5/30/22
70 degrees this morning as we move through Wisconsin. Several signs for Amish buggies as we pass by farms and wooded areas. Lots of dairy farms.
Freeman Luthern Church with pretty red roof.
We take a dip into Iowa for a little while, noting that we've crossed the Great River Road (which follows the Mississippi) a few times, and cross the river once. The water is very high as you can see from this sign which is usually BY the river, not IN it.
Happy Memorial Day! Back into Wisconsin we come across this military "parade" in the small town of Spring Grove.
A few other patriotic displays, including the Zumbroth covered bridge (1869) with a field of flags in the adjacent park, and a local business.
Next stop is Niagra Cave, which advertises an underground waterfall that sounds interesting. It is a family owned place with lots of workers and nice grounds.
The tour is 1/2 mile down and then 1/2 mile back up. Overall, interesting but not great. It is a cool 48 degrees which feels cool in Summer but warm in Winter! Our group has 9 people and our guide is ok - young man who talks a little too quickly and softly but we get the gist. He points out some fossils and formations. There is moving water in one part of the cave AND the advertised waterfall, although it is difficult to access. Niagra? Hardly.
At worst, we supported the economy :) Both this cave and the previous one had "mining" areas outside for kids where you sifted through sand to discover "gems". Very pricey, especially compared to Anita and Kevin's gem show which charged $2 for their "mine". We note a few barn quilts.
And another cute water tower.
As we continue northward, through the city of St. Paul, my phone (and its GPS) goes black! I grab Greg's phone to use it and within two minutes it also goes dark! I resort to paper map (all this while Greg is going 60mph through a maze of roads) and after a few questionable turns, we make it out of the city. When we stop for gas, I take the phones into the quickie mart and ask two young women if they know what happened and how I can get the screen back. As it happens, it is darker in the store, we are able to see a faint impression on the phone and are able to brighten the screen. Boy, did I feel dumb! Oh well, I still have no clue what I did to make them go dark! Makes me realize how much we have come to depend on the phone for gps and information. Although the gps has had it's moments too, but we won't go there.... There have been few places without signal this trip - a huge improvement over the past few years.
Gas is $4.09 in Pine City so we fill up. We use the Gas Buddy app to find good prices and determine where to fill up. We applied for their card to save even more but it hadn't arrived when we left - is probably sitting in the post office with our mail that is on hold.
We arrive at a camp site at Moose Lake State Park, in Moose Lake, Minnesota. The visitor's center, which has a geology display, is already closed (open 10-2). It has rained a good bit of the day and most of the campsites have some standing water in spots. We find a "dryish" one and plug in. No campfires tonight! It is pretty warm so we run the AC to cool things off a bit - a little bit of luxury! We walk a bit, take nice mostly hot showers and have some dinner - pasta and salad. Some more rain comes through and we hope that will be the end of it... (it's not). I did catch this rainbow though, which seems to give hope for tomorrow!
So glad we aren't in a tent, like our neighbors down the road! It cools off nicely once the sun is down.
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