Turnaround to Wisconsin- Day 13 &14 - Lake Ashtabula ND

I am way way way behind in posting these blogs. I got the photos on and I never got around to finishing all of the dialogue. 

Sadly, yes, we turned around and headed back towards the Great Lakes. The smoke was just too intense, as well as the increasing temperatures coming from the west. We really weren't looking forward to traveling into 90 - 95° days.

Instead of going back on US 2, We decided to hit I-94 and get some miles underneath us towards the east. Maybe we could outrun some of the smoke? 

After a couple hundred miles it got a little lighter but there was still a haze in the air. We knew the wind blowing in behind us would bring more smoke as the day went on.

Steve decided that our motorhome was absolutely filthy and we needed to stop in Bismarck North Dakota for a car wash. This was a really interesting place called the Wash Barn. Not only could we wash our motorhome or a car, they also have facilities for doing laundry. And they also had facilities for washing your dog! Nick didn't need one, but it was fun to see the dogs heading off to get a bath. 

Here's a video of our experience:

Cost was $10.00

We set our sights on another Corps of Engineers Campground. This one was at the Mel Rieman Dam on Lake Ashtabula. We looked ahead and saw that we could get a campsite and snatched it. We figured if it was going to be that hot or that much smoke, at least we could hole up inside the motorhome for the afternoon and evening with the air conditioning on. Having the positive pressure outwards would help keep the smoke and haze from coming inside. 

It was a really nice campground of three little loops. Very private and quiet and nestled in up on the hill above the dam.

The dam is at the southern end of the lake. It's a very long stretched out lake. We saw quite a few boats and pickup trucks go past as there is a boat landing at the northern end of the campground.

The rate is $26 a night with electric and water--- but with our Federal America the Beautiful Senior Access card, we got it for $13 a night.

The winds had died down so we had less smoke in the air. We were able to sit out for the evening after all. We set up the Blackstone griddle and kicked back in our lawn chairs for a little bit. Of course, a couple adult beverages helped.

It was a nice campsite set into a hillside. You really couldn't walk behind it because it was a steep embankment down towards the lower picnic area. I would be nervous if I had children on the site, but for the two of us and the dog on his rope, it was fine.

We started to question ourselves and second guess if we should really turn around, or if we should continue the trip going out west. It was a really tough decision to make.

We decided to sleep on it. The next morning Steve cooked up a nice breakfast while we explored the fire maps and looked at the potential air quality reports. The weatherman were talking about the unusual heat waves hitting the West Coast and we really weren't too keen on traveling in 90 plus degree weather either.

A fellow blog reader asked if I would take some pictures of the bathroom facilities because they were coming here in a couple weeks.  It was a nice newer building with individual bathrooms a

shower combinations that could be used by either men or women. (Or together??)

I took a picture of the insides so she could see that everything was neat and clean. We didn't use them ourselves, because we generally use our own facilities within the motorhome.

Just about every Corps of Engineers park that we have been at has very clean facilities and good upkeep. There's usually a host on duty or at least a phone number for calling nearby if you need something.

We sat out for a little while longer and then decided we should pack it up and head on further east. It would be better for us to go back home. We will attempt maybe next spring to either head back out, or make a big loop and go down south during the winter months to Arizona or New Mexico. From there we could head north and swing back on US 2 towards Wisconsin in late spring.

The decision was not made lightly. But we were going to make the best of it on our return trip. Here's my next video that I posted on my YouTube channel. Please like and subscribe?

We drove on through the beautiful countryside. As we were facing to the east, the skies look pretty blue. But in our rearview mirrors looking west things were pretty hazy. 

The countryside switched from flat flat land of North Dakota into some beautiful rolling hills. We were enjoying the farmland and the terrain as we crossed on out of North Dakota.  

We had entered into the park area on a bunch of gravel roads from the west. Now heading out of the park, we went a little bit south and then turned towards the east. So this was new terrain heading out of the park towards Valley City, North Dakota.

We saw this absolutely huge train trestle that stretches almost across the entire north end of the city! I had almost hoped to train was crossing so we could watch it go over. We had to drive under it to get down to the interstate.

Eastward we go...

We had fueled up at a Cenex in Bismarck, North Dakota and paid $3.69 a gallon diesel.

We are averaging 13.93 miles per gallon

We traveled 248 miles today 

Which makes it 1,605 miles so far