Monday, August 27, 2007
10:20 Central, 11:20 Eastern
Ok, I’m gonna have to type really fast because I only have 21% battery life left, and we can’t charge it unless the generator is on. Peachy.
We drove to St. Paul/Minneapolis (no idea how to spell that) today. We decided to go to a place called Minnehaha, which means Laughing Water. They have an utterly dazzling waterfall. I think it was 28 feet, but it might have been higher, it was just a mother’s guesstimate.
Minnehaha has 50 miles of bike trails surrounding the park and cities. We decided not to go that far, it would’ve been fun though. We grabbed our bikes and headed out. We stopped at a remake of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s house. We thought it was his actual house, but we were disappointed. Longfellow wrote a famous poem/song about Minnehaha, The Song of Hiawatha. The poem richly describes Minnehaha, but apparently the writer had never even set foot in Minnesota. Weird. We made a few other stops too, the waterfall, which like I said before, it was astounding (of course ya’ll know I love any waterfall).
We also biked to Fort Snelling (nice name huh?), but we didn’t tour it because it was closing and we’re planning to see a couple other forts on the trip. We hung around the beach that was on the Mississippi. Darby, Tatum, and Katty dove in, they were wearing their clothes but didn’t really care. I personally had no desire to get wet, so I stayed on the sand. I know, I’m a party pooper. But every party needs a pooper, so that why they invited me……I’ll stop now.
We now just entered North Dakota and are stopped for the night. We really have no idea what we are doing tomorrow; we’re kinda just winging it. That always makes an interesting vacation.
Ok, I have a 14% battery life left so I better scat. I want enough to blog tomorrow! Miss ya’ll a bunch!
SMILES!
~Morgan~
P.S. I had hiccups for an hour today. That was pleasant lemme tell ya. Lol. ~M.E.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Pottery, Shoes, Stoneware, Hiking, Fossils, and Annoying Kids
Sunday, August 26, 2007
10:11 p.m. Central, 11:11 Eastern
Wow, we had a really busy day today. The howling kids and the puppy woke us up at the buttcrack of dawn. The dog quieted down after breakfast and a potty break, but the kids wouldn’t shut the cake trap. I was about to go over and let the parents borrow the Duck Tape. I went back to sleep after a while.
We headed to Red Wing, Minnesota, which wasn’t too far off from the campground. Our first stop was Red Wing Pottery, which just turned out to be a cute little giftstore, with some awesome kitchen ware. They did have this old fashioned candy store connected to it, so we helped ourselves to a pound and a half of hard candy’s, caramels, taffy (I love that stuff), and numerous other sweets. I absolutely adore old fashioned candy.
You’ve probably heard of Red Wing shoes, they make work boots and the like. Guess where we went next? Yeppers, we heard that there was a Red Wing Shoe Museum. It turned out to be quite small. One room, a couple signs and articles, and that was about it. It took us about a half hour.
We grabbed some lunch and headed down to a park next to the Mississippi River. The river was rather lovely at this time of day, and there was an awesome breeze. We hung out at the park until it was time to head to our next stop.
Red Wing Stoneware was awesome. They make pottery, such as jugs, coffee mugs, plates, crocks, beaters, bowls, juicers, and anything else you can imagine. You’ve probably seen one or two of their products. They have their signature color- the cobalt blue, with the clear glaze. We were the only ones that were there, besides another lady, and the owner gave us a tour. They only have about fifteen employees, and the amount of stoneware they make is astounding. The tour was really good.
We headed back to Goodhue County because we read about a place where you could go fossil hunting. It happened to be out in the middle of nowhere, we were lucky to find it. If it wasn’t for another group, a geologist, a lady and her girl, we would have never found it. The fossils were of shells, cephalopods (take a guess Crockett, Becky and V, there in Biology) and other things. Nothing huge, but, according to the geologist, Minnesota was under water half a billion years ago (or during the flood just a couple thousand years ago).
We weren’t done yet. We headed back to Red Wing, where there’s a “famous” Barn Bluff. It’s a 300 foot Bluff (I think that’s how high it is, it seemed higher) and when you climb it, you can see miles of the Mississippi and the town. It was really steep in parts, but we made it up with out any injuries. It was unimaginably beautiful. The wildflowers and prairie grasses covered the bluff. The sun was setting on the river, and the full moon was behind us. You could see for miles. It really gave you a realistic idea of how vast the Mississippi was. As we were going back down the mountain, my mother swore she heard a rattlesnake. Nobody believed her. I was reading a sign about the bluff, and how somebody described it as “indescribably beautiful, and teeming with rattlesnakes”. I showed my mom and she started flipping out. It was quite funny, but kinda disturbing…
Tomorrow shouldn’t be as busy, we head to Minneapolis/ St. Paul. Right now I’m exhausted, so I’m going to bed.
SMILES!
~Morgan~
10:11 p.m. Central, 11:11 Eastern
Wow, we had a really busy day today. The howling kids and the puppy woke us up at the buttcrack of dawn. The dog quieted down after breakfast and a potty break, but the kids wouldn’t shut the cake trap. I was about to go over and let the parents borrow the Duck Tape. I went back to sleep after a while.
We headed to Red Wing, Minnesota, which wasn’t too far off from the campground. Our first stop was Red Wing Pottery, which just turned out to be a cute little giftstore, with some awesome kitchen ware. They did have this old fashioned candy store connected to it, so we helped ourselves to a pound and a half of hard candy’s, caramels, taffy (I love that stuff), and numerous other sweets. I absolutely adore old fashioned candy.
You’ve probably heard of Red Wing shoes, they make work boots and the like. Guess where we went next? Yeppers, we heard that there was a Red Wing Shoe Museum. It turned out to be quite small. One room, a couple signs and articles, and that was about it. It took us about a half hour.
We grabbed some lunch and headed down to a park next to the Mississippi River. The river was rather lovely at this time of day, and there was an awesome breeze. We hung out at the park until it was time to head to our next stop.
Red Wing Stoneware was awesome. They make pottery, such as jugs, coffee mugs, plates, crocks, beaters, bowls, juicers, and anything else you can imagine. You’ve probably seen one or two of their products. They have their signature color- the cobalt blue, with the clear glaze. We were the only ones that were there, besides another lady, and the owner gave us a tour. They only have about fifteen employees, and the amount of stoneware they make is astounding. The tour was really good.
We headed back to Goodhue County because we read about a place where you could go fossil hunting. It happened to be out in the middle of nowhere, we were lucky to find it. If it wasn’t for another group, a geologist, a lady and her girl, we would have never found it. The fossils were of shells, cephalopods (take a guess Crockett, Becky and V, there in Biology) and other things. Nothing huge, but, according to the geologist, Minnesota was under water half a billion years ago (or during the flood just a couple thousand years ago).
We weren’t done yet. We headed back to Red Wing, where there’s a “famous” Barn Bluff. It’s a 300 foot Bluff (I think that’s how high it is, it seemed higher) and when you climb it, you can see miles of the Mississippi and the town. It was really steep in parts, but we made it up with out any injuries. It was unimaginably beautiful. The wildflowers and prairie grasses covered the bluff. The sun was setting on the river, and the full moon was behind us. You could see for miles. It really gave you a realistic idea of how vast the Mississippi was. As we were going back down the mountain, my mother swore she heard a rattlesnake. Nobody believed her. I was reading a sign about the bluff, and how somebody described it as “indescribably beautiful, and teeming with rattlesnakes”. I showed my mom and she started flipping out. It was quite funny, but kinda disturbing…
Tomorrow shouldn’t be as busy, we head to Minneapolis/ St. Paul. Right now I’m exhausted, so I’m going to bed.
SMILES!
~Morgan~
K-9 Complications
Saturday, August 25, 2007
10:08 PM Central, 11:08 Eastern
I woke to the sound of a puppy yelping it’s head off. Usually I would sympathize and comfort a puppy, but in this case it was 6:15 a.m. and there was no way I was gonna commiserate for Lavern. Ya’ll know that I’m not the happiest person in the morning. My dad let her out, she did her business, then was put back in the crate. She immediately started yelping. Everyone else was sleeping (or at least trying to) so I got up to play with her.
I set her down on the sleeping bag and reached over the bed to grab my glasses. I sat back on the sleeping bag and it-was-WET! It didn’t instantaneously compute that the dog had peed on my bed, I simply thought something had spilled, then it clicked and I about murdered the dog. She just went! And after all, I had SAT IN IT!
We headed out onto the road, and after a couple hours hit Wisconsin. It’s really quite fascinating how Indiana can be so flat, and Illinois so gloomy and cloudy, and a couple hundred miles away can be sunny and rolling with hills. Goldenrod, wildflowers, and birch trees flooded the side of the road. It was quite gorgeous.
Mid afternoon we arrived in Pickwick. It is a town named after The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. There is a 200 year-old flour mill there, and we took a look. The building is seven floors- two underground and five above. There was also a twenty eight foot waterfall, which was cool. The water was cold, and didn’t look so hygienic either. The water was cleaner than the rivers back home though.
We’re at the campground now; we headed there after the mill. It’s right next to the Mississippi River. We hiked down to the river; it was around half a mile one way. We took Muffin and Lavern, and once we got to the water, Lavern curled up and went to sleep. Poor thing, she’s only about eight inches high, and the stairs and rocks we were stepping down were taller than my knee. She’s a determined little bugger though, on the way back up she was set on keeping up with Muffin, who climbed the rocks with ease. It was a tricky hike back up, really tough. My legs are quite tired and there gonna be like that for a couple weeks.
There are some kids in the next campground that won’t shut up. They’ve been screaming their heads off for hours. Once one starts crying the other one starts, then a baby down a couple sites starts howling. It’s similar too a pack of dogs. I think they’ve finally calmed down.
SMILES!
~Morgan~
10:08 PM Central, 11:08 Eastern
I woke to the sound of a puppy yelping it’s head off. Usually I would sympathize and comfort a puppy, but in this case it was 6:15 a.m. and there was no way I was gonna commiserate for Lavern. Ya’ll know that I’m not the happiest person in the morning. My dad let her out, she did her business, then was put back in the crate. She immediately started yelping. Everyone else was sleeping (or at least trying to) so I got up to play with her.
I set her down on the sleeping bag and reached over the bed to grab my glasses. I sat back on the sleeping bag and it-was-WET! It didn’t instantaneously compute that the dog had peed on my bed, I simply thought something had spilled, then it clicked and I about murdered the dog. She just went! And after all, I had SAT IN IT!
We headed out onto the road, and after a couple hours hit Wisconsin. It’s really quite fascinating how Indiana can be so flat, and Illinois so gloomy and cloudy, and a couple hundred miles away can be sunny and rolling with hills. Goldenrod, wildflowers, and birch trees flooded the side of the road. It was quite gorgeous.
Mid afternoon we arrived in Pickwick. It is a town named after The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. There is a 200 year-old flour mill there, and we took a look. The building is seven floors- two underground and five above. There was also a twenty eight foot waterfall, which was cool. The water was cold, and didn’t look so hygienic either. The water was cleaner than the rivers back home though.
We’re at the campground now; we headed there after the mill. It’s right next to the Mississippi River. We hiked down to the river; it was around half a mile one way. We took Muffin and Lavern, and once we got to the water, Lavern curled up and went to sleep. Poor thing, she’s only about eight inches high, and the stairs and rocks we were stepping down were taller than my knee. She’s a determined little bugger though, on the way back up she was set on keeping up with Muffin, who climbed the rocks with ease. It was a tricky hike back up, really tough. My legs are quite tired and there gonna be like that for a couple weeks.
There are some kids in the next campground that won’t shut up. They’ve been screaming their heads off for hours. Once one starts crying the other one starts, then a baby down a couple sites starts howling. It’s similar too a pack of dogs. I think they’ve finally calmed down.
SMILES!
~Morgan~
A New Addition
Friday, 24, August, 2007
Nothing much happened today, we packed and headed down the road around 7, making a few stops along the way. Only one major event happened today, so prepare to be enlightened as you read on…
Last week, our neighbors brought home an eight week old Cocker Spaniel. When they went to pick up the puppy, there was a sister that was unclaimed for. They decided to bring them both home. We found out Thursday that they had decided that two puppys, along with two little boys, were too much (take a wild guess to where this is leading). My siblings and I begged our parents too let us buy the puppy. She was so incredible cute and well-tempered. The only problem was that the neighbors wanted us to decided before we left for our trip. No pressure or anything mom and dad, but you need to decide if we can keep the puppy and take her on our sixteen day trip in a 32’ RV with six people and another dog. Just ignore the fact that she’s about as big as your forearm, not house trained, and we leave in less than twenty-four hours.
They decided Friday that we would do a “trial run” for a couple hours, seeing if two dogs were too much too handle. Finally, we got our answer. They decided five minutes before we left that we could keep the puppy, who was already dubbed Lavern by the breeders.
We debated whether or not to change her name. Part of the family wanted to keep it Lavern, while the other half voted for several other names. The most popular of the names was Lola, but I had my own favorite: Butch.
That’s pretty much it for Friday (it’s Saturday right now). We ended our night outside of Chicago.
SMILES!
~Morgan~
Nothing much happened today, we packed and headed down the road around 7, making a few stops along the way. Only one major event happened today, so prepare to be enlightened as you read on…
Last week, our neighbors brought home an eight week old Cocker Spaniel. When they went to pick up the puppy, there was a sister that was unclaimed for. They decided to bring them both home. We found out Thursday that they had decided that two puppys, along with two little boys, were too much (take a wild guess to where this is leading). My siblings and I begged our parents too let us buy the puppy. She was so incredible cute and well-tempered. The only problem was that the neighbors wanted us to decided before we left for our trip. No pressure or anything mom and dad, but you need to decide if we can keep the puppy and take her on our sixteen day trip in a 32’ RV with six people and another dog. Just ignore the fact that she’s about as big as your forearm, not house trained, and we leave in less than twenty-four hours.
They decided Friday that we would do a “trial run” for a couple hours, seeing if two dogs were too much too handle. Finally, we got our answer. They decided five minutes before we left that we could keep the puppy, who was already dubbed Lavern by the breeders.
We debated whether or not to change her name. Part of the family wanted to keep it Lavern, while the other half voted for several other names. The most popular of the names was Lola, but I had my own favorite: Butch.
That’s pretty much it for Friday (it’s Saturday right now). We ended our night outside of Chicago.
SMILES!
~Morgan~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)