BraysAway Travels
Riverside, Iowa and The Voyage Home Museum
We were on our third travel day in a row and these turn and burn one nighters are hard on us. We were heading back from Minnesota and Wisconsin and were traveling through eastern Iowa which was actually rather hilly and as you’d guess mostly farms all the way. We like to take the back roads and see some sights along the way as you've probably surmised. On this day, we had one “fun” stop and it was a surprise to Kim, not FOR Kim. It was for me! I had noticed that we were passing close by The Voyage Home Star Trek Museum in Riverside, Iowa. Riverside claims to be “the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk”. I guess if you claim it, it can become lore!
Driving into town, you first notice that all the power poles have photos of Star Trek characters especially from the original series. The park across from the museum has a Kirk statue and the local post office has murals of the Star Trek stamps. I wish they had been open that day so I could have bought some!
The museum was small but had a lot of movie stuff in it as well as autographed memorabilia from various stars from all the Star Trek shows. They had an Enterprise like model spaceship out front that appeared to be a parade piece and a miniature shuttle craft also. For someone like me whose childhood revolved around Star Trek and other Sci Fi stuff it was pretty fun to see! I got a T-shirt and pin for the road. By the way, the restroom is a must experience! I won't spoil it for you but I quite literally laughed out loud at the door and the mural inside. I love the quirky little towns and stops we find along the way!
Spook Caverns and Effigy Mounds National Monument
It worked fine this afternoon when we got to Spook Cave Campground in NE Iowa.
The drive along the Mississippi was extremely beautiful, with majestic bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. We saw several Corps of Engineers Locks and spillways along the way and soon enough we reached Spook Cave Campground in NE Iowa. We had deliberately planned to stay in this area since Effigy Mounds National Monument was nearby.
Since we had arrived rather early we headed over to Effigy Mounds before they closed. I don’t know what I was expecting but a two mile round trip hike with the first half mile being switchbacks to the top of the bluff wasn’t it! Anyway, that’s what we did – a forced march up the bluff to see the mounds at the top. It wasn’t bad once you got to the top but that first section was a killer! The mounds weren’t really spectacular at this site. They were all mostly low mounds and the shapes were rather nondescript especially as viewed from ground level but it was still impressive to see. I know there are other mounds around the US that I’ll have to try to visit. Some of those are really high!
Spook Cave Campground was pretty sweet! It was set in a wooded valley of Iowa farmland snuggled up against a bluff in a roughly crescent shape. It had a waterfall just inside the park coming out of the wall of the bluff and they host a cave from which they get their name. They provide boat tours but not for the faint of heart as the head clearance is very low and they warn that “excessive bending” was required to get through the low areas. We passed on the boat tour. The opening of the cave is in a pond from which the water flows down a sluice for panning and runs an old waterwheel in a very old, historic rock building. They’ve done a great job of blending it all together! They also have basketball court and volleyball court and some nice looking restrooms and showers.
There was only one downside – on the other side of the campground ran a train track that was rather picturesque itself running across a bridge over the stream running through the campground. Luckily, unlike other train tracks we have recently camped near, this one wasn’t very active and we only heard 4 trains the whole time we were there but you can walk right up to the tracks and get amazing pictures of the train coming around the bend and appearing out of the trees! Very cool actually! Our grandsons loved the video I took of the train running right beside me.
Great River Route, Wisconsin
From Bayfield, we made our way down to Prescott, WI, where we picked up the Wisconsin Great River Road that winds its way down along the Mississippi river through a lot of very picturesque towns. Unfortunately, we couldn’t really stop in many of them as the road was narrow and there weren’t many places to pull off and park an RV. The road wound through farmland and along some bluffs adjacent to the river. The river is HUGE even up this far! The bluffs overlooking the banks were amazing to see also. Very picturesque!
We got to Pla-Mor campground where we are spending the night and set up the RV. The campground is actually on the Minnesota side of the river. One of our fellow campers told us where to find food in the next two towns – La Crosse and La Crescent - one on each side of the river. Since he had mentioned an Apple Festival in La Crescent, we decided to go there and find the Festival. We were directed to the community grounds where it was being held. It was a nice little, small town fair with pony rides and jumping houses, various ice cream and popcorn vendors, Brats and most important – Cheese Curds having been scolded by our daughter for not already trying! The cheese curds were great (they’re just cheese sticks!) and the brat was amazing!
I was looking around for apples and they were surprisingly hard to find at the Apple Festival in the town called “the Apple Capital of Minnesota”. We did find a caramel apple but it was split up and covered in caramel and whipped cream but it counts! We met the hometown Apple Princess, not the queen but we were still honored! On the way out of town we did find a farmers market loaded with Apples so I guess the "Apple Capital" name fits.
We spent another day driving down the Great River Road on the Wisconsin side though the view on the Minnesota side is just as spectacular and the road is much wider but there is something special about traveling slowly through the old towns and seeing the sights along the way!
Lake Superior and Bayfield, Wisconsin
We reluctantly packed up and headed south out of Voyageurs National Park for our next destination along the shores of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. I had read about a couple of the “best things to see” in Wisconsin and one was the town of Bayfield up near the Apostle islands. We hit Duluth and dropped down towards the harbor and it was pretty spectacular to see all the shipping and terminals laid out before us. They are truly HUGE!
We rounded the corner of Lake Superior and drove northeast to Herbster city campground for two nights. The campsite sits right across the access road from the lake. It has pretty spectacular views of Lake Superior and from there you can watch the sunset over the lake! The campsite doesn’t have sewer hookups but it does have a dump station but the sites are relatively nice but not completely flat. It’s located on a gently sloping hill down towards the water and all the sites have an amazing view.
The next morning we headed out to see the sights in the area. We drove around the point on hwy 13 and stopped at two recreational areas along the Apostle Islands National Seashore to take some photos and look around. Both parks were very beautiful. You couldn’t see the Apostle Islands from the first one, but the second one has some in view. We continued east and curved around towards Bayfield which had been listed as one of the best places to visit in Wisconsin. The town is very picturesque with the Apostle Islands visible offshore and harbors filled with boats including some very large ships operating in the vicinity and a French cruise line from France that was on a Great Lakes tour.
We had been told about two places to eat in town by some folks we met on the beach last night and I spotted one of them called “Hoops Fish”. The restaurant is on it’s own pier. The only thing they serve is fresh White Fish caught from the lake. We had Fish and Chips basket for $15 each and a beer to wash it down. The fish was very good and for deep fried battered fish it wasn’t oily at all! While we were in town we visited the Bayfield Maritime Museum and checked out their exhibits about various wrecks on the lakes including the Edmund Fitzgerald! We also did some light shopping in the downtown area.
Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota
We packed up in the morning and got underway from Mille Lacs Lake on the final leg of our journey to Voyageurs National Park. It was a fairly long 4-hour drive through some very beautiful countryside. As we went north, we saw less and less farms and a change in the trees in some places. Certain areas looked like I’d imagine the Tundra would look with very scraggly pine trees. Other areas looked like what we had been seeing so far – a mix of pines and deciduous trees some of whose leaves were changing for the fall. Mostly yellows but some reds were starting to show.
We finished our drive to Voyageurs and finally got to see some of the massive lakes and islands that make up this area. Voyageurs is made up of 4 large lakes and over 500 islands according to the locals. It was impressive! Our campsite was called The Pines of Kabetagama and was located on the southwest edge of Lake Kabetagama. They have boat rentals right on the campground, cabins and RV sites including some on the cliffs overlooking the lake. We were lucky enough to have been able to reserve a site up on the cliff with an amazing view of the lake! I can highly recommend that campground. The owners are amazing to work with and really helpful!
And now a rant about the beast in those parts that preys upon human flesh and from which everyone is running and hiding. You may think I am speaking of bears, or maybe the fabled Sasquatch, but they are tame compared to the wild, indigenous Minnesota Mosquito! I’m not kidding! These things aren’t so nice and polite as the Texas variety that show up 1 or 2 at a time and provide only a minor annoyance. These buggers attack like killer bees or red ants seemingly by the thousands. Our neighbor took one look at our attire last night (shorts and Tees) and said, "you are probably ok around here, but if you go near the woods you need long pants, long sleeve shirts, tons of DEET and a special hat with mosquito netting to have a chance of survival." Ok, I added the survival part, but the rest was nearly verbatim and as it turns out, he’s absolutely correct! Those little vermin attack in such swarms that you can’t even breath for fear of ingesting two or three with each breath!
That first night, we could see lightning off in the distance and had been chased off the dock and kept from fishing by a storm nearby that didn’t actually hit us. At about 1 AM the line of thunderstorms we had been watching hit and they just trained right over us for well over an hour. It would rain thunderously and then die down and then the thunder would start again and so would the rain. I heard at least 4 cells come over us directly before the whole line moved enough east to begin missing us.
Our second morning, we grabbed our fishing gear and headed out to the docks to try our hand again at catching the elusive Walleye and again, we were skunked without even a nibble. At about this point, we realized that we weren't going to really "visit" Voyageurs without a boat so we checked out a small pontoon boat and headed out with our fishing gear to explore the area and see if we could hook something more than ourselves.
One sight we visited that was fairly close was called Stone Garden and it was someone's rock sculptures on the far shore of the lake that covered a hillside. We headed over there for a look and decided not to climb up the whole thing but walked around down at the bottom for a good look and headed back out to fish.
As the day wore on the winds picked up and we headed back to the campground to check the boat back in and spent another rough night due to another line of thunderstorms.
Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota
The next leg of our journey took us to Mille Lacs lake and our intended campsite at Rocky Reef Resort on the southern coast of the lake. Upon arrival, we realized that this lake is immense some 22 miles x 12 miles across. You can’t even see across it at the widest since 12 miles or so is the naval horizon. We also realized that while the campsite is nice enough it’s not what I would call a resort. There are somewhere between 20 and 25 sites with a large number of those rented out annually to people who keep their campers here all year around but only come up during the summer and they’ve already gone back home for the winter. There aren’t many amenities, but the view is pretty spectacular. Minnesota is pretty flat overall and we saw little else but farms on our drive up. Nothing wrong with any of that, it’s just a description. I really enjoyed the drive actually, though I preferred the mountains of Colorado to the many lakes of Minnesota. Definitely, a fisherman’s paradise!
It turns out that the campsite didn’t have our reservations but had room for us and the owner/operator, Patty, is very nice once you get to know her. Another lesson learned - always double check reservations! We settled into our site and went to the restaurant/office for some dinner. The food was great! I had a Philly Cheese Steak that was more of a Philly Cheesesteak burger but it was tasty. She shared some of their home-grown HUGE tomatoes with us on the burgers! Speaking of which, we took the opportunity to buy some fishing poles and lures that the local fish are supposed to like and gave fishing a go.
Darwin, Minnesota
We continued our journey towards Voyageurs National Park after a light breakfast and a quick pack up. We drove north on hwy 71 into Minnesota to merge onto I-90 east. We then turned off onto MN Hwy 15 through Truman, Lewisville, Madelia, Linden and into New Ulm. We continued north and turned onto CSAH-14 or Tagus Ave which is a winding country road that leads into Darwin, Mn, home of the World’s Largest Ball of Twine made by one man! Yes, there’s a caveat but we diverted into Darwin to see it just to be silly.
Lake Okoboji, Iowa
Before we could leave Omaha for Lake Okoboji, our next stop, we had to find a place to dump our gray and black tanks. We’d been living on them for nearly two weeks and they were getting pretty ripe! We thought the tanks were too full to drive around much due to the weight, so we purchased a dump tank from Walmart and took a load of $%^& to a campground in Papillion, our old stomping grounds, to dump.
I can’t believe how that area has changed but it has been 24 years since we last lived here. The road we used to live off, Lincoln, now goes all the way through and is 3 lanes most of the way. There are several new neighborhoods along the road beyond where we lived that used to be farm fields. The entire flats along the bottom between the creek and Lincoln is now all built up with incredible new gym and athletic facilities. They’ve also really bought into the whole “round about” concept in the new areas!
Anyway, we headed back down that way to dump and rinse the tanks before hitting the road. We accomplished that task and by “we” I mean “me”. We then backtracked to Hwy 370 and followed it into Bellevue to see the growth there and then jumped on 75 north and across the bridge on I-80 to catch I-29 north.
I deliberately decided to exit off I-29 at the earliest convenience and after fighting with Apple’s maps that kept changing me to interstate all the way up to north Iowa, I shut it down and pulled up RoadTrippers to guide me because that software doesn’t think it’s smarter than me. I’m not concerned about saving 15 minutes, I want to take the scenic path! It's a "thing" for me!
Our course took us through a lot of scenic small Iowa towns including Turin, Castana, Mapleton, Danbury, Battle Creek, Holstein, Storm Lake, Sioux Rapids, Spencer and Milford. It was a nice drive and the roads were for the most part smooth but there were some sections that were rough. Spencer was a very nice little town with flags flying, a section of divided road in town called Grand Ave that had all the state flags flying and things like that. Sweet looking little town!
We continued our journey after a pit stop for gas and a break and finally pulled into Lake Okoboji and found our campsite on the far side. We are camping at Cenla Campground in Spirit Lake, IA. We settled in quickly and headed out to a local Tiki Bar called Barefoot Bar for a drink. The bar is very different. We drove over and there was no parking around it which puzzled us since the bar was very well reviewed. Once we walked around to the lake side of the bar we realized that there was a large marina attached and almost all customers were boat-up not drive-up. Later in the evening we went further into town along the Promenade to enjoy the sunset over the lake with a drink at Pirate Jack’s Bar. This is definitely a seasonal tourist town, and things are winding down for the winter.
Anyway, as we approached Kim’s Mom’s house, we noticed the tire pressure in the back left wheel of the RV was dropping significantly and every time we looked at it, it had dropped a PSI or two. I'm thankful for the Tire Linc system that Grand Design installed that allowed me to keep an eye on the pressures while we were on the road. If you don't have one, I highly suggest you buy one. Had I not noticed that the tire was getting low and continued driving, we would certainly have had a tire disintegrate and probably damage our rig.
We decided to get the RV parked in her mom's driveway as fast as possible and then would take the tire in for repair. The length of our rig, the lack of length of her driveway, a narrow street AND driveway, some trees on each side of driveway entrance, some mailboxes and a retaining wall made it particularly difficult to get the rig parked where we wanted it. After what felt like a very long time while I am sure the neighbors were making rude comments about my diving ability, I finally got it close enough to what we wanted so we could disconnect and set up shop in Mom’s driveway.
The next day, I popped the tire off to discover that, not only was it going flat, but it was nearly completely bald on the inside edge. We decided that between that flat and the nail that messed up our tread on another tire a few days earlier, that was questionably repaired, we should replace them all. So much for the maintenance line in our budget!
After visiting Mesa Verde, we wrapped up our visit to Durango and drove east across Colorado towards our next campsite in Howard, Colorado. The drive over the Wolfe Creek Pass and through Pagossa Springs was amazing and then the drive from Solida to Howard was along cliffs on the right and a rushing river on the left. it was a beautiful, scenic drive into town. The campsite was along the river and we were lucky enough to get a back-in site along the river so our windows and door opened onto the river. Just sitting there watching the water pass by was Heavenly!
After 2 nights in Howard we headed into Aurora to stay at the Chatfield State Park. As it turns out, that month was Military Appreciation month and as a military retiree, our entrance fee was waived. That kept the cost down and the park was very beautiful. It has a large lake in the middle with a marina full of boats that looked too big for the lake at least from a distance. There were trees in the water which made it look like the lake level was high but the area around the edges looked like the lake level was low so I’m not sure which is true. The campsite was all the way around the lake on the far side from the entrance.
We visited with family and friends who live in the area and after 2 nights headed up to visit more family in Loveland south of Fort Collins, Colorado and from there to Kim's Mom's house in Omaha for a couple of weeks stay.
Mesa Verde National Park
We visited Mesa Verde where I hoped to get a reasonably close look at the cliff dwellings that the park is so famous for. It was only about an hour’s drive to the park and as we headed back in, it began to rain lightly. You had to wind your way back up on top of the mesas and 20 miles back into the park to get to the two loops that allow you to either look across the canyon at the Cliff Palace or to park above it and climb down to an observation station where you can get amazing views of the dwellings. It was pretty amazing to see how big and remote it was!
There are a lot of early pit homes around the mesa to check out as well but nothing quite so spectacular as the cliff dwellings. There are several other, smaller cliff dwellings there also, but they don’t get the same great press as the Palace.
Durango, Silverton, and Ouray, Colorado!
We stayed at the Durango Ranch RV Resort just south of Durango. The view was pretty amazing even though we weren't really into the high mountains. We set out to drive the so called Million Dollar Road that runs from Durango through Silverton and on to Ouray.
We drove down into Durango on Hwy 550 and followed signs for Historic Downtown Durango. It’s a very cute area with lots of shops and dining as you’d expect for a high tourist town. Kim and I didn’t stop anywhere as having too much stuff already is our problem! We picked Hwy 550 up on the other side of town and headed up into the mountains towards Silverton.
The drive to Silverton started out fairly plain. The mountains were initially like those in Durango, not very majestic and more of the foothills of the Rockies. The road climbed for a while rather slowly and the mountains started getting more majestic but weren’t as impressive as I had expected. We passed over a couple of > 10K passes and started descending into Silverton on some more switchbacks. We again followed signs into the center of town to see the historic portions.
Silverton felt like an old mining town and some of the buildings were clearly very old. There were only two “main” streets running down the length of the town and those were filled with shops and restaurants as you’d expect. It was a beautiful setting down in a valley between the mountains. We found a place to park and since it was approaching 1:30 or so we found a BBQ place called “Thee Pitts Again”. I had the chopped sandwich with cornbread and Kim had a pork sandwich with cornbread and potato salad. We sat outside to take in the cooler air and sights of the town.
While we ate, there were a huge number of Jeeps and motorcycles running up and down the main street we were on. Riding mountain trails is a huge recreation activity in this area. We saw many trails branching off the highway as we drove around.
After about an hour in Silverton we decided we might as well head the rest of the way to Ouray and boy, am I glad we did! It was a fairly long drive to Silverton and we thought we had seen “all there was” really in terms of mountains but we were SOOO wrong. The drive to Ouray got better and better with every mile we went and with every turn in the road! The mountains got taller and rockier with sheer drops all around us. There were waterfalls seeming to come from the sides of mountains and cut their way down into deep slit like canyons on the side of the road.
There was evidence of mining in many places and steep drop-offs on the side of the road almost never protected by guardrails! I have to admit that I was white-knuckling it a bit at times when we were on the side with the sheer drop. This drive is not for the faint of heart or anyone with issues about heights! By far the most rugged and beautiful drive I have ever seen! We were frantically trying to capture every vista on film but I know film will not do it justice! It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been geologically speaking. The little town was kind of old and a bit drab in places but the scenery around it was mind-blowing!
Aztec Ruins National Monument
Our next destination was Aztec Ruins National Monument which has nothing to do with Aztecs but was apparently named by Spanish Conquistadors by mistake. The ruins are in fairly good shape for their age with lots of rooms to see and a nice paved trail. Entrance is free but it is not pet friendly. Kim wasn’t interested in it, so I went through alone. They had several Kivas with one large one that’s been completely resurrected that the tour path takes you through. There is a brochure for $3 or a free QR code that takes you to a website with a guided audio tour. It was pretty cool to see how some of our American ancestors lived.
Albuquerque, NM
We headed on from Fort Sumner towards Albuquerque on Hwy 84 which runs northwest. I had thought the road from Midland, Texas to Roswell, New Mexico, was the most boring drive on the planet when we drove to Ruidoso. Hwy 84 from Lubbock up to Fort Sumner through Clovis, New Mexico, and Cannon Air Force Base was by far the most boring drive I’ve ever seen. It was lacking the glorious vistas of oil pumps the trip to Ruidoso had. (Sarcasm intended.) However, not long after leaving Fort Sumner we started seeing a lot more interesting geography and scrub brush changed to more green brush. The beautiful Sandia mountains started coming into view about the time we turned onto I 40 W.
The drive from where 84 hits I 40 down into Albuquerque is probably one of the most scenic drives I’ve made so far in my life. I know I’ve driven that stretch of road probably three times now, but I didn’t remember any of the sights. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous. We went through Albuquerque and out the other side where we’re camping at Route 66 RV Resort and Casino which is right on the old Route 66. On the way here, we saw a lot of signs off of I 40 for Route 66 and I’m chomping at the bit to go see some of them, but Kim won’t let me! There’s a long story there and it had to do with some very rough roads a few years back that basically broke our motorhome. Somehow, I’m still going to get out and check out some of this stuff. There are spots in Albuquerque were two different routes that were called Route 66 at one point in history come down into Albuquerque along I 25 basically and along I 40 and they meet in downtown Albuquerque and it’s supposed to be pretty terrific.
We camped at the Route 66 Casino and RV Park. It's a very nice park with really nice landscaping, a pool, hot tub, laundry, and of course the Casino with decent food. We enjoyed a down day there before heading out again and the nights were beautiful with a full moon lighting up the desert southwest landscape!
As we rolled into the campsite, there were some nasty wind gusts and several RVs' awnings were damaged. We took that as a strong warning and didn't leave our awnings out when we weren't right there to quickly bring them back in!
Fort Sumner and Billy The Kids Gravesite
Our first major major stop on our first full-time trip was Billy The Kid's grave in Fort Sumner, Tx. It was a fairly small cemetery and a couple of the graves were fenced off to prevent vandalism. Billy’s grave was covered in loose change people threw in. It surprised me that people would do that and Kim asked why people were venerating a criminal. It’s a good question and probably would make an amazing subject for a PHD candidate in Psychology. We took some time to stop and see the gravesite, but we didn’t go into town for the museum. It was an interesting stop since the old west bandits are a big part of the story of the American West.