It has been staying about 30s overnight and 40-55 daytimes for the past week, cool, but sunny and pretty nice!
Comments and photographs from an old local historian and backwoodsman about life in the St. Croix River Valley
Monday, January 24, 2011
Margo gets job cutting Palm Sunday Fronds
It has been staying about 30s overnight and 40-55 daytimes for the past week, cool, but sunny and pretty nice!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Buick Balks
Traveling Tribulations
We are down in Louisiana, with nice weather, and even some green grass on the ground with camellias in bloom. The trip was reasonably easy with the worst driving conditions on the Monday (Jan 10) right after a snowstorm swept through Missouri, Mississippi, and northern Louisiana, on Sunday.
We pulled into a rest stop, which was not plowed, not shoveled and a real mess a full day after the snowstorm. I asked the cleaning man “Why aren’t there any snow plows out today clearing the roads?”
“Govn’r Baba (Haley Barbour) is a devout Christian man. He b’lievs God dumped it on us, so God’s gotta get rid of it!”
We stopped at a gas station ($3.09) to fill up and get a gallon of washer fluid. The price had been jacked from $2.99 to $9.95. I complained and the clerk said “well, it’s still selling.” I bought a 2 liter bottle of diet 7-UP, added 10 squirts of soap from the bathroom, shook it up at a cost of $1.89
We had some car troubles along the way. I intentionally drive older vehicles because they cost less overall most of the time. When I do have to pay for a car repair I think “it’s just one car payment,” remembering when I bought new cars and paid for them every month for many years, never getting out of debt before buying the next one. I find most older cars get by on two payments per year from age 5 to 10.
We are driving Margo’s 1995 Buick Roadmaster with a 5.7L V-8 that we save for pulling our small popup trailer camper. It has been a three payment per year car since we bought it six years go. Generally, I don’t mind a few car problems along the way on a trip as it keeps things interesting and at times exciting on what could otherwise be just a long boring drive. However the Buick threatens to go beyond just interesting, to worrisome.
These Roadmasters (called Road Monsters by many) are big; have huge engines that could easily pull a semi-tanker trailer fully loaded with gasoline (actually not a bad idea considering the amount of fuel they use). The towing package includes air leveling shocks to keep the rear end at the right level whatever the load. Their biggest downfall is the vast amount of complex automatic and power features.
Margo always had the idea that camping in retirement meant hauling a 40 foot trailer with two bedrooms, kitchen, dining, living and exercise rooms with multiple slide out compartments; bringing the full comforts of home on the road, versus me planning to get a slightly bigger tent to replace our 1973 canvas model.
She passed her dream to her Uncle Ray, a used car dealer who only sold Buick Roadmasters and my constraint of $5,000. He picked out a white 1995 Roadmaster with 95,000 miles on it; in beautifully new looking condition and sold it to her for $5,000—a “favorite niece” discount for a car that probably cost $30,000 new. I think the maroon real leather seats were the clincher for Margo.
It has been a challenging car. The first problem was that if you left it sit for a week, the battery died. I put in a new battery—no different, just took longer to die. I couldn’t find what was wrong and eventually took it to my local repairman who also had a long search. “I finally had my young mechanic crawl in the trunk while I shut the lid and sure enough, the trunk light stayed on!” he said, charging me for three hours labor at $75 per hour plus a replacement switch.
As we planned to hoard the miles on this car just for pulling the camper, it sat in the garage for months at a time before being run. Three months later, the battery was dead again. I took it back to the same repairman. He couldn’t find anything—nothing drawing current other than some really tiny amounts for the clock. “Leave it with me and we will keep an eye on it.”
Two weeks later he called. “The car has a towing package with air leveling shocks in the back. The air compressor that pumps up the shocks to keep it level, comes on every day and runs for a while. There is probably a very slow leak somewhere in the system. I couldn’t find it. Replacing the air shock system would be about $2000, so I just rewired the pump to only work when the key is on. When it sits for a while and you turn on the key, it will immediately pump up again, but not while it is off. Should work OK until the air shocks spring a leak big enough I can find.” Only $200 and all labor this time.
The next trip south, the rear end pumped up and stayed up, whether you turned the key off or not. The Buick dealer in Natchez, Mississippi found a short in the pump wiring. “Should’ve been easy, but somebody re-wired the pump and took me couple of extra hours to figure out what was going on. He let the wires hang and they rubbed against something and wore off the insulation” he said as he handed me a $196 bill for labor and parts (tape and wire).
After that we went on several more trips and it pulled the camper fine; ran fine and smoothly, and only needed a new dual pipe/muffler exhaust system ($500), a new alternator ($200) and the air conditioning quit (estimate $500 for repairs). We skipped the air conditioning repair as most of our trailer trips were in cool weather anyway. Eventually we had to replace the AC pump with an idler pulley as the clutch was getting ready to grab and tear the drive belt (which by the way we replaced too) along with another tensioning idler pulley (another $80 each).
I had been mildly grumbling about the car; the mileage was about 16 pulling the camper versus about 25 with the Olds 88, and we were paying lots for repairs. When we had to replace two of the tires we found that they were a size that had to be special ordered at $150 each. Margo got tired of my grumbling, and said—lets trade it in during a trip returning from Colorado one winter after having visited Scott at Keystone Ski Lodge.
On the way back, out on the prairie, a coyote streaked across the road in front of us and we banged into it hard at 75 mph. The coyote was killed, and the front bumper and fender had $2500 damage—just cosmetic stuff, but with my $1000 deductible collision, was hard to justify fixing—so I said no, lets just drive it until it quits. That was two years ago. This year I had some new brake lines put in. The heater no longer gets above warm, the air shocks are permanently deflated, but it does run and pull the trailer pretty good anyway. Of course, $60 per tank fill twice in a 12 hour day of driving does seem pretty steep. Margo has vowed never to buy a car on her own in the future, so I guess that is worth quite a bit!
The first real annoyance on this trip down was the leak in the heater core that I fixed with stop leak and then the heater quit heating. I think the heater core got plugged with the leak gunk, as one heater hose is very hot and the other not so hot, indicating the fluid isn’t circulating. That is why, when I left off the story last week, I had just put cardboard in front of the whole radiator hoping to heat the whole thing up so hot, it would remove the clog in the heater core, and get Margo out of hypothermia—all her shivering and whining made it hard for me to concentrate on driving. I couldn’t resist saying “well, I think it was you who picked this car…” which did heat her up a little.
With the cardboard in, we pulled out on the freeway and took it up to 70 and cruised along watching the temperature gauge go above the normal 200, to 205, then 210, and 220 and the heater warm a little. Suddenly there was the smell of antifreeze and a cloud of smoke coming from under the hood. I pulled over as far as I could get along the freeway and shut off the engine and popped the hood.
The radiator was gurgling; the engine steaming with wet antifreeze, all spraying out of a tiny pinhole in the upper heater hose. “It’s not serious,” I told Margo, “I will just let it cool a little and then wrap duct tape on the hole.” I popped the trunk and took out my toolbox (I carry enough tools to pretty much overhaul the engine if needed), but couldn’t find the duct tape anywhere. “Margo, would you look for the duct tape, please.” I asked warmly.
With a towel, I opened the radiator reservoir slowly letting off the rest of the pressure and steam then wiped the hose dry and cleaned it with windshield washer fluid and let it dry while Margo was still rummaging through the camper drawers and trunk for duct tape. Finally she said ”we must not have packed it.” That was a real shock, for along with wire, duct tape is probably the handiest temporary car repair you can get.
I noticed a copy of my new book, “St Croix River Road Ramblings” (only $22 to Russ Hanson, 15937 Co 27 Blvd, Pine Island, MN 55963 – Scott will fill your order) in the back seat. I print the books, then staple the pages together and cover the staples and back with high quality colored duct tape for elegance and to keep the staples from wounding the reader. Maybe I could peel the tape off and use it on the heater hose. Carefully, I pulled off the 11.5 inches of tape. It was still good and sticky. I wrapped it tightly around the heater hose leak three times and then took a few feet of wire and carefully wrapped that around the tape so it looked like the stents we used to keep open an artery at Mayo. I removed the cardboards, topped off the antifreeze and headed on down the road into Illinois.
We motelled overnight and in the morning the Buick wouldn’t start, just clicking sounds when I turned the key—signs of a dead battery. I always carry a 12 volt lawn mower battery with me camping. It lets me have some electricity even if the campsite doesn’t so I don’t have to run down the car battery. I took it out and jumped the Buick and it started! “The camper lights don’t work,” said Margo as I did my morning tire and light check. Looking under the camper hitch, I noticed that with the air shocks not working, the hitch was running lower and dragging the wires. Sure enough, two were worn completely off and must have drained the battery sitting on the icy pavement. I cut them, bared the ends and reconnected and then took the duct tape from my copy of the $20 “Second Book of Stories of the Trade River Valley” and taped them together and tightly to the hitch and we were on our way.
Louisiana was sunny, greener, and pleasant. We chose Tickfaw state park near Baton Rouge, LA. Our first disappointment was that LA has dropped the 50% camping discount for senior citizens as of last June. It now is $16 per night instead of our budgeted $8—adding $240 per month above our budget.
We hit a huge pothole near the park on the second day looking around. The Buick got what my hard of hearing Grandpa fondly called a “purr” (he didn’t like a muffler as he couldn’t hear the purr to know the engine was running). Looking underneath I could see one of the muffler’s had broke loose at the front connection. You can see how we fixed it in the photograph accompanying this story.
If you need one of the new books mentioned above to carry in your car for emergencies, send a check to Russ Hanson, 15937 Co 27 Blvd, Pine Island, MN 55963 where son Scott will fill your order. I would recommend at least two if your car is over 5 years old! Scott promises to send us the money here in LA so we will have enough to keep the Road Master comfortable.
We are down in Louisiana, with nice weather, and even some green grass on the ground with camellias in bloom. The trip was reasonably easy with the worst driving conditions on the Monday (Jan 10) right after a snowstorm swept through Missouri, Mississippi, and northern Louisiana, on Sunday.
We pulled into a rest stop, which was not plowed, not shoveled and a real mess a full day after the snowstorm. I asked the cleaning man “Why aren’t there any snow plows out today clearing the roads?”
“Govn’r Baba (Haley Barbour) is a devout Christian man. He b’lievs God dumped it on us, so God’s gotta get rid of it!”
We stopped at a gas station ($3.09) to fill up and get a gallon of washer fluid. The price had been jacked from $2.99 to $9.95. I complained and the clerk said “well, it’s still selling.” I bought a 2 liter bottle of diet 7-UP, added 10 squirts of soap from the bathroom, shook it up at a cost of $1.89
We had some car troubles along the way. I intentionally drive older vehicles because they cost less overall most of the time. When I do have to pay for a car repair I think “it’s just one car payment,” remembering when I bought new cars and paid for them every month for many years, never getting out of debt before buying the next one. I find most older cars get by on two payments per year from age 5 to 10.
We are driving Margo’s 1995 Buick Roadmaster with a 5.7L V-8 that we save for pulling our small popup trailer camper. It has been a three payment per year car since we bought it six years go. Generally, I don’t mind a few car problems along the way on a trip as it keeps things interesting and at times exciting on what could otherwise be just a long boring drive. However the Buick threatens to go beyond just interesting, to worrisome.
These Roadmasters (called Road Monsters by many) are big; have huge engines that could easily pull a semi-tanker trailer fully loaded with gasoline (actually not a bad idea considering the amount of fuel they use). The towing package includes air leveling shocks to keep the rear end at the right level whatever the load. Their biggest downfall is the vast amount of complex automatic and power features.
Margo always had the idea that camping in retirement meant hauling a 40 foot trailer with two bedrooms, kitchen, dining, living and exercise rooms with multiple slide out compartments; bringing the full comforts of home on the road, versus me planning to get a slightly bigger tent to replace our 1973 canvas model.
She passed her dream to her Uncle Ray, a used car dealer who only sold Buick Roadmasters and my constraint of $5,000. He picked out a white 1995 Roadmaster with 95,000 miles on it; in beautifully new looking condition and sold it to her for $5,000—a “favorite niece” discount for a car that probably cost $30,000 new. I think the maroon real leather seats were the clincher for Margo.
It has been a challenging car. The first problem was that if you left it sit for a week, the battery died. I put in a new battery—no different, just took longer to die. I couldn’t find what was wrong and eventually took it to my local repairman who also had a long search. “I finally had my young mechanic crawl in the trunk while I shut the lid and sure enough, the trunk light stayed on!” he said, charging me for three hours labor at $75 per hour plus a replacement switch.
As we planned to hoard the miles on this car just for pulling the camper, it sat in the garage for months at a time before being run. Three months later, the battery was dead again. I took it back to the same repairman. He couldn’t find anything—nothing drawing current other than some really tiny amounts for the clock. “Leave it with me and we will keep an eye on it.”
Two weeks later he called. “The car has a towing package with air leveling shocks in the back. The air compressor that pumps up the shocks to keep it level, comes on every day and runs for a while. There is probably a very slow leak somewhere in the system. I couldn’t find it. Replacing the air shock system would be about $2000, so I just rewired the pump to only work when the key is on. When it sits for a while and you turn on the key, it will immediately pump up again, but not while it is off. Should work OK until the air shocks spring a leak big enough I can find.” Only $200 and all labor this time.
The next trip south, the rear end pumped up and stayed up, whether you turned the key off or not. The Buick dealer in Natchez, Mississippi found a short in the pump wiring. “Should’ve been easy, but somebody re-wired the pump and took me couple of extra hours to figure out what was going on. He let the wires hang and they rubbed against something and wore off the insulation” he said as he handed me a $196 bill for labor and parts (tape and wire).
After that we went on several more trips and it pulled the camper fine; ran fine and smoothly, and only needed a new dual pipe/muffler exhaust system ($500), a new alternator ($200) and the air conditioning quit (estimate $500 for repairs). We skipped the air conditioning repair as most of our trailer trips were in cool weather anyway. Eventually we had to replace the AC pump with an idler pulley as the clutch was getting ready to grab and tear the drive belt (which by the way we replaced too) along with another tensioning idler pulley (another $80 each).
I had been mildly grumbling about the car; the mileage was about 16 pulling the camper versus about 25 with the Olds 88, and we were paying lots for repairs. When we had to replace two of the tires we found that they were a size that had to be special ordered at $150 each. Margo got tired of my grumbling, and said—lets trade it in during a trip returning from Colorado one winter after having visited Scott at Keystone Ski Lodge.
On the way back, out on the prairie, a coyote streaked across the road in front of us and we banged into it hard at 75 mph. The coyote was killed, and the front bumper and fender had $2500 damage—just cosmetic stuff, but with my $1000 deductible collision, was hard to justify fixing—so I said no, lets just drive it until it quits. That was two years ago. This year I had some new brake lines put in. The heater no longer gets above warm, the air shocks are permanently deflated, but it does run and pull the trailer pretty good anyway. Of course, $60 per tank fill twice in a 12 hour day of driving does seem pretty steep. Margo has vowed never to buy a car on her own in the future, so I guess that is worth quite a bit!
The first real annoyance on this trip down was the leak in the heater core that I fixed with stop leak and then the heater quit heating. I think the heater core got plugged with the leak gunk, as one heater hose is very hot and the other not so hot, indicating the fluid isn’t circulating. That is why, when I left off the story last week, I had just put cardboard in front of the whole radiator hoping to heat the whole thing up so hot, it would remove the clog in the heater core, and get Margo out of hypothermia—all her shivering and whining made it hard for me to concentrate on driving. I couldn’t resist saying “well, I think it was you who picked this car…” which did heat her up a little.
With the cardboard in, we pulled out on the freeway and took it up to 70 and cruised along watching the temperature gauge go above the normal 200, to 205, then 210, and 220 and the heater warm a little. Suddenly there was the smell of antifreeze and a cloud of smoke coming from under the hood. I pulled over as far as I could get along the freeway and shut off the engine and popped the hood.
The radiator was gurgling; the engine steaming with wet antifreeze, all spraying out of a tiny pinhole in the upper heater hose. “It’s not serious,” I told Margo, “I will just let it cool a little and then wrap duct tape on the hole.” I popped the trunk and took out my toolbox (I carry enough tools to pretty much overhaul the engine if needed), but couldn’t find the duct tape anywhere. “Margo, would you look for the duct tape, please.” I asked warmly.
With a towel, I opened the radiator reservoir slowly letting off the rest of the pressure and steam then wiped the hose dry and cleaned it with windshield washer fluid and let it dry while Margo was still rummaging through the camper drawers and trunk for duct tape. Finally she said ”we must not have packed it.” That was a real shock, for along with wire, duct tape is probably the handiest temporary car repair you can get.
I noticed a copy of my new book, “St Croix River Road Ramblings” (only $22 to Russ Hanson, 15937 Co 27 Blvd, Pine Island, MN 55963 – Scott will fill your order) in the back seat. I print the books, then staple the pages together and cover the staples and back with high quality colored duct tape for elegance and to keep the staples from wounding the reader. Maybe I could peel the tape off and use it on the heater hose. Carefully, I pulled off the 11.5 inches of tape. It was still good and sticky. I wrapped it tightly around the heater hose leak three times and then took a few feet of wire and carefully wrapped that around the tape so it looked like the stents we used to keep open an artery at Mayo. I removed the cardboards, topped off the antifreeze and headed on down the road into Illinois.
We motelled overnight and in the morning the Buick wouldn’t start, just clicking sounds when I turned the key—signs of a dead battery. I always carry a 12 volt lawn mower battery with me camping. It lets me have some electricity even if the campsite doesn’t so I don’t have to run down the car battery. I took it out and jumped the Buick and it started! “The camper lights don’t work,” said Margo as I did my morning tire and light check. Looking under the camper hitch, I noticed that with the air shocks not working, the hitch was running lower and dragging the wires. Sure enough, two were worn completely off and must have drained the battery sitting on the icy pavement. I cut them, bared the ends and reconnected and then took the duct tape from my copy of the $20 “Second Book of Stories of the Trade River Valley” and taped them together and tightly to the hitch and we were on our way.
Louisiana was sunny, greener, and pleasant. We chose Tickfaw state park near Baton Rouge, LA. Our first disappointment was that LA has dropped the 50% camping discount for senior citizens as of last June. It now is $16 per night instead of our budgeted $8—adding $240 per month above our budget.
We hit a huge pothole near the park on the second day looking around. The Buick got what my hard of hearing Grandpa fondly called a “purr” (he didn’t like a muffler as he couldn’t hear the purr to know the engine was running). Looking underneath I could see one of the muffler’s had broke loose at the front connection. You can see how we fixed it in the photograph accompanying this story.
If you need one of the new books mentioned above to carry in your car for emergencies, send a check to Russ Hanson, 15937 Co 27 Blvd, Pine Island, MN 55963 where son Scott will fill your order. I would recommend at least two if your car is over 5 years old! Scott promises to send us the money here in LA so we will have enough to keep the Road Master comfortable.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Made it to Louisiana
We drove hard for two days and made it to LA. At Tickfaw state park near Baton Rouge. It was 55 degrees and sunny today--very nice!!!
We drove through Mississippi Monday after a "big" snowstorm on Sunday. They got from an inch to 8 inches of snow. On Monday we drove completely across the state on Hwy 55 and saw a total of one snowblow on the whole trip--and it was stopped along the side of the road appearing to be broken down.
I asked a local guy when we stopped at McDonalds about the lack of snowplowing (and shoveling of any sidewalks, rest stops etc): "Gov'n Baba believes since God sent the snow, it is God's responsibility to get rid of it too." He was speaking about Governor Haley Barbour.
By the time we got to the "bad" places, God had melted two tracks in each lane that were wet but not slippery and had we been in MN or WI, we would have been hard pressed to keep the semi-trucks from running over us anything under 70 miles an hour.
Here the big rigs were crawling along at 40 mph. We saw no one in the ditch (a cop at MickyD's said there were 32 accidents in the area the night before), except for a wrecker truck with two other wreckers on the highway trying to winch him out! Several people told me that they make a big deal out of a few inches of snow so they can shut everything down and take a few days off and wait for warm weather that is sure to come.
By the way, you can tell when you are in the south when McDonalds changes from fast food to slow food. You get used to crisp french fries, hot food, and accurate orders in the north but things are more languid here.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Two new books are online from 2010.
Second Book of Stories of the Trade River Valley
and
St. Croix River Road Ramblings
http://books.google.com/books?id=Lc16ck4SHVIC&dq=st+croix+river+road+ramblings&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Carnes Homestead along the St. Croix River
West Sterling, Section 26, Polk Co WI
Great Grandpa's old Homestead 160 acres
for additional photos check at
Sunday, September 19, 2010
River Road Ramble 2010
Stops on the 5th Annual River Road Ramble
Keyed to the map (online at http://home.earthlink.net/~ramble)
A. Festival Theatre Historic Downtown St. Croix Falls
3rd Annual Costume Sale – Saturday, September 25th in the front courtyard. Beverage sales all afternoon. Tim Sparks and Phil Heywood Saturday, September 25th @ 7:30
Claudia Schmidt, Sunday, September 26th, 2:00
B. The famous Wolf Creek Bar (Little Swedes) historical spot has been serving liquor continuously since 1832!! Photos of “old” Wolf Creek on display. Great year round spot for dining, socializing and watching sports.
C. Penny Lane 2566 240th Ave (Cty Rd G)
Eclectic shopping. Handcrafted items, unique treasures, odds 'n ends, purses, dolls, vintage glassware and pottery, sasonal items and homegrown produce. New and used bargains. Homestead of John Penny.
D. Wolf Creek Methodist Church 2417 River Road – maps available Lunch served from 11 to 2. Large rummage and Bake Sale, produce, coffee, rolls, lunch. Opening at 8 am.
E1. Antique Horse Drawn Vehicles and Garage sale 2586 River Road. Collection of original, carefully restored, antique sleighs and wheeled vehicles and appointments will be on display. Garage sale, saddle, tack and other driving appointments will be for sale.
E2. Sterling Homemakers 2586 River Road Sterling H.C.E Garage and Bake Sale. Proceed help residents in need, supports local scholarships and community projects.
F. Sunshine Gardens 2747 Evergreen Ave.Sunshine Gardens Wed thru Sat. 10 to 6. FREE PLANTS!? HOW? Stop in for our 'Pick-a-chip' Sale! Pick-a-chip and save $1, $5 of get your entire purchase FREE!! Saturday 9am – 5pm only. Browse our Trees, Ornamental Shrubs, Perennials, Fruiting Shrubs, Water Plants, Ironworks and handmade items. Cookies, lemonade and coffee provided all day. Don't forget – FALL IS A GREAT TIME TO PLANT!
G. Hanson Farm 2558 Evergreen Ave. Farm market, apples, squash, pumpkins, maple syrup and seasonal garden produce
H. Multi-family Garage sale 13017 Solness Rd, located almost to Grantsburg off Hwy 87. Seven family garage sale. Something for everyone: clothing, crafts, collectibles, glassware, books, households, perennial plants, guy stuff and much more!!
I. Holmes Lake Orchard 20338 Range Line Rd 1 mile east of Hwy 87 on Cty Z. U-pick apples stop and enjoy the beautiful setting and delicious fruit.
J. C. Kapp Art Studio and Golden Egg Farm Christine Kapp – maps available Open house/Rustic Barn Art Studio. Located inside our big red barn, second floor. Meet the artist and see some of her vintage themed oil paintings. She will have art and prints for sale. www.mountkapp.com
K. At-las Antiques downtown Atlas (Cty Rd B) Antiques, gifts, collectibles, wonderful “old fashioned” gardens. Don't miss this stop; you'll be telling your friends about this one of a kind shop. Located in the old general store and living quarters.
L. Cushing 240th Ave. choose anyone of the three exits. “The small town with the big heart” SEL HS Histoical “Memory Room” and Museum Community Center 2nd floor – entrance on east side of building. Large collection of area photographs and information. Display of farm and dairy equipment, first Post Office, Country Schools and Churches. Copies of Cushing Wisconsin History available for purchase. - maps available
Suzy Q's Snowshoe Tavern a great place for breakfast, lunch of dinner. Daily specials, We have whatever you are hungry for. Ramble special – $1.00 off appetizers or Burger Basket.
The Dugout Bar and Grill Sports Bar – famous for delicious burgers always serving daily specials. Sponsor of 13 area teams: fastpitch, softball, pool, bowling leagues, trap and more. *Suzy Q's and The Dugout are co-sponsors of the Cushing Fundays Adult Soapbox Derby
M. Pole Barn Sale 2355 215th Ave. Pole barn sale: Circular saw blades 11” to 24”, collectables, beeswax, tools, hubcaps, old pulleys, household, misc.
N. Eureka Center
Townhall – School on Hwy 87 just north of 210th st. - maps available. Open house of the beautifully restored school house. Interesting display of Eureka history, pictures, artifacts, stories and farm memorabilia including antique tractors. Serving ice cream and rootbeer. Hosted by Betty and Sherman Jensen
Eureka Farmers Market Oktoberfest A special farmers market with a classic car show 10 -5. NE corner of Hwy 87 and 210th St.
K.J's Eureka Tavern popular spot for “locals” you should stop too! Building sits on original site of 1904 Eureka creamery. Walls from 1915 creamery are visable in the current tavern and dining area. Good food and friendly staff. Stop and visit
O. Chateau St. Croix Winery and Vineyard 1998 Hwy 87. World class wines in the St. Croix River Valley. Tasting, tours and more. There is no better way to end you day of traveling “the loop!” Relax and enjoy a glass of wine in the rural setting of this amazing place.
Historical Sites
1 Festival Theatre 210 Washington Street, St. Croix Falls. In the late 1880's St. Croix Falls was a bustling river town, and as it continued to grow, citizens interested in cultural endevors wanted to build an auditorium. Construction began in 1916, and continued throughout the year, and in 1917, while WWI raged overseas, citizens of St. Croix Falls gathered to watch silent film-The Battle Cry of Peace. The history of the building is very interesting. Originally designed to have a civic community center on the first floor and auditorium on the second floor, which was changed to a
movie theatre. Read all about the changes and growth of this remarkable building and the people who have kept theatre in the valley of over 92 years. www.festivaltheatre.org
2 St. Croix National Scenic Riverway Visitors Center – 401 Hamilton St. St. Croix Falls. The St. Croix scenic riverway is 154 miles, flowing from Gordon, WI to its confluence with the Mississippi River System. It is one of the last undisturbed, large floodplain rivers in the upper Midwest The river is an unrivaled combination of exceptional natural and cultural recourses and scenic, aesthetic and recreational value. The Visitor Center is open
daily from 8 am to 4:30 pm. A large variety of brochures and maps are available.
3 Spangler's Landing – located on the River Road; watch for Nat't Riverway signs The Spangler family settled right on the river and provided a stopping place for travelers heading north on the River Road from St. Croix Falls, It is said that there was a pause
in the rapids on the river at ths spot, so boats trying to run the rapids could rest too. The rapids have been gone for 100 years since the power dam in St. Croix Falls flooded them all the way to Wolf Creek.
4 Nevers Dam – located on the River Road watch for Nat'l Riverway signs. There is access to the wild river at this spot. You may be able to see some remaining parts of the Nevers Dam that once stood here. In 1890, Charlie Nevers had a stopping place
along the river. Loggers sent millions of logs down the St. Croix and found them getting jammed on the rapids, especially at St. Croix Falls. To solve the problem, they built a huge wooden dam where Charlie had lived. They stopped the logs there, built up a great head of water and then let them go with a rush that took them all way through St. Croix Falls, and sped them on their way to the sawmills at Stillwater.
5 Wolf Creek Methodist Church and Cemetery 2417 River Road
This is the site of the first Wolf Creek School that was built in 1882. The school burned down in 1922, and was replaces by the current building that is now used as the Methodist Church. Wolf Creek was an early Indian trading post by 1831, and a loggers moved through, farmers and other settlers followed them and Wolf Creek became a “blooming community.” By 1860 there was a dam and mill on Wolf Creek, a Post Office, General Store (the proprietor's records are at the SEL HS Memory Room) doctor's
office, a school and church congregation. With the Homestead Law of 1862 allowing people to claim up to 160 acres of US land and get it for free after 5 years of improving it, settlers rushed in. Take a walk through the cemetery, there are family graves dating back to 1859 or earlier.
6 Ives Stopping Place and Cemetery – a few miles North of Wolf Creek.
Site of one of many stopping places used by the early settlers who traveled along the “road to the pineries.” The oxen in the wood at the logging camps could live on wild hay, but the horses used by the settlers traveling up the River Road, needed better feed. Creating the necessity for stopping places along the way.
7 Bush Bakke/ Pioneer Cemetery – Evergreen Ave. west of the River Road. This cemetery was used 1880 – 1920. There are many families that settled in the 400 acres of Sterling Township forest on the barrens that are buried here. The church built in
1879 was constructed of logs with white pine boards covering it. Today a memorial church stands on the original site. Some of the grave sites have raised rectangles of dirt around them, some grave markers are partially hidden, and there are also depressions there the pin boxes have given way. The little church and historical displays inside were recently damaged by arson in 2008 and has been lovingly restored – stop in to see.
8 Trade River – you will cross this river several times while traveling the “loop.” This river was used by the logging camps in the 1850's. Huge white pines floated down river to the St. Croix. The Trade, however, was much too small to get logs all the way, so a series of dams were built. In the spring the logs and water built up behind one dam, which was them released, and the logs roared on to the next, until they reached the St. Croix.
9 Grettum Flowage – cross over the Trade River and head north into Burnett Co. Hwy 87 and the River Road both cross the Trade River. At one time two roads joined together at the river and headed north as one. Take the River Road north until it seems to
dead end in a lake. This is the Grettum Flowage.
10 & 11 Trade River and Trade River School – a town located on one of the dam sites. Turn east off Hwy 87 at the new Trade River Evangelical Church, and you will enter what was once the thriving community of Trade River. Stores, mill, telephone and electrical company, old church, sawmill, furniture factory...all that remains is the cemetery and a few houses. The Trade River School, with merry-go-round in the yard, was closed in the 1940's.
12 Orr School – another “country school” along hwy 87 located at 285th This is the 4th Orr Lake School, it was closed in 1950 and remodeled into a home.
Monday, August 16, 2010
We crossed the border into Canada at 1:30 pm today on Hwy 59 out of MN. At the border we were asked to show our "id." We showed passports.
"What gifts are you bringing in?"
"Twelve 8 oz bottles of WI maple syrup and 4 lbs of WI cheese to take to Seattle."
"Twelve 8 oz bottles of WI maple syrup and 4 lbs of WI cheese to take to Seattle."
"How long are you staying?"
"About a week--camping out in a tent."
"Any Liquor or Tobacco?"
"Any Liquor or Tobacco?"
"No"
"Do you know anyone in Canada?"
"Yes, my old girlfriend from college, Annie, lives in Winnipeg."
Looking at my wife, the border guard said "Hope you are not going to go visit her, are you?"
"She said she will be out of town whatever week it is I come through."
"Well, that's good! Enjoy yourselves!"
And so we drove on into Canada for about two hours until we found Stephen Field State Park near Roland--south and a little west of Winnipeg.
Our cell phones don't work anymore--tracfones appear to not work at all away from the border.
The farmers were harvesting canola--swathing it to let it dry and then combining it. Lots of wheat and oats being combined too. Not much corn; soybeans look like they had too much water early on. The Canadian dollar and American dollar are about equal right now. At the grocery, everyone brought their own reusable bags to put their groceries in. The two lane road speed limit is 100 maximum kilometers per hour. Gas is about 98 cents Canadian per liter-- or about $4 per gallon.
Margo Hauls the gear back to primitive tent camp
At Glendalough State Park in MN, you load a cart with your tent gear and haul it back into the woods. We stopped at this park because Ole Berg and his wife owned part of the park back in the 1890s as their farm. Ole married my great grandpa, John Paulson's sister. Berg and John's half brother Ole Mikkleson both settled near Battle Lake MN. Only trace left are graves in the cemetery and Ole's great grandson, Dr. Robert Nelson, still owns a lake home although he lives in FL.
Onward to Canada
I have been practicing on the hilly backroads around home driving on the wrong side of the road and signaling the opposite way on turns, how they do it in those countries who worship the Queen of England.
We meet a lot of Canadians camping in the south during the winter. For socialists, they seem like pretty nice folks.
I checked and our auto insurance is good in
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