Day 4, Monday, September 29, 2014

Glacial Lakes State Park, Minnesota

One of the questions we asked around the campfire tonight was, "Did you ever think we'd camp in Minnesota?"  The answer was a definite No! 

It was a lazy morning leaving Iowa. Temps in the 50's. The cloud cover sure makes the colors on the cottonwoods here pop!  Pretty!

On our drive to Minnesota we saw such beautiful farmland - makes me sing quietly songs about Thanksgiving and harvest time.  We saw geese flying in formation thinking, wondering, are they going to make it down to our home in Texas????  We landed at Glacial Lakes State Park, a small, but pretty campground surrounded by farmland.  We always thought Texas as big on farming, but now I think I might disagree.  Their corn is still a golden green.  And it goes on as far as the eye can see.  We think they were harvesting beets up here. Oh my.  Just beautiful.

The park ranger says that an hour further north the leaves are in full color. Guess we'll see!

 LeMars, Iowa, better known as the "Ice Cream Capital of the World"

 All the street corners in town have ice cream cones. Cute!

 Lutheran Church near Monson Lake State Park, Minnesota

 Monson Lake, MN

 Do you see it?

 Beautiful countryside about to burst with fall colors.

 Top of our hike today.

Glacial Lakes State Park

Day 3, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014
Lewis and Clark State Park, Onawa, Iowa

We left Copan Lake around 8.  Headed for Iowa by way of Kansas and Nebraska on Hwy. 75.  We arrived at this state park around 3 this afternoon. Have to admit it isn't as nice as I had hoped, but it will do just fine.  Our site is on the water.  The park sits on an Oxbow lake - Blue Lake, which is next to the Missouri River.  In 1804 Lewis and Clark camped here on their expedition.  But - we are leaf peepers this trip.  We started to see the colors changing in Topeka, Kansas.  Not much.  There are a lot of cottonwoods at our site here which are turning yellow.

 Butterflies everywhere!

 Our rig sure brought in lots of nosy neighbors to visit!

 Blue Lake in Iowa

 A replica of the boat that Lewis and Clark used to explore the Missouri River.

Day 2, Sat. Sept. 27, 2014
Washington Cove Campground on Lake Copan, OK

We left Huntsville at 7:15.  Arrived here around 4.  500 hard miles today. But......our backporch this evening is a beautiful lake shore. Although it is 83 degrees and the sun is hitting us hard, I am sure it will cool off soon.  We got the canoe down for a sunset cruise!  And the cruise was awesome.  Being in a canoe and gliding across a lake gives such a different perspective on the scenery.  Lake Copan is about 10 miles north of Barltesville OK  for all of us Phillips66 folks.  And about 10 miles south of the Kansas state line.

Nothing beats the canoe and a sunset!

Day 1, Friday, Sept. 26, 2014

Our destination today is to only reach Huntsville State Park. Why? Ron is getting off of graveyards and I still have packing to do. We are leaving around noon. This gets us through Houston and that makes us happy.

 Let the fun begin!  We will rest up once we get here and get ready for a couple of days of heavy traveling.

We camped at site 126. I kinda miss the convenience of truck camping but having all the extra space of a bigger camper is nice.  We took a hike this evening along Lake Raven.

Raven Lake at Huntsville State Park

AWAWEGO, Fall, 2014 The Great Lakes and Ontario

That gentle nudge began. A whisper in the trees.  Could we maybe, just maybe, catch a really good change in colors this fall?  We have not traveled to Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, much less Ontario, Canada. And those states that fall in between......

This will be a hard trip in some ways. We are leaving our beautiful sister-in-law Patti as she is winding down on a very hard battle with cancer.  But as I have promised her, we will leave and look forward to a 3 week journey to places that we haven't traveled before.  Our travels will take us to Lake Superior and Ontario, Canada. We hope to see some of God's greatest gifts to us - beautiful foliage, wildlife and country.

This trip we are traveling in our 2014 Flagstaff travel trailer. (And yes, I do miss our truck camper!)