Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox

Thursday, June 29, 2017      Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox

Lupine growing everywhere

The weather was much improved over the night before.  No fog and no rain.  

Bay of St Louis part of Lake Superior

Bridge that we crossed coming into Duluth in the Fog last night

Since we were in Duluth MN we just had to stop at the Duluth Trading Company.  They are known for their comfortable clothes.  We perused the store and found a couple of items to take home. 

We then headed northwest passing through Grand Rapids, MN (not Michigan) before reaching Bemidji.  This town is know for its huge statue of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox.   

Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox

The story is that Paul was the biggest, best lumberjack in the north woods.  He found Babe in the year of two Winters.  He heard a noise and found little Babe jumping around in snow too small to see above the drifts.  Well she grew to gigantic proportions and it is said that it took a murder of crows a whole day to fly between her horns.  Now that is big!!

Lake Bemidji

It is obvious why Minnesota is known as the land of a thousand lakes.  There are big and little lakes everywhere.  Lots of resorts (lodges) and lots of people fishing.  

We crossed over the Mississippi River several times.  It starts up here at Lake Itasca and from there meanders back and forth going in and out of lakes.  We walked across it here coming out of Lake Bemidji.

We continued to head west and soon got out of lake country and found ourselves in the plains.  We arrived in North Dakota and watched as thunder boomers rained down , but we were able to skirt between them and arrived at Valley City, ND. 

 Our destination for the day. 

Tomorrow we will be exploring the plains looking for wildflowers, wildlife and birds.