We have had a great time with our friends Dick and Chris, but it is time to move on.

I must back track a little. While we were in the Red Wing Area I stumbled on some family history. There is a little town in Minnesota that is now listed in the historical society because it was a defunt post office. The area was named in honor of my great, great, grandfather and his brother, who settled that area in 1855. What a surprise as I was not on a family search. So needless to say I pursued this information and took lots of pictures for further use. Now that I did that, I was taking some pictures of a beautiful church not very far from where we were staying, and the name on one of the headstones for a former pastor and his family caught my eye. It was the maiden name of my sister-in-law. Needless to say took lots of pictures and hope these are helpful to her.

Just before we were to move, I was asking Dick if he knew how the town of Ellsworth got its name. It seems as tho it is in honor of the first man shot in the civil war. Now the plot thickens as my family history on my grandmothers side tells about the first man shot in the civil war. There was an article written in Life magazine about this. We do have a copy in the family somewhere. Interesting no?

Needless to say this was a very interesting stop in our journey east. Especially because I was not looking for, but, just stumbled across all this good information.

Wouldn't you know the morning we are to move it has started raining. We will go in spite of everything.

We are now on the Great River Road. We will stay on the highway for as long as we can to get south of Chicago. Really do not want to tangle with that area.

We are parked overlooking the Mississippi River hoping to catch some river traffic. The other parks south of us, will not have as good a view of the river
as this one.

The US ARMY CORP of ENGINEERS, who manage the navitable waterways of the US have some really nice camping parks that give Golden Age Passport and seniors half price on camping. We have used these parks in the west (on the Snake River and the Columbia and in Montana), now will try the ones hear in the midwest. They have parks in the east and southeast as well. Some are drive up and others you can make reservations 2 days in advance, 3 days for weekend use.