Minnesota - Day 25 - westward to Lake Carlos

Lake Carlos State Park, Alexandria

Sunday, 25 September 2022

The wind was still blowing and, on our 2nd walk before leaving the campground, we saw waves on Mille Lacs Lake that were ocean-like.

On the way out of the park, I stopped at the campground office and took photos of a couple of informational signs.

This one explains who Father Hennepin, the park's namesake, was.

And this one has information about Mille Lacs Lake.

This is the sign.
Enlargements below.

And then we got on the road.

today's route

As I was driving out of the campground, I heard on public radio that there's a very popular video game recently released called Trombone Champ where people can play the trombone.  Here's a little article about it.   https://nypost.com/trombone-champ-game-viral-success

From the campground I drove around the south and west sides of the lake, which were the only parts I hadn't seen.  It's a big beautiful lake.  I saw a Great Blue Heron, some cormorants and a lot of gulls.

I've been hearing a lot on the radio recently about a resurgence of avian flu that's been showing up in poultry farms in MN.  It's worrying all on its own, but especially so because they say it's showing up earlier than usual.  They say bird migrations usually spur it, but right now we're just at the beginning of migration season.  There are already chicken farms where the chickens have had to be slaughtered because of that flu.

We ended up back in Brainerd, and from this direction I saw a sign saying the population is 13,590.  And back to Baxter, and farther on back to Motley and Staples.  I sat at a railroad crossing in Staples for a very long train of coal cars - or grain or whatever was in those cars, and after a while another train came from the other direction hauling tanker cars.  Both passed at the same time, and then the first was finished but we still had to wait for the 2nd.

I saw a horse-and-buggy warning sign.

At Hewitt, pop. 251, we stopped to take a break after driving more than 2 hours.

Hewitt Museum

Built in 1911, this building was the public school until 1979.  It's now the town's museum and the building is on the national historic register.

We stopped there because no one was parked there, and the sign said it didn't open until 1:00, so I figured we wouldn't bother anyone.  Almost immediately I learned that a small playground right next to the museum is very popular on Sundays with people entertaining their grandchildren.  And we hadn't been there more than about half an hour when folks started gathering in the parking lot on the other side of the museum.  In fact, there were soon enough people that I figured we'd better make ourselves scarce - I couldn't tell what they were doing but wasn't sure we wanted to be involved.

I passed a field where round bales of hay were being stuffed one after another into a long white opaque tube of plastic - to protect them, I guess.  

Checkout time in MN's state parks is 4:00 PM, and that's when check-in time is too.  I got to tonight's campground at 12:45 and the previous tenants were still in my spot, so I went to a parking area near the lake and a picnic area.  I found a walking path that led to the park's other campground, and Dext and I walked along there for a way.  I went back to the campsite at about 2:45 and the folks had gone.  In fact, the campground had been nearly full when I first drove through, but by 4:00 it was nearly empty.  There were only 6 of us overnight in a very large (and obviously popular) campground for a Sunday evening.