It’s been a week since we left Scott Air Force base, but
it seems like longer. I guess stopping at all these camp grounds has made it
feel like longer. Well we left our little camp near the lake & decided to
go around the north side & see the biggest Walleye fish. We drove past the
site a couple time, but couldn’t find the darn thing. At first we might have
been slightly lost then found our course again only to realize that we weren’t
really lost. The Walleye wasn’t where it was supposed to be. They were doing
renovations & had moved the big fish to a different spot across the street,
but it wasn’t here either. Ugh a wasted trip that was. So we headed to see some
other road side attractions. This area is big on the Paul Bunyan stuff so we
stopped to see his big chair. I sat in it with the kids. It was a bit of a
climb for me, but I got into kid mode & was able to make it up there. We
also stopped to see his giant feet (his boots used to be there, but a tornado
whisked them away leaving only the concrete prints. The kids got a kick out of
seeing the blue ox & how big everything was. Of course by this time they
were hungry & slightly cranky, but we had to press on to our next site at
Long Lake campground near Lake Itasca which was our main reason for coming to
Minnesota. For those of you that don’t know, Lake Itasca is the start of the
mighty Mississippi river. Since we lived near the MS river for 3 ½ years and
crossed it frequently, we thought it would be neat to see where it all started
from.
We pulled into the campground in the early evening &
had a site right up front. It was one of those back up sites, which I know is
not a favorite of hubby’s, but after circling the campground once &
circling twice around the area near our site he was finally backing in.
Needless to say we were crooked, but the ground below us was pretty crooked as
well. That wasn’t the highlight of this stop though. The blood sucking
mosquitoes came out of nowhere & we were literally attacked! Me & hubby
got out of the suv to set up the site & you could hear Annika screaming
bloody murder inside because a couple mosquitoes had gotten inside. You would
have thought the grim reaper was in there trying to get her. Of course because
she was freaking out her little brother started screaming as well & his
scream is about 5 octives higher then hers. Well 2 kids screaming & crying
wasn’t enough, baby sister had to chime in as well. I kept telling Annika thru
the window that she was ok, but she was in that mode of being too far gone
& not able to settle down. I could see the fear in her eyes & felt
sorry for her so I took her & Dalton out & put them in the trailer.
Well you know having the door open for a couple seconds was long enough to
allow a few mosquitoes to get inside the trailer. Screaming take 2. Sheesh. I
had to grab the baby then go in the trailer to settle them down. I had to kill
the mosquitoes to get them to return to being somewhat civil. It was pretty
funny actually & I wanted so badly to record the event, but my hands were
full with baby & mosquito killing. We couldn’t help but laugh. Ahhh the
memories…hehe.
So the trailer got all set up & we did the usual
routine of dinner, baths & bed. Hubby bathed himself in bug spray &
went out to explore, but us smarties were staying put inside where it was bug
bite free, plus we would have to pry Annika’s hands from the trailer. It looked
beautiful out there & we were among pine trees upon pine trees, but that’s
ok I had enough screaming for one day. We would save our exploring for tomorrow
where it really counted. Ah but our adventure for the day didn’t stop there. A
thunderstorm came out of nowhere. I was officially freaked out to the point
where I got our evacuation/just in case bag out & made sure it had all the
supplies: change of clothes for the kids, diapers & wipes, snacks, water,
flash light, both tablets, blanket. I checked the weather on my phone & it
was all red & orange on the satellite where we were. Ugh I was not getting
any sleep tonight. Hubby on the other hand was in snoreville. That’s ok I’m
used to being the parent on guard. The lightening was lighting up the sky like
the 4th of July & the thunder shook the trailer…or was it the
wind? Either way it was scary. I lay in bed & my mind was racing. My
thoughts about a falling tree onto the trailer or the wind tipping us over (we
were quite crooked remember) kept creeping into my head. Would the trailer be
smashed to smithereens or would it hold up? Would we survive to tell the story?
Hey it was very possible you know. Lightning strikes trees all the time &
we were surrounded by them. I’m pretty sure I became paranoid about stuff like
that once I had children. I wasn’t scared for myself, but for my babies. I was
surprised the kids slept thru the storm & didn’t come running to our bed
like they usually do. I must have fallen asleep at one point, but it wasn’t for
long enough. I could feel my pillow was damp. I touched the headboard & it
was damp too. Ugh leakage. Great one more thing to deal with. At that point I
hoped for sleep so I could just block the whole night out.
Morning came & I was ready to get the heck out of
there, in fact I was more than ready to get out of Minnesota aka mosquitoville.
We all got ready, ate & did the usual tear down then headed for Lake
Itasca.
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