Back on the Road

Once again we are “Ramblin’”, having closed up the cabin and hit the road.  It’s always a bit sad to leave our MN friends and family.  Seems like we have two great lives; MN in the summer where we get to see friends and family and the rest of the year when we travel and see new places and meet new people.   

Our departure was delayed a little bit this morning when we found we had to add air to the same 2 tires that were low a week ago.  Rather than repeat this exercise at every stop, we found a truck tire shop in Virginia MN, just a little off of our planned route.  The staff at Taconite Tire (look for Goodyear sign) did a great job for us and got us on the road again with minimal delay. 

 

About halfway across the state, we stopped at a wayside to take a short walk.  While there we took a new photo to be used as our header for this blog.  The Saturn Vue was a good “tow’d” for many years but it was accumulating high miles and was a little cramped for tool space.  We found the 2010 GMC Canyon in Minneapolis back in May and got the baseplate and braking systems added in June.  Now we have lots of room for NOMADS tools and materials.  The back sure came in handy when hauling building materials to and from the cabin this summer.

We crossed Minnesota all day (from the Iron Range, through the lakes and forests, to the western prairies) and at about 5:30 we pulled into a campground on the MN/ND border, within sight of the Red River.  This place used to be a residential neighborhood, but it flooded during too many spring thaws so the houses have been removed and it is now used as a campground.