Welcome to Wisconsin!

Barb and I stayed at Pattison State Park the last couple of days.  We left our last campground in Minnesota intending to stay at another park in Minnesota, in the Savannah National Forest, only about an hour away… we got there, drove about 5 miles down a gravel road, only a few campers there, but when we got out of the van, Theo was nearly carried off by the triangular flies!  Ack!!!!  Nope, not for us.  We dove back into Mac and spent 5 minutes swatting flies, then got out the atlas to check our options… Pattison was only another hour and a half.  We took off.

Was a pleasant surprise.  We were able to get a campsite and they had nice trails on which dogs are allowed and "root beer" colored waterfalls.  That description didn't sound appealing, but the falls were lovely.

These are the highest falls in Wisconsin.

Got some watercolors started there today, but nothing to show for it yet… stay tuned!

They didn't want dogs in the picnic area, but they were allowed on the trails, so they gave you a dog path to follow to the trails.  Pretty cute.

It was pretty rainy most of the time, but not hard enough that you couldn't walk in it.  Then as we started to pack up today, the sun came out.  That was nice, no fun to pack a tent in the rain.

Onward!  Eastward!  Towards the sun...

Leech Lake, Minnesota

I picked a campground in the Chipewa National Forest for the night.  As we were driving there, Barb saw a sign for "Leech Lake."  She said "Ewwww, that doesn't sound very inviting!"  I informed her that that was were we were going.  Oh.  

As it turns out when the lake was first discovered by French explorers they wrote that it was the  "lake full of bloodsuckers."  Fortunately for us, as swimmers at least, they made it into a huge reservoir, now the third largest lake in Minnesota, and the game fish ate all of the leeches.  Phew!  So of course I dove in!  You would think they might have changed the name, to something like "the lake of sparkling waters" or something...

We met some interesting guys along the way - here's Paul hanging out by the highway.  

This guy was in the campground...

Dawn at Stony Point Campground...

On the way, we stopped by a little post office in Osage to mail some postcards, and the little store next to it had a big sign that said "Broasted Chicken."   I suddenly realized I ws starving and nothing would taste better than broasted chicken.  It was 10 am.  With high hopes I entered the store and inquired whether the chicken was ready yet or not.  Oh no, the lady replied, not until 11… and the teenage boy next to me said "I have to go cook it."  Oh….well…. so I perused the aisles looking for an alternative.  I found some local organic eggs and bought those…I asked the lady as I was paying "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  ...Now we know."   Not sure she was too impressed with my sparkling wit.  However, Barb was VERY impressed when I asked her if she wanted a fried egg. "What here?  by the side of the road?"  Yep!  Pretty cool, eh?

Order up in Mac.

Adieu North Dakota

Barb arrived safely in the wee hours of the morning and now we are off to Minnesota.  Haven't decided which park we're going to yet, but there are lots of choices in the 10,000 lakes state.

Stayed in a campground in a park in Fargo last night.  Wasn't bad - right by the river, but lots of traffic noise of course.  Shared a glass of wine with a nice couple from Quebec who are camping next to me in their VW camper van.

Here's Theo taking in the scents…

A little boy about 9 years old was fishing across the drive from my site.  His father and brother were about 30 feet further down…He sat there about 15 minutes and then called out to his dad:  "Well, it seems this is more a mental sport than a physical sport."  Smart kid.

Of sunflowers and oil, and the Missouri River...

Headed out of Theodore Roosevelt on Sunday.  Decided to take the "scenic route" (of course!) which went up along the eastern edge of the park for a ways, and then turned east.  I drove past huge sunflower fields!

Beautiful!

…and oil fields…

…not so beautiful.

…and a lot of cattle country.  There are lots of flies in North Dakota!  Glad I have my screens.

Found a sweet little campground on the "untamed section" of the Missouri River - that's how their website described it, because its not dammed here.  The water is much less muddy than other sections I've seen.  Theo liked it.  Me too.

There were no other campers there on a Sunday evening, so Theo got to go off leash for a bit.  I was just starting to think it might be just a little TOO empty, that maybe I should go up to the busier campground, when a truck pulling a boat with a bed load of kids and a dog pulled in and set up camp at the other end of the campground - just far enough away to still feel private, but nice to have someone else around.  Now it was just right… and I have electricity and internet - yay!

I collected another water sample for the water ministry (see my previous post).

Of birds and water...

I've been meaning to write more about the birds I see along the way.  Back when I was leaving Choteau, Montana, I passed the Freezout Lake (gotta love the name) waterfowl area, and I saw white pelicans…

I've been enjoying the Magpies too - they have a big personality - kinda like a cross between our Mockingbirds back at home with crows.  They are quite striking.  Here's a photo from Cornell University's excellent All About Birds website.  Take a look at their site to see more about these guys - pretty cool.

I've seen many different kinds of hawks, and at the Cottonwood campground in North Dakota a couple of evenings Nighthawks (not part of the hawk family) gathered over the meadow and grabbed bugs like swallows do.  Here's a shot from the same website:

As I was crossing eastern Montana there was quite a bit of roadkill (mostly rabbits) on the Big Sky Back County byway I was driving.  I did not see one vulture… someone told me it might be because the ranchers put out poison for pests that the vultures get, but I don't know.  It was strange.  I saw them again when I got to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park…

I've also been meaning to write about Water Ministry.  I received the newsletter from my church and there was a post from our minister saying that on August 30th she is going to do a sermon on water ministry.  Here is part of what she wrote:

...we believe that moments of ministry happen all the time, all around us—every single day—even though, most of the time, we don’t even notice them.
What is a moment of ministry? It’s a moment of connection, a moment of relationship, between you and another person, between you and the world around you, between you and the Great Mystery that holds and surrounds us all... It’s ...a moment that takes your breath away. 

This summer, as every summer, I challenge you to be on the lookout for moments of ministry. And when one happens, I challenge you to remember it. To help you remember the moments of ministry that you notice during the summer, I ask you to collect some water—water of ministry—any time that ministry happens. And then I ask you to bring your water and your stories to our service on August 30, so that we may gather our stories into the heart of our worshipping community, and our waters into a common bowl; so that we may carry them, and the blessings they represent, forward into our lives together in the year to come. 

I thought this sounded great!  Then my next reaction was that I was so sorry I hadn't gotten some water from Glacier National Park, where I certainly had some moments of ministry.  Then I looked around Mac - sure enough I still had a water bottle in the driver's door that had water from Glacier!  Yay!  I cleaned out a small bottle that had held vinegar, and carefully poured the water into it to take to the service.

Water from Glacier National Park

One more day...

As I was packing up Mac on Saturday in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park, I started thinking perhaps  I shouldn't give up such a great spot on a Saturday - finding another somewhere else is much easier on a Sunday, and besides I had all the painting stuff out.  So Theo and I walked up and paid for another day… good decision.

As I was walking back to the campsite, one of the other campers asked me excitedly if I'd seen the bison - "No!  where?" … and he pointed.  A mama and her calf were meandering along the edge of the campground and were almost to my site!  I tiptoed over (kept the tent between them and Theo, as a sort of blind) and watched.  They munched on grass and I admired.  Then I saw some other campers were watching from the road so I motioned for them to come on in my site to see.  It was great fun!

Later in the day the whole herd gathered on the hill opposite the campground…so I was able to get my bison fix.

See the little dots of bison on the hill?

One of the people who came over to see the bison was a guy named Gary who is doing a cross country trip in memory of his late wife.  He's riding a tandem bike with the back seat empty…He said one of the native Americans he met said that is the "ghost seat."

We got to talking and I mentioned that I was going to take another shot at painting the view and he looked wistful and said that he'd really enjoyed painting in the past.  I invited him to join me.  No, he had to move on.  OK.  Safe travels, etc.

He went back to his site and I took T for his walk.  When I got back Gary came back over and said that he changed his mind and would like to try to do a painting.  He said "I've got to remember that I'm not in a hurry and its ok to slow down."  Sound familiar!?  I laughed.  So I got out the canvas postcards and we both started painting.  Wish I'd gotten a photo of the one he did - He got some nice bark on his cottonwood trees.  Here's one of mine:

And on a little 12 x 12 canvas, I tried sketching one first (sometimes I go straight in with paint, and sometimes I don't… don't have a formula):

…and here's the WIP from it:

So, it was good fun to have a painting buddy for a day, and to get some work going.

It got pretty hot on Friday and Saturday - here's what my thermometer said for Temp/Humidity in Mac with all the doors open and partial shade…

 I kept dumping water on Theo… he didn't object as much as usual…

Luckily the campground is heavily shaded - that saved us once the sun got past its peak - here's a shot of the campground from about a mile away, from a turnout on the scenic drive.  The campground, appropriately named Cottonwood campground, is in that line of trees...

And here's the sign that was at the turnout:

Oh, and I keep meaning to mention, one day when I stopped at a cafe to sit outside and get some WiFi, I walked up with Theo and put his small bed down and asked him to lie down.  I do that in part so he knows where he's supposed to stay, but its also more comfortable for his old bones.  There were a couple other customers there when I arrived and watched us.  As one of the guys was leaving later, he said  "I wish someone would follow me around with my bed all day."

Yep, T's pretty lucky.  We're good pals.

Another day in the "Naughty Lands"

…as you know from my previous post, since these hills aren't as rugged as the BadLands, I am calling them the Naughty lands…

Got a painting going!  Yay!  Here's my latest WIP (work in progress).

I kinda like this start - it feels a little looser than my previous ones and I had fun working on it.  (Its 8 x 24).  The blue-green streak in the lower third is the sagebrush.   It takes on many colors throughout the day, from white-grey to green to blue green…love it.

I did a "scenic route" in the park and saw some bison, some free-roaming horses, a Pronghorn (the park newsletter say these are not a deer or an antelope but a family all its own.  It is the fastest land animal in North American with speeds reaching 60 mph)… well my guy was just moseying along, a coyote in a prairie dog field… and then two turkeys passed my campsite.  Not bad!

Anyhow, enjoyed the Teddy Roosevelt National Park, now that I have a painting done, it must be time to move on!  So I'm getting Mac packed up.  Still studying the atlas to decide where next - stay tuned!  ; )