We rented our lake cabin to a friend of mine this week and on Monday, Andi and I realized we were plan-less this upcoming weekend. Heaven forbid we stay at home in the Twin Cities over a weekend. Whatever would we do with ourselves?! Clean out our garage? Organize the storage room? Pfft. We considered booking a last minute flight deal somewhere and a hot deal to Vancouver, Canada actually popped up on Monday but Tory doesn't have a passport yet, so we're limited to traveling within the US. (Too bad because Vancouver is one of our very favorite places Andi and I have ever traveled. Shame on Tory for having a major meltdown in Walgreens a few months ago when we tried to get her passport photo. We would've taken you to Canada, child!) Some friends of ours invited us up to their lake place just across the Minnesota / Canadian border this weekend but again, the Tory passport thing so that idea was out.
For months now, Andi's been set on taking a RV trip somewhere. He even lobbied me for a stint this winter to consider buying a RV for this summer instead of renting the lake cabin, but there's really only so many places to travel within a 4 hour radius of Minneapolis over a weekend's time frame. Farm fields and the open road are exciting for only so long ....
So on Monday, Andi made a few calls and booked this RV for the weekend. We're hitting the open road with no plan in place ... wherever the wind may take us! Weirdly, Andi and I are so excited we can barely stand it. How fun will it be to explore a new part of our neck of the woods on a whirlwind weekend trip? We've talked of little else this week as we anxiously decide where to go and what to see. I'm learning quickly RVing is a lot camping and you have to bring EVERYTHING with you. Can openers, bedding and pillows, pots and pans, food; you name it, we'll need it. Now I remember why we go to the cabin every weekend - it's a heck of a lot easier to have all that stuff waiting for us there when we arrive!
On our list of possible places to adventure:
- Minnesota's North Shore / Duluth / Two Harbors / Grand Marias
- Bayfield / Madeline Island, Wisconsin
- Lanesboro, Minnesota
- Hunt for quirky sites around the state like Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox
- The Wisconsin Dells
- Okoboji, Iowa
*I'd love to road trip to The Black Hills in South Dakota, but it's a bit too far for a weekend adventure. Believe it or not, in the three years I lived in SoDak and all the times I worked at the Sturgis bike rally for a former employer, I never actually saw Mount Rushmore. Life regret, sigh.
It also turns out, other people don't take random last-minute RV vacations and most camp sites / state parks are fairly booked up this weekend in all of the possible travel areas. Luckily, our RV is a "leisure van" size and can fit into any parking lot space. Worse case scenario, we wouldn't be able to hook up to power / water one evening and end up sleeping in a parking lot or something. We can join up with all the truckers who usually park in Wal-Mart parking lots, ha! In truth, something like 30% of state park camp sites are first come, first serve so we may still find something. Andi's not worried, so neither am I.
It's quite exhilarating to have a fun vacation ahead with no real set-in-stone plans. We literally can go wherever we like. Raining here? Let's change routes. A fun festival or event taking place this direction? Let's go! I can't wait to see what the weekend has in store for us.
Oh my gosh! So excited for you! I can't wait to hear about it!
ReplyDeleteMy family has always owned a camper and now John and I have one too so I definitely think it's one of my favorite ways to vacation. We have beaches and mountains within 4 hours of us so we really should take a page from your book and take advantage of it every weekend.
I grew up in SE MN so I think Lanesboro is an excellent choice :) Love the Old Barn and the Root River is awesome. The town itself is also very neat. Forestville State Park is great too and they have a great "old town". I'm kind of jealous of how spontaneous/adventurous you guys are!
ReplyDeleteSo fun!! This sounds awesome. Your RV looks pretty pimp too :) We were going to go to Lake Okiboji this summer (my friend is from there) and heard it's a super fun family destination (obviously not anything crazy, but a cute area) so that gets my vote for the next stop :)
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