BWCA Country and fine, fine, lakes....

I have been camping with a friend, Doug Harris, the campground host at Birch Lake Campground on, yep...Birch Lake near Ely, MN. He is here every summer and the lake could not be better for kayaking and canoing. Lots of Walleye and Crappie to be caught and a peaceful beautiful place.
Doug is a guide for a dogsled tour company here in the winter and I will link to that when I have the info at hand....
I will head out tomorrow and first go back to Duluth and Dean's camp for some brake work I need to do and then head out across the bottom of Lake Superior and up to Sault Ste. Marie and cross into Canada for a ways, crossing back into the States in Toronto....Buffalo, NY. for my next visit with Jon near Ithaca.
Once I get near Canada I will shut my phone off and rely on wifi at coffee shops and libraries for contact....
Be well all,
ManyWheels

Minnesota! I actually love this place and the people...

It must be Garrison Keeler that drew me in, but I have enjoyed MN like few other places...well, I have a couple of very good friends here also and the AA and Alanon is wonderful...heck I think they invented alcoholism here!

So I am once again thrilled with the way the universe guides me and provides...I gave up finding a campground last night and surrendered to the idea it was Walmart in St. Cloud for me and no sooner than that I came upon "Old Wagon Campground", an old lakeside resort with beautiful grounds with dogs running around and the very nice lady said sure we have room, how about $2.00. Oh did I say I like this state?
Now, on to pasties and brats and good hanging out at Dean's zendo in Duluth....
Peace,
ManyWheels

Where the buffalo roam...or did once upon a time

Hmmm, In a weird mood yesterday. I was thinking about how we eliminated millions of buffalo on a whim and replaced them with a far inferior, man-made substitute...beeves. A very strange people, we.
Then I went to both the Chief Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore to find they are both commercial enterprises and run by companies...the good Chief is under construction and it is done with private funds or donations and Mount Rushmore, being one of the NPS' man-made parks has given parking rights to a concessioner...ten bucks to park before you are even in and that is after driving through a traffic jammed couple of miles of tourist trap crap. Wowser...I turned tail and drove right away...
I have big issues with the NPS selling rights to commercialize the National Parks to start with and this really adds to it.
I think it will get worse as those who hold the purse strings of the government budget knock off more of the public lands budget...Damn we won't be happy til it is all gone will we...
I should not be surprised....that is just how capitalism works and it is doing it's job I guess...
Anyway, met a sweet couple last night in camp in Wall, SD and stayed up late chatting.
I walked through Wall Drug yesterday, a totally unremitting blight of commercialism taken to the level of absurdity and in that light, a wonderful parody of what makes us tick. It really was like an art film.
Onward today on a two lane blue highway and hopefully another restaurant like Donna's Downtown Diner in Newcastle, Wyoming...umm good biscuits and gravy and over easy eggs fried with a light brown lace of egg whites....I met Donna and gave her the Kemsley thumb's up on a very good little chow hall.
Until then,
ManyWheels

OK, eastern seaboard, here I come....

Tonite in Cody, WY...left Missoula Tuesday and slept in a nice little free camp at 6300 feet last night near Ennis, MT....I used my CPAP machine...don't always do that when alone in the rig and a few minutes of O2 before sleeping and after waking up for good measure. I felt and feel pretty good although slept fitfully. Tonight at 5000 feet and this should be better...

Yikes and wowser, Yellowstone is one visited park. The traffic was amazing. I was in a traffic jam that must have been 80 rigs long and took 15 minutes to get to where the holdup was...an eagle on a stump across the river...I just had to laugh. When Kit and I worked in Denali Park it was the moose...and they were called moose-jams.

Had a nice visit with a long time friend from Alaska and her husband in Helena . Again...right to the spiritual nut. I just love that...

We talked about how much the same everyone is when you can overlook the outside, the facade.
How much we want and need the same basic things yet the language is tangled up with ego and all the attendant stuff: anger, frustration, fear and ego....or just a different perspective...
Doug, our friends's husband once told me, that sometimes he will try to see how long he can keep someone talking by just asking them questions...what a great way to learn about someone...

So...how was your day? 8^)
ManyWheels

Just sittin'....

Getting all the little life things taken care of....connecting with friends and family, vehicle maintenance issues..Will I have AC in my rig? Monday will tell. My new thermo-cooker is coming via USPS. A better way of eating lies just ahead....Kit's meals are oh, so good but my eating on the road is pretty interesting to say the least....half good, half bad...and lots of sugar in the middle....
so...
That was Zen, this is Tao....
Brian ManyWheels

Oregon Coastal night....

Dina the doggo and I are parked in a wayside pullout on the coast highway just south of Waldport as we found the state campgrounds all full. Great, we have a choice spot and overlook a beautiful stretch of beach and hope to pass the night quietly and not be disturbed by the babylon.

It is misting rain and I am saddened by the news that our buddy, Sadie Dog, furkid of Heidi and Mike in Port Angeles has passed. Her kidney problem got the best of the sweet girl and took her after a week of seemingly good progress...what a bummer for Heidi and Mike.

Nice visit yesterday and last night in Corvallis with an old friend that I have known for 40 years .
Another long time mutual friend who lives in Juneau dropped in also and we had a great time visiting.

It looks like it is not a good time to visit with a Vandweller, Gene in Bandon so it will wait for another time...

I so love how most of my conversations with the friends in my life these days...at least the ones my age, revolves around the spiritual.

It is a very good time of life for me as I have the time and good fortune to pay attention to these things.

Be well and good travels,
ManyWheels

Vanning....

Wow, what a country we live in! I am tonight in an I-5 rest area called the Gee River Safety Rest Area in Washington State about 12 miles north of Vancouver, WA. Much nicer than the Walmart lot I spent two of the last three nights in and the cost is the same. Zilch. Thanks to the Interstate Highway system and the various states, the rest areas make a nice home for a night. Every night I sleep for free, I think "hm...another $21 for fuel, ha!" $21 being the most I saw a state park charge on this trip. I refused to pay that much to park and sleep.
I have had a great week or so with my sons, Jed and Isaac and Isaac's family. Also have enjoyed some excellent scenery. Had a short but nice visit and lunch with a long time friend and shipmate of Mine, Ted G. in Edmonds, WA as well. It was way too long since the last visit.
Met a nice couple in Kingston, WA while parked for a rest in the marina lot...part time vandwellers and boat dwellers. Very nice folks and they may pop into the Vandweller site at some point....they took the addy so they could.
So...I am tired and sleepy and will post more later...I am so grateful for my life today and appreciate the awesome circumstances that meshed to allow me to be here now...
Peace,
ManyWheels