Thursday, 30 July
Drive to Lovewell State Park
About an hour into our 2½-hour trip, it began to rain heavily. Since Lisa doesn’t like driving in heavy rain, I navigated through the intermittent downpours for the next hour, crawling along at about 45 mph. Near the end of the trip, Google Maps directed us down a small county road without a painted centerline. To make matters worse, we had to travel about 8 miles on a dirt road. Fortunately, the rain was light, and the dirt road was hard-packed and in good shape. However, it did cover our truck and trailer with mud.
Lovewell State Park
When we arrived, we quickly found our pull-through site, a mostly level dirt/gravel mix. We were probably the only site in the loop without a shade tree, which is likely why it was available when I booked it. Though several hundred yards from the lake, our site was on a hillside with a great water view. A couple of 5th-wheel trailers were sitting between us and the lake at the bottom of the hill in the primitive area; their slides were in, and they appeared unoccupied.
The weather maps showed a big storm about an hour away, so we quickly set up. Unlike most campsites, the utilities were located at the front of the trailer, requiring me to run the hose and electrical around the trailer. We got everything set up and were comfortably inside when the storm hit. We stayed inside for the next two hours as the storm passed through. With no internet coverage, we watched a downloaded Netflix movie on my computer and ate lunch.
After the storm passed, we took a drive around the park. For a Thursday, there were a lot of trailers. Most seemed to be located in the primitive spots along the lake and appeared unoccupied. I suspect these were seasonal campers who only used their trailers on weekends. While it disappointed me to see people taking up camping places they were not using; I was happy to see there wasn’t a lot of junk around like I’ve seen at private RV parks. The occupied trailers usually had a boat, and the park had a couple of fish cleaning stations, indicating it was a popular fishing lake. There was also a marina with a restaurant. We saw several primitive camping areas partially flooded, indicating the water level was above normal. Unlike the last park, this one didn’t have any hiking trails.
With the storm behind us, we looked forward to exploring more of what the park offered.
Mankato
We decided to get some gas before heading back to the trailer. The park was remote and not near any major town, and without internet coverage on our phones to search for the nearest gas station, we decided to drive 30 minutes to Mankato, the nearest town, hoping to find one there.
Fortunately, the town had three gas stations, but only one seemed to have modern pumps that accepted credit cards. Unfortunately, when we pulled in, a sign on the pumps stated that we had to pay inside. Lisa put on her mask and went inside with the credit card while I pumped gas.
No one wore masks, which wasn’t surprising since most rural areas hadn’t been heavily affected by the pandemic. After fueling up, we drove around the town with charming brick-paved streets and several cute houses. According to Wikipedia, the population was 980. We passed a busy ThriftMart grocery store, reminding Lisa that we needed some Cool Whip. However, we decided not to stop since no one was wearing masks.
On our way out of town, we did stop at a Dollar General store that looked less crowded. The store had several signs stating that masks were required, but of the four people I saw entering, only two wore masks. It felt like the non-mask wearers ignored the signs out of defiance rather than inconvenience. Lisa bought a couple of ice cream cookie sandwiches, which we enjoyed on our trip back to the trailer.
Lovewell State Park
When we returned to our campsite, the rain had completely stopped, so we sat outside. Our site’s gravel/sand mix had soaked in most of the water. The weather was cool and very comfortable. We pulled out my gas fire dancer and enjoyed the fire and lake view. Lisa heated some BBQ sandwiches inside for dinner, and then we walked down to the lake to watch the sunset.
We eventually went inside and watched another Netflix show before going to bed.
Friday, 31 July
The morning was cool, with only a few clouds in the sky. I had to wear my sweat jacket, and Lisa brought out her lap blanket while we sat outside and drank our morning coffee. Besides the wind rustling through the trees and the occasional car noise, it was nicely quiet.
Kayaking
We then had a nice breakfast of pancakes and bacon before the wind started to pick up. We took a short drive along the shoreline to check out how rough the water was and where it would be best to launch our kayak. We settled on a launching place near the beach, returned to the trailer, and inflated the kayaks. Luckily, by the time we reached the water, the wind had died down, and the water was very smooth. We could float leisurely while watching a large flock of seagulls fish. We stayed out for about two hours.
Scandia
After we returned, we took showers, ate lunch, and then decided to take a road trip to Belleville, about an hour away. We did not have any specific destination in mind, but we had driven through it on the way to the state park and thought there might be something to see. Along the way, we stopped in Scandia and placed one of our #ShryockRocks on an 1880s monument to the Scandinavian people that had settled there.
Belleville
We stopped at Love’s to take bathroom breaks when we reached Belleville. We then followed some signs that took us through their downtown. Since this was the county seat, it had a courthouse in the center square with old buildings surrounding it. We saw a sign that said “Rocky Pond,” so we drove to see what that was. We found a nice small lake with eight full hookup RV spots for $20 a night and free camping for tents. People used Several picnic shelters with tents pitched next to them. It was very nicely maintained.
Along the way, we passed the Animated Miniatures Museum, which I wanted to see, but we found a sign on the door that said they were closed for COVID with no planned opening date.
We then went to a liquor store to pick up some canned beer. The beer we had brought was in bottles because we enjoyed drinking out of bottles versus cans, but we decided that it was inconsiderate to bring the glass in the water when we were in our kayak, so we decided to switch to cans.
Pawnee Indian Museum
We returned to the trailer with nothing else to see in Belleville. Along the way, we stopped at the Pawnee Indian Museum in the middle of nowhere to see if they might be open despite COVID-19. The museum was described as the only Pawnee Museum in the Midwest and was built around the ruins of an old Pawnee Lodge. We did not see any signs in the door indicating they would not be open the following day, so we decided to return the next day.
Lovewell State Park
When we got back to the trailer, it felt very hot outside. Our camping spot had no afternoon shade except for a small tree about 20 feet away, so we dragged our chairs over to it. We did take a stroll around our campground to check out the other trailers. We were only about 10 miles from the Nebraska border, and most of the trailers in the loop had Nebraska plates. While under our little shade tree, we watched a steady stream of large fifth wheels roll in for the weekend. Often, the camper was pulling a boat or jet ski. We also saw many pontoon boats rushing down to the boat launch, full of people ready to get their weekends started. One of the two uninhabited trailers in the primitive area in front of us also had some people show up.
Lisa cooked up some sweet potatoes and chicken for dinner, and we relaxed outside until the bugs started munching on Lisa. We then went inside and watched an hour of Netflix, which I slept through most of. Lisa fixed up some pound cake, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream for dessert before we went to bed.
Saturday, 1 August
Kayaking
After a leisurely morning of drinking coffee, while overlooking the lake, Lisa cooked us a breakfast of pancakes and sausage before we took the kayak back down to the water around 10 am. We had just a gentle breeze, so the waves were low and did not push our kayak around. We launched out of a different boat ramp and paddled along the park coastline, where we saw quite a few fifth-wheels parked in the primitive areas. There were very few tents, and most looked like they were part of the same camp as the fifth wheels they were near. We also paddled to a deep inlet just outside the state park with a lot of private lake homes. We were surprised to find a lot of blue-green algae in the water but had not seen any warning signs about it, not even near the beach area. We found later by checking the website that Lovewell Lake, like Milford Lake, was under a warning of blue-green algae. We stayed out a little over two hours, and it was a beautiful and relaxing float.
Pawnee Indian Museum
We took showers and ate lunch before heading to the Pawnee Indian Museum. We learned that the Pawnee Indians occupied the surrounding area before being forced to move to the Indian territories that are now Oklahoma. The museum was built where a large Pawnee village once stood, consisting of dozens of round lodges that could hold up to 40 people each. The round museum was built over one of the lodge ruins, and then the area was excavated to reveal any items that had not been pilfered by man or destroyed by nature. On the inside wall of the round building were display cases with a few displays of items illustrating the Pawnee Indian life. The remains of the lodge itself consisted of mostly pole holes, a few rotted timbers, and a scattered piece of pottery or tool.
A walkway outside wound about a small lawn with signs pointing out depressions or raised areas where lodge remains were discovered. Based on the size and design of the lodge, they could determine the particular purpose of the lodge, such as whether the tribal chief or a priest used it. It was nearly impossible to recognize anything other than a mowed lawn. But it was interesting to be reminded of the history of the land before the settlers arrived. There was a monument to the Pawnee in the front of the museum, where we decided to place one of our #ShryockRocks.
Geographic Center of the Continental United States
Then, we drove a little under an hour away to the geographic center of the contiguous or continental United States. Though the exact geographic center is impossible to determine due to the changing shorelines, a park outside the city of Lebanon was generally recognized as the center. It was located at the intersection of a couple of country roads, and the park had a couple of monuments and a chapel to mark the spot. We took some pictures and left another one of our ShryockRocks there.
Lebanon
We then drove through the city of Lebanon. We stopped at their City Park, which had an old jail that we enjoyed fooling around in. Across the street was a Visitor Information Center in a restored gas station. They did have a 10-site RV park.
Swedish Swirl
On our way back to the trailer, we stopped for gas in Mankato and then at a small ice cream shack called the Swedish Swirl. It was good to see a local ice cream shack. I ordered a small cone, and Lisa got a Lemon Crumble Swedish Swirl, similar to a Dairy Queen blizzard. The ice cream was a lot creamier than Dairy Queen’s, though.
Lovewell State Park
On the way back to the trailer, we noticed large storm clouds heading toward us, so we hurried back and got just about everything we did not want wet or blown away secured in the truck or trailer just before the rain started. The storm moved so fast over us that it was over in about 30 minutes and hardly got the ground wet.
We got our chairs back out, and Lisa cooked some sausage that we enjoyed with coleslaw and raw carrots. We then sat and relaxed after dinner for a bit before we both got stuff packed up for our jump the next day.
When we were done, Lisa read while I typed into this journal before going to bed.
Sunday, 2 August
After our coffee and a light breakfast of yogurt and granola, we quickly hooked up the trailer. I was a little nervous about having to wait at the dump station, but nobody was there when we arrived at about 9:30 am. We could flush our black tank well without worrying about anybody behind us in line. I also sprayed off some of the mud that we had accumulated.