Category: Travel

  • Falling for Fall…

    Falling for Fall…

    … colors. Westward we go, but this time we’re leaning a bit towards the north of west, rather than south of west. We left a yesterday after replacing the psycho-random refrigerator thermostat, and will be back home in time for various appointments. Our target is the North Dakota Badlands & Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The…

  • Shanty Town, Minnesota Style

    Shanty Town, Minnesota Style

    Sort of …. After leaving the Big Bog bombing range I headed up to the Canadian border. We can’t visit Canada of course, but we can get within a stones throw along the Rainy River. Heck – we could even throw a stone across, get a Canuck to throw one back and start a border…

  • The Big Bog

    The Big Bog

    Update: I found out from a friend who lives nearby that the bog was also used as a bombing range during and after WWII. A long-gone glacial lake; hundreds of square miles of lowlands, swamps and peat bogs; stolen land, a massive drainage project, land speculation; failed farms and government bailouts … this is a…

  • Someone Lost Their Forty

    Someone Lost Their Forty

    A hundred-twenty years ago lumber was big in Minnesota. The forests in Michigan and Wisconsin were used up. Demand was not used up. Minnesota was next in line. In an era where the natural resources existed to exploit rather than enjoy, most of the valuable trees in Minnesota were logged out and sent down river…

  • To Utah, or not to Utah: that is the question

    To Utah, or not to Utah: that is the question

    I recently was asked “If I’m driving through Utah, what should I see while I’m there?”. A few decades ago, my impression of Utah – having never been there – was that it was dirt, rocks, abandoned uranium mines, a smelly salty lake and tee-totaling Mormons – none of which were interesting to me. That…

  • Mouse 6, Mike 0

    Mouse 6, Mike 0

    We’re out in the desert. There’s nobody around. It’s 2am, totally dark, and I hear noises outside the camper. What the heck? There are no racoons or large carnivores near here. Deer, cattle and antelope don’t rustle. I peek out the window (nothing but blackness) open the cargo door (nothing but blackness) and go back…