Summer 2021 – Our Trip Out West
Day 1, Cleveland, OH to Day 3, Blue Earth, MN
On a late Thursday evening, we left our home for our longest road trip yet. Our goal was Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. At approximately 1700 miles away, we had at least 3 – 4 nights on the road and multiple 500 mile driving days. But we were up for the challenge.
Our first night, we stayed at the RV/Motorhome Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. Arriving at dusk, we had made good mileage at about 250 miles. We saw a crazy summer lightning storm, surprising and maybe frightening a few of the kids. We walked a bit around the drainage ponds, and heard the loudest bull frog we have ever heard. This led to a good half hour of researching the frogs that exist in Indiana. We did manage to find a tiny frog in the dark!
The next morning, was our first 500 mile day. 500 miles takes us about 10 hours, so we got up early and were on the road by 6:15am. We ventured through Illinois, Wisconsin, crossed the Mississippi River and entered Minnesota. Crossing the Mississippi was very exciting. This was the first time that 5 out of 6 of us have been this far west and the first time I have driven this far west. We crossed the Mississippi on I-90 and at that location, the river cuts a beautiful gorge in the land.
The river was incredibly wide, with flood plains extending at least a mile. We climbed out of the river gorge and when we got to the top, it was flat. We had arrived in the Great Plains.
Travelling through Minnesota, there were numerous windfarms. It was amazing to see and truly a fascinating view. Minnesota is a leader in wind power generating about 20% of its electricity from these farms. Temperatures were over 90 degrees Fahrenheit that day. We feared our campground was going to be in the middle of a corn field and we would bake in the sun. When we arrived at Pihl’s Park, we were pleasantly surprised! This county/private campground (the campground had both attributes so we are unsure of who actually owns and runs it), was located in a grove of trees which offered a fantastic reprieve from the heat of the late afternoon sun.
Complete with a lake and a playground, the whole family was able to relax and unwind.
The kids played the entire night on this playground.
Here we ran into a problem with fresh, potable water. This is an issue in a number of rural (and city) residences in the United States. There were a lot of iron compounds in the water. Although iron is a necessary element in the body (required to make red blood cells), too much can be harmful. Showers left us smelling like a copper penny, and reddish brown stains plastered the walls and floor of the bathroom. Talking with the locals, we found out that no one drinks the water here. They told us that people have told them its safe to drink, but no one trusts the water. Everyone brings water to the campground. This leaves us in an interesting dilemma. We travel with two or three 2.5 gallon jugs of water. At this point we have pretty much depleted this supply. Our plan was to resupply here. We (accidentally) left about 10 gallons of water in our fresh tank from our last trip 2 weeks ago. We made the decision to bypass the local water and use our not-so-fresh fresh tank water. We do filter all our drinking water with a Berkey water filter. No one ended up getting sick. And the Berkey probably could have handled the iron, but no one wanted all that iron in our filters.
The next day we left our campground again super early (we are now in Central Time, but we are still getting up at 5:30am EST). We stopped at Blue Earth for gas and ran into a very big green statue.
State Signs for Day 1 – Day 3
