I’m not doing very well with frequent updates! Sorry…
After departing Saint Clair, Missouri, I traveled to Minneapolis. Specifically, Eagan Minnesota. The company for which I work is based here and l planned to spend a few weeks with the troops.
Early morning northbound driving on I-35.
Crossing into Minnesota.
The only option that I could find for RV camping near Eagan was the Lebanon Hills park campground. However; it didn’t open until the week after my arrival. So, I opted for boondocking the company parking lot! The office is in an office park so I attempted to be discreet to avoid attracting attention. It worked as I was undisturbed for an entire week.
When I lived in Minneapolis (a decade ago), I completely failed to see what a fantastic cycling area it is (at least the Eagan, Apple Valley, St. Paul area). I met up with a friend and rode from Eagan all the way to downtown St. Paul on paved trails and never once had to battle with automotive traffic.
I then moved Lebanon Hills for a two week stay. The Lebanon Hills park area is very nice. I believe it has been developed and cared for by Dakota county so I’ll give them credit. Fabulous job!!
The walking/hiking/x-country ski trails were great! They are buried in very nice forest/tree’d area with some nice ups and downs. I put in lots of miles walking them. There is a dedicated mountain bike section as well! What an awesome setup! The MTB trails are dynamite, of course, but they also have a building with changing rooms, water, air pump, picnic tables, and so forth – very, very well done. Sadly, due to lots of rain, I was unable to spend as much time on these MTB trails as I would have liked – maybe next time! Of course, there are several small lakes – it is Minnesota – but I never found time to take the yacht off the Jeep and give them a try. Again, maybe next time…
I am definitely not a fan of large cities (people, traffic, rush-rush-rush, etc…) but it seems that I may also not be a fan of campgrounds. The campgrounds I have used in New Mexico are pretty spread out – Lebanon Hills campsites are much closer together. This was ok until the weekends. I’m not sure what draws some of these folks out but apparently it is a place and time to behave poorly (and allow your kids to do the same). Loud outdoor televisions, screaming kids, and drinking adults making as much noise as possible is apparently the way some folks “get away from it all.” Lebanon Hills wasn’t “terrible” by any stretch but, as always, it only takes one bad apple – too bad it was there both of the weekends that I was there.
Finally, it was time to get out of the big city. Saturday morning (yesterday, June 16) I took one last long walk on the Lebanon Hills trails and packed up the rig. A short two hour drive west had me at Kimball, MN where my sister and her family lives (on a farm outside of town). I pulled onto their 120 acres, lowered the jacks, and setup camp and then IT STORMED!! There were all sorts of tornado alarms going and the clouds rolling thru were very mean looking. Thankfully, it was just wind and rain – both of which JBAM weathered just fine.
While in Kimball I filled up my propane tank. The gauge on the tank reported that 1/4 of the 38 gallon capacity remained which, according to my match, is about ten gallons. However; we were able to put in only 20 gallons so my gauge may be a bit pessimistic. In any case, I was happy to get my first propane use numbers of approximately ten gallons per month (very roughly; $40/month or $10/week).
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