The Hurrieder I Go, The Behinder I Get

Yeh, well, so I'm behind with my blog.  What's new?

Okay, let's see, we landed in a little public park called Josie Creek Park near Tony, WI.  If you don't know where Tony is, it's just up the road from Ladysmith on US Hwy 8.  Got it?

We arrived just about dark.  It was a bone fide fish camp with about 12 RV sites and maybe that many more tent sites.  You cross Josie Creek on a little one-lane steel bridge to get into the park.  A lane looped around down toward the boat ramp (that's a "must" for a fish camp, ya know) and circled back up to the bridge.  It was a full campground...except for the last one on the loop.  So, we nabbed the last one on the loop - J12, it was.  But, as I stopped in the lane and prepared to back into the spot, a woman and grown teenager came walking up alongside.  I rolled down the window and the woman said, "I can move if you want me to."  It turned out, she had the next site (J11, I guess) occupied with her car while she was visiting J10.  So, there were actually two open sites.  But, I liked J12 so I told her not to worry and we got situated in J12.  Then bang!, it was dark.  Ditto and I took a walk around the loop where other campers had roaring campfires going.  Some were busy drinking beer and telling about the fish that got away that day while others just stared at the flames.  I heard a guitar in one camp, but never saw the guitarist.

The next morning I took Ditto for a walk again while Joyce made breakfast.  In the daylight, I could see the trash dumpster across from us a ways.  There was a white 5 gallon plastic bucket sitting beside the dumpster.  It had written "Gus" on the side with black felt tip.  It was then I was certain it was a fish camp.  Someone couldn't spell "Guts" and where else would you have a bucket for guts...or even gus?

Working our way across Wisconsin, we made it to Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota.  It was my intention to stay at a Passport America park there, but I noticed a military campground just a little further down the road at Ft. Ripley.  Ft Ripley is a Minnesota National Guard training camp.  The campground was called De Parque Woods (what else?) and was located right on the west bank of the Mississippi River.  Actually, the Mississippi was bigger here than I would have guessed seeing as how the headwaters is not too far from here.

Moving on, we hit the road the next morning (Monday morning, 9/21).  We traveled Minnesota back roads and finally crossed into North Dakota at Fargo.  We went a little further in and made camp a Eggert's Landing on Lake Ashtabula.  We had been here before.  Back in 2010 in Old Pumpkin.  It has been raining cats and dogs when we got there after dark.  We grabbed a spot and hunkered down while Old Pumpkin leaked like a sieve.  This time, we arrived in the day and found the park almost empty...and dry.  Well, it did rain some last night, but not like it did in 2010.

These photos are of the same site, five years apart.  The park this time, though, was deserted.  The camp host was pulling out as we checked in.

So, we were the only campers in the park.  Only us and a young twenty year old summer job park ranger who took a liking to Joyce the second night.  Oh, did I mention we stayed there two nights?  It was so peaceful and quiet and we had been hitting it hard since leaving New York.  So, we spent two nights there.

This catches me up to today...I think.  Anyway, we left Eggert's Landing this morning about 11 am.  I dumped the waste tanks and topped off the fresh water and we headed out.

The town nearest Eggert's Landing is Valley City.  We drove through it going in to the campground and had to drive back through it to get back to the Interstate.  We had noted an interesting railroad bridge the first time, so Joyce took a couple of shots of it this morning.

We fueled up in Valley City and headed west.  About halfway along the way we managed to get right in the middle of a five truck convoy loaded with big "effing" tanks.

I pulled in behind the third truck back as they were pulling out of a gas station.  They were slow getting started so I passed the first one in front of me, but then they all got up speed and we wound up stuck behind the second one.  Oh well, they were doing the speed limit and it was interesting watching the oncoming cars and trucks try to dodge the huge extra wide tanks when they met.

The trucks turned off just before we got to Underwood which is near the COE campground where we are tonight.  Then we noticed the large fields of coal beds on our right.  It turns out Underwood is the location of one of the largest strip coal mining operation in the US, Fallkirk Coal Company.  Google them for some interesting info.

So, here we are at Downstream COE campground on Sakakawea Lake in North Dakota.  We're about to bed down after a feed.  Tomorrow we're off to Minot and Stanley to take a look at the Bakken Shale oil "fields".  Being a "boom town" area, we don't want to stay there, just pass through and see if it's as bad as we've been led to believe.  We'll take a look then head back down to Parshall Bay on the upper end of Lake Sakakawea for tomorrow night.