3 Travel Days (Dickinson, ND)

Travel Day 1- We left Canada on Monday morning to start our journey home. We crossed at the Pembina, ND border. The border agent asked for our ID's and then asked if we had birth certificates. We had 2 birth certificates and one expired passport and he was fine with that :-) Then we told him the nature of our visit and he asked if we had any gifts. He was very friendly and asked us to pull to the left for the agriculture agent to chat with us. OK...we were greeted (or not!) by Crabby Appleton the Ag Agent! After Chris got out to talk to Crabby, she came back to the truck and asked, "What kind of food do you have?" So I listed a few things from the fridge, freezer...she didn't specify WHAT she wanted to know. I told her I had an apple and a potato, and that ALL my groceries were from the States. "Good!" she replied. She asked if the sticker was still on the apple. Who knows! And she asked if I had any sausage. Then she wanted to know the dreaded dog food question...and yes we left ours in the original U.S. bag so that we would be OK.

For any of you who haven't yet crossed the border between U.S. and Canada with dog food...beware! Every year it bounces back and forth...the dog food war at the border... either the Canadians on their end or the Americans on our end will confiscate your dog food if it is not from "their" country. This year the US is being the dog food Nazis.

Back to Crabby...she and Chris entered the trailer to check the food supply...opened the fridge...and oh no! I did not declare my U.S. grapes or my U.S. lemon. She chastised Chris for not having a list of every food in our posession and threated to fine us $300! It didn't matter that she didn't specifically ask what fruit I had...it was that 'I didn't declare!' But she went on and on about the little bit of leeway that she has and this time would not fine us! Whatever! It's harder to get back into the country we're citizens of than go to Canada! And we're talking about grapes and lemons, not suspected terrorists! Ridiculous!

We stayed at the Red River State Park in East Grand Forks, MN. It is a new state park that was developed by the C.O.E. after flooding in 1997. It is a nice full hook-up park...sorry no pics. Nice bike trail and at $29 total a night (with parking pass), it's a decent value.

Travel day 2- Dickinson, ND
It was an interstate travel day...thank goodness we were off the Canadian roads! They chucked us back and forth and back and forth! I-29 to Fargo and west on I-94, not a bad drive. We have the air conditioner cranking in our water and 30 amp site at Camp on the Heart, a Passport America park. We wanted to stay hooked to the truck, but there would be none of that....for $14 a night you get the most sloped site available. But hey! Can't complain for what we paid.

Travel day 3- Heading towards Billings, MT

Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris celebrated his birthday today! Happy Birthday! Caleb made sure to give him the appropriate number of "spankings". We enjoyed a sunny day and an enjoyable Prime Rib dinner at the White Birch Lodge in Sioux Narrows.
We went fishing for Northern Pike after lunch. I think the sun spooked the fish and they had no interest!
During the guys' afternoon swim, the 3 younger dogs were contained on the cabin porch. They were not happy and this ginormous hole in the screen is proof of "The Great Dog Escape!" Duke, the fishing Golden Retriver, made a sprint for the lake. There would be no lake swimming without him! So there was some screen repairing for Chris on his birthday... Grandma and Grampa were in town, which is another reason Duke was not a Happy Camper.

This morning we checked out another RV park in town and it will most likely be our "spot" for next year. It is called Laughing Water Trailer Park. Tomorrow is our final day on Lake of the Woods for the summer. We will visit with some friends and enjoy the raspberries that we picked this evening after dinner.

We will head for the border on Monday, stopping in the Grand Forks area of North Dakota for some shopping and service. For all of you that need to know, there IS a Cabela's there (and a Super Target) :-) There is a state park in East Grand Forks, MN that we plan to stay at. I will include pictures and a review...as there aren't any yet on RV Park Reviews. For many of our RV friends in our hometown, a great site to check out is the RV Dreams website and journal. I chat almost nightly with a wonderful group of RV'ers through this website. There is a wealth of Fulltiming information. We would like to fulltime in our 5'er one day and Caleb wants to "trailer school". So with some planning and a bit of time, one day our wanderings may be more full-timings!

Wild Raspberries!

Today I'll tell you a bit about the campground we are at. Ta Da! Here is the entrance...
and here is the hiking trail! As Chris walked the dogs on this woodland trail, he noticed wild raspberries in the bog. One morning he brought home a handful, which Caleb quickly devoured. Caleb exclaimed, "These are the sweetest ever!" So yesterday morning we headed out with containers in hand, in search of the elusive raspberry. Jack pot! We gathered and picked and talked loud enough that the bears would know we were there....and came home with quite a stash. After dyeing our fingers pink removing the wild stem, we had 1 1/2 cups of wild raspberries. Pretty good considering we didn't pick for very long...we forgot to put on bug spray! Mosquitoes were continually planning their attack strategies. Next time, bug spray. At Grandma's we debated what should become of our stash...muffins, pancakes, dessert, or Caleb's choice, let him eat them plain! We decided on Raspberry-Rhubarb Crisp...so Caleb and I went out to Grandma's garden and cut off a big stalk of Rhubarb. Mmmm...the final result was yummy! :-)
Here is our Arizona 5'er in the Canadian Northwoods...it's definitely not static-y inside with the humidity. As you can see, these new sites are nice and wide...and although you can't see, they're also long. They are full hook-up sites, up to 50 amp with both filtered and unfiltered water.
Here's a view of some of the other empty, new sites. I believe the cost keeps these sites empty. I'm hoping they readjust their cost structure for next year. We would like to stay here again, but probably won't at these rates. These sites are $44 a night or $265 a week Canadian funds. And there is a $4 a night dog fee. We leave Shadow (our old black lab) at the cabin, but that is still $8 a night for our two dogs. We can't figure that one out. So it's pretty pricey! Definitely the highest we've paid our entire trip and we're here the longest, go figure. But it was a last minute decision when we couldn't fit in the site given to us at the Provincial Park. The park has nice amenities: a full service marina, swimming beach, free firewood, wi-fi, a 24 hour laundry, and free wild raspberries for the pickin'!