Headwaters of the Mississippi

When we started learning more about the Mississippi while we were in the Dubuque area, we decided that we would like to visit the headwaters area, in northwestern Minnesota. We really didn't have specific plans yet, so adding a couple of days in the Lake Itasca area was certainly doable. We left Grant River Recreation Area in Wisconsin just north of Dubuque on Friday, and arrived in the Lake Itasca area (Park Rapids) on Saturday - staying overnight at the Walmart in Park Rapids and driving on up to the park on Sunday. We could not get a reservation for a campsite for two nights in the park, so I was going to make two one-night reservations (and have to move the bus), but then I noticed a state recreation area just north of Lake Itasca (about 10 miles away), where I could get not only 2 nights, but full hookups too! I waited until this morning (the check-in day) to make the reservation as I did not have to pay the $8.50 reservation fee for same day check in. We arrived at La Salle Lake State Recreation Area this morning, and the site we had reserved was already available so we were able to get parked and then headed out to Lake Itasca State Park.

One of the first things we wanted to do is to see the headwaters of the Mississippi.

As we were heading back from La Salle Lake to Lake Itasca, we crossed the Mississippi (we are north of the headwaters) -

The river is little more than a "creek" at this point.

We drove in to Lake Itasca State Park and made our way to the headwaters area:

An information plaque about the search for Mississippi's source - note the comment about "voracious, long-billed, and dyspeptic musketoes" - their descendants are still in the area!

The marker says: "Here 1475 ft above the ocean the mighty Mississippi begins to flow on its winding way 2552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico"

Walking across the boundary between Lake Itasca (on the right) and the headwaters of the Mississippi (on the left).

A log bridge a little ways down from the headwaters.

 While we were at the headwaters, we noticed another family with one person on their cellphone and the others appearing to be waving at someone, but the someone was not there... looking very odd... then we realized that there was a webcam at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/Itasca/headwaters.html 
so I called my brother and Jimmy and Regina got to watch us waving from the headwaters of the Mississippi!

Some interesting information boards...

How is your world river knowledge?

I was confused by what would constitute the "headwaters" of a river - for example, there are streams that feed in to Lake Itasca - why aren't they the headwaters?

This display at the Visitor Center identified that I am not the only one confused...

I guess there is no "right" answer! So... maybe we took pictures at the headwaters today (if you agree with option B), and maybe we didn't!

Finally - one thing that I found odd was that the Mississippi flows north out of Lake Itasca - the text here indicates that "The elevation of the land south and west of Lake Itasca is hither than land at the lake. This high ground, called a morasse, is composed of many huge long hills of rock and soil which were deposited by powerful glaciers over 10,000 years ago (Patti comment: so someone theorizes). Rain falling on this high ground flows downhill into the Mississippi River drainage. Although we think of the Mississippi River as flowing southward, when the river leaves Lake Itasca, it meanders in a northward direction for over 80 miles before it finally turns east and then south to the Gulf of Mexico."

Uff Da!

As we were driving on the two lane roads in rural Wisconsin, I came across a lighted warning sign about the construction ahead - one of those that can express a specific message.

This one happened to have two messages. What I saw was:

PREPARED 

TO

STOP

and then when it changed:

FLAGMAN

AHEAD

BE

I thought, "someone whose first language is not English is preparing the signs!"

Then it changed again and I realized it was supposed to be:

FLAGMAN

AHEAD

BE

and then when it changed:

PREPARED 

TO

STOP

Hmmm, a more verbose sign creator, I guess. 

In addition, I've seen some stores with signs or items saying "Uff da!"  

I think it is an appropriate saying for many occasions!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uff_da

From Wisconsin to Minnesota

We left Grant River Recreation Area this morning and journeyed to the Minneapolis area where we've stopped for the night at a Sam's Club.

It was a wee bit chilly this morning at the campground (and inside the bus).

We took mainly US 61 from Wisconsin north and west to La Crosse and to I-90. Wow - that road was REALLY rough. Many things shook loose as we were driving (nothing major, just various things on the floor when we stopped that had previously been on a table or chair).

We stopped at Costco in Rochester, MN, to activate a membership that we had gotten through Groupon this past week. We also got a rotisserie chicken and made lunch/supper in their parking lot.

Then we headed up US 52 toward St Paul. This road was not as rough, but had a number of construction areas where it narrowed to one lane.

I always wonder about the etiquette of merging when a road narrows to one lane... some people say that you should stay in your lane and do a "zipper merge" at the end, making full use of both lanes for as long as possible. Others merge as soon as they see that there is going to be a lane closed and don't like the people who stay in the other lane... I have tended to be a "merge as soon as I know I have to" type of person, but, in this case, I didn't know that the road was narrowing to one lane for a long time.

When I finally got to the sign that let me know that the right lane was closed ahead, it had an interesting additional sign...

That's pretty clear, "Take Turns at Merge" - so do a zipper merge.

Interestingly, almost everyone else had lined up in the left lane, there were very few vehicles in front of me in the right lane. I didn't go all the way up to the end, but just kinda kept pace with the vehicles that I was beside at the time I realized I needed to merge, and one kind soul allowed me over. With Miss Doozie's size, I can push my way in, but was glad I didn't have to.

So, we've settled in at the Sam's Club - I was checking diesel prices and Sam's had a good price and it looked like we could get in and out. So, I called the club and asked if we could park the motorhome overnight, and they said yes. There is a Walmart next door, but my AllStays app says that it does not allow overnight parking, and when I tried to call, I didn't get anyone to answer with customer service. The parking lot at the Walmart has an odd entrance/exit that would have been challenging in Miss Doozie, so we're happily here at Sam's.

Tomorrow the plan is to head north toward Itasca State Park, with another overnight at a Walmart in that area tomorrow night before checking in to the park's campground on Sunday.

Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium - Sea and River Life

The Museum also included an Aquarium - with lots of different creatures. A few of the more interesting ones:

There was a stingray pool where they invited us to pet the stingrays. Up to 10 people could sign up (and pay $10 per person) for the privilege of feeding the stingrays (we didn't do that). I did pet them though!

I posted a picture of the octopus before... but he (she?) was actually quite active while I was there and I took a number of videos...

- here they are meshed together:
Octopus at Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium

In another part of the museum/aquarium, there were more river type creatures, including this huge catfish -

He was probably about 4' long and 6-8" wide!

Terraced farmland

The farmland around here is so beautiful! I wish that I could see it from the air as I am sure it would be even more beautiful from that perspective.

A pictureboard at Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium indicated: Contour and strip farming allow soil to absorb excess nutrient fertilizers before they can be washed into a nearby river and flow to the Gulf of Mexico.

We stopped at a farm produce stand along the side of the road and got some sweet corn - it was kind of rainy/cloudy but a beautiful farm...

On our way back to the campground this afternoon, we stopped at another farm...

These were the fields behind the cow pasture as taken by Dwayne's camera - beautiful!

A few pictures from our busy day!

I will be posting additional pictures from our day today, but it is late, and I want to get this entry written... so will just start with a taste of our day, and more about other things that we saw and experienced to be posted in coming days, I hope!

On our way over to Dubuque, we wanted to find a place to deposit our recyclables. Campgrounds generally do NOT have places for recycling, and this one is no different from the norm. Dwayne looked up "recycling in Dubuque" and called the local company - the lady he talked with told him where there were some containers in a parking lot not too far from where we were already planning to go. Hurrah! Got a bunch of recycling out of the Jeep!

Our major plan for today was to visit the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, and we spent much of the day there.

They have a nice mixture of river/sea life (like this octopus)...

And information about the river and crafts that navigate it - here is my sweet skinny husband piloting a vessel (well, at least pretending to, in the rebuilt pilot house of one in the museum).

I thought this chart was very interesting - how much cargo a 15 barge tow could carry compared to train cars or semi trucks.

We ended the day at Eagle Point Park, overlooking Lock and Dam 11 on the Mississippi, and were able to watch a 15 barge tow go through the lock. This was soon after we arrived - the first 9 barges were in the lock and the water had been released and they were about ready to transfer out of the lock. (This is with the panorama feature of my new Pixel XL phone - it creates a lot more of a fish-eye effect than I thought my old phone did...).

We watched from the overlook for about an hour and a half - the sun was setting behind us - at this point when I got a picture of some of the sunset colors in the river, the tow boat and the last 6 barges were in the lock.

Wisconsin is now visited!

Did you notice on the map of states that Miss Doozie has visited (to the right of this on the website) that Wisconsin is now filled in? We arrived in Wisconsin earlier today - the first time to visit for all of us (Miss Doozie, Dwayne, Patti, Miss Kitty, and Tabitha)!

We finished up at HWH on Monday afternoon... a couple of pictures to round out the slide seal airbag that was going in the Foretravel parked next to us that I posted pictures about yesterday...

The airbag is now in place in the groove around the opening - to the right of the plywood grain area - this is looking at the bottom of the slide out area.

Another view - you can see the curve of the airbag as it is going up the side on the left side of this photo. Again, the slide room itself is pushed *in* to the motorhome to accomplish this task.

After leaving HWH, we decided to head to Davenport to visit the Sam's Club so we could get the Jeep tires rotated. We were actually a couple of thousand miles beyond where we should have been with the ones on the front, but we were able to get it done yesterday afternoon. We ended up being there a little later than we had planned (no appointment so they worked us in), so asked and received permission to overnight in their parking lot.

Today we drove a little less than 100 miles to Grant River Corps of Engineers campground just north of Dubuque on the Wisconsin side of the river.

I'm not sure what happened, but the air connection between the Jeep and the back of Miss Doozie was disconnected on the Jeep end. I don't know whether I neglected to attach it at all or just didn't attach it well. The end was caught up in the electric cable coil by the time we got to the campground, but it had obviously bounced around and got very scarred up and was no longer usable. Thankfully Dwayne had a replacement (the one on the right is the replacement, the one on the left is the scarred up one).

The only disadvantage of this campground is that the railroad runs right alongside it - Dwayne is the person you can see in the picture, and he is standing about halfway between Miss Doozie and the railroad tracks - not far from our site... and the trains sound their horn for the crossing on the way in to the campground. We figure that it won't bother us too much... one of our neighbors in the campground said that some people stay only one night and leave because they cannot sleep. It seems there is about a train every hour or so - maybe will be more frequent overnight... we'll see how it goes!

The gorgeous part is on the other side of Miss Doozie - a little walk away, but the beautiful Mississippi River. We sat and watched a tugboat pushing 4 loaded barges up the river (on the far side) for a while this afternoon.