Bismarck, ND to Ely, MN
We got an early start, with a 7:30 am stop for coffee and banana bread at Starbucks and then on the road to Fargo.
We stopped to see the “World’s Largest Sandhill Crane”, missed the ”World’s Largest Buffalo” because the exit was closed, and made it to Fargo in under 3 hours.
There were other things to see on the way across MN, but with quite a bit of road construction and the exhaustion that comes with 3 days of driving we admired them all while on the move. It’s a good thing we didn’t listen to my brother when he called to say that Fargo to Ely would take 3 hours. Google Maps had said just over 6, so I was pretty sure it would be around 5.5. Turns out I was right. We finally arrived in Ely just in time for happy hour and dinner.
A cocktail, some food, a sunset paddle with my Mom, and it’s nice to finally be here at Camp Van Vac. I spent 2 weeks here during most of my childhood summers. It’s fun to finally be sharing it with Mike. The drive was long, but pretty, about 30 hours of driving time total and right around 1800 miles.
We finished off the night with a sauna and a jump in the lake. We forgot to warn Mike that the water is very shallow in the dock area. He dove in right behind my mom, who dove shallow. Mike did not, and thank goodness he had his hands in front of his face or it would have been really bad. As it is, he sliced the back of his knuckle almost off. As it was 10:30 pm, and he didn’t think it was that bad, we bandaged it up and went out to the fire to make s’mores. Turns out we maybe should have come in to town for stitches then.
As now we find ourselves here for the first morning of our visit. At the Ely clinic. We’ve been here 2 hours already. Mike went back about 90 minutes ago. I didn’t go with him as the sight of it makes me queasy and we thought it would be a quick visit. Guess not. Now I’m starting to worry and thinking perhaps I should go check on him.
Update: 4 stitches and a massive bandage later, Mike has been released to try to enjoy a lake based vacation by staying dry. Should be fun, not.
- written Monday, July 23
*****
Possibly Related posts (newest to oldest):
Glad you’ve made it there! Poor Mike.
Have a great time with your family.
ouch, what a way to put a damper on vacation and water sports.
[...] local dinners included wild rice soup and beef hash. The soup was made with a mix that we picked up while in Ely, MN this past summer. To it we added ham from the freezer and the same peas and corn we put into the stew. The soup was [...]