Greetings! It's Sunday, May 5 and we're still in Shady Lakes RV Resort in New Windsor, Illinois.
Hoping for a sunny and warm day, after
Friday’s and Saturday’s frigid temperatures dipping down into the low 40s and
the seemingly never ending rain, Dick and I made plans to ride the motorcycle
for some local sight-seeing. That afternoon the sun came out and warmed things
up to the high 60s—perfect. We headed just a few miles away, to see—wait for
it…Wyatt Earp’s birthplace! How ‘bout some Earp history…
“Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born March 19,
1848 in Monmouth, Illinois. Contrary to television lore, Wyatt was a gambler
and Deputy U.S. Marshal in Tombstone, Arizona, taking
part in the gunfight at the OK Corral during which lawmen
killed three outlaws. To Wyatt's
displeasure, the 30-second gunfight defined the rest of his life. He is often
regarded as the central figure in the shootout in Tombstone, even though his
brother Virgil was the city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal in Tombstone that
day.
Wyatt Earp wore many different hats during
his lifetime. He was a city policeman, county sheriff, a teamster, buffalo hunter, bouncer, saloon keeper, gambler, brother owner, pimp, miner, and a boxing referee. Within
the two years after he married his first wife who died during pregnancy, he was
arrested, sued twice, escaped from jail, then was arrested three more times for
"keeping and being found in a house of ill fame." He landed in
the cattle boom town of Wichita, Kansas where he became a deputy city marshall for one year and
developed a solid reputation as a lawman. In 1876 he followed his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas where he became an
assistant city marshal. In winter 1878, he went to Texas to gamble where he met John Henry "Doc" Holliday, whom Earp credited
with saving his life.
Earp moved constantly throughout most of his
life from one boomtown to another. He left Dodge City in 1879 and with his
brothers James and Virgil, moved to Tombstone where a huge silver
boom was underway. The Earp brothers bought an interest in the Vizina mine and
some water rights. Wyatt, Virgil, and their younger brother Morgan held various law
enforcement positions that put them in conflict with a loose federation of outlaw cowboys. Tom and Frank McLaury, and Ike and Billy Clanton, threatened to kill
the Earp brothers. The conflict escalated over the next year, culminating on
October 26, 1881 in the "Gunfight at the OK Corral," during which the
Earps and Holliday killed three of the outlaw cowboys. In the next five months,
Virgil was ambushed and maimed and Morgan was assassinated. Pursuing a vendeta, Wyatt, his brother
Warren, Holliday, and others formed a federal posse which killed three of the cowboys
they thought responsible.
After leaving Tombstone, Earp and his third
wife moved from one boom town to another, starting in Eagle City, Idaho; then San
Diego, California; Nome, Alaska; Tonopah, Nevada; and finally Vidal,
California. An extremely flattering, largely fictionalized, best-selling biography published after his death created his
reputation as a fearless lawman. As a result of the book, Wyatt Earp has been
the subject of and model for a large number of films, TV shows, biographies and works of fiction that have increased his mystique. Earp's
modern-day reputation is that of the Old West's "toughest and
deadliest gunman of his day". Until the book was published,
Earp had a dubious reputation as a minor figure in Western history.” (Wikipedia.org)
Unfortunately, the Earp Museum is closed on
Sunday, so all we saw was the outside of his birthplace and corral.
As we rode back to our trailer, we passed field after
field after field of farmland, with horses, beef and milk cattle, alpacas,
goats, chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, and sheep. Some winter wheat was soon ready to harvest,
while many more fields were being plowed. Upon our return to the trailer later
that afternoon, we began pre-packing for our trip Monday to Lanesboro,
Minnesota, the final stop before we land at my mom’s in Cloquet.
Monday by a little after 9 a.m. we hit the road. We headed
north on some state highways that ranged from being smooth as glass to near
impassable, causing travel to be real
slow—20 to 30 miles per hour in some spots. Due to the recent rains and snow
melt, we saw the Mississippi River long before
the actual river flowing under the I-80 bridge taking us into Iowa. Weather for
travel was beautiful: 70 degrees, sunny with spotty clouds.
We arrived at Eagle Cliff Campground in Lanesboro,
Minnesota around 3 p.m. As we left Iowa and entered Minnesota, we passed through
Burr Oak, Iowa, where Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little
House on the Prairie) helped her father run a hotel for a short while
before settling at Walnut Grove, Minnesota. We passed farm after farm, many
owned by the Amish who are prevalent in this part of the county. (We did see
Amish horses and buggies along the road as we traveled.)
The Eagle Cliff Campground is, perhaps, one of the most
beautiful and well –run campgrounds we’ve been in since we began our journey.
Located in Lanesboro, Minnesota (45 miles SE of Rochester) it is nestled along the
Root River and surrounding bluffs. There are accommodations for 50 riverfront
tent sites, 161 full hookups for RVs (overnight and seasonal) and a 5-room
on-site hotel. The grounds are beautifully
maintained (immaculately clean bathrooms, dump station, laundry
facilities, security, recycling, ice, modest camp store), and there are an abundance of activities
available (fire rings, game room, horseshoes, volleyball, playground,
BBQ, boat ramp, canoe and kayak rentals, tube and bicycle rentals, close proximity
to paved bicycle trail, picnic shelter and playground, great trout streams in
the area, close to approximately 60 miles of paved recreational trails for
biking, hiking, rollerblading or cross country skiing. And, hunt the area
farmland (with permission), and thousands of acres of state land, abundant in
deer, turkey and more.) We highly recommend this place, if you’re
in the area.
We met Cindy and Pat (and their dog Toby) from the
Minneapolis suburbs, who are seasonal campers, and pulled in shortly after we
did, parking their Airstream across from us.
Tuesday we set out
for downtown Lanesboro, in search of Wi-Fi.
(The Wi-Fi at the campground had been hacked, so there was no free Wi-Fi
available on-site). We found the public library, but the hours weren’t
compatible with our schedule. While we were in town, however, we did see a few Amish
horses and buggies. So cool, but we learned that they do not like to have their photos taken, so we complied. Off we
headed to Rushford, Minnesota, about 21 miles from Lanesboro, and 17 from our
campsite. Their library was open so we took care of emails, sought out the
local IGA for a few grocery items and hit Subway for lunch. Oh, and we did wash
the very dirty black truck! The day was so beautiful, that after we returned
home we sat outside for about 3 hours, enjoying the scenery and reading.
Wednesday we rode our bicycles around the park for about
30 minutes. The temperatures were in the mid- to high 60s. We were able to ride
close to the Root River to take photos, but contrary to the name of the park,
we didn’t see any eagles. Dick took off on the motorcycle for a couple of hours
that afternoon, while I worked on our family’s cookbook. So quiet and peaceful.
And then the rain came…
Thursday was a deluge! It rained and rained and rained. There
was no hope of getting outdoors this day! We “bought” a 48-hour subscription to
Wi-Fi so were able to access the internet. This gave us access to the internet for
movies, too, so we watched the very strange movie “Loopers.” (We did have
excellent TV coverage during our stay.) We began packing as much as we could
indoors, for our departure on Friday.
By Friday morning the rain had subsided and the sun was “on
the verge” of shining. By the time we got totally packed and ready to head out
it was about 9:30. We had a 4 ½ hour drive ahead of us, without stops. The
route we chose was smooth and clear sailing! No bad roads! The sun did shine,
and the temperatures rose to the mid-60s for most of the drive. As we proceeded
north, though, it steadily dropped to the low 50s by the time we got to
Cloquet. The drive was uneventful, thankfully. We arrived about 2:30, with traffic
and construction in St. Paul, and one stop. We were able to visit with Mom for
several hours at the Sunnyside Health Center at the Cloquet Hospital for a
while before dinner, which was good. She was so ready to go home! Sunday (Mother’s Day) would be the day!
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| Mom with MacKenzie, my brother Rich and me. |
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| Mom, enjoying cookies and coffee. |
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| On each floor at Sunnyside Health Care were huge cages of live birds. They are so colorful, and so fun to watch. |
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| Our trailer parked at Mom's. |
Man, did it get cold in Minnesota! Saturday morning when
we got up it was 34 degrees! We decided to visit the local McDonald’s for
breakfast before heading up to see Mom for a few hours. (She kept asking if she
could go home with us rather than stay another night, but the doctor’s orders
were to stay until Sunday.) We left shortly after sitting with her for lunch,
stopped at WalMart for a few items, heading back to her house to do laundry,
and a few things around the house.
The weather was so weird! We watched rain, wind, snow
flurries, pea-sized ice pellets, wind and wind all day. Yuck! Tough to take
after having such beautiful weather for most of our journey. The temperatures
hovered around 40 degrees all day. Brr! We spent the early evening with Mom
again, letting her know we’d be there to pick her up to bring her home the next
morning. She was so excited! It would be good to have her home again. The
physical therapist was blown away by how Mom was progressing; she had walked
over 1,200 steps that morning, leaving everyone and everything in the dust!
We hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day. We sure did,
getting Mom home by 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning. What a blessing. Again, thank
you for your kind words, thoughts and prayers on her behalf. Prayer works! She’s
home, walking occasionally with a walker, but all-in-all doing very well. No
follow-up PT is necessary.
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| Mom, happy to be home! |
Hugs to you! Thanks for staying with us on our journey.
Gail and Dick
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