We ended up driving to Iowa for Kevin’s hearing aids on Wednesday 18 August. It was a long drive down to Iowa City, but he really likes the hearing aids. The technician made five separate programs for him, and two were for music! One is for crowded spaces like restaurants, and another is for normal conversation. I do t remember what the fifth one is! We spent the night at home in Cedar Falls, then drove back on Thursday. The cats survived us being gone a day, though Luna followed Kevin everywhere he went for a few days!
On Friday we drove into northern Minneapolis to get n alignment done on the motorhome only to find out they couldn’t work on it because of the SafeTSteer! I was pissed! I drove the MH over 200 miles round trip for nothing. They recommended another shop, and we made an appointment there for the next week. I am really glad we decided to stay in Shell Lake more days since it gave us time to do a bunch of sightseeing and get un-pissed. Kevin’s last day of arm movement and weight restrictions expired, so we spent a couple of days running around in the RZR. One day we took the Wild Rivers Trail which is an old Chicago Northwestern rail line bed. Wisconsin has totally embraced UTVs, and this trail is one example. Very well maintained with good signage and surface. It is an old rail bed though so not a lot of curves or ups and downs! It was beautiful though – so very lush and green.
Surprisingly we saw very little wildlife. I am guessing the habitat is so rich they don’t have to be around people to find food and shelter. The deer and sandhills were about all we saw.
Another day we wandered north and spent time in the Washburn County Forest. Much more interesting riding, mostly on fire roads. Lots of ups and down and curves along with a more varied scenery.
We even took a train ride just north of Spooner in Trego. A scenic train runs over old Chicago Northwestern tracks a a very slow speed, but they had a dinner train reservation available so we took it. Dinner was actually very nice with white table cloths and napkins plus good service. The steaks was nice, but the carrots and potatoes were fabulous!
We left Shell Lake on Wednesday, 27 August and spent the next two nights at the Grand Casino RV Park there. Very nice place, and under $50 with tax! Great laundry room too. We were here to be closer to Blaine’s TruckAlign shop where I had a Thursday morning appointment. The MH has been pulling to the right, so I got it aligned front and rear, swapped the weird wear tires on front for a pair in the back, and got the SafeTSteer perfectly set. It took 6 hours, and the bill was only a bit over $700. I commented to the guy it was rare to pay less than $1000 for anything MH related, and he said they hear that a lot. Today we left Hinckley and drove to Whiteface Reservoir campground. It is so rural I can’t even give the name of a nearby town! Awfully pretty though. The white bucket is where Kevin stores our potable water hose which is doubling as a stand for the Starlink dish. We even have electricity!
However we weren’t aware we can’t use the RZR here, and even if we could there aren’t enough trails to make it worthwhile. So we will be checking out of her on Sunday and heading to Tower and the Soudan Underground Mine ATV campground. The sites look nice, and there are a lot more trails up there.