North Dakota

 Another state added to our list!  North Dakota has been a wonderful stop for us because we really did nothing but relax!  Pulled into the Jamestown Campground in Jamestown, ND Sunday, July 25th and plan to pull out about 11:30 this morning.  I've been able to log into the office and work every day which has pretty much kept me caught up.  The first day we were here, we went into town for a Walmart run and ate at the Pizza Shack which transported Kenneth back to his childhood trips to Shakey's where he ate pizza and fried chicken.  Monday and Tuesday we didn't go anywhere-just hung out at the camper, sat outside in our chairs, cooked on the outdoor kitchen, napped, I did laundry and just generally did the camping thing-it was awesome!  Wednesday we went back to town to do the tourist thing at Frontier Village, I hit a little shop of local artisans and got a couple Christmas gifts and we got to see the World's Largest Buffalo which was created in 1959 as a roadside attraction to get people to stop here.  I wanted to take a stagecoach ride, but they don't run it during the week so I'm going to have to miss out on that.  Had a great dinner at IDK Bar & Grill then back to the camper. We're going to try a Harvest Host this evening - a brewery in Dickinson, ND about 200 miles from here.  We've found that 200-300 miles a day is a good pace to drive.  We'll boondock at Phat Fish Brewery, have dinner and just sleep in the camper.  It's supposed to be 57 degrees there tonight so I don't think we'll need to even use the generator for the A/C!  Best thing about the Harvest Hosts is they're free...:)

Frontier Village had a whole town set up! You could look in all the stores and see what things looked like back in the day.  I love that kind of stuff...:)

Here's the stagecoach I wanted to ride.  I've always wondered what it would be like to ride across that terrain in one of these - it was a luxurious way to travel then, but it had to really not be that great!

At The Pizza Shack-he loved it!

This is me cooking bacon...I started it, but somehow he ended up doing it.

We had wonderful hosts here and they kept everything so nice!

I was almost too tall for this town!

Are we tourists or what?!

Christmas shopping!!

Goodbye, Jamestown...we've enjoyed it!

Lake Itasca

 We pulled out of Wisconsin Dells and drove to Itasca State Park in Minnesota. When we first crossed into Minnesota, I wasn't very impressed.  But the area around the park was beautiful!  I like the woods and this was nothing but woods.  We checked in with the Information Center and they apparently had a cancelation and we were able to get a spot in the park for the camper overnight.  It was a great overnight stay!

Standing in the Mississippi River headwaters praying I wouldn't slip and fall on this little kid!

Driving down to the headwaters-beautiful ride.  Wish we had been on the motorcycle but we didn't even unload it here.

This little guy ran out partway into the road then turned and ran back to watch our camper roll by.  Thankful mama didn't come out, too!!

This is the first bear I've ever seen!  Saw a beautiful bald eagle in the Dells.  A lot of wildlife where we are, that's for sure.

There's a live cam set up online at the headwaters, so we texted Katie when we got there and she got to see us!

View outside the door of our camper. 

Happy we got to see this beautiful place.

First stop on our trip!

 Kenneth drove a little over 600 miles our first day on the road and went the rest of the way on the second day to reach our campground in Wisconsin Dells.  We had no idea when we made the reservation here that it was the water park capital of the world!!  I have never seen so many kids in my life!!  Way too many people for my liking, but we mainly rode the motorcycle away from it all so it wasn't too bad.  One attraction we did do in town was "Flying Wild - Wilderness Aerial Adventure Ride" and we both would've done it again.  You get strapped into your seat (I even had to take my flip flops off) with one of those wrap around movie screens and you're "flying" over all kinds of things feeling water spray on your face and smelling flowers and such.  It's hard to remember it's not real - I caught myself several times pushing back into my seat like I was going to fall out!!  Fun thing for kids and adults, for sure!  I really enjoyed our motorcycle rides the most.  I found that I loved the landscape - so many farms and crops and all so neat and tidy.  You could tell they take pride in their properties and trash was virtually non-existent here.  I also found some local brews I really liked and we ate plenty of Wisconsin cheese!  We ended up riding the bike almost 600 miles while we were here and I loved every minute of it!  We rode to Milwaukee one day to go to the Harley Davidson Museum, one day to the Duluth Trading outlet and the rest of the time just rode around locally and checked things out.  A really nice start to our trip!

We rode the bike to Wisconsin Rapids and stopped at Hollyrocks for a beer then on to Jennings where we got this local brew, cheese curds, pretzel sticks with beer cheese dip, beer cheese soup and a hamburger.  Needless to say we brought food back to the camper with us!!

My "office" while I'm on the road.  I work for the best family - I can't believe how blessed I am that they would allow me to take off and have this unbelievable adventure!!  Thanks, y'all!

Our home in Wisconsin

Leaving the house

I have to get all the state signs!

Lunch stop on the road.  We always have to park pretty far away from everything but that's OK because we need to walk as much as possible.

A small portion of the main drag in the Dells

My goodness...it was all so good!!

I had to throw an old barn pic in.  I love old barns and old churches. 

Hundreds of farms just like this.  Everything was so green and picture perfect here!!

Lake Michigan in Milwaukee

Kenneth with a bike from his birth year...

...and me with mine!

Wisconsin Veterans Memorial

We're really roughing it.  I guess this is what they call glamping!

Last night in the Dells...good Mexican food with a great view!