Monday September 2, 2013-Moving Day-Country Village RV Park to St. Paul East RV Park

We finally pulled out of Ishpeming MI this morning after a three week stay. We enjoyed our time here, even though it's a bit high priced but we attended the Michigan HOC rally and had a great time with them. We made some new friends and saw several old ones.

It was cold with a misting rain this morning. My friend Dan told me to expect cooler temperatures after Labor Day, and he was right! My thermometer showed 50 which agreed with the Internet temp for Ishpeming. When I got in the truck, the truck temp was 48 and stayed there for most of the way through Michigan. The misting rain came and went, so it was messy outside. At least there was very little traffic this morning. Labor day you know...

We were up early this morning and began working just after 7 AM. We made good time, even though I had a low tire on the truck that I had to fix before leaving. As soon as I took my air hose out, two of our neighbors came by. One was a man that we met who has Texas tags on his motor home and car (toad) but he said he is an Escapee with a Livingston address. To those of you that don't know about the Escapees, they are probably the largest group of full timers and their main home base is in Livingston TX. The other was a neighbor across the street. I tell you, working on either the truck or trailer is like a bug light for men. As soon as you drag out a tool or open the hood of a vehicle, there they are.

Anyway, we drove out of the park before 9 and were on the road again... I made a couple if cautionary stops to check the low tire, but everything was fine. We saw some deer about five miles from the park, but they were on the side of the road and the train horn kept them off the road.

We made our customary pit stops and still made good time through Michigan, into Wisconsin and into Minnesota. The odd thing is, none of the borders were marked with signs. I saw a state line road when leaving Michigan and entering Wisconsin, but there were no signs of a border crossing. 

We stopped for a quick lunch and doggie break in a little town in Wisconsin. We had been looking for a truck stop or a store with a large parking lot so we wouldn't have trouble getting out. It seemed like every time we saw one, we were past the entrance and didn't want to turn around to try to maneuver in. We finally found one and got an easy place to park in. Stella and I split a ham and cheese sandwich and of course, two coffees. Keeps me awake, because Stella yells at me when I nap when driving. 

We entered Minnesota in Duluth. Other than being a very cold place in the winter, I didn't know too much about it. I noticed that it has a huge harbor with many ships in port. I did a little research and learned that it is the 4th largest city in Minnesota and sits on the westernmost end of Lake Superior. I wish I'd thought of it as a stopover for a couple of days, but we've got reservations in St. Paul.

We ran into some pretty bad traffic as we approached Minneapolis/St Paul but it wasn't too bad. The only puzzling thing was that for some reason, traffic would slow for no apparent reason. After Houston traffic, this was a breeze. We are traffic warriors!

We are back on Central time now, and it's good to be back! At least all of our television shows will be back to normal and I won't have to stay up past ten if I don't want to. 

We're glad to be here for a week and will soon see our friends Carl and Faye and Warren and Judy in Granite Falls. Fair warning, there are lots of Munzees in Minnesota, so be prepared....

So long.