Road Trip 2012; Thursday 9/20

347 miles: camped in Summit, South Dakota

Site 8, County Line Campground, Summit, South Dakota

We left Frontenac State Park about 9:00.  Dave and Ann headed east to Wisconsin and I went west to Oregon.  It was bitter sweet parting ways.  I'm anxious to get to Oregon to see Cory, but the Wrights are such long time friends that's its hard to leave.  We go back to 1969.  By coincidence, their oldest, Tanya, was born shortly before my oldest, Justin.  Their son Ian was born about the time of my youngest, Cory.  We are great friends and have close ties.

We were sitting in the camper one night when I noticed my reflection in the window.  So I took this goofy picture of the three of us.

After leaving Frontenac and turning west, I drove through the city of Red Wing.  Guess what?  Red Wing shoes are made there.  I've worn Red Wing shoes over the years, and it never hit me that they were made in Red Wing, Minnesota.

I wasn't in a hurry, so I drove mostly two lane country roads today. It was one of the most relaxing drives I've had.  I'm a gawker, so I got my fix of watching the farms.  Minnesota has the nickname of "Land of 10,000 Lakes."  Well, from what I've seen today driving across the central part of the state, it should be called "The Land of 10,000 Corn Fields."  Corn and soybean harvest was in high gear.  There were combines and transport trucks everywhere.  I was curious about the drought.  I stopped at a NAPA store to pick up some diesel exhaust fluid and the guy waiting on me said that the drought had not affected the farms in this area.  The yields are excellent here, he said.

It's been interesting listening to the local political ads on the radio.  Every candidate running for Congress talks about farm issues.  They are stressing topics like protecting the ethanol industry and big government over regulating farms.  I've not heard a single Presidential  political ad.  Local issues are what count here.  I've said this before, but everyone needs to drive across the rural midwest, especially during harvest season, to really appreciate the importance of agriculture.

Zoey and I hope to be camping somewhere in Wyoming Friday night...........