This is a road trip so we must keep moving. Monday morning (May 12th) after a nice walk around the campground (got to get our steps) we left Pulpit Rock en route to Fargo, ND. Since this route had us traveling through Minnesota we made a not so short stop at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. We will let the pictures tell that story.
Outside the Mall
Inside the mall
The Lego store had these huge creations above it.
Of course we had to visit the M&Ms store. (They’re cheaper at the grocery store.)
The mall has an amusement park inside.
After a good lunch and good time at Mall of America we drove on to Lindenwood Park Campground in Fargo. Lindenwood is nice Fargo city park with great places to walk/run/ride bikes and children’s play areas.
Our sites at Lindenwood Park
This pedestrian bridge that connects two parts of the park can be lifted out of harm’s way when floods threaten.
We left Park Terrace Campground Sunday morning May 11th. Our plan for the day was to drive to Dubuque, IA, arriving about 10am when the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium opened. We arrived a few minutes early and while waiting discovered just how large a museum we were visiting. The museum opened in 2003 and continues to grow. The city of Dubuque is built on the shores of the Mississippi and has experienced horrible flooding over the years. It seems appropriate that Dubuque is the location of the national museum. It is very well done with all sorts of exhibits. Very educational for all ages and there are several areas dedicated to children. In addition to information on the river itself there is also information about life on the river. There is an old Corp of Engineers dredge that can be toured. There is a calliope from an old paddle steamer that has been restored and now played for visitors. There was also a belt driven machine shop from one of the old boat builder companies on display. Much of the equipment still worked. They have freshwater fish aquariums spotlighting the Mississippi River fish and saltwater aquariums. They even have a yellow stingray pool where they allow visitors to gently touch the stingray. It was a fascinating place to visit, and we are so glad Debra scheduled this for us.
This is the strangest looking fish in the freshwater aquarium.
The lion fish is an invasive species, and the strangest looking fish in the saltwater aquarium.
It’s hard to get a good closeup of an active river otter.
The Corps of Engineers dredge boat we toured
Fascinating engine
The pilot house was also known as the hurricane deck.
One of the staff gave us a detailed demonstration of this belt driven machine shop.
Pulpit Rock from our campsite
The trail up included lots of stone steps.
Pulpit Rock up close
Our campsite from Pulpit Rock
The calliope was VERY loud!
After leaving the museum we drove to Pulpit Rock Campground in Decorah, IA. After getting set up on our sites, the four of us decided to hike to the top of Pulpit Rock. It was a fun hike and reminded us of how thankful we are that Randy can now hike with us again. God is so good!
Sorry it has been so long since we posted but we have been so busy having fun traveling. May 9th was a long travel day. We said goodbye to Big Bone Lick State Historic Park (nice park) about 8:00 am Friday morning and made our way across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and landed at Park Terrace Campground in Davenport, Iowa at about 6:00pm. It was a long day. We chose to make it a long day because we had already visited these states. Saturday morning after a good night of sleep, the four of us went to a local restaurant that Randy or Debra had found, The Machine Shed. What a wonderful place to have a Saturday morning breakfast. We all shared one huge cinnamon roll – probably the largest we have ever had, and oh so good! Our breakfasts were also very good but we had to work to clean our plates after having the cinnamon roll as an “appetizer”. If you are ever in Davenport this is a “must do” for breakfast.
We’ve seen a lot of cinnamon rolls in our time.
Yep!
Next on the list for Iowa was the famous Iowa 80 Truck Stop. It is claimed to be the world’s largest truck stop. We don’t know about that, but we do know that is huge. It is located on the eastern edge of Iowa, not far from the Mississippi river close to the town of Walcott. Some call it a Trucker’s Disneyland. In addition to nine restaurants and 24 showers, they also have a dentist, chiropractor, barber shop, a dogamat pet wash, laundry center, movie theater, workout room and of course anything you might need or want for your 18 wheeler.
All of that was great but our favorite part was the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum. We lost count on the number of trucks but they were amazing. Entry is free but they ask for a donation. We almost skipped the museum because we had already spent so much time in the truck stop. So glad we did not miss it and we would definitely recommend the museum.
Inside the museum
An old truck camper in the museum
Our last stop for the day was at Antique Archaeology in Leclaire, IA. We knew it from the American Pickers TV show. Randy and Debra have watched a few of the shows and we went there so we could get some pics to send to their grandchildren. It was a fun way to end our day.
Antique Archeology store
Just to give you an idea of some of the pricing in the store.
Tuesday, May 6 was the official beginning of our Spring Road Trip 2025. If things go as planned, this will truly be a road trip. There will be lots of driving, lots of miles covered and not as much moseying along at a casual pace as our recent vacations. Tuesday, we drove to Asheville, NC to visit with the volunteer coordinator for the NOMADS disaster rebuilding project we will be leading in the fall. We met with Hannah at the church that will be providing our parking sites. The church is building camping sites on their property for people impacted by Hurricane Helene and will be including six sites for NOMADS to use. This should be a great opportunity for us to serve in a beautiful location while working to get families back into their homes.
Covenant Community Church will be the host for the NOMADS teams in Asheville.
The campground the church is building.
From Asheville, we drove to Barbourville, KY to visit the Constructors For Christ 2025 construction site. We will be helping to build the East Barbourville Baptist Church’s new sanctuary and perhaps build out some Sunday School classrooms. Since it was not too far off our route, we decided to take a quick look at the site and see the town. We arrived too late to see anyone at the church but got to take some pictures, try one of the local diners, check out the grocery stores, and the RV park we will be using. We also boondocked at the local WalMart (with permission). We are really looking forward to this project. This will be the 50th year Constructors has provided 5-6 weeks of labor to assist churches with their building needs. What a great ministry this organization has led. It’s an honor to work and serve with them and we look forward to seeing all our Constructor friends in June. We traveled 336 miles today.
Progress is being made for our project in Barbourville.
After a good night of sleep, on May 7, we continued driving northwest. We stopped at King Donut in London, KY for breakfast pastries and then continued to Big Bone Lick State Historic Park in Union, KY. This is a smaller state park but is in a beautiful setting and bills itself as “the birthplace of American paleontology.” We would definitely stay here again. The first sight we were assigned, we couldn’t get level. So the very helpful, “off duty” camp host quickly changed our site to one that was level and located immediately behind Randy and Debra. We spent the afternoon exploring the park and waiting for Randy and Debra to arrive. Another 171 miles traveled.
Our breakfast in London.
This old root cellar in the campground shows part of the history of this park.
The fossil and prehistoric display at the nature center.
RVing With a Purpose 