Day 73
One of the quieter nights at Walmart even though New Richmond has a population of over 8,000! We depart and headed to Taylors Falls Interstate Park in Minnesota and got lucky with a campsite (30E only). From the campground, we hiked the 1.25 mile River Trail which was up and down with rocks, roots, stairs and dirt. Thankfully temps only in the mid 70's. The trail lead us to the “Potholes Trail”. This trail has numerous glacial potholes which were formed by the currents swirling rocks and sand when this area was covered by water. This trail was really neat with lots of rocks to climb on. Also great views of the St. Croix River and the rocky cliffs on the Wisconsin shore. Also during this hike, a park guide was displaying a dobsonfly. This about 3 inch long insect dates almost from prehistoric times and is active only 2 weeks every year. Our luck, our visit coincides with the 2 weeks this year. Fortunately, they are nocturnal and we only saw the one specimen which the guide displayed. Then back along the River Trail to our campsite. I finally got the grill out for the first time on this trip and grilled up 4 bison burgers for dinner. Washed down with a Gandy Dancer Porter from the Pitosi (Wisconsin) Brewery. After dinner, we went back across the St. Croix River into Wisconsin to visit the Wisconsin Interstate Park. We hiked its pothole trail, saw more potholes and got to view the Minnesota shoreline where we had hiked earlier. Another great day!
Day 72
Spent the morning at the farmers market in downtown Eau Claire and bought some goodies including a small rhubarb pie. I have had strawberry rhubarb pie which I love but never rhubarb alone. Back to the coach for lunch and rhubarb pie. I admit that I missed the strawberry. With temps in the upper 80's, we departed Eau Claire and headed to Spring Valley, WI, home of Crystal Cave with a constant temp of 50 degrees. The cave is young, about one million years old, but very active with many “cave kisses” (water droplets on your head and body). During our tour, the guide kept asking questions about caves which I promptly answered. Very good guesser she stated. I think we were the only ones on the tour who had been in caves before. We enjoyed the cave. We continued west and parked at a “park and ride” spot for dinner (in the coach). We had a nice quiet dinner with views of cornfields as far as we could see. After earlier striking out at several campgrounds (via phone, of course - weekends seem to be pretty full of locals in this area which I attribute to the short summers) we set our sights on Walmart in New Richmond, WI. The drive was along basically nothing but farms. We had a nice quiet spot at Walmart but were puzzled as to why it appeared to be in such a rural area.
Day 71
In Chippewa Falls we visited the Marshall Park Rose Garden. Also stopped by the Leinenkugel Brewery established in 1867 but we did not take the tour. Having sampled 3 Leinenkugel beers at the Miller Brewery, I was not tempted to drink them again. We walked downtown Chippewa Falls and then headed to the Walmart in Eau Claire. Dinner at Noodle Wrap, a Hmong restaurant, was ok but nothing to write about. We then drove around downtown Eau Claire and again nothing to write about.
Thursday, July 20, 2017, Chippewa Falls, WI
Day 70
After a morning of work, we departed Wausau and drove about 2 hours to the Walmart in Chippewa Falls, WI. Great spot on the side of Walmart away from traffic and about 100 yards from Culvers. After dinner we walked to Culvers for some custard. A bit of a scary menu as all items disclose their calorie count. We ended up sharing a scoop of chocolate which came in at 280 total calories. Without the calorie disclosure I am sure I would have been able to get my own custard!
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