When we left Delano, we were still trying to decide if we were going to go into South Dakota and check Pierre off our capital list, or if we would go directly to Bismark, North Dakota.  As we meandered through Minnesota, we found a few interesting spots.  The first was Pillsbury State Forest, named after the Pillsburys of Pillsbury Dough Boy fame who donated the land to the state.  The State Forest allows boondocking on state lands, so we put directions together from about three different sources and figured out how to get to the camping spots.  We found that the road where the campsites are located is considered a minimum maintenance road, which means nobody is in a hurry to clear fallen trees or make sure the overhead clearance is maintained.  We were just about to give up and find a place to turn around when we came upon the first of the campsites, so we parked for the night and went for a walk.  The road runs between ponds so there were a fair number of mosquitoes, but it was better than Michigan.  The dogs each picked up a few ticks even though they only walked in the road, but it was manageable.  ​

​In the morning, we parked at a driving range and walked on the town bike path rather than fight the mosquitoes and get more ticks, which was very pleasant.  We then continued north and west and found Itasca State Park, which someone somewhere along the line had recommended.  It was well worth the stop since the main feature of the park is the headwaters of the Mississippi, so we got to take off our shoes and walk across the Mississippi.  We also learned that the name of the park is not Indian, as everyone assumes, but is an abbreviation of two Latin words joined together:  verITAS|CApute, which translates to “true head.”

​We still hadn’t decided where we were going next, so we continued on towards the Minnesota/North Dakota border.  Driving through western Minnesota is driving through a whole lot of nothing, and we couldn’t find a good place to pull over to get the dogs out for a rest stop.  Finally we saw a small hospital with a walking trail around it, just before the turn into North Dakota, so we pulled into their parking lot.  Some hospitals can get touchy about non-hospital users using their space, so Tom ran in to talk to the front desk manager to make sure it was okay.  Betty was super nice, and assured him that it was fine, and asked what we were doing.  Tom told her a little bit about our trip and then came out and we took the dogs around the loop.  When we came back and were loading them into the truck, Betty came trotting out of the building with a gentleman in tow, and told us that she thought what we were doing was so interesting that she called the local newspaper and a reporter named Frank came out to interview us, if it wasn’t too much trouble.  It certainly wasn’t too much trouble, and we took it as the huge compliment it was, and we talked with Frank and posed for photos and showed him the camper.  The article, which is probably the most accurate journalism I’ve read in years, is in this link:  https://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news/getting-to-know-tom-and-marge-gallagher/article_a7c41fe6-0b01-11ee-9fc0-7324d9ca0a06.html.  If it won’t open or is behind a paywall and you want to see it, let me know and I’ll figure out how to get it to you.  


After a long day and spending more time than planned on our last day in Minnesota, we crossed the border directly into Wahpeton, which we found had a quiet Walmart that worked for the night.  In the morning, we decided to do the extra loop and head for Pierre, South Dakota.

​St. Paul is only a little over an hour from St. Croix Falls, so we pulled into the city in the middle of the morning.  Our plan was to take a walk around the capitol, eat lunch, and then head to our friend Kris’s house about an hour outside Minneapolis.  Because it was a pleasant day, we found a city park named Indian Mounds Park a couple of miles from the capitol and decided to park there and walk.  We followed walking directions from our phones and had a nice walk on a bike trail, through a couple of small city parks, and up some back steps to the capitol itself.  The St. Paul capitol has recently undergone major renovations, and they appear to have been very successful.  The entire building is made of beautiful veined marble, and it glows and sparkles in the sun, with only the gold dome and the statue near the top outshining the building itself.  It’s surrounded by lots of grassy park, and we saw lots of people out enjoying the beautiful spring day.

​By the time we walked to the capitol and walked around the area, we had covered almost four miles.  We didn’t want to go back to the truck the same way we’d walked to the capitol, but that was the only route our phones were giving us.  We looked at the map and saw that a river walk went very near the park, so we headed down to the river and walked along the Mississippi.  After walking for a while, we thought we should be almost there, so we looked at the GPS map of where we were and where the truck was parked, and found that we were very close.  But, the reason the GPS hadn’t recommended the route we’d taken was because to get to the truck, we had to cross a very busy highway, very busy multiple train tracks, and then climb a cliff.  We had the option of continuing about 2 miles along the river to where we could cross the road and the train tracks after the cliff ended and then walking back along the top, or retracing our steps and finding our way back to our original route.  We opted to retrace our steps and fairly quickly figured out where we were, but by the time we got back to the truck we’d covered over eight miles.  We were also pretty hungry because lunchtime had come and gone, and the dogs were very thirsty because all the water fountains along the river walk had been turned off for some reason, but we all survived.  We drove to see the Indian mounds that gives the park its name, and then headed for Delano.

​By the time we got to Delano, it was 5:00, so Kris was done working and met us in the driveway of her beautiful property.  We parked between her garden and a barn, and while we were getting the camper set up she cut us a bunch of asparagus fresh from her garden.  Asparagus is one of the things we miss in Belize, so we’ve been eating a lot of asparagus from the grocery stores since we’ve been in the US, but the stuff we’ve been buying just doesn’t compare to fresh from the garden.  We found ourselves eating it raw, but I managed to save enough for a dinner.  Kris called her friend Mark and asked him to bring some fish he’d caught and frozen for dinner, and we all sat down to enjoy a glass of wine while we waited for him to get there.  We were amazed at how quickly we were comfortable; she is the sister of our friend Jon whose farm we stayed at before leaving for this trip, so we’d all heard a lot about each other through Jon, but we’d never met.  But, it was like meeting old friends for the first time, and we had no trouble keeping the conversation going.  After an amazing dinner of local fish and salad and vegetables from the garden, we talked until I could barely keep my eyes open.

The next day, we made arrangements to go for dinner and a visit with Fred and Rosewitha, Kris and Jon’s parents.  It should have taken us about an hour to get to their place, but we had to drive through a terrible thunderstorm where everyone just pulled off the road because the rain and wind made it so you couldn’t even see the front of the car.  We were very glad Kris had loaned us her car and we weren’t in the camper, because it would have been much more difficult to get that off the road and we would have had to fight much harder with the wind.  The storm passed within about fifteen minutes, and we found Fred and Rosewitha’s house in the middle of Minnesota farm country set on a beautiful lake.  From the house, you have a 360 degree view of the farm, and besides enjoying wonderful conversation and delicious food, we watched all the wildlife around the house.  They sent us home with a big box of canned goods from their garden, which we are saving until Alaska where we think we may have a little more trouble getting fresh produce.  ​

​We left Little Potato River Falls Campground and headed towards the other side of Wisconsin to the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, which is a park in two separate locations.  We were originally only going to go to the unit which is actually on the St. Croix River, but as we were crossing the state we found ourselves in Trugo, near the Namekagon District.  And, just past the visitor center, we found a trailhead for a wide open all purpose trail.  The trail was gravel, and wide enough for two ATVs to pass going opposite directions, so it was perfect for being out of the thick woods where the mosquitoes were, and for keeping the dogs out of the leaves and grass and away from the ticks.  We didn’t see much of the river besides crossing over it on a bridge, but it gave us a chance to get a nice long walk without any major discomfort.

​When we finished walking, we headed towards St. Croix Falls, where the main visitor center for the park is located.  We didn’t find much to see or do because the park is focused on water activities, but we followed the riverside trail to see the dam, and discovered that the trail runs into an adjacent state park campground.  We wandered around the campground and looked at the river from all angles, before heading back to the truck.  The very nice ranger in the visitor center told us it would be okay to camp in the visitor center parking lot, but because we know that most national parks frown on boondocking outside of campgrounds, we went to a nearby Walmart and had a very quiet evening.  In the morning, we crossed the river into Minnesota and headed for St. Paul, Minnesota’s capital.

A fish hatchery is adjacent to the park.  It is now the type of pools you’d expect, but it used to be a series of tanks that were filled by a creek running down the hill to the river.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is another National Park that runs along the lakeshore for an extended distance.  This park is on Lake Superior, and coming from Tahquamenon State Park, we traveled from east to west.  After lunch and computer work at the bar, we drove another hour or so to the small town of Grand Marias, just outside the northeast side of the park.  The first thing we did was take a hike down a trail through the woods to the lakeshore.  The trail followed a creek with beautiful waterfalls, and the creek ran into Lake Superior.  We then drove to the site where there used to be a log slide, so when the shores of the lake were being logged, the loggers could get the logs to the top of a giant dune and put them in a wooden log slide to send them into the lake.  The wooden log slide is long gone, but you can still see where it was on the very steep side of the dune.  ​

​Visiting these sites took us most of the afternoon, and we had to find a place to stay.  We had hoped to stay at one of the campgrounds in the park, but they’re all reservation only, and the reservations must be made on line, and reservations must be made at least a day in advance.  So, although we saw many empty campsites, we couldn’t stay in the park.  Fortunately for us, Kingston Lake State Campground was just outside the park boundaries, and only about five miles from the national park campground.  We were glad we had purchased the Michigan Recreation Pass because it’s required at state campgrounds, on top of the $20 fee for the night.  If we’d had to purchase a recreation pass at that point we would have passed, because although the small campground is very pretty, it has no services and wouldn’t be worth $31 for the night.  We were a little peeved even with the $20 fee, and since we were the only ones in the campground that night, it seems like other travelers are deciding that the Michigan camping policies aren’t exactly user friendly.  The clouds of mosquitoes didn’t make us feel any more amicable towards the state, but we know the park officials can’t control that.

In the morning, we drove back up to the National Park and took a hike along the lakeshore to the lighthouse.  After that, we continued east and drove to the Miners Castle area where we walked to another waterfall, then walked along the lakeshore between the Miners Castle rock formation and Miners Beach.  The park is very beautiful, with pine forests running to the edge of the bluffs, and many small creeks running over waterfalls to empty into the lake.  We decided it was too chilly to take a boat out into the lake to get a lakeside view of the Pictured Rocks, but there are many outcroppings as you walk along the bluffs so you can look back to the cliffs dropping into the lake.  ​

In the morning, we drove to the trailhead for the O-Kun-De-Kun-Falls, and took a nice hike to see the multiple waterfalls along the trails.  Unlike at the national park, the dogs could hike with us, and between not too many ticks on the dogs and making good use of our mosquito hats, it was a very pleasant hike.  Since our anti-mosquito plan was working, we got brave and camped in the woods again that night, at a little Wisconsin Conservation Corps campground called Little Potato River Falls.  We don’t know why Michigan can’t do what Wisconsin does and offer very nice and free campgrounds, especially since Little Potato River Falls was actually way nicer than Kingston Lake, and we were able to walk to multiple beautiful waterfalls along the river.  The mosquitoes were still pretty thick, but the area was so beautiful it was worth it.  ​

Our crossing of the Mackinac Bridge went exactly according to plan.  We got on the road early (for us at least) and were to the bridge just before 11AM.  We crossed with virtually no wind, and it was completely uneventful.  We came off the bridge into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula without much idea of what we wanted to do besides see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but we’d talked to a few people who said the Tahquamenon State Park was worth a stop.  I remembered that we’d been told to follow state road 123, so as soon as we saw a sign for that road we looked at maps and figured out how to get there.

Tahquamenon State Park is definitely worth a stop, although between annoying state recreation area policies and the fact that the reports of how bad mosquitoes are in the UP is in no way an exaggeration, it probably won’t end up being one of our favorite parks.  This state park is spread out over a large area of lake and riverfront in the northeast corner of the UP.  It has a number of camping areas, as well as a number of visitor centers where you can stop to see key features of the park.  The most annoying policy is that to drive into a state park or recreation area, you have to get either a day pass for the vehicle for $11, or an annual pass for $39.  Michigan state covers a lot of parks, recreation areas, and forests, and all of them require the recreation pass.  Because we figured we’d be spending a couple days at Tahquamenon, and stopping at other state forests and recreation areas, we got the annual pass.  We got our money’s worth out of it before we left the state, but it still seems like the state might be overreaching a bit since many of the places where the pass is required are unmanned forest areas that really aren’t costing the state much.  Also, it’s unlikely that anyone would be around to check that you have the pass when you enter those areas, but we like to follow the rules and, basically, like to support state recreation efforts, although in other states we feel like we’ve had better value with the state passes.  

Anyway, we bought the recreation pass and booked at night at the virtually deserted campground.  Maybe we should have figured out at that point that there was a good reason why the campground was deserted on a beautiful summer weekend.  Instead, we just thought how nice the quiet was, and took the dogs out for a walk to see the Lower Falls, one of the main draws for the park.  We weren’t 50 feet from the camper when we found ourselves swarmed by mosquitos.  We went back to the camper and put on long sleeves and long pants, and decided to stick to the roads.  They were better on the roads, but still bad, and when we got to the Lower Falls visitor center we bought an overpriced vial of citronella, which maybe helped a little for 10 minutes or so.  Ultimately, we just walked fast and didn’t stop, and made it back to the camper where we spent the rest of the evening looking out through the mosquito covered screens.  Happy we hadn’t booked more than one night, we took off in the morning for a stop at the Upper Falls in the park.  That parking lot was wide open and the mosquitoes didn’t seem to be as bad in the morning, so we walked along the river and saw the falls before getting back in the truck to head for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

It’s possible our stress was cranked up a little higher because Tom had to get some work done on line, and the cell reception in Tahquamenon State Park wasn’t good enough to hotspot his computer to his phone.  We headed towards Pictured Rocks with me watching the bars on the phone to see if we could get two or three bars, but it seemed that most of the UP had pretty dismal cell connection.  We finally turned a corner in a small town where we had barely two bars, so we pulled into a restaurant/bar parking lot and Tom tried to hook up.  It still wouldn’t work, and I had a sudden brainstorm that the bar might have wifi.  Tom went in to ask, and they did, so we took ourselves and our devices in so Tom could get his work done and I wouldn’t have to cook lunch.  Win win!  We also met the home schooled children of one of the employees, and were happy that our list of capitals visited was helpful to their schoolwork.  Their mom said they’re planning to RV around parts of the US and asked us where we would go first if we had kids, which was a question we had to think about for a while.  We ended up giving her a few ideas, but since we needed to think more on it, we told her to contact us when they’re ready to go to talk more about it, and we’ll be waiting to hear from her.  

Happy with finished work, full bellies, and the satisfaction of helping a couple of kids enjoy their schoolwork, we went on our way towards Pictured Rock National Lakeshore.