2004/06 Yukon trip - Getting there - Crossing Minnesota |
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Wednesday 23rd June
We had been back a couple of days from the trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior for Grandma’s Marathon, and now we were setting off west on the first leg of our “big trip” to the Yukon. Our ultimate destination was Inuvik, at the end of Canada’s most northerly summer road, the Dempster Highway, but we were planning to make sidetrips to Vancouver Island and Alaska and anywhere else that looked interesting. We expected to be gone for up to three months.
Usually I’m struggling to get some Unisys work finished before we set off but this time it was the college entrance information for Christina and Michael. They’d left it until our last few days at home to really get serious about applying to college and getting grants and loans. After some hurried form filling, we eventually got away about noon on a sunny and warm day after Michael had got the forms from his college.
Part of our retirement plan is to avoid boring freeways whenever possible, so we headed up US highway 10 through lots of small towns to Little Falls and then west across to Alexandria. This took us past Long Prairie and the Circle R Ranch where the kids used to go to horse camp. Our guess was that nobody would be riding on this day as the clouds had come in and the thunder was rolling. We passed through three thunderstorms before we made it to Alexandria, and the temperature had dropped twenty degrees.
We got lost in road works for a while but eventually made our way to Little Ida Lake to see our friend Barb. Mag had died while we were out in Boston and had been gone about two months. The house looked spotless, and Barb was working on the lawn and garden, and doing a great job of keeping everything going. She has a lot of friends in the area, but it’s a lonely spot, particularly in winter when all the summer residents have left. Her dog Sadie was pleased to have somebody (me) along to play ball. We’ll be stopping by on our way back home in September.
It was tempting to stay there for the night, but we needed to get further into North Dakota, if we were going to get to Karen and Stew when promised. We were also looking for a cheap campsite. With the new camper we don’t need any facilities for several days, and can fit into any spot so there’s no need to pay for all the campground stuff we don’t need. We crossed the 
Red River into North Dakota and the town of Wahpeton and camped at the Kidder recreation area on the river bank. It has a giant fiberglass catfish, but more importantly it gave us showers, water, and electricity for $10, so it fitted well with our thrust for economy.
The radio told us to expect frost overnight. Hmm, this is a couple of days after Midsummer’s Day, and we’re being warned about frost?
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