May 31, 2016. River Lost - River Found.

May 31, 2016.  River Lost - River Found.  The Lindbergh home was closed this morning, but I took a picture for you.  We were lost the minute we left the campground.  We did not realize the campground was on the River Road, so we drove back into Little Falls and looked for signs.  We stopped in town, propitiously across the street from Pete and Joy's bakery.  Several donuts later, we divined that the road was where we had just been.  We backtracked and found our divination was correct.  We snapped several pictures of local landmarks.  The second picture of Our Lady of Lourdes Church shows geese making their way along the Mississippi flyway.  We returned to our point of beginning and started downriver again. 


The river passed in and out of view.  In places, it was wider than the length of a football field.  As we drove on, we discovered how it got so wide so fast.  There would be dam at the river's widest point, then the river would shrink to normal size below the dam. 


In St. Cloud we encountered the same problem we've encountered before.  The county roads and state highways are marked differently in towns.  What was County Road 31 becomes Oak Street.  If you miss a sign, the River Road is lost.  We drove around St. Cloud for 20 minutes looking for and not finding the road.  So, we did what we did yesterday.  We took the most direct route to a place the river crossed.  In today's experience, that place was St. Paul, MN. 


Tonight, we are in the St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park.  It is one of the nicest parks we've found on this trip.  The new restrooms and showers sparkle.  There are three other campers here in a campground which accommodates more than 100 campers.  We walked around this evening.  The trees here are colored a deep green.  There is a lushness about the park that we haven't seen so far.  The pictures I took tonight you will see tomorrow. 


But, we've found the river again.  It passes through Hastings, about five miles from here.  Below Hastings, the river forms the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Further south, it is the border between Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.  It will continue to widen and spawn more and more communities along its banks.  The best part of this leg of our trip is ahead of us. 


More later.  Goodnight.