July 20-27 - 2018 Watertown, Minnesota

The last many days, have been spent with family and friends. It is so nice to get to see everyone again.

Here are some of the things we have experienced and people we have seen:

I was at the family cabin with JJ’s brother’s family and my brother Joe.

 

 

 Watertown had their town festival (byfest) – Rails to Trails.

 


There I met up with some of my high school friends.



 We spent a few days at my brother Matt’s house. We went sailing with “skipper” Matt and wife Ashley on their pontoon boat.

There was a reunion of the people I went to Denmark with the first time - 40 years ago!!

This week, we have mostly been in Watertown, at my brother Phil’s house. I enjoy walking around town, seeing places that have such good memories for me – the river, the high school, the church, the nature trails…. It has been great to have time to do that.

We have also been helping around the house and yard with small projects. We like relaxing, but we don’t like sitting around all day, so it is good to have something to do. Phil and his wife Mindy have done so much for us (finding our car and camper, helping us with banking and insurance, being our “mailing address” in the US, letting us stay so long…), we are happy to be able to do something for them. And it is nice to do something constructive, after so many months of travel.

July 26 was JJ’s birthday. The “Watertown gang” came over for supper and birthday cake😊

 

Today (July 27) we move on to White Bear Lake, where we will stay with some friends for the weekend. After that, we will stay at my sister Michelle’s house, until we leave for Denmark on August 7. We hope to be able to see more friends and family while we are there.

 
Written by Mary

July 10-19 - 2018 Watertown, Minnesota

We spent another 5 days at the cabin up north. And we enjoyed it in full.
Relaxing, swimming in the lake, the sunsets etc. etc.

Two of the days we spent helping Mary’s aunt JoAnn (who lives nearby) move from her cabin in Breezy Point to a new house in nearby Pequot Lakes. Aside from doing the actual move we also got a chance to visit with Mary’s cousin Mike and 4 of her other aunts and uncles (Tom & Kathy, Mary & Jerry).
Not your typical way to spend a vacation, but we were happy we could help out and enjoyed the company.

We are now back in Watertown. (the town where Mary grew up and where a big part of her family still lives).
We have spent time visiting with the family around here.

My brother, Per, turned 60 in June. Aside from having a big party (which we for good reasons missed ☹) he also decided to take his family on at trip to the US. They started out in Texas 3 weeks ago and worked their way north to Minnesota.

They arrived on Saturday (the 14th), just in time to attend the big Watertown Rib Fest.
Around 25 teams (one of them being Phil & Mindy) competed about making the best barbequed ribs (ribben).
It took place on the local golf course. Nice weather, lots of food and music.

On Sunday (the 17th) the Maiers (Marys familie) had arranged a family reunion in Watertown.
It is a big family and it is just impossible to arrange it so everybody can attend. As many as possibly could, showed up and together with my family it turned out to be a pretty big group.
Too big to fit in anybody’s house, so we went to a nearby park and had a really nice afternoon with lots of talking and lots of food and not least nice weather.



The part of the Maiers family that attended

5 of Mary's brothers


On Monday, the 18th, my family went to the cabin, so they could experience one of the most popular pastimes in Minnesota: “Going to the cabin” / “Going up North”. They had a great time. Thursday they went back to Denmark.
Other than that, we are just hanging out and taking it easy.

Written by JJ

P.S. Mosquitos

The official Minnesota State Bird is the Loon (lom). A pretty bird that has a significant call that you can hear, especially when you are around one of the thousands of lakes.

 

The unofficial state bird is the mosquito!! Minnesota has 52 different kinds!
Even though authorities (myndighederne) are fighting them vigorously, and probably killing of 80% of them at this time of the year, there are still plenty live ones to go around.

They can really be a pest, and at times when they get rally bad they will send people inside their houses. To get stung is one thing, the worst part is that the stings itch (klør) for days.

Mosquitoes are found pretty much all over the US, but the Minnesota ones have a certain reputation. As a 15 year old wrote a 125 years ago when her family was crossing Minnesota in a covered wagon (prærievogn) ; "They are bigger than elephants".

Every Minnesotan has their own personal belief in how to fight them and avoid bites. My experience is that none of it works ☹. I have scars (ar) from 2016-bites, 2017-bites and lots of new 2018 bites !!
Like I read in the newspaper: "If you're in a group of people, there's always that unlucky person who gets bitten a lot!!" That's ME! Maybe because I represent new blood. 😊

July 10 - 2018 Deerwood, Minnesota

Minnesota is known as "the land of 10000 lakes". There are actually more like 15000 lakes over 10 acres (4 hektar) in size
(and many others, that are smaller). One of these lakes is Lake Itasca. That is where the Mississippi River starts.
On July 10, we drove 100 miles /160 km to see where the mighty river begins.

I have wanted to see the Mississippi headwaters (udspring) since I was a girl. I saw pictures of people walking across the narrow river, and I wished to do it myself. Never made it – it is a long way from anything. Today I did😊

 

Some facts about the Mississippi River:

The name Mississippi comes from the Ojibwe word for “river spread over a large area”.
(Ojibwe er en indianerstamme der var/er i Minnesota).

The river by itself, is the fourth longest river in the world. It is 2552 miles long. 694 of those miles are in Minnesota.

It has many tributary streams and rivers (andre vandløb der løber ind i Mississippi floden), the 2 largest are the Missouri and Ohio Rivers. The combined river system is about 15000 miles long.

A raindrop falling in Lake Itasca would take about 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico.

The average flow of the river is 6 cubic ft./sec. (30-60 gallons) at the headwaters. It is 468000 cubic ft/sec. (4.5-5.5 million gallons) at the Gulf of Mexico (about 80000 times more).

The width coming out of Lake Itasca is 18 ft/5,5m (and a little later as narrow as 10 ft(3m)). At the Gulf of Mexico it is 2 miles wide (ca. 3 km).



Above the rocks: Lake Itasca - below the rocks: The Mississippi river

The Mighty Mississippi River

We were almost at the end of the Mississippi River, when we were in New Orleans. After that, I REALLY wanted to see the start. This is one of the last “to see” things on our list.

It was a nice day.

Written by Mary

P.S.

JJ read that the water lily (åkande) is the largest wild flower in Minnesota. Here is a really nice example of the flower, that we saw on our trip today.

P.P.S.
Although the "big trip" has come to an end and all the must sees have been ticked off, we still have almost a month left in Minnesota. Since the blog is also our diary (dagbog) we will still post once in a while.

P.P.P.S.
We are still working on our top-10 list(s)😊.

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