NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAYS 90 & 91 - PATTERSON LAKE ND - TO WISCONSIN - HOME!!!

As I mentioned in my last blog, leading up to this one, we were really tired after driving all the way to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. We had made some reservations at Patterson Lake campground in Dickinson, North Dakota. This is the second time we have ever made reservations on this entire trip.

 Since we knew we didn't have to rush now to find a campsite, we took our time enjoying the rest of Teddy Roosevelt Park while we were in the comfort of the air conditioning in the motorhome.  We did a lot of driving through the park, and only stepped out a few times in the high heat and humidity. It was wilting us!! 

The campground at Patterson lake was just a bit out of Dickinson on the southwest side of town. I looked ahead on Google Maps and searched for Godfather's Pizza! If you are a long-time blog reader from the beginning of our trip, you will remember that I found a Godfather's Pizza in Minnesota, just before we crossed the border to Canada on our second day.

 Now we were lucky enough to find one more in North Dakota before heading back to Wisconsin. There aren't any Godfathers in Wisconsin anymore. Sigh.

We ordered a Classic Combo in deep dish before going to the campground. We picked it up, and Steve actually grabbed the video camera and filmed a cute little bit of me bringing the pizza back to the motorhome. It is on the YouTube link at the end of this blog.

Can you almost smell it?

We each ate two pieces, and packaged up the remaining slices and put them into the freezer. They will make two more good lunches after we get home. We learned that putting leftover pizza in the air fryer at home really makes it taste great!

When we got settled into our campsite #2, (the same one we had last year), we turned up the air conditioning on full blast. It had been up to 93° today, and extremely humid. We definitely needed to run the air conditioning the moment we pulled in.

Each site has electric and water. There is also a dump station, dumpsters, and a nice swimming beach and picnic area. We didn't check out the bathrooms or the showers. But knowing this is such a nice park, I'm sure they are fine.

https://dickinsonparks.org/patterson-lake-recreation-area/

Something sweet that I noticed at this campground is that each site is separated by a row of thick lush lilac bushes. There's also some other plant mixed in with it that has little berries that attract the birds. Each clump of bushes is just twittering and warbling with bird songs. It's absolutely delightful, and what a great way to separate the sites from each other?

There are large cottonwood trees down the middle of the row of campsites that provide beautiful shade on a hot day.

Right now, the cottonwoods are releasing their little bits of fluff and seeds into the air.  It's almost like little bits of snow along the edges of the drive, catching in the gravel.  It reminds me of our large cottonwood in the backyard at home. I wonder if it is also releasing its fluffy seeds right now?

The only downfall to the campground is the railroad track that runs along the back side of the property.  Where I am pointing with my finger down below. We only heard one train go through during the night. Either that, or we were sleeping so deeply we never heard any more?

It really never cooled down that much overnight, because the humidity was so high. We got up early and took our showers to cool off and have fresh dry skin for more comfort during the next leg of our journey.

The wildfire smoke from the North was increasing. We made our way quietly out of the campsite by 8:00 a.m. We didn't want to disturb anyone else. Although it looked somewhat clear to the East, we could see the haze in the North.  

To keep out the smoke smell, we have to use the dash air conditioning on "inside circulation". It tends to freeze up after 15 to 20 minutes of operation. We have to turn it off to let it "thaw ". Literally, chunks of ice come spitting out of the vents at us as it thaws!!!  Then we can start it up again and it works well for another 15 to 20 minutes.  Repeat.  We had recently had the control panel replaced to try to correct that very problem.  There is a known service bulletin on it and I think it needs to be recalibrated by Mercedes-Benz when we get back home.

So in the meantime, we fired up the onboard propane generator. This allows us to also operate the rooftop air conditioner in the ceiling of the motorhome. This gives us more cool air throughout the coach, and helps with the lag times that we have the dash air thawing.

It also keeps the living room portion of the motorhome nice and cool for Nicholas. He looks pretty comfortable, doesn't he?

Yes, we are driving on the Interstate... as much as we don't want to. We do want to get some miles underneath these tires to get beyond the high heat, humidity and wildfire smoke. 

We neared the community of New Salem. We could tell it was coming up in the distance because we could see Salem Sue!

Yep, that is exactly what you think it is. A big huge cow--- her name is Salem Sue.  We had stopped to see her close up last time, so we really didn't need to do it again this time. But she is something that you should stop to see at least once in your life. 

(Note the size of people in front of her)

The smoke was increasing as we entered into Minnesota. It was getting worse and worse as we were heading East. It was blowing down from the North and there really wasn't any way to escape it.

So we just kept on driving. And driving. And driving. There wasn't much else of anything we could do, other than find a campground and plug in and close all the windows and hide for the afternoon. And for sure, the next few days were all forecast to be just as bad, if not worse.

We decided to keep on going right across Minnesota. By 5:00 p.m. we were nearing Minneapolis and St Paul. 

Oh goodness, RUSH HOUR! There were barrels on our side of the road but they were pushed aside and no construction was really taking place. Google Maps said entire huge sections were under construction, but they were wrong. 

We flew through with only two small slowdowns, no stopping. We were on the 694 bypass around the North side of town. Mostly 65 mph all the way. 

The oncoming traffic heading westbound at times were slowed down to a dead stop. Sometimes for miles and miles they were backed up. We are so thankful that was not our case in the Eastbound direction.

Before we knew it, we were out of the city and crossing the St Croix River. I cannot imagine all of those people out there in their sailboats enjoying the day with that heavy smoke in the air? We could barely see across the river to the shore on the other side. And it's not that big of a river...

There it was, that large brown familiar sign that is at all the major entrances to the state of Wisconsin!!!

We have pictures of ourselves as children lined up by those huge wooden signs every time we would go up to Michigan to visit family. On the way back, we would stop and get our picture taken as we headed back home to Wisconsin. Very fond memories of traveling and seeing that sign as we came "home". 

We drove along to the first large town by the name of Hudson. We decided after 600 miles of crazy driving today that we would overnight it at the Walmart.

Nooooo no overnight parking allowed at the Hudson Walmart. Dangnabbit. We cooked up a little bit of supper, and debated about overnighting at a truck stop or trying the Home Depot which had a very small lot. Steve made the decision that we should just drive on towards Eau Claire. That town has a Walmart that overnight parking was allowed. It was 60 miles further, which meant another hour of driving. But it also meant we were another hour closer to home for the next day! 

We made it to the Eau Claire Walmart and found a level spot to park. It was still very hot in the 80s. We did not want to run the generator all night. So we opened up the windows at bedtime and dealt with the humid and smokey air. It wasn't very comfortable and we didn't sleep very well. About 2:00 a.m. a crazy Zamboni-type street sweeper came along to sweep the parking lot! Then about 4:00 a.m. big tanker truck came to the gas station next door to fill their underground tanks. I could smell the heavy fuel odor wafting in through the open windows. By 5:00 a.m. we got up and took showers. It felt strange showering in a Walmart lot. Lol. 

By 6:00 a.m. we decided to hit the road and head towards home!!! 

It was only 200 miles further to get across the state to where we live along the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

As we got close, we had to be careful to not say the words "home" or "house" in front of Nicholas.  It sends him crazy because he knows what those words mean. 

We got to Oconto, and pulled first over to the dump station at our little Holtwood City Campground. We paid our $5 fee and dumped our tanks so everything was empty at the end of the trip. Steve gave things a good rinse so it took a little bit longer. Of course, we were anxious to get home and in the house and get comfortable and rest a bit. 

Our central air conditioning is controlled through Wi-Fi, so we were able to have the house nice and cool as we rolled into the yard.

Little guy Nick was just beside himself to be back home. I quick turned off the alarms and the cameras so it didn't set things off coming through the door. He was rushing around and checking his toys and wanting to go out in his potty yard and just make sure everything was exactly the way he remembered it!

"C'mon, let's go potty in my OWN fenced in yard and not have to be on a leash!"

We put fresh water in his dish... and it was right where he expected it to be. 

I kind of did the same thing too. I wandered around my She-Shed, touched my looms and my quilting machine, stroked my sewing machines and thought about the next quilt I'm going to work on. 

After a rest, we called up the kids and grandkids and set up times to get together and hug and give them their souvenirs from Alaska. 

After 9,502 fun and adventure-filled miles, it was great to be 

HOME!!!

We will do a wrap up and budget of the entire 90 days in the next blog and on YouTube. 

Here's the video that goes along with today's blog: 

653 miles travel from Dickinson ND to Eau Claire, Wisconsin

then

205 miles traveled from Eau Claire Wisconsin to home!

9,502 miles traveled in total!!!