Minnesota

Well, welcome to the first state that touches one of the Great Lakes of North America … Minnesota. A few of my RV friends who are traveling the south at the moment are telling us that we are fortunate with the weather as it is too hot down south; the temperature in the northern states is just perfect at maybe 80 F or 27 Celsius.

What really amazes me is that we have had 2 rain showers in the 10 weeks that we have been on the road!! Such a dry summer we’re having…

Nice road approaching the town of Duluth

Okay so we knew for sure that we were going to visit some friends in Minneapolis but other than that, we did not have a definitive plan in place but luckily we met a nice couple ( Ken and Sue) in Medora (ND) who told us that we should spend at least a couple of days in Duluth, a coastal city by the Lake Superior, so this is it!! And they even recommended an excellent campground to us so here we are trying to get a site at the Burlington Bay RV park in Two Harbors; as usual, very hard to get something in such a short notice.

But we managed!! The Front Desk girl did something very unusual: you have three different sites for the 3 days that you plan to stay with us so you need to move everyday!. We said ” that’s not a problem for us!!”.

Lake Superior…. the largest of the Great Lakes and the second largest lake in the world by surface area, at 31,700 square miles (82,100 square kilometers). This is roughly the size of South Carolina or Austria, and is larger than the combined areas of New England. It’s also 350 miles (563 kilometers) long and 160 miles (257 kilometers) wide, with an average depth of 483 feet (147 meters) and a maximum depth of 1,330 feet (406 meters). It’s fed by more than 200 rivers, including the Nipigon River, and drains into Lake Huron via the St. Marys River.

It looks like the seagulls are wondering what am I staring at 😂

Claudia enjoyed the view so much!!

We met Bill and Trudy from Florida and had a great evening drink. Funny that we were also neighbors the earlier night at the campground in North Dakota ( Jamestown). They’re heading North East to visit relatives.

What a view!!!

This has been the shortest drive from one site to another…. just under 4 minutes ( the longest drive was from Glenallen Alaska to Whitehorse Yukon in Canada… 15 hours!!.

Mr Chef cooking dinner by the Lake superior ☝

Driving north from the campground you find two interesting spots worth a visit : the Split Rock Lighthouse and the waterfalls nearby

Time to hit the Big Cities, Minneapolis / St Paul and pay a visit to Myriam, Jennifer and her boyfriend Thomas; Myriam’s other daughter ( Stephany) lives in Denmark which is where she met our daughter Erika while doing her university experience abroad.

Myriam cooked a delicious Colombian dinner for us all.

And this is the entrance of Mall of America, known as the largest mall in the United States. I have to say, once you visit Dubai Mall, it out dwarfs all others!!

A mall with an amusement park included

Tree number 26 was planted at the Burlington Bay RV Park and we’ve got quite an audience!! Meet Audrey, Anne and Avery who posed for the photo!

In the next chapter we beging our journey south in search for a home for Scotty for the next few months!!