Leaving South Dakota took us to totally new areas for us. I was in Minnesota with my family as a kid, but I can’t say I remember much. It was a 7 hour drive (with our breaks) to Long Lake Campground. Another terrific find. I must say so far we have picked some great spots to camp in (OK, RV in).
To say Long Lake was a cool lake doesn’t seem to mean much when there were hundreds of lakes around us. After all, Minnesota is know as the Land of 10,000 Lakes – and we saw many. But it was a great campsite close to the lake. A wonderful place to have our morning coffee. There was a nice swim beach but even the kids we saw in the water said it was cold (but didn’t stop them). Now if there was a hot tub here, I may have gotten in, but not the lake.
The whole idea of coming to this area was to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River. In 1832 an intrepid explorer, with Indian help. found the headwaters of the Mississippi. It starts coming out of Lake Itasca, which is now a State Park.
Its a beautiful Park, good sized lake, tons of bike and hiking paths, campgrounds and a lodge. Found out it takes 90 days for a drop of water to exit the Lake and reach the Gulf of Mexico.
Marsha and I did take the bikes on the paths. Found out how much the pedal assist truly assists, as my battery died so I was riding a heavy bike without the assist. I can’t believe the trail went up hill both ways.
Another thing we found is that the towns are very far apart. We wanted to try a restaurant we heard about “in the next town over”, only to drive 42 miles. Great place though and the drive was through very scenic areas. This place in covered in trees and lakes. with all the trees and lakes I expected mountain, but in reality was fairly flat (except for the bike paths).
We really liked this area. Our campsite was in the trees and had lots of room between sites. Times seems to be flying by. Our routine seems to be working for us – up when we’re up. shower, coffee outside somewhere, work / clean for a bit, then go explore. Not a bad way to live.
Before we knew it, it was time to leave. Up early as this is probably one of our longest drive days.