Mosquito is the state BIRD!

     I awoke to birds singing, a breeze blowing and a gorgeous sunrise, Minnesota and I are in love again! It turns out Minnesota is just a fickle thing, wanting me to show her that I can hang with it before revealing her glory! Temps are normal, sun is shining and the mosquitos are horrible, other than that, we love this place!

 Jacob and I walked Brigeeta down to the water’s edge, watched the geese with their babies swimming around and then made homemade banana muffins for the family IN AN RV OVEN! I don’t know how many of you have attempted to use an RV oven but they are tiny, wicked hard to light and crazy unpredictable. On top of that I HATE to bake so it’s a stinking miracle I am making anything from scratch! And yet, there it is, another thing I am learning to do on this magnificent journey. Adding it to the rapidly growing list… brown water showers, (every FOUR days!) making dinner in 16 square inches of counter space and scrubbing floors with wet wipes.

     First we went to Bemidgi, and saw Paul and Babe the Blue Ox, awesome! This is a picture of his wallet and toothbrush!

 We loved his giant gun and fishing pole too. Bemidgi has an awesome outdoor art community with art on every corner. It’s lovely! Alan offered to take a picture for an older couple, the old man wouldn’t let him touch his camera and the old lady wouldn’t smile. It was American Gothic all over again!

     Then we went to lake Itasca and the headwaters of the Mississippi. It was fantastic! The kids were swimming around and we got to show them how tiny it is here and then they’ll see where it empties out in the spring, very cool!

     We had to get groceries and yet another social/cultural rift appeared when I was literally stopped in my tracks by potato chips in a box. It was so strange to realize that almost all of what I normally buy to fall back on for family meals, is in a different form, different package or different name here. It takes me twice as long to shop for half as much as I used to! As an aside, found lots of pickled herring, but hardly any tortillas! I am not sure many people up here do taco night!Pickled herring night however seems to be a BIG draw! Not sure I can try that one...

     Today the boys participated in the greatest fishing derby EVER! They arrived to register and were given a free life vest, and a huge bag of fishing lures, bait and a nice bait box, headlamps and flashlights! 

It was fantastic! They didn’t get anything in the way of fish but free hot dogs and “pop” so life is good! As you can see from this shot, they tangled their lines within the first 2 minutes, it was a long afternoon.

Most of the people we talked to here were very guarded, but there are those that are not and we get great info from them. Like they don’t close the schools here unless it’s colder than 20 degrees below! Yep, makes Douglas County look downright generous with snow days! (And totally explains the numerous snowmobile crossing signs!)

     The boys have made a few friends and are catching bugs and fish and the occasional leech with them while riding bikes across the park like mad. They are having a fantastic time. Of course they are all “new best friends” and they can’t remember their names.

One more day then off to Wisconsin!