July 7, 2007 343 mi.

I had to work until 11:00 am, setting up my printer and enjoying high speed wireless internet at the motel. Once on the road, we immediately crossed the Missouri River into Mandan and entered the West. We rolled across the plains of western North Dakota, surprised at how green the landscape was.

We left I-94 and headed north on US 85 to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park – the “badlands” of North Dakota. The landscape changed dramatically from rolling green hills to canyons of gray and a little red. It was unbelievably hot but we found a fairly shady campsite under a tall cottonwood at the Juniper Campground ($10). We looked forward to a relaxing afternoon of reading and maybe some hiking, but biting flies changed our minds. We endured the heat and the flies for as long as we could, then escaped to the air conditioned car to complete the 14-mile scenic drive to Oxbow Outlook. Near our campground Susie thought she saw bison, so we stopped for a look. Soon a herd of at least 30 bison, including many newborns, moved quickly through the light green sagebrush. We were taking photos when the alpha male appeared next to, then in front of, our car - and stayed there. He was huge! He seemed as bothered by the flies as we had been, so eventually he ambled off. Susie had waited a long time for this moment and wondered if she would ever see them in the wild.

We decided to move on to Montana instead of camping. We headed west on US 2 – the “Hi-Line” – another route featured in Road Trip USA. This is truly Big Sky Country – vast vistas but still surprisingly green. We skirted the huge Fort Peck Indian Reservation, passing through sad little towns filled with identical government houses. Some of the largest buildings were treatment centers featuring signs like “Don’t Meth with Our Kids.” We stayed in one such town – Wolf Point – at the Homestead Motel ($50) and had hamburgers at the Old Town Grill, where we ordered at our table by phone.

About this time, we finished the Nevada Barr book.

July 6, 2007 435 mi.

Considering Nan’s gregariousness and the fact that Susie did laundry down the street, we got off to a pretty early start, heading northwest through Minnesota on I-94. Nothing much to report in the scenery department. We passed Fargo and continued west, making great time and still listening to Nevada Barr’s book.

We spent the night in Bismarck, ND, home of the “Skyscraper of the Prairie,” the state’s nine-story capitol building. It was very hot all day but sunny. We stayed in a lovely Days Inn ($72) by the Interstate, and went swimming in the indoor pool. The day’s highlight came at dinner. Purely by chance, as we wandered around the downtown looking for the slightest bit of charm, we saw an attractive Mediterranean-style train station, similar to Boise’s. It’s not used as a station anymore but houses Fiesta Villa, a locally-owned Mexican restaurant of considerable atmosphere. We scored an open table outside, next to the bubbling fountain, and experienced Bismarck’s finest offering – strong margaritas and a green burrito. In the shade, the heat was tolerable, our reverie interrupted only by the occasional coal train blasting through a few feet beyond the fountain.

Back at the motel room, I zoned out on HBO, enjoying several episodes of Entourage and a heretofore unknown series, Flight of the Conchords.

July 5, 2007 0 mi.

I expected to swelter in the night since, although we have air conditioning, Susie and I have bodily thermostat differential of at least 20 degrees. But a slight breeze through the open window, and the lower nighttime temperature, made it tolerable. After earning our MN refrigerator magnet, we descended to breakfast.

We spent the next two and a half hours enchanted. The breakfast of scrambled eggs and Jim’s homemade bread was good, but the conversation with our only fellow guest Neil, and host Nan, was delightful. Neil was leaving that day after 10 nights at the B&B, a record stay. He visited his daughter who was a counselor at a Boys & Girls Club camp. He was from Nottingham, although he spoke with his native Scottish accent. He was an engineer who had lived all over the world, and had visited many more countries. He was just a great guy!

I biked to the Walker Art Museum and Susie went shopping in the Uptown neighborhood. I especially loved the outdoor sculpture garden and their temporary exhibit, Picasso and American Art. I did some email at the library and then Susie and I went swimming in Lake Calhoun. It was so refreshing! And a 16-year old Somali boy tried to pick up Susie. Fortunately, she resisted his entreaties to teach him swimming hands-on.

We biked down Humboldt to the Midtown Greenway, then over to Lyndale & Lake to a restaurant recommended by Jim, It’s All Greek to Me. Susie had a vegetarian mousaka, I had salmon with veggies, and we shared a bottle of Santorini. It was another beautiful, hot summer night in Minneapolis.

July 4, 2007 211 mi.

The rain had stopped shortly before we turned in and it was fairly clear in the morning. Nevertheless, we enthusiastically left camp and headed north to Minneapolis. The Great River Road followed the river closely for quite a way, providing great views of locks, dams, islands, and the wide spots they call “lakes.”

At Alma, we drove up a steep county road to Buena Vista City Park, a beautiful spot affording spectacular views of the river from high above. We dried out our tent, ground cloth, chairs, and raingear there. Down in town, we had brunch at a wonderful café, Kate & Gracie’s, in an outdoor courtyard complete with cascading rock fountain and flower garden. It was a wonderful place, a due reward for enduring all the rain the day before. We listened to jazz and Lucinda Williams.

A little after 2:00 pm, we arrived at Nan’s B&B in the Kenwood neighborhood of Minneapolis, a little south of downtown. It was incredibly hot and humid. Nevertheless, we took off on a long bike trip exploring the Chain of Lakes bike trail and points beyond. We marveled at the huge gorgeous houses along Lake of the Isles, and how we could travel seamlessly from lake to lake on the bike trail. Needless to say, the parks and beaches surrounding the lakes were crowded on this hot holiday – everyone was having a great time, including us! After cruising around Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun, and Lake Harriett, we headed east on the Minnehaha Parkway all the way to the Mississippi River, all on bike trails. This place is amazing!

Nearing exhaustion, we took a shorter, less scenic, route back, along Hiawatha, then on the Midtown Greenway, an amazing superhighway for bikes and pedestrians that travels below grade on an old railroad bed, with exits ramps up to the streets. You could easily use this to commute and people obviously do.

We rested awhile, then biked again, to the Uptown neighborhood, a hip place of cool restaurants and shops. We ate outside at Chino Latino, specializing in “street foods from the hot zone.” We had large and delicious mojitos, popocatape (French fry-based concoction with guacamole, sour cream, black beans, etc.), elote (grilled corn with queso fria), chicken satay, and an artistic-appearing sushi dish called “The Weed Eater,” arranged to look like a giant green insect. Everything was delicious and reasonable too, which would explain the young crowd! We biked home in semi-darkness along Hennepin Avenue, and slept like the dead.

July 3, 2007 211 mi.

On our way by 7:30, we breezed through Dubuque, IA, and began a several-day sojourn along the Great River Road. We stopped for a muffin and coffee at Guttenburg, IA, one of many places Susie wants to live in. The semi-restored town features a mile-long park right along the Mississippi, rare for these river towns, a free aquarium of live river fish, and Buzz, the coffee shop where we stopped and where the owner gave Susie a replacement travel mug. We are thankful again for the book Torey gave us, as we never would have found this delightful place.

Somewhere along the rolling hills in eastern Iowa, Bob frolicked in his Field of Dreams, not far from Kevin Costner’s.

We crossed back over the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien, then stopped for lunch at Goose Island County Park, a shady spot along wetlands lining the river. Our tent and ground cloth dried quickly in the sun and we were on our way.

At La Crosse, we picked up some of our favorite beer from 2003, New Glarus Spotted Cow. We needed it later when rain pounded our campsite at Perrot State Park near Trempealeau, WI ($22, including $10 park admission). The park lies right on the river and features steep green hills, called “mountains” here, and wetlands. Our site was very private and surrounded by an unbelievable variety of evergreen and deciduous trees. We stayed out in the rain for quite some time, as the trees barely let the water through, but eventually we had to sit in the car and eat a half-cooked dinner of lentils and rice. The rain extinguished our stove sometime during the cooking process. Earlier I had bemoaned the intense heat and humidity, and the rain did cool things down a bit.

The park had great promise, with many hiking trails and an “exit” on the Great River bike trail. That trail connects with others, including the Elroy-Sparta Trail we biked in 2003, for over 100 miles of uninterrupted bike trail. We rode to its terminus near the river, then around the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge was very beautiful and abundant with life, especially deer flies that surrounded our heads as we rode like a hairnet.

July 2, 2007 262 mi.

Before departing the area, we walked along an almost-deserted Central Beach on a spectacularly sunny blue sky day, marred only by a large cooling tower to our east.

We skirted Chicago on I-94 and I-90, continually interrupted by 80¢ toll stops. Around Rockford, IL, we left the Interstates and followed US 20. A little before noon we arrived at Freeport, IL, just in time for a maple nut milkshake for me and a coconut joy cone for Susie, at the Union Dairy. We learned of this fantastic place in a book Torey had given Susie several years ago, “Road Trip USA.” It features particularly interesting stops along several non-Interstate routes across the country. I’m using it as a Bible this trip and, if this place is any indication, we’re on the right track. The café/ice cream shop is a throwback, but not obnoxiously, intentionally so. Between the place and the unusually modern and large library, where we also stopped, lies a small park commemorating the site of the second Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1856. Susie bought a book from their used book cart.

A little later we entered an incredibly beautiful region of rolling hills and immaculate farms, reminding Susie of Germany and Switzerland. US 20 generally travels along the ridges, providing panoramic views on both sides. This is our first glimpse of The Driftless Region, an area where no glaciers leveled out the land, leaving surprisingly high hills and deep valleys.

Mid-afternoon we stopped in Galena, IL, once larger than Chicago or Minneapolis. Once a wealthy town based on nearby lead deposits, it sat nearly vacant for many years until its many Victorian homes and commercial buildings were lovingly restored. Nestled among steep hills along a river, the town contains dozens of antique shops, wine bars, restaurants, and the like, all lining a curved main street with floodgates at one end. For several hours we browsed the shops, topped off by some wine and cheese at Jamie’s.

We camped at Mississippi Palisades State Park near the Mississippi River in Illinois ($10). We had a large totally private site but Susie had to wash mulberries off our table. An unbelievable number of birds serenaded us the entire time. Just before sunset, we drove up to the several lockouts above the River for dramatic views of the Mighty Mississippi.

July 1, 2007 360 mi.

We left around 8:30 a.m., surprised because, a day ago, we never believed we would leave this early. A week before, we completed a two-day sale of much of my mother’s property. A few days ago we discovered that much remained. We carried several car loads of goods up to our house, occupying the car we expected to be packing with our goods. Then, last night, we unexpectedly drove again to Salem to accept an offer made on my mother’s house. It seemed the saga of mother’s estate would never end, but now the end seems all too real.

But we did all our packing this morning and left in sunny but chilly weather. Since having a delicious dinner last night at The Fifth Season, my mood has improved exponentially. I’ve been anxious for months, but finally feel relaxed.

We encounter very little traffic and like our book on tape, “Hard Truth” by Nevada Barr. Set in Rocky Mountain National Park, it involves the disappearance of three girls and a Mormon break-away cult.

Determined to “stop and smell the roses” more than on recent trips, we made lunch at Pokagon State Park near Angola, IN. I had discovered this lovely park on my LCC trip in late April and thought Susie would like the long green lawn sloping from a lodge down to the lake. She did.
We set up camp at Dunewood Campground in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, where we stayed four years ago on our first big trip, and were on the fine sand beach by 3:00. Susie went for a largely unsuccessful search for beach glass and I read The New Yorker. I had wanted to stay here a few months ago during my LCC Conference in Chicago, but it had been too cold and rainy. Not today. It was, in my mind, perfect and in Susie’s, a little on the chilly side.

Back at our large and very private site ($15), we ate rice and beans with tortillas, improved with some fresh cilantro we grew at home. We were surrounded by a large Southeast Asian family on one side, who told the rangers we had jumped their claim to our site, and a group of Eastern Europeans from indeterminate origin on the other, who ran their silent BMW engine non-stop.

I’m especially enjoying two Christmas gifts from Susie – lightweight pants that zip off into shorts and a pair of faux crocs from LL Bean. And we are getting a kick out of a Father’s Day gift from Derek, a water bottle whose lid collects solar energy, then reflects light into the body of the bottle – very useful for entering the tent after the Ranger talk tonight.

With no hint of rain, I watched the stars and the full moon rising.