Friday, May 12, 2017We left Royal oaks RV park in Bemidji, Mn under partly sunny skies and 50 degrees. It was noisier than previous nights. We head down route 71 S. Ed made me pass an estate sale....that hurt, but there was no extra time allowed in today's plan. More farm land like anywhere Mid America except for the birch trees. We entered the east entrance to Itasca State Park. The welcome center provided us with a map and directions for the 16 mile route through. We saw a grove of huge Norway spruce. The most shocking thing we saw was the damage from a storm last year. Many large trees were uprooted, broken, twisted, and dead. White plum trees were blooming, according to the lady at the center. We saw the beautiful trillium wild flowers blooming beside another unidentified yellow blooming flower with the petals hanging down. We drove around to the other visitors center for the main reason for our stop. The center was closed but the path to the head waters of the Mississippi River is a few hundred feet away. Ed expected a tiny trickle, but they is a good sized rock area of gurgling water that leaves Lake Itasca which is the source of the 4th greatest River on earth. It flows north into Lake Bemidji then south for 2552 miles to the gulf. It is possible to walk out on the rocks and cross the Mississippi but this old lady is not sure footed enough to try it. It had somewhat a special feeling about it. A sign that a drop of rain here takes 90 days to reach the gulf. We only saw 5 other people while we were there. Just as the river begins its flow there is a short wooden bridge crossing the water, back to the parking lot. Well let me tell you that Black crappie were swimming up stream and spawning, right before our very eyes! Amazing how this works. We drove around the rest of the park seeing many lakes, a beaver lodge, birds and trees. We then headed out across US 2 west again. We stopped at a pullout facing a small lake for lunch. The Minnesota license plate says land of 10,000 lakes, we must have seen 200 of them. We head north at Crookston where we made a final USA stop at Walmart. The scenery here could be boring but there are thousands and thousands of acres for cultivation of wheat, beans, corn and sugar beets. A few signs gave us clues, but no signs told us. To handle all this production There are umpteen numbers of silos and processors. We drove for 1 1/2 hours with fields on both sides of this flat farm land. It was windy too. We crossed into North Dakota for fuel and to cross the Canadian border. This is always a dreaded event. There were no cars and we got in the truck lane since we are a truck. This was the wrong lane, but no one was it it so the agent asked his required questions and off we went in 5 minutes! Whew! We had to get out at one previous crossing while agents went through the vehicle. The Canadian side looks just like the US side with fields in production. They do seems to use trees as wind breaks and they burn off there fields. We took a bypass of Winnipeg and headed west to Millers RV park in Portage la Prairie. Manitoba. We arrived after 6 which is late for us. The wifi is at the office, so who knows if this will get out today. It was sunny most of the day and probably in the 60's. It is 50 now at 8:30. Note: when we stopped at Walmart in Crookston the milk was $3.50 a gallon. I had seen the milk for $.98 a gallon in Michigan.
 Sighting: 3 Tim Hortons!
 Drove: 345 miles  
no band width for photos here
to be continued ....