We headed north on US 59 from Detroit Lakes Friday morning to take that all the way up to US 2 heading toward Bemidji and Joe’s Lodge about 10 miles east of town. We had a difficult time getting anything near Bemidji and ultimately found Joe’s which had 2 RV sites. It was a quaint little place a couple miles down a fairly well-graded dirt road. But as soon as we turned down their driveway, the tree branches dropped a couple of feet lower and were bouncing off the antennas. Then a much thicker branch scrapped the satellite and A/C units.. Kind of sucked.
Got down to the bottom of a small grade and found the office, checked in, and the lady lead me to the site. First thing I noticed was the electric pedestal was next to the road and the water and sewer were about 40′ away at the extreme back of the site. I knew this was going to be a challenge. I guess they had a lazy electrician as putting that pedestal near the road will be a problem for most RV’rs. As it was, I had to move the front of the rig all the way up to the road with my mirror sticking out into the road so the power cord could reach the pedestal. And I have a pretty long cord at 30′. 30′ of that 50 amp cord probably weighs a couple hundred pounds. Thankfully I have a power reel to pull it back in.
Anyway, we got the RV set up, fixed some lunch and headed out for Lake Itasca and the Mississippi Headwaters about an hour away.
We arrived, paid our way into the state park and drove to the other side of the park to walk down the trail to the water. It was a very pretty, tree-shady trail out there, maybe a quarter of a mile or a little less, but we were there in a few minutes, and the dogs were allowed on the trails (Hooray!) 
It’s hard to imagine the headwaters, which is a small watering hole with a rock bridge so you can cross, is the beginning of the Mighty Missippi!!
We spent maybe 20 minutes out there to get a picture and watch the kids playing in the water when I noticed very dark clouds moving in, so we hightailed it back to the car. Good thing as we had left our rain gear in the RV as it was beautiful when we left home and also when we arrived at the state park gate.
No sooner than we got the pups into the car, it started to rain. Just a bit at first, then the winds changed an order of magnitude and we were in a big blow as we headed out of the trail parking lot. It poured and the wind howled like we hadn’t seen prior. It became as dark as night even though it was about 4 hours till sundown. Most of the drive back toward Bemidji was at 30 MPH on the 60 MPH road. That almost felt too fast for the conditions.
As we got into Bemidji, the rain subsided and the sun almost came back out. We had to drive over to Paul Bunyun and Babe, the Blue Ox, for a quick pic. Kathy wouldn’t even get out of the warm and dry car. We made a quick trip to the market for fruit and veggies and headed east to the coach.
As we turned onto the dirt road, we saw two trees in the road. We were able to go around one of them, but the other blocked the whole road. (sign of things to come) I tried to move it, but it wasn’t going to budge, so I drove over it at the edge almost in the ditch, to Kathy’s dismay.
The wind had really ripped thru the campground, snapping large trees off at 10 feet off the ground, ripped the shade structure off the RV across from us. Lots of damage. The power and water were out. And as I noticed, so was my refrigerator. Not good as it should have gone into battery/propane mode.
Other than the fridge being dead, we saw nothing else with the coach. I spent many hours that night and the next morning troubleshooting it till I found a bad sensor the next morning and jumped around it till we can get somewhere to get a replacement. Hey, now I know where are the fridge relays, breakers and fuses reside – three completely different places in the RV!
Oh the Joys of Traveling!