Two Minnesota Towns

He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.  He grew up 30 minutes from Lake Minnewaska and wrote about life in the small town of Gopher Prairie.  His name was Sinclair Lewis and you might remember reading about his "Main Street" in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota.

A generation later, another Minnesotan wrote and told stories about small town life not far from Lake Minnewaska.  Garrison Keillor brought small-town living to America with his tales from Lake Wobegon.

It is pretty cool to live near two of the most famous towns in American literature.  Both are just up the road from Lake Minnewaska.

You can't consider yourself "well traveled" unless you have been to each of them.  They are Lake Wobegon and Gopher Prairie.  

My challenge to you is to locate either of them on a map of Minnesota.  If you find them, let me know so I can drive over to visit them.

Good luck.

Dragon Boat Racing

Carl Benson, this post is for you!  Your years of  Dragon Boat racing took you to the far corners of the country, and overseas as well.

We thought about you when we saw that Dragon Boat races were coming to our Lake Minnewaska. 

We checked it out and enjoyed the experience.  We took the pontoon boat over to view the activities.  Much to our surprise, we made the newspaper, the Pope County Tribune.  Here we are, up close to the racing.  Yes, that is us in the pontoon boat.

 

We went ashore and visited with the participants.  All told, we got some pics as we enjoyed the experience:

Horseback Riding at Wapiti, Wyoming

 A trip to the American West would not be complete without a family horseback riding trip.  We chose Wapiti, Wyoming as our location to ride.

Here is a look at the Wapiti country,  Beautiful!

We rode from the Rand Creek Ranch.  Here is their story:

And here is our story:

Nice country to visit up close.

Wild Mustangs

 Wild horses, running free, symbolizes the American West.

"A horse loves freedom, and the weariest old work horse will roll on the ground and break into a lumbering gallop when he is turned loose into the open."  -  Gerald Raferty

"You occasionally see one, and it's the thrill of a lifetime.  But mostly all you ever see is a cloud of dust after they are gone.  It's their stubborn ability to survive that makes them so remarkable."  - Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston 

Buffalo Bill Cody released a number of his horses near the McCullough Peaks just outside Cody, Wyoming.  The descendants have prospered in the wild.  This is what they look like today:

We set out one evening to take a look at the wild mustangs.  Laurie and Todd got this fine picture of a stallion, all alone in his old age and abandoned by his band.

It was a nice, quiet, evening out on the range between the Bighorn and Absoroka mountain ranges.

Big Horn Mountains

We passed through the Black Hills, then crossed the Bighorn Mountains on our way to Cody, Wyoming.  

Here is an introduction to the beautiful Bighorns:

I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone along the way as we hustled to Cody.  Yes, I only use my cell phone for picture taking these days.

A tributary of the Bighorn River is the Little Bighorn.  You will recognize that name as the location where George Armstrong Custer was killed in a heated battle with warriors of several tribes. But that is a story for another day.

Yellowstone & Grand Tetons

 Cody, Wyoming is one of several gateways to Yellowstone National Park.  We've had a family trip to Yellowstone in the past but we could not resist visiting the park again this year.  My favorite part of the park, Lamar Valley, is closed this year because of road damage from flooding.

The hunt was on for a grizzly bear sighting and we got our sighting. 

We viewed the bear named Raspberry and her cup named Jam for perhaps an hour.  Neat.  Here is a look at these bears:

The waters flow out of Lake Yellowstone and create the famed upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone some miles downstream.

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We were constantly on the lookout for bear, wolf, bighorn sheep, and elk.

No trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a visit to Old Faithful the geyser.  We arrived to find a large crowd standing by for the show:

There she blows!

July brings out the wild flowers in Yellowstone.  I attempted to include them in some pictures:

Yellowstone is a must-see at least once in a lifetime.  I have been fortunate to visit Yellowstone many times.  Lamar Valley is called the "the American Serengeti" and it is my spot for wolf watching.

Big views:

The sun sets on our trip to Yellowstone, and out pops a rainbow.

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