Cross Country Road-Trip Day 7-10 (July 8-11):
Woodbury MN to Lake Hickory RV Park in North Carolina
Nathan and I were a little worn out from the trip, so a couple of days of relaxation in Minnesota were a welcome treat. There were a couple of cabinet drawers that came loose on the bumpy roads in southwestern Minnesota that needed to be repaired as well as a couple of other minor things that I needed to do. I was also hoping that Nathan could get in some fishing.
When I grew up in Woodbury most of the area was farmland, but today it is a well developed suburban community. There are several small lakes in Woodbury, but when I was growing up the water quality was not so good due to runoff from the surrounding fields. Nathan and I went to one of the large sporting goods stores that was now then dropped him off at nearby Markgrafs Lake while I went to the gym for a workout. Nathan caught several small panfish with his fly rod, and he seemed to have a good time. The next day we went to Colby Lake, a slightly larger lake that my friends and I fished in when we were young. The only thing I remember ever catching at Colby Lake was bullheads. When we got to the lake, I was impressed by how well the city had preserved the shoreline even though the area around the lake was totally developed with houses. At many places on the lake, you wouldn’t know if you were in the Boundary Waters or in the Suburban Twin Cities from the appearance of the shoreline. Nathan caught a couple of more fish including a bass and we walked around the shoreline.
A plaque was erected in the park area near a small swimming beach talking about the shoreline restoration project that the city was sponsoring and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fish stocking program. Black Crappies, Sunfish, Bass, and Northern Pike were stocked in Carver Lake. A longtime resident that was at the park said he saw a couple of kids pull a big northern out of the lake a few weeks earlier, and I heard accounts of people catching Muskies in the urban and suburban lakes.
After a couple of days rest in Minnesota we did some hard driving through Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. Of course we stopped in Wisconsin for some cheese and sausage. We noticed several wind farm along the way that were not there the last time I drove through years ago. We drove through Indianapolis hoping to find a campground on the outskirts of town. It was nearly 11PM and we had gone nearly to Kentucky before we found one of the many Yogi Bear’s Jellystone campgrounds along our route.
The next day we pushed on through Kentucky, Tennessee, and into North Carolina. Going through the Appalachians was quite a contrast to Beartooth Pass just a few days earlier, these mountains hardly slowed us down. We were able to get into Lake Hickory RV Resort in Claremont, NC where I had made reservations for an extended stay. Nathan and I set up the rig in our temporary spot, and then we went to my Mother in-law’s and got something to eat. Nathan stayed with his grandmother while I eventually went back to the trailer to get things settled. I was here and ready to begin the summer in the RV park. We covered 700 miles on July 10th and about 450 miles on July 11th. The trip odometer read over 3500miles at the end of the trip including our side trips.
Welcome to Wisconsin The St. Croix River
A Wind Farm Entering Kentucky
Tennessee Mountains