Trip Report, Day One

Currently I Am In: Hinckley, MN

Welcome to the most more boring trip report that you are ever likely to read. Or not read, as the case may be.

Well, the first day of this trip is behind us. Not much to really say, as we spend the whole day driving. About the only real stops we did were for bathroom breaks, gas fill ups, and lunch. Mostly, I just wanted to get us as far as possible in one day, so we can then spend the rest of the week taking a leisurely drive across to Glacier.

Interstate 94 through western Wisconsin is actually not a bad drive. The scenery is much more interesting than most of the midwest - forested hills and ridges, valleys, even small canyons. All in all, its one of the more pleasant drives one can have if they must use the Interstate. But this will be the only day we’ll be doing that, at least not until toward the end of this trip. Looking forward to the chance to get off the main roads.

Right now we’re in the town of Hinckley, Minnesota. It’s roughly halfway between Minneapolis and Duluth, along Interstate 35. Don’t know much about the place except that it had a hotel that wasn’t sold out. Oh yes, and it has an Indian Casino of some kind. Unforseen Consequences department: We are now far enough north that even at 9:30 PM, there’s still a significant amount of light outside. Just try to tell a pair of hyper-active 6-year-old twin boys that its time to go to bed, and explaining that it doesn’t matter how light it was outside, it really was passed their bed time.

Tomorrow we should end up in Bimidji, Minnesota. Home of Paul Bunyan, source of the Mississippi, and reputed Curling Capital of the United States. We may spend our first night in a tent tomorrow, depending on how the weather is. If that’s the case, then chances are there won’t be a report posted. But if the weather isn’t good, then we’ll probably get a motel room, in which case I’ll post something. Hopefully our first pictures will up then, too.

That’s it for today. Hopefully a more substantial post next time.