Late July 2021

South Dakota

We drove Interstate 90 from South Dakota’s western border to its eastern border with Minnesota. It’s almost a straight line, and it’s the most direct route across the state.

We paused in Wall to visit the famous Wall Drug Store. For Easterners who might not know, Wall Drug is very much like South Carolina’s South of the Border. It’s a several block-long tourist trap where you can purchase anything from gold jewelry to moccasins.

Busloads of tourists stop to window shop, eat fresh hot donuts or mile-high platters of roast beef with gravy, or just buy magnets that say Wall, South Dakota. It’s been in business since 1931, so they must be doing something right.

The day we passed through, the temperature was close to 100, and the crowds were thick. Too many people for us, so we hopped back in the van and moved on.

We spent our first South Dakota night in Fort Pierre, near Oahe Dam.

At the time of its construction, Oahe was the world’s largest earthen dam. It’s still pretty impressive. The campground is downstream from the dam, along the Missouri River.

The area borders the Ft. Pierre National Grasslands. For miles, all you see are vast stretches of flat fields and tall grasses. We set out to ride the paved bike path into town, but the combination of heat and high-jumping grasshoppers landing on our shoulders and helmets cut our ride short.

Our campsite was near the river. A canopy of tall trees shaded our site, and our air-conditioning took the edge off the 104 degree temperature. But it was hot. Even the breeze was hot. We took a break and went into town for dinner.

In Fort Pierre, we found a pub called Drifters and had a terrific meal. One of the local fish is Walleye (also called yellow pike, which sounds more appealing) and folks use it in fish and chips and fish sandwiches. Good, fresh fish in an air-conditioned pub, with friendly service. Check, check, and check.

We continued to the eastern edge of South Dakota and stayed at a city campground in Parker. It was a perfectly fine stopover. Our spot was right next to the main street, basic, and small.

Only one other camper was on-site and we used the time to do a few chores – like cleaning the bicycles and organizing trip notes. But despite the proclamation on the welcome sign, there wasn’t much happening in Parker and we were ready to move on after a couple of days.

Minnesota

Our route through Minnesota was a diagonal line from southwest to northeast. This time, we took the more scenic routes, mostly Route 23, and took in the Minnesota landscape and small towns along the way.

Sometimes the “big scenery” for the day is the small town portrait. A trip through the local supermarket can tell you a lot about the locals and how well they’re doing. Driving through small towns paints a picture of local life that you won’t get by buzzing past town on the interstate. We meandered up to Moose Lake where we camped lakeside for several days.

This was a good campground. Small town. Nice people. We found a nearby rail to trail bike path that took us along Sturgeon Lake. Smoke from Canadian wildfires hung around for a few days.

We also found a craft brewery right on the lake, within easy biking distance from our campsite. What’s not to like?

We’d made arrangements for our mail to be forwarded to the Duluth post office, so that was our next destination. We pulled into town, picked up our mail, and then spent the morning doing the sort of errands that we save for metropolitan areas. We’d given some thought to doing more in Duluth, maybe spending the day shopping or going to lunch, but in the end we decided in favor of getting away from construction zones and traffic.

In places with short summers, crews race to repair roads, do paving, and build new structures while the weather cooperates. It’s understandable, but we have come across our fair share of construction delays and detours this summer. Detours “confuse” the GPS and can be annoying for humans. A big chunk of Duluth’s downtown was blocked off for construction of a hospital expansion. The closure detours seemed to be taking us in circles, so we agreed to visit Duluth another time and moved on.

We crossed the bridge from Duluth to Superior and entered Wisconsin.

Wisconsin

Lake Superior, along Wisconsin’s northern border, is gorgeous. Our first few nights, we stayed in Ashland, at Prentice Park, a city-run campground. Ashland’s two city campgrounds are first-come, first-served. When we pulled in, every site was full. JR, the camp manager, kindly helped us out by arranging a temporary spot for our first night. Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful. The campground was terrific: quiet, clean, and spacious.

We took a day trip to Bayfield, an upscale marina-based town. We toured the boat museum, which is run completely by volunteers. We learned more about the area’s maritime history and saw a display about the damage being done by Lampreys. Because they currently have no predators, Lampreys are endangering other fish in the Great Lakes. One Lamprey can eat 40 pounds of fish a season. We saw live Lampreys on display in a tank. They look like eels, without jaws, just a round, open mouth with teeth – pretty gross looking vampire fish and quite an effective display.

On our way back to Ashland, we hiked the Bayfield Nature Trail. The trail ends at a cliff overlooking Lake Superior. Kids were bravely cliff-jumping into the waves below. The view was lovely, but the water was too chilly (and maybe a bit too scary) for me to make the leap.

Turning to prettier things, for the past few weeks, we have been in the land of flowers. Gardens and roadside wildflowers are in full bloom. Late summer favorites like Queen Anne’s Lace, chicory, and Black Eyed Susans blooming away. This is also the land of hydrangeas and hibiscus.

Giant flower heads in all shades of pink, white and red. Every tourist town has hanging baskets lining the streets.

We’re also finally finding wayside stands with fresh tomatoes and basil for our summer sandwiches.

One night at the campground, I was invited to join a group of women in a Zumba class. It was fun. I kept up with the group pretty well, and it only took me three days to recover!

Water, water, everywhere.

The campground, and the entire town, have access to free-running artesian wells.

The town has a building where you can fill jugs, and you see standpipes with constantly running water all around town.

We had such deliciously pure water while we were there. We filled our 25 gallon water tank and all our thermos containers before we left.

The town has a lovely waterfront along Chequamegon Bay. Our last Ashland evening, we had drinks at The Sand Bar, just outside the entrance to our campground.

We left with a really nice feeling about this town and Wisconsin. We will enjoy returning.

August is just around the corner and Lake Michigan awaits.