Aug 18, 2012 - Minnesota, the Land of the Jolly Green Giant

After some severe thunderstorms early this morning, we all slept in until most of the rain had passed. We were on the road by 11:00 heading towards Minnesota. We traveled 245 miles today. The kids each had a video to watch, which really makes these travel days bearable for them. We stopped late for a picnic lunch at a rest area along I-90. We are noticing a change at the rest areas too. On our way west, they were always bustling with people, now they seem almost deserted. We crossed over into Minnesota and stopped at the travel rest stop to...

Jun 20, 2012 - Hayward, MN

Wednesday morning we left Forest City, IA and drove all of 52 miles to Hayward, Minnesota. We usually drive much further between stops but we wanted to be able to put Minnesota on our state map on the side of the coach and we have to sleep in the state before adding it to our map. We pulled into the Albert Lea/Austin KOA campground. It was right off the highway but in the middle of corn country. We were parked in the front row looking out onto the most peaceful, beautiful scene of a cornfield and in back of it was the farm house, barns and...

Jun 14, 2011 - Mason City, Ia

We left our Cedarburg home about 8:00am and with a brief stopover at Camping World, near Madison, WI.,to pick up some things, arrived at our KOA campgrounds, near Hayward, Mn. around 3:00pm. Spent a leisurely night there, but had the worst over night storms you can imagine. Over 1.5" of rain, plus lots of thunder and lightning, etc. It subsided abt 6;00am. Weds., 6/15, we spent most of the day with Aunt Catherine and Uncle Frank, with lunch at Applebee's in Mason City, Ia. Aunt Catherine made a wonderful Lemon Meringue pie that went well...

Sep 2, 2010 - First Time Minnesota

We left the great state of Illinois at 8am by crossing the Mississippi with a little fog and an unability to take good pictures. Tried to rain on us all the way through Iowa as you can see and finally got us just before we left Iowa for Minnesota and while we were setting up in the campground. Iowa memories: saw a bald eagle circling out my side window, gone before I could get a picture; and then we started seeing windmills in the distance, you have to look hard to see them in the pictures. Our campground is in Albert Lea/Hayward, just...

Jul 5, 2008 - Worst Day Ever - Mother Nature Blows!

We woke up this morning to some pretty strong gusts of wind in the campground. I immediately knew that the day did not bode well for us. The wind was coming from the south which meant that I would be fighting a cross-wind all day long. As soon as we got on the road, my fears were realized. Not only was the rig being blown all over the road (imagine carrying a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the wind), the awning started to unfurl as microbursts of wind hit us broadside. The awning lock is a lever and is the mechanism that prevents the awning from...