Saturday, July 27, 2013

Brainerd - Nissaw - Grand Rapids

The weather has turned cold here and is just a little better than home! We are back to two duvets but thankfully not so bad as to need socks!
 
We decide to have a look around Brainerd, which turned out to be short in the cold wet weather - really only visiting a few second hand shops - not much else around downtown.
 
Some of our campground neighbours had told us to visit a town called Nissaw, so we head up that way to see what it is all about.  Eventually we found the town in the middle of road works and a bit further than the GPS said......hmmm....technology.
 
Nissaw is a small tourist town full of shops to poke around in on a wet day and it was busy - very busy.  So busy it was hard to find standing room in some shops and we gave up trying to look in them.  It was a nice day out and worth the trip but on a wet Friday everyone had the same idea. 
 
We did find a nice watercolour that we purchased and a good cafe to have a coffee and what they call a scone (a cross between a biscuit and cake) that was yummy.  Lots of shops with nice things but we can only do so much.
Back to camp for dinner and then the neighbours invited us over to their campfire, so we head over there and after a wile the subject of food comes up and Daryl brings out the Marmite...
He gets Tina to taste a bit on a spoon, which she thought was horrible and why would we eat that!  Daryl tells her he will bring over some on toast and crackers for them to try tomorrow.... Tina said they would be out! 
 
Day 2 and it is overcast and cold again but bearable - we head up to Grand Rapids, a couple of hours north as Daryl has found yet another Vintage car show and swap meet, however when we get there we discover this is mostly antique household things of any nature and not specifically car parts, so was not really what we were looking for but we had a nosy around the stalls anyway - some neat things but too big to take home.  Can't belief they just sell guns at swap meets.... plus all the animal heads & feet (yuk).  Overall this really was the biggest collection of junk I have seen.

 
We have been looking for live Moose and deer but no luck although they are supposed to be around and the land looks right for them plus we are very close to Canada now. 
 
Well, we didn't see the neighbours much the next day and Tina definitely avoided Daryl......   I think she will be happy to see us pull out in the morning just so she doesn't have to taste Marmite again.
 
This campground is full of families, and extended families all camping for the weekend, kids playing everywhere, fishing on the lake and having camp fires.  It really is the essence of camping in America.  The neighbour has been coming here since he was 6 years old..... I am guessing there are a lot of people here like that.
 
 
We are heading north tomorrow to Knife River on the edge of Lake Superior, 14 miles above Duluth.  The scene has changed and mostly we have families in caravans up here - no rental tourists etc as we are too far off the main areas, being just below Canada and not on any main routes, but the area is beautiful and we have really enjoyed Wisconsin & Minnesota - closet to home although we don't end up 10 feet under snow in winter!
 

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