Rolling Along With The Reynolds

Jim and Cindy's Adventure Blog traveling all over the USA

Tag: MN

Chisago Lakes area

This campground in Shafer (Wildwood RV Park), as well as our next two destinations, sit alongside the St. Croix National Wild and Scenic River. 

* While here, we explored the St. Croix River three different ways: by car to see the dam (located across the river in Osceola Wisconsin), by paddle wheel boat on the river itself and by foot along the trails of the clifftops.  
Bald Eagles abound here, as well as herons, beavers and deer.
* The Franconia Sculpture Park was the most unique and fun attraction only a mile away from camp! The park is over 50 acres big, and houses temporary & permanent art installations that are truly Burning Man worthy. The fun cool part that added to the magic was the chance to rent a Golf Cart to get around the grounds.  Check them out at www.franconia.org

Franconia Sculpture Park pics (Album 2023-31)

Chisago Lakes: We are a region of small towns connected by our Swedish heritage. Nestled among lakes, farms, and bordered by the St. Croix River, you will find Chisago City, Lindstrom, Center City, Shafer, Taylors Falls and more.

 

Iron Ore region – Gilbert, MN (Album 2023-29)

Gilbert, MN

Gilbert is but one of four towns within the “Iron Mountain Community area” (Virginia, Eveleth, and Mountain Iron are the others). This was to be a short stop on our way up further north destined for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and onwards to Voyageurs National Park. Those plans were thwarted due to unexpected RV maintenance; the residential style basement A/C unit died. It had been buzzing strangely for a few days while we were in Iron River, and finally just died altogether.

Itinerary changed to head south to get a brand new A/C unit installed. Fortunately, the closest place that was able to order the unit and replace it was just a days drive away. However, the time was not to be until two weeks from now. So,  we decided to slowly make our way down to Faribault, MN (just south of the twin cities Minneapolis/St.Paul).

The summer heat of the mid-90’s was hot (relatively speaking, since the majority of the USA is experiencing three digit temps). We made due battling the heat by acquiring a portable air conditioner. Jim and I probably could’ve survived without it, but there was no way our fuzzy black cat was going to, nor did we even feel comfortable leaving her in the coach by herself.  Because of this, our day trips were temporarily halted until a working A/C was realized.
 

  • West Forty RV Park was an interesting place. It was simply a place for campers to hang at night after riding their ATV’s all day in the miles of ATV trails. Our site won the honor of being the worst unlevel spot ever. We stayed here for 5 nights only because of it being a holiday weekend and no other campgrounds available.
  • Small town parade in Gilbert Minnesota. Happy July 4th! Some of the Parade entries were hilarious (the seesaw snowmobiles, the Clown Band), some were quite impressive (the massive automated candy machine), but all of them were created and built with great civic pride. It was good to be in small-town America.
  • I’m still healing from tick bites received back in the Spring in Florida, but insects don’t want to leave me alone; got bit on the neck by what must’ve been a spider. A crazy hot burn on the neck coupled with hot temps isn’t pleasant. However, the holiday festivities helped to keep a positive attitude on our situation. Darcy had fun and provided laughs playing with my tutu.