July 6-8 - 2018 Deerwood, Minnesota

It is great to be in Minnesota! (except for the mosquitoes☹) It is good to be places that we know and be with people we love. Seeing new places and meeting new people is fun, but after a while, it feels good to be “home”. We are so thankful, that we made it safely – even though we had a few problems along the way. (We knew that on a trip like this we would run into problems. We just didn’t know what kind, how many and when. Looking back, we have no reason to complain, and it looks like every time we had bad luck, there was a little bit of luck as well to help us out of the problems and get us going again.)

On Friday, July 6 (after we got to the cabin), Phil, Mindy, JJ and I went to a town called Breezy Point. It is a resort town (ferieby). My Aunt JoAnn lives there, and my brother Matt and his family (Ashley and Jude) were vacationing there. At the resort’s restaurant/bar, they were having live music, so we met up for dinner and to hear the entertainment.

The weather was great. The music was too. (Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, and Barbara Mandrel music. We like all of those singers.) And it was so good to spend time with all of these people, just relaxing and having fun.

JJ, Matt, Phil and JoAnn

Ashley, Jude and Mindy

Saturday, July 7, was the BIG day. We sold our travel trailer!!!!! The buyers showed up at the cabin around 1 pm, and we told them everything we thought would be helpful for them to know. And they paid us and drove away with our temporary home. I thought I would be really sad, when it drove off, but it was more of a relief, that we got it sold satisfactorily.

So ends the “American Dream”. It has been a great adventure. We have learned a lot. We have memories that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.

Now we are ready for a more “normal” vacation – visiting family and friends the next few weeks. Very different from travelling in a camper, but something we know already, that we will also enjoy.

The rest of Saturday was spent enjoying this beautiful place where we are staying. The cabin is on a lake, and my brothers have a pontoon boat, that we sailed around on. We also went for a swim and had a campfire after dark. A good end to a good day😊

Phil and Mindy on our sunset cruise

The plan for JJ and me on Sunday, was to relax at the cabin, after Phil and Mindy went home. But, we needed a car! So, we drove back to Watertown, and borrowed one of their cars to drive up to the cabin again – 125 miles south and 125 miles north again. It wasn’t a very fun way to spend the day, but we are thankful that they were willing and able to borrow us their car.

Safely back at the cabin, we went for a well-deserved swim in the lake to cool off, and now we are just going to hang out for the rest of the day😊

Written by Mary  

July 1-7 - 2018 Deerwood, Minnesota

On Sunday, July 1st, we had the Tahoe fixed. Peter and Michelle have a tenant (lejer) who is a mechanic,
and he was willing to help us. We got a new alternator (generator) and were ready to hit the road again.

Monday, the 2nd, we moved to Watertown to stay with Phil and Mindy (Mary’s brother and his wife).
We spent the next few days visiting with them and the rest of the family in Watertown, and we also
celebrated the 4th of July there.

We also spent some time getting the camper ready for handing it over to the new owners.
They live in Ely in the northern part of Minnesota, not too far from the Canadian border.
They were going to come to Watertown on Saturday (7th) to pick it up. (almost a 300 mile (ca. 500 km) drive).
Three of Mary’s brothers have a cabin (sommerhus) in northern Minnesota and we were going there with
Phil and Mindy for the week-end. We offered the buyers to do the handover there instead.
They were happy about that because that would save them almost half the distance.

Friday morning, the 6th, we took off for the cabin - 125 miles/200 km.
After 25 miles/ 40 km we stopped for gas (benzin) and groceries (madvarer).
Just back on the road again we heard loud noises from the car. Very loud. Not good.
And it stopped moving!! It sure sounded like transmission (gearkasse) problems ☹.
We found out that we could drive (just barely) in idle (tomgang) at 3-4 miles per hour (5-6 km/t).
We found a garage (værksted) 2 miles away. This time we didn’t limp (halte) we crawled (kravlede)!! 😊
We made it and had a guy look at it. It took him less than a minute to locate the problem. Broken transmission!.
It would cost $ 2-3000 to get it fixed (almost more than the car is worth) so we asked if he would buy it as is.
He offered $500, and we congratulated him on his new car 😊.



Lakewood Transmission, Monticello, Minnesota,
where we parted with the Tahoe

So now we were on the side of the road with no car and a travel trailer. This time AAA (Falck) was able to help us.
Within an hour there was a tow truck (bjergningsbil)  there to bring us the remaining 100 miles (160 km)
to the cabin in Deerwood. We got there safely. A little later than planned and without the car.

AAA hooking up

Another eventful week 😊

Written by JJ

June 30 - 2018 Birchwood, Minnesota

 We have now come FULL CIRCLE!!

 

We are back in Birchwood at Michelle and Peters (Mary’s sister and her husband) where we took off from
on September 14 last year. Good to see them again.

Michelle and Peter

In a way a strange feeling to have completed the trip. It has in all ways met our expectations and,
in most ways, exceeded (overgået) them.
We drove 30,000 miles (48.000 km). We were in all of the 48 continental states (some more than others).
We stayed at 78 different campgrounds. We travelled for 200 days.

We have seen so much. It is going to take a while to digest (fordøje) everything.
We have started working on a Top 10 list, but that is easier said than done.
I had one thing that I was debating whether it was a candidate or not and Mary said:
“You already have 16 things on your Top 10 !! 😊. We’ll keep working on it, but may have to give it up.

Our last move from Owatonna to Birchwood was a short one. Only 85 miles/ 135km.
But not uneventful (begivenhedsløs). When we pulled in to the campground in Owatonna Friday afternoon the battery light (ladelampen) came on in the Tahoe. Well, it was extremely hot, so we were running the AC (aircondition) at high, and at the same time charging phones and navigator, so we didn’t think much of it. When we pulled out Saturday morning it was ok
- for a couple of minutes ☹. As we were driving it came on more and more and at the same time the battery gauge (batterimåleren) just kept dropping more and more. The best guess was that the alternator (generatoren)  was dying and we were running on whatever power we had on the battery.

We made it to Birchwood. Got the camper backed up. Next time we started the Tahoe it ran for a minute and died!!
It is dead as a doornail (død som en sild).

There is good news too, though. The first people to come to see the camper called last night and said they wanted to buy it! 😊 They will pick it up next Saturday. One of us being a pessimist 😊, we won’t celebrate until it is completed.

An eventful day.

Written by JJ

June 29 - 2018 Owatonna, Minnesota

Friday, the 29th, we made a short move (165 miles/265 km) from Evansdale, Iowa to Owatonna, Minnesota.

Coming up I-35 we got this sign in sight. Mary took a picture and said: “We are home now" 😊.

It was a bit strange to set up the camper this time, knowing that it was the last campground we would stay at. For the whole trip this was campground number 78 (Including the graveyard (Utica,MS), the garage (Vicksburg,MS), and the little grocery store (Indian Springs, NV)) 😊.

We spent the rest of the day doing the final repairs and cleaning.

Written by JJ

June 27-28 - 2018 Evansdale, Iowa

On Wednesday, the 27th, we moved from Elk Horn to Evansdale, Iowa (220 miles/350km).
This part of the country is farm country. This is the breadbasket (brødkurv) of the US.
Fields with wheat, soybean, corn etc. all over. Especially corn. We have seen lots of cornfields (majsmarker) when we drive in Minnesota. Also, in parts of South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, but I have never seen as many cornfields as in Iowa. That is pretty much what there is to see 😊.

Endless cornfields

So, with all that farmland, it is no wonder that John Deere has its tractor production in Iowa 😊.

Sights are scarce in this part of the country so we went for a factory tour at the John Deere factory in Waterloo (Mary was bored stiff 😊). I found it interesting though. My childhood was full of tractors so it was fun to see how they have developed during the last 50 years.
We were driven around inside the whole factory , alongside the assembly line (samlebånd)  for a little over an hour (No taking pictures allowed).

 I can see why you can’t let your 7-year old work in the fields with a tractor and equipment as when I was a kid. Back then they had as little as 35 hp (hestekræfter). Now the big ones have over 500 hp!
Tons of electronics. Cabin (førerhus) and roll bar (styrtbøjle) (we had none of that) and some are even equipped with a fridge (køleskab).

Other than that, it has mostly been getting the camper ready for sale.
We have had more response to our ad (annonce) on Craigslist than we expected.
We have a couple of people who want to see it already on Saturday (which is when we are getting to the Twin Cities).
So all of a sudden, we have had to change our plans and start working.

This concludes our stay in the 4 states we decided to go to, in order to have been in all of the lower 48 states. Our expectations about those 4 weren’t that high and I guess they lived up to that.
We did find some interesting things to see, but none of them will make our Top 10 list (if we ever make one 😊)

Off to Minnesota!

Written by JJ

June 24-26 - 2018 Elk Horn, Iowa

Sunday, the 24th, we moved 240 miles/385 km from Independence to Elk Horn, Iowa.
When we first started out last fall, I thought we would go through Iowa on our way east. That would make Iowa our first state, outside of Minnesota, on the trip. Well, I forgot to confer with the head navigator (Mary 😊), and she took us directly into Wisconsin (and I have blamed her for it ever since 😊).
That way Iowa became state number 48!

There are two towns in the US that you could call the Danish Capital (hovedstad) of America.
One is Solvang in California. We did not go there because it was too far out of the way and because we had heard from Thomas and Daniel that it wasn’t really that great.
The other town is Elk Horn, Iowa. We went there Monday (the 25th). It is a small town with only 600 people. Danish last names are all over the place, and the town is full of references to the Danish connection. Together with the neighboring town, Kimballton, they brand themselves as the Danish Villages.

One of the main attractions is a Danish windmill. Build in Denmark in 1846.
A local person got the idea of getting a real windmill from Denmark.  Most people thought he was crazy,
but eventually he found support for the idea and within a year they had the $100,000 they needed.
In 1975 they found an old windmill in Nørre Snede, Denmark and in 1977 it was up and running in Elk Horn (actually capable of making flour). Unfortunately, the wings are off right now for restoration, but the rest of the mill was open.

It has been a while since we have seen a Danish flag

Another attraction is The Museum of Danish America (formerly The Danish Immigrant Museum).

A small, but very nice museum. It has a good variation. Stories about Danish Immigrants, Danish history, facts about Denmark. Important facts like our form of government etc., but also less important like our love of coffee, famous Danes (Victor Borge, Morten Andersen, H.C. Andersen etc.), famous Danish companies (Lego, Mærsk, Vestas etc.), an attempt to explain why we supposedly are the happiest people in the world (and at the same time being the most taxed people in the world 😊) etc. etc.

I never really understood how 5 Nordic countries,
so far away from where coffee is grown,
keep ending up as the most coffee drinking in the world.

There is an exhibition about the political and military relations between the US and Denmark over time.
And lots and lots of artifacts (genstande) either from Denmark or with relation to the Danish culture.
 
In Kimballton they have a nice little park with a fountain that has The Little Mermaid as the centerpiece, and around the park there are small bronze sculptures of different H.C. Andersen fairytales.  
 

 

We found a nice State Park close to Elk Horn. Sunday, we put the camper on Craigslist (Ca. Den Blå Avis).
Our timing isn’t the best since most people probably already have made their purchase for the season,
but not much to do about it. We will probably end up going to a dealer and get whatever we are offered.
But just in case somebody wants to see it within the coming week we decided to stay here an extra day and do some preparations before we give it the big overhaul in Minnesota.

Written by JJ

June 21-23 - 2018 Independence, Missouri

We are now in Independence, Missouri. On June 21, we traveled 130 miles/210 km from Council Grove.

Independence is the city, where the Oregon Trail started from (along with the Santa Fe and California trails). Lewis and Clark also came through here on their expedition. There is a museum in town, that tells about all of these trails (plus the Mormon pioneer trail, which used part of the Oregon trail). It’s called The National Frontier Trails Museum. We visited it on June 22.

The Oregon Trail had our main interest. We saw the end of it in Oregon City, and now we have seen the beginning – 2000 miles to the east.

During our travels, we have thought a lot about how difficult it must have been for the pioneers. The trip on the Oregon trail took about 5 months. They traveled over wide spread prairies, in the summer heat and winds. They traveled through very dry lands, where there was little or no water for days at a time. Maybe worst – they traveled over very tall and rugged mountains

 

Many people died of thirst, hunger, disease, exhaustion, Indian attacks, animal attacks (rattlesnakes, bears…). As they traveled, they had to leave more and more of their possessions behind. By the time they got to Oregon, many of them had nothing left but their life.

These people had courage. These people had strength. These people had the drive to make the trip. How many people today, would be able to make a trip like that? Between 1840 and 1869, about 500 thousand made this trip!

 

We found out a couple of other things about Independence – it is the hometown of Harry S. Truman (his presidential library and home are in town) and it is a center for the LDS church (Mormons)

But he didn't. Truman was elected the 33rd president

The town is the site that Joseph Smith originally chose for the temple of Zion in 1831. The Mormons were thrown out of town, before the temple was built, and they reorganized in Nauvoo, Illinois. Later they moved to Utah, using part of the Oregon Trail on their way.

The LDS church moved back to Independence at some point, because they have a temple, several churches, big auditorium, visitor’s center, and many other buildings in the city.

On Saturday – June 23 – we went into Kansas City. There are 200 fountains in the city, and we wanted to see some of them. Unfortunately, they are wide spread, and we didn’t have a very good map. We did find some but decided that it wasn’t worth driving around all day to find the rest.

Before we gave up, we did find this one, that is a tribute to the firemen, who have lost their lives on the job.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, just opened a new exhibit – Unexpected Encounters – where they have taken lots of things out of storage, that they usually have trouble exhibiting, because they don’t fit well with other things. We thought that sounded interesting, so we stopped by. Here is a sample of the variety of art we saw…


China, around 3000-2500 BC (clay)

India, 1911 (silver and silk)

USA, 1962 (acrylic polymer and wood)

 And this one was in the sculpture garden outside.

Written by Mary    

June 18-20 - 2018 Council Grove, Kansas

On Monday, June 18, we decided to just take it easy for a day. We had a busy day in the Badlands, plus 2 long “move” days, so we needed time for our bodies and minds to catch up. So – not much to write.

However, the weather was changing from hot sunshine to rain and thunder storms. This made for some very interesting clouds. We have seen some very beautiful and unusual clouds on our travels. In McPherson, JJ took some good pictures of them.

Just like being inside the Venetian in Las Vegas😊

Another beautiful sunset

We saw something, we have never seen before – intracloud lightning. This was just as it was getting dark. There was a low hanging cloud on the western horizon (maybe the same one that was there at sunset). At first, I thought someone far away, was shooting fireworks, that were reflecting into or through the clouds. There were bursts of red, yellow, orange. Then we realized, that the illuminated (oplyste) area was too widespread and it was lasting too long, for it to be fireworks. It was lightning within the clouds. We tried to take videos and pictures, but because of the low light, they didn’t work well. Here is our best picture. It doesn’t capture the sight very well but gives an idea of what it was like. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! (But I must admit, I was glad that we were not much closer!) 

Tuesday, June 19, we had a short move (80 miles/ 130 km). On the way, we drove through the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

It is part of the only 4% of original tallgrass prairie, that is left in North America. Prairie land is very good farming land, so most of it has been tilled (dyrket). Once the prairie’s eco system is disturbed, it takes thousands of years to establish the balance again. That is why the original prairie only exists where the soil has not been used for farming or ruined by overgrazing of cattle. The area around the national preserve has not been tilled, because it is in the Flint Hills; an area with very little topsoil, making it hard to plow. 

Unfortunately, the grass wasn’t very tall yet. It doesn’t get to full height (about 6ft/ 2m) until fall. (We agreed that we would have liked to see the tall grass, but we would not trade it for the fall colors we saw in New England. Can’t be 2 places at one time☹)


We went on a ranger-guided bus tour and got lots of information about the prairie – what lives there, what a prairie eco system needs to survive, the history of the area….

There was an historic ranch on the preserve. The buildings were not very well preserved, but we could see, that they had been very impressive for this area in the late 1800’s, when they were built.

 

Now we are staying at a public campground in Council Grove. It is run by the US Army Corp of Engineers (man kan vel sige at det er en meget avanceret udgave af ingerniørtropperne) and is located on the shores of a lake that was created when the corps built a dam. The Army Corp of Engineers is a lot more than military. Their 200 years of war experience has been put to use in peacetime.
They build bridges, dams (dæmninger) etc. They run hydropower plants (vandkraftværker) (they provide a fourth of all hydropower electricity in the US). When they build a dam they often build a recreation area and a nice campground around it. They have over 450 campgrounds in the US!!

It is our kind of campground – lots of nature, big site, not too many people, so it is quiet and peaceful. We decided to stay an extra day, just to enjoy the peace and nature.

Last night we sat outside watching fireflies (ildfluer). We don’t see them much in Denmark, so it is always a treat for us to see them. There were lots out. This morning, we woke up to the sound of birds singing, instead of traffic from busy roads, or train whistles from nearby tracks. We realized that it has been a long time since we have stayed anywhere this close to nature.

JJ also caught sunrise on the lake. (Clouds again😊)

We stopped at Council Grove, on the recommendation (anbefaling) of a man we met from Kansas. I asked him what we should see while in Kansas, and he recommended the Flint Hills and Tall Prairie National Preserve. He also told us, that if we were in that area, we should stop at the Saddle Rock Cafe in Council Grove for breakfast or lunch. So, we went there for lunch on Wednesday.
 
The guy we talked to recommended the place, because the locals eat there. We saw “real” cowboys at the café (as opposed to the ones at tourist places (i.e. Wall Drug, Cody…) or walking around in big cities). These were hard working farmers or ranchers, who came into town for lunch.

 

Modern cowboys “ride” pickups instead of horses (although one of them decided to bring his horses with to town too😊)

The town also had some “old things” displayed around town. There was a jail built in 1870. It is built by piling the boards horizontally, which makes the walls thicker, so it is much more difficult to break out of. (Remember seeing movies where someone comes to free a convict by tying a rope around the jail bars and pulling with a horse? These walls were too strong to be able to do that.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We also ran into this “guy”, making us wonder if we really were in Kansas😊

 
Written by Mary