Our 49th State Visited! And, Another National Park

The scenery is the same as we have seen all around the past few states. Lots of trees, occasionally a view past trees that have been removed, no farming at all on our way to Ray, Minnesota. Ray is unincorporated and we see a church and the Boondocks Bar and Grill. Nothing else around. We pulled in right at noon, check in time, to Boondocks Bar and Grill. They have a campground next to the building. Looks like about 20 sites here and only 3 sites occupied. We first went to the water spigot to fill up the fresh water tank. Kevin got very concerned – the ground is super soft. They have recently added gravel on the pads and the road, which is good. But my goodness, just walking it feels like permafrost! But not cold. Kevin is worried we will get the truck or 5th wheel stuck so we were extra careful backing into our site and he did great.

Kevin Howling With His Twin! Voyageurs National Park, Rainy Lakes Visitor Center, MN 08/25

Got set up and then headed 20 minutes north to Voyageurs National Park Rainy Lake Visitor Center. This national park is on both the United States side and Canada side. This national park doesn’t get a lot of visitors and so it is all free to visit. On the way we saw several logging businesses.

Voyageurs Replica Canoe, Voyageurs National Park, Rainy Lake, MN 08/25

We learned the birchbark canoe was the way the French Canadians (Voyageurs) moved goods back and forth. The museum area was small. They had a good captioned video introducing the park. Not kidding, we saw the film and went through the small area of learning in 15 minutes. Walked outside and saw the body of water. Total time there: 40 minutes. HA And we did everything. This park says that most of it can be seen only by boat. In fact, there are no campgrounds except for primitive ones that you have to boat to get there. 

By this time we were hungry and went to Chocolate Moose Restaurant in International Falls. It was almost 4:00 p.m. We looked up Walmart and oh, it is across the bridge in Canada. Oh, how about Safeway? Nope, in Canada. Everything is over there; this side has very little. We asked the server and she said there is only one grocery store in International Falls, MN.

Voyageurs National Park, 3 Parking Spots, Kabetogama Lake, MN 08/25

A few miles the other direction from our campground we went to Kabetogama Lake Visitor Center of Voyageurs National Park. There is literally, I kid not, 3 parking spaces and 1 handicap parking space at this tiny building. There is a large parking lot for boat trailers just down the road at the boat ramp. I just thought that was hilarious! And the film? Yep, exact same one we saw at Rainy Lakes visitor center of Voyageurs National Park on Sunday. I thought it would be different, include a lot of the same park info but have something unique. So we have decided not to go to the two other visitor centers.

Koochiching Museums costs $5.00 a person and is in International Falls. There were stacks of boxes and all sorts of old stuff kind of thrown in piles all around the front area, where you pay, and along the paths of displays. They weren’t neat boxes, either, and they were overflowing. Maybe they are adding things to the museum, not sure. We were able to still learn some things, which is good. We read this area had a “most unique and fascinating” ways the buried the dead. The body and their possessions would be brought to the “places of sepulture.” This would be on a mound. The mounds would get taller and taller. They stopped doing that practice about 300 years ago. The other museum, inside this museum, was for a football player. They never won a game when he was in high school but he went on for a good career in football. Home-town pride. 

We spent 6 days in Ray, Minnesota and then had a Travel Day. It rained during the night and I was worried about the gravel roads here at the campground in Ray. Everything was so squishy. Thankfully Kevin did great. We headed west and a little bit south. Most of the way was on county roads and we really enjoyed it. Soon we got into some small hills and we could see lakes sometimes through the trees.

We crossed the Red River of the North and were in our last continental state – North Dakota. I am glad I double checked the campground info yesterday. I saw on my calendar notes that the place was being sold the next day after Kevin called for reservations. It used to be called Red Trail Campground – there is another one with the same name around Medora. Now it is called Viking Vines Vineyards and is in Buffalo, North Dakota. Anyway, the person has a link to tell you how to get here and I am glad I saw it and we watched it. A well done YouTube video of the guy driving and explaining. One of the things he said was even though you go 2 miles on a dirt/gravel road, it is the best county maintained road he has seen. We agree! Not one washboard the whole way. Whew. The grounds are beautiful, with vineyards right next to the campground. There are a ton of flies, almost like we are at a dairy. And mosquitos, too. 

We got set up and then went to  Fargo National Cemetery to fulfill two requests for Find A Grave (footnote 2) We then headed to Costco, yeah, a Costco in Fargo. They didn’t have a large fresh meats area and no turkey, no tissues, and no bags of nuts. I got hamburger and chicken. As I have mentioned before, as we have traveled the U.S., I find it fascinating to see what groceries stores carry and what they don’t. You can tell a LOT about the area.

WE HAVE NOW BEEN IN EVERY CONTINENTAL STATE OF THE USA!!! Wow, that is such an overwhelming thing to think about. We have been to Alaska, too, but not in HOWE (footnote 1). The only state left is Hawaii and we have no plans to go there at this time. Too much of the continental states to see, do, learn, and explore. And then Canada! 

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.

2. Find A Grave – https://www.findagrave.com/about