Tick Me Off!

Near Holt,

Minnesota

We went to this Wildlife Refuge to rest up some.

The place was ideal. The only sounds to be heard were birds and frogs.  I heard my first loon in real life while there.  Saw some swans too but was unable to get a photo.  Also the fireflies came out at night.  That was a treat as I haven't seen fireflies since I was a little guy on a vacation out to Missouri.  Ah, but there was a problem.

Although the bugs were next to nothing, the abundance of ticks in the grasses made up for it.  Here is Tickbait gathering up some to bring inside the RV.  I have to say the flea and tick medicine I apply to her every month really works.  They abandon cat right away once inside.  Then they come for me!

On one walk I came across these prints. That is a big animal.

A bear?

  There were ponds and canals in the refuge but I couldn't really go out exploring and hiking what with all those little bloodsucking buggers out there waiting.

 So instead of staying a week here, we bailed out after just two days.

UFO Attacks Patrol Car

Marshall County Museum

Warren, Minnesota

This is the reason I came to this museum.

At the end is a link to the story behind this incident.

This "UFO" hit or caused only the one light to shatter.

Then it bounced off the hood leaving this small dimple of a dent, about the size of a quarter.

This leads me to believe that whatever it was, it was small like a large marble.

Anything larger would cause much more damage to the front headlights, ripped the hood really good and obliterated that windshield.

It then does a number on the windshield.

Lastly it bends two whip antennas, one on the roof and one on the trunk lid (that photo didn't come out as the camera focused on the ceiling).  Now this is really the weird part for me.  The two antennas are not in line with the path of travel from headlight to windshield.  You can kind of see this in the second photo.  The antennas are inline directly behind the red roof light.  Plus these antennas are whip antennas meaning they flex.  How can it possibly make identical sharp bends on both antennas?

You can read complete story here.

Marshall County Historical Society Museum

Warren, Minnesota

This was another very well done collection of artifacts in this area from years gone by.

I had to refrain from photographing much of the same material as the previous museum in Kansas.

But here is their General Store which I thought worthy.

Also a saloon much like what would be like around the turn of the century.

The outside wall of the main building had the store front facades to what you would see from inside.

On the grounds outside was a relocated and restored school house.

The young girl up front is representing the fact that girls as young as 15 or 16

 were school teachers in rural school houses at the time.

This cabin was built in 1886 and relocated at the Historical Society grounds.

It had only two rooms divided by a partition wall.

The family had 14 children!  Now where did they keep them all and where did everyone sleep?

Maybe there was access to the attic but I saw no stairs.  I guess the kids sat on the floor to eat.

Next door was a cabin more to my liking.

Yep, this will do just fine.

Tomorrow's post will show the reason why 

I came to the Marshall County Historical Society Museum. 

World's Smallest Church

Along Highway 75

Minnesota

It was only by chance that I saw what probably is the World's Smallest Sign for a Church  

in the ditch along the highway.

Fortunately I was able to turn around (unlike in South Dakota) and drive two miles down a farm road to the small cemetery.  In the far corner I saw what may be a winner here.

  

On the online site where I find these oddities of the road there are several that claim to be the "world's smallest church or chapel".  For all of the churches and chapels I have found, this one is indeed the smallest.  Unfortunately this one is not listed on that site.   

Online it shows a church in Oneida, New York being the smallest.  The floor space of it is 51"x81".

I wished I had known and then could have measured this one.

I had to stand outside the doorway to take this photo.

Inside this was the best I could do being backed up in the corner against the candle holder.

And it just so happened to be a Sunday when we were there.

I must have missed the morning services.

In the other corner of the cemetery was a veteran's memorial.

This is the oldest marker I found.  Most of all the residents had Scandinavian names.

The cemetery was among theses sugar beet fields. 

Beans was enjoying walking up and down the rows and I didn't have my camera with me.

I got the camera and tried to get her to walk among the sugar beets again.  

She wasn't having anything of it.

Dad, I've been here, smelled everything, not interested in doing so again.

Hendrum

Hendrum, Minnesota

We stayed a night at their little community park.  For a small town of around 300 they had a very nice park.  Staying here I thought it very much like parks in Washington, so green and lush.

We were under so much shade that the solar panels couldn't do their job charging the batteries.

This big barn made me think of having a barn dance here although that concrete doesn't look all that well to be dancing on.  Everything had cracks in it, including the cinder block walls of the bathrooms.

Maybe there is seismic activity in this area.

The large patio area was in better shape although those bathrooms are in the back there.

I got online to see what kind of events they had scheduled in Hendrum:

the regular monthly city council meetings and 

garbage pickup day has been changed for the Labor Day holiday.

Nice old fashioned playground area.  

The baseball diamond behind didn't look like it had been used in sometime. 

Old late 30's Dodge truck in the field across from the park.

On the other side was the Wild Rice River.

Look at that log jam!

This was just amazing to me to see.

I guess it is of no concern to the locals.

Muggy Minnesota

I'm probably going to regret this.

Back in the fall of 2006 Sinbad and I made a brief drive-through of Minnesota.  We only stayed only two nights.  The second one I remember well.  Nine in the evening I am lying down trying to read and the sweat is just rolling off of me.  The humidity was oppressive!  Good grief!  How do these people live in this?  It was one of the very few times I ever had to use the air conditioner.  

The next day we left Minnesota.  I'm going to give Minnesota another try.

This is the brown Red River which is the border of North Dakota and Minnesota.

We stopped there for breakfast and a walk.

This is as close as I could get Beans to go down by the water.

On my paper map was a small mark denoting the north/south continental divide.  There is the well known continental divide in the Rocky Mountains where the waters flow either west to the Pacific or east to the Atlantic.  Well I did not know of a north/south divide.  Here the waters flow north to the Hudson Bay or south to the Gulf of Mexico.  I thought that pretty neat.

But wherever the divide actually is I could not find it.  I'd think there would be some monument or a big boulder with a brass plaque bolted to it, but nothing was to be seen.  Somewhere out there is the divide.  Looks pretty flat to me as if the water would just sit.  

We went to the Walmart in Wahpeton, which happens to be barely over the line back into North Dakota.  Several times I didn't know what state I was in.  Anyway, notice anything about their lawn and garden department?  Remember The Thief post from New Mexico?  There is no chain link fencing here around the bags of chips, mulch and fertilizer.  People don't steal in Minnesota and North Dakota.  There was not Walmart Associate out there keeping an eye on things either.  People loaded up what they wanted then went inside to pay.  What a wonderful concept.  

Want to know another observation?  I haven't heard rap crap noise blasting out from passing cars ever since being in this area of North Dakota and Minnesota.  Oh what a wonderful world it is.

Please Let Me Go

To Camp or Not to Camp, That is the Question

Blue Dog Lake

Waybay, South Dakota

Using the map to shield the hot sun from Beans in my lap while driving.

Do I love my cat or what?

We arrived at this free camp area maintained by the town of Waubay.  It is listed in about five online sites as a free wayside camp.  Notice the sign by the State Department of Game, Fish and Parks right by the boat ramp.  Well I am not camping.  I'm parking overnight.  I'm tired of fighting the wind all day.  No one ever came by.

Beans wasn't too pleased with this camp. 

Road noise and no mice or lizards to hunt, capture and torment.

And she was tired.  Me too.

The lake.  On the drive that day I saw pelicans on other lakes.  Pelicans in South Dakota?  At one point a duck was keeping pace with us flying along beside us at 55 mph.  This was with the wind.