winifredcreamer

Montana: Lakes and Trails

We found Glacier National Park just too crowded for comfort, and began to look around our area for alternative hikes and places to explore where we are not likely to meet a lot of other people. I was happily surprised to find that northwest Montana is freckled with lakes. Lakes of all sizes, too. FlatheadContinue reading “Montana: Lakes and Trails”

Glacier National Park

Postcard views. Need I say more? Before our visit, I didn’t know that Glacier is one of the most popular, most heavily visited US National Parks, despite its remote location in northwest Montana. The peak season is barely three months, and some years less. Visitors are down 58% this year. BUT, visitor levels in AugustContinue reading “Glacier National Park”

A Window Into Montana

“You couldn’t take a bad picture here,” Jonathan said, looking out the car window. He was right. Everywhere you look driving into the mountains around us are stands of lodgepole pine, narrow avalanche chutes blanketed in grass, and bare faces of stone bordered by undulating piles of scree. The day was overcast and cool, quiteContinue reading “A Window Into Montana”

Motels/Dining/Covid19Summer

We stayed in three different motels on our trip from Rochester, MN to Fortine, MT. We ate takeout sushi in Fargo (terrible, don’t ever do that). We didn’t get sick, we just found the sushi to be inedibly dry, cold, and hard. We ate leftovers that we had with us for dinner in Williston (afterContinue reading “Motels/Dining/Covid19Summer”

Minnesota to Montana: Crossing the High Plains

We took five days to cross the plains on the northernmost highway, Rte. 2, driving about 300 miles each day. We made a a couple of short stops each day, arriving at each day’s destination in the mid- to late afternoon. Day1, July 28, 2020: Rochester, MN to Fargo, ND One of Jonathan’s farm-to-table goalsContinue reading “Minnesota to Montana: Crossing the High Plains”

July in Rochester, MN

Rochester surprised us, as new locations often do. We weren’t sure what we would be doing in isolation here, and yet we end our visit with a list of places still to visit. There are lots of excellent parks with walking trails. Wildlife management areas (WMA), reservoirs, state parks, and forests led us out ofContinue reading “July in Rochester, MN”

On Old Man River

The water was dead calm, smooth as glass, without a ripple. Our host, Phillip, and his wife Tammy, had offered us a ride on their pontoon boat on the Mississippi. We met at the boat landing in Wabasha, MN at 10 a.m. Monday morning. The sky was partially overcast. We could sit socially distant andContinue reading “On Old Man River”

Along the Mississippi

A break in the high humidity gave us a perfect day to drive along the Mississippi, looking for Huck and Jim on their raft. We drove east from Rochester to Winona, MN on Rte. 14, a prettier drive than the interstate, then turned northwest along the river, getting as close as possible to the waterContinue reading “Along the Mississippi”

Why Minnesota?

One of the questions we get from people when we tell them about our life on the road is–Why? When we decided to make our way west by a northern route the question came up again. This time, our lack of knowledge about Minnesota is part of the reason we decided it might be goodContinue reading “Why Minnesota?”

Across the Midwest

The month of June ended and we got on the road to the next stop in our journey West. Ohio was lovely, but we are due in California in October, getting there one month-long stop at a time. At one minute to eight a.m. on June 30 we pulled out of the driveway in Conneaut,Continue reading “Across the Midwest”