We planned our next leg of our journey last evening after returning from dinner. We made reservations in Red Wing MN for today and expect to have a fairly leisurely drive of about 190 miles. Our intentions are to follow the Great River Road route until just north of Minneapolis at Elk River and then passing through the city on interstate rather than try to actually "follow" the river. We have all been to the city before and are not interested is spending any additional time there.
The owner of this Country Inn & Suite is obviously a patriot.
I saw this while walking after breakfast. KFC now hiring at $14 an hour. We saw the $14-$15 an hour advertised at several service level jobs. We passed on industry which advertised a $1000 hiring bonus.
Ready to take a break, we spotted a sign for "Mississippi River County Park" near Rice, MN, a small town north of Sartell (another small town). The park had camping areas and beautiful hiking trails as well as a boat launch. We spent about 30 minutes just walking and relaxing from our morning drive. It's beginning to look more like the Mississippi River!
We stopped for lunch in Monticello, MN around noon. With the help of Google, we found the Bluestone Grill, sorta like a Chipotle Grill. Everyone agreed the food was excellent.
It was only a few miles down the river to St. Cloud. Again using Google we found the River Bluffs Regional Park. This was a large park with several miles of paved paths and an addition several miles of foot paths thru the woods. We spent an hour and hiked about 2.5 miles.
Kay doesn't always obey signs...
From St. Cloud we traveled to Elk River along the Great River Road Route and then took the most direct way to Red Wing without going thru Minneapolis. We went 40 miles and it seemed like we were changing freeways every 5 miles and sometimes more often than that. It was worse than Atlanta. Fortunately the last 25 miles into Redwing was very quiet and pleasant on a two lane road. Again Google comes through! We knew we wanted to visit the Red Wing Shoe store and museum and the Red Wing Stoneware factory. Tripadvisor informed us that they were the #2 and #3 attractions out of 40 in Redwing. The #1 was the Barn Bluffs trail. Well, we had to do #1 if we were going to do #2 and #3.
After what the map said was a moderate hike of about 1 mile, we arrived at the bluff and were rewarded with a beautiful view.
After checking into our hotel, we got refreshed and headed back to town to visit the Red Wing Shoe Store. It was fascinating. Kay and Carl actually purchased a pair of shoes. I really enjoyed the museum.
Yes folks, this is an actual full leather shoe made using 2,300 pounds of leather. By the way, it is a size 638 1/2.
We also visited the Duluth Trading Store next door, no purchases made but there were some bargains to be had. We then traveled back to our hotel and had a meal at the Smoking Oak Grill which was next door. I know why it has 4000+ reviews and is 4.5 rated.
We drove about 200 miles today and hiked about 6 miles. Pretty good day.
Our plans are to make it to Dubuque, Iowa tomorrow. I'll keep you informed.
No comments:
Post a Comment