Westbound on US 2 - Days 5 & 6 - Winnie Dam At Winnibigoshish MN

It's time to catch up on a couple blogs here, I'm falling behind. But I really don't like to post where we're at until after we leave.

When we had been out wandering around Minnesota earlier this spring, one of the Corps of Engineer campgrounds we had on our bucket list was at Lake Winnibigoshish, MN. 

It was only 27 miles further from the campground that we were currently at. But since neither of us were feeling very good, we didn't feel like traveling too far. We decided to check and see if we could get a campsite there. We needed to move off of our site at Pokagama, as it have been reserved by someone else.

As luck would have it, we were able to secure a site at Winnie Dam Corps of Engineers park for two nights. This was for the weekend of Friday and Saturday nights. We quick popped it on the credit card and didn't take any chances. We usually like to drive there first to check it out, and then pay for it.

The weather wasn't looking too good while we headed further west to the campground. Look at the skies??

We got there before any rain fell. But there was someone still occupying our campsite. We drove on down to the dam and picnic area to wait out some time until they were ready to vacate the site. It gave us some time to walk over by the dam and make up some lunch.

Here is the campground information from the recreation.gov site

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/233533

After our lunch was done, they were gone, we had just enough time to get settled and backed into our campsite before it started to rain! Talk about perfect timing?

We were a little bit unlevel, but with the help of the Levelmate Pro and our little plastic blocks, Steve got us situated quickly before it started to pour. 

The next best thing we could think of to do was to take a nice long nap. With the rain falling on the roof of the motorhome, and the dog snuggled up between us, it was a pretty peaceful afternoon. Not feeling the best, it was probably the most sensible thing for us to curl up and get some rest. 

After a while, we woke up to blue skies!  The temperatures were pretty comfortable and we decided to sit out for a little while in our lawn chairs.

I think the rest did us both good, as we were feeling a little bit better. We don't know what kind of bug took us "down", but we were on the "up" side now. 

As for the campground itself, it was neat and well kept as we have been finding most of the Corps of Engineers parks to be. Each site had electric and water hookup. The rate is $24 a night, but with our Federal Interagency America the Beautiful senior pass we get it for $12.

There are 22 sites total in the campground, and most of them are pretty level, some had a little more shade than others. There was also a shower building and dump station on site.

Here is my YouTube that I shot of the park and the rest of the weekend: 

On Saturday, I had decided that we've already been on the road for 5 days and since we had unlimited use of water, I might as well get some laundry done.  We carry along this Costway small portable washer/spinner. It only weighs 28 lb and sits in our shower stall when we travel. I hate laundromats! After our last long trip, I was determined that we would get this little portable machine. Our big Safari motorhome had a large Splendide washer/dryer combo built into the closet. It was very heavy and I loved having it on longer trips. This little Costway machine being very lightweight, works well in our smaller Winnebago View. We have to watch our cargo carrying capacity CCC on a smaller motorhome frame.

It's easy to lift it out and set it in the hallway for the few minutes that we use the shower stall. I willingly sacrifice the space to have the washer/spinner along.

In the video YouTube link above, I show how I use it and how I fill it just using the shower head. And then when I do the drain cycle I just let it go down the floor drain of the shower stall. It drains out about the same volume as any shower would, but I watch it carefully to make sure it never overflows. The machine uses about 6 gallons of water to wash, and then 6 gallons of water to rinse. I wash in batches so I reuse the soapy water for two batches of clothes, setting one batch aside in the laundry basket lined with a plastic bag. Then I rinse both batches during the rinse cycle. Spinning a few items at a time they spin out to almost dry condition.  Then we hang most everything on hangers to dry. The unmentionables are kept inside on hangers hung on our shower curtain rod.

Since I was feeling better, I've been itching to get to started on my newest sewing project. These are some beautiful fabrics I picked up last fall in Canada on our way back from Niagara Falls.  I am working on a new quilt for the motorhome called Winter Solstice. I took out my little antique Singer Featherweight sewing machine and set it up in the shade under the trees. The picnic table was just the right size for me to spread out all of my gear.

I sewed and sewed til my heart's content... It was so peaceful and comfortable. There weren't any bugs. The temperature was perfect. And I was finally feeling better.

Here is the quilt pattern. I had already made it in a smaller size as a wall hanging. Our oldest daughter has it hanging in her cabin up north. I've always wanted to make another, and now I have enough of this particular discontinued fabric to do it in a queen size for the motorhome.

The rest of the weekend went very well. We curled up in the evenings and watched some HGTV and YouTube's. That is, when we could shove the dog off our love seat. He seems to think it belongs to him?

So now we have all clean clothes again, we're both well rested and feeling better, we think it's time to move on. 

I guess it's time to get out of Minnesota and work our way into our next state. Onwards to North Dakota!

We only traveled 27 mi today 

441 mi so far 

Fuel is averaging 14.2 mpg and we paid $3.44 a gallon for diesel in Cohasset, Minnesota