Minnesota Sept. 30, 2010

Well, I am skipping over some things I want to blog about that happened earlier but wanted to get this done while it is fresh on my mind.

We arrived in Wadena, MN yesterday.  We are here because Bob has a brother and sister-in-law, John and Jan, that live not far from here and Bob is seeing a dentist in Staples, where they live.

Wadena is a small town of around 5,000 people.  It has a cute downtown area…which we will visit in the next few days.  There is a community college here and they had a tornado that came through in June doing quite a bit of damage to the residential area.

I left the motorhome early this morning because a farmer’s market was advertised to start at 7:00 am at the train depot…well, the farmer’s were still asleep I guess as there was no one there.  I snapped this on the way.

We wanted to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River so we headed north today, driving through several small towns before arriving at Lake Itasca about 2 hours away.  We stopped at two city parks that offer RV parking. 

We went to Bemidji first and stopped to see the Paul Bunyan statue with his blue ox, Babe.   

Here’s Bob signing the visitor register at the Welcome Center…he had to borrow Paul’s pencil.

There is a lot of sculpture on the streets of Bemidji…this fish was stolen several years ago and the paper publicized the theft and the fact that the piece was worth $10,000 (yeah right).  The thief returned the piece and they have kept it in the Welcome Center since.  It is constructed out of old tools.

I got to see my first cranberry bush or tree or whatever.

Chicago has it cows and Bemidji has it beavers.

Bemidji is also know for its woolen mill called…are you ready…are you sure…The Bemidji Woolen Mill!  It was much smaller than I expected…it would have been neat to see all the ladies at work…where the heck were they?

They had a great store…but not much there for people that spend less than a month in cold weather. Interesting.

Finally we arrive at Lake Itasca.  They have had so much rain that the water was really up.  When we were here in 1991 or 1992 you could literally walk across the Mississippi.  It was just lovely today as we were here around 5:00 and there were only a few other visitors.  Hard to believe that the might Mississippi starts right here.  We have now visited the headwaters of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers.

I had to put a toe in…hey Lorraine North I know you would have.

The portion of water in the background is Lake Itasca and the water in the foreground is the start of the Mississippi. 

It was a special moment for Bob also…he has his phone glued to his ear!

And a good time was had by all.

Moving on.