) lakes in Minnesota. The area has lots of lakes both small and large (and even though we saw about .0001% of them, it seemed like much more)! It was a delightful drive seeing the landscape which includes not only lakes but a lot of farms with rolling grazing land. Hence the title of tonight's blog by Patty Loveless about driving and seeing many different sights including farms while focusing on "the wheel".

We saw farms and plains although different from those out in the Dakotas. Our big "aha" for today is that we are only 45 miles from Fargo (a small city) in ND but once you cross that border to the west you are in cowboy country. Over here in MN, you are not. Here you have fishermen, hunters and outdoorsmen but no cowboys! It's interesting how 40 miles can make such a difference! Anyway, the farms are lovely and the vegetation is a welcome change to the plains (which are also beautiful but not as varied, or as nice in our opinion, as the green here in MN).

While driving around we came upon a historical marker, similar to ones we have seen in many national parks. It was in commemoration of the Civilian Conservation Corps that was activated during the Depression. We photographed this particular one but have read them all. They have a special meaning for me since my father was a member of the CCC. He was stationed in Virginia and although I never discussed with him his exact responsibilities, I think he might have worked on the Blue Ridge Parkway around Shenandoah National Park. The young men who went into the CCC worked on a number of national parks. They created trails, campsites, beautiful stonework edifices and roadways. They earned $30.00 a month of which they were able to keep $5.00 and the rest was sent home to their families. I still have photos of my father with some of his friends at the camp he was assigned to. This was before he met my mother and I believe most of the men were very young and single. Every time I see one of their projects and/or a sign about the CCC efforts, I think of my father, Bruno. It brings nice memories of him and a sense of pride in what he and the others did for our country here at home. I can't imagine what it would cost today to do some of the work they did back then, if you could even get such beautiful work done. So this blog is for Bruno (how many of you knew my dad's name was Bruno? Not very Polish is it? That's another story.)

We drove through a wildlife refuge and saw birds, deer and animals which were great but it was pretty isolated. Earlier in our tour we stopped at one of the "Christmas Shoppes" to look around; you can always find something at a Christmas shop and then all of sudden we drove down the road and we were in the wilderness again! It is still amazing to us how much land there really is in this country.

The purpose of our trip was to find "Many Lake" which was shown on our atlas map. How could we come to the land of ten thousand lakes, one named, Many, and not go find it? So, we set out like a modern day Lewis & Clark (OK not really like Lewis and Clark) to discover it. Well it took us a while because the atlas and reality aren't always the same. We eventually did find it (more like stumbled upon it) and here is Rich in front of it. (I also discovered a new "word" tool I can use on photos, pretty cool, don't you think?)

While we were there we saw a family of ducks that were occupying the lake. They may not be the only tenants , but we felt comfortable about them inhabiting our lake. We were glad to see them there and decided they can stay.

We had a low impact day, relaxing and enjoying ourselves. We had a great early dinner at a restaurant on the lake, The Fireside, which has been around since 1948. It had good food (I had Walleye, a standard in MN; Rich had a chicken speciality of the place). They played Sinatra so you know it had a great ambiance,which is probably why it has been around almost 60 years. The sunset was wonderful even though we drove through some threatening black clouds as we came back to the hotel. All is well. Life is good.

Love you all, Mare&Rich