Duane's Blog

The first ten days of July were spent on the road in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. I was on vacation with my friend Garrie from Louisiana. Along with us were Garrie’s step daughter, step son and girl friend.

We flew into Denver and drove Vernal Utah the first day. Vernal is dinosaur country. We went to the National Dinosaur Monument. Wow, what a place. There is a flat rock hill that is full of bones. They built a building around it. The exposed slat of rock with the bones is about forty feet high and 150-200 feet long. Bones from small to very large. Some over a foot in diameter and 8-10 feet long. I took pictures but the contrast is not great so it is hard to see the detail. See the pictures link below.

From Vernal we drove to Island Park Idaho. There we stayed at a resort in a two story, plus a loft, like a townhouse. Very nice. This was only about 10 miles from West Yellowstone and the west entrance to the park. We were here for three days. Visited the park and saw all the wonders of Yellowstone. We saw many buffalo, elk, coyote, deer, ravens, but no bears. We saw Old Faithful, what a show off. We stepped into the Old Faithful Inn. Old timber building. Really cool. See the pictures link below.

One day Garrie and I met up with a friend of his working at Yellowstone for the summer. Deb drove us down to the Tetons. Another Wow. Spent the day looking at the mountains and many sights.

We left Yellowstone and worked our way to Red Cliff, CO. On the drive there I counted 27 pronghorn antelope. They are beautiful. We stayed in Red Cliff for two nights. Red Cliff is at 8,750 feet. Some of us felt the elevation. One day we drove to Leadville, CO. Leadville is the highest incorporated town in the 48 states, at 10,152 feet, with a population of 2600 people. There is an old train there that we road on through the trees and rocks, high above the valley. You know I love trains and that was really fun. See the pictures link below.

From Red Cliff we went to Denver and flew out the next day. Eleven days of great fun with good friends.

Yellowstone trip pictures

Videos on my YouTube channel

June 7th Neil and I left for a road trip west. We headed north to Grand Forks, ND, and continued north all the way to Pembina, about two miles from Canada. We headed west through the Pembina Gorge. Beautiful country! Big valley with many trees and a river running through.

We continued west to the International Peace Gardens. I very large park that is half in the USA and half in Canada. It is self contained with no access from the park to either country. You drive in and can drive the loop, some in the USA and some in Canada. Unfortunately we were too early for flowers. The were just starting to plant. I recommend that you go later in the summer.

We drove west on Hwy 5 almost to Montana. We spent the night in Crosby, ND. The next day we stopped at our farm in Zahl, ND. The buildings are not maintained so the house is in poor shape. We spent our summers there as kids. There are a lot of memories. It is sad for us to see it disappear. But it is still fun to visit.

We stopped by the cemetery where our Johnson grandparents are. We have other relatives there also. I know most of the names on the stones. Neil brought along some cleaning solution made for grave stones. We applied it to a few stones. We met Ellis Berg at the cemetery. Ellis is one of the people that maintains the grounds. It was fun visiting with him.

Nest we drove to Brush lake. As kids we went swimming in Brush lake, in Montana, the farm is in North Dakota. The lake is less than 20 miles from the farm, crossing the state line. A lot of the water in that area is alkaline. Brush lake is beautiful. I have not seen the lake in over 50 years. How old am I???

We continued west to Lewistown, MT, and spent the night. Then south to Red Lodge, MT. Beautiful! There we met our cousin Debbie and Gary Chandler, from Moses Lake, WA. We spent two days with them. So much fun, so many laughs, so many memories. We drove over the Beartooth Pass, had lunch in Cooke City. Drove back over the pass back to Red Lodge. We stopped many times for pictures and potty breaks. The next day we just visited, talked, walked downtown, just enjoyed the beautiful day.

Neil and I started our trip at 6:15 am from his house on Monday. Now on Friday at 6:15 am we start the trip home. We said our good byes, wishing we could be together longer but life continues. Neil and I drove (he drove it all) about 800 miles in 12 hours and 2 minutes home.

It was a short trip but I love spending time with Neil. We talked most of the time in the car and revisited some great memories. What more could I ask for?

I had to get home because my grandson Oliver graduated for high school and his party was on Saturday. I was not going to miss that! Life marches on and I sure do enjoy the ride!

Photos here.

I worked at the Beargrease seld dog race again this year, Jan 31-Feb 3,2021. It is held at Grand Portage, MN. That is at the most NE place in Minnesota that you can get. About four miles from Canada. About 310 miles from my house. The race is 300 miles which takes up to three days.

I worked the timing clock, marking the times in and out. There were five friends and I working our site. We had to be on our toes because there were teams coming in and going out at the same time. And of course the mushers want us to be on the ball and get things right. e had a lot of fun. The weather was great this year, upper 20s.

Because of Covid, there were no spectators. Just us, judges, media, and the support teams for the dogs.

Our check point, called Mineral Center, is the last check point before the finish. But because they did not have an abundance of snow, the trail beyond Mineral Center was not very good. So they made a 30 mile loop and came right back to Mineral Center for the finish. That made it very busy. We had teams coming in for their last check point, teams going out, teams coming in for the finish, all at once! Hectic but exciting.

It is fun to watch the dogs. They are so excited to get running. They cannot wait to go. At the line, they are jumping and yipping non stop, itching to go.

It was a great time with great friends!

See some photos here: Beargrease Sled Dog Race 2021 – Photos

Again this year I volunteered at the John Beargrease Sled Dog Race. Last year it was -24 degrees, wow. This year it was about 24 during the day, down to 10 at night. Much more comfortable!

The race is 300 miles. It starts Sunday noon and the last team finishes Wednesday about 6:00 am. These dogs are amazing! Most of the dogs are not big dogs, not long hair, don’t look like they can do this much work. But they love to run!

We had a big crew this year at our checkpoint, Mineral Center. This checkpoint includes a mandatory four hour layover that all teams must do. The support trucks and people are there when the dogs arrive from the trail. The dogs get food and water. Vets check the dogs.

The first team comes to our checkpoint about 8:00 am Tuesday. The last team this year left at after Midnight. Then we need to cover a road crossing that the dogs cross about three and a half to four hours after they leave Mineral Center. THEN we can go to bed. The last one crossed the road crossing about 4:30 am. Jeff and Karen volunteered to stay up this year.

The old log cabin is on the reservation a few miles from Grand Portage Hotel and Casino. It has a barrel wood stove that we keep going for about 48 hours straight. We bring generators and lights, walkie talkies, lots of food and beverages, white board, chairs, and more. Joe and Jodi brought their mini donut maker. Everyone enjoyed the donuts. They made 1040 donuts. We donate the food and let the volunteers, mushers and crew, and spectators to come in the cabin and warm up and have some coffee and cookies. We had hundreds of people come through there on Tuesday.

We had a great time. Lots of work but fun. I had the official watch so I marked the time they crossed the line at Mineral Center. We keep track of the time to the second. Then we radio it into race headquarters. I look forward to next year. If you are interested in helping, let me know.

I enjoy the state fair. This year was my 48th year attending the fair. I went three times this year. I know you all kid me about my love of the fair, but I don’t care, I go anyway. Even with three days, there were a couple things I didn’t get to see.

I heard some good music again this year. The best were the Fairlanes (a doo-wop quartet), Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits, the Quebe Sisters, and Mac McNally. McNally is a singer/song writer that has written songs for some very famous singers and has had multiple songs go number one. He is an amazing guitar player. All of these were at free stages.

I ate onion rings, ice cream, foot long hot dogs, pronto pups, ice cream, onion rings, deep fried Twinkie, and cheese curds, then some more ice cream.

I saw the draft horse halter class judging. Those are big horses. So fun watching them. I went to the draft horse six-horse-team competition. That is very impressive. They had 19 entries this year, the largest group ever. They were from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Idaho, Utah, and Manitoba. Idaho won. In past years I have seen the teams heading to the arena on the street. It feels like a freight train when they go past you only a few feet away. Massive horse power there.

I saw the chickens, pigeons, and rabbits; my favorites. Largest hog boar weighed in at 1180 pounds. The largest pumpkin was 971.5 pounds (a whole lot of pies from that one).

The largest portable ferris wheel in the country was there again. Fifteen stories high with a half million lights moving in a multitude to colors and patterns. Those colors with the closing fireworks in the background was beautiful.

See some photos here.

Lots of people at the fair! Last year, 2018, was the record breaking year. The largest single day attendance was 270,426 people. Total attendance for the twelve days last year was 2,046,533. See the photo below? It was like that on all 322 acres of the fair. Fun!

Beautiful day! Drove around the main park drive, circle. Trees, trees, and more trees. The sun shining through the trees is beautiful. Went to the head waters of the Mississippi River. It is about twenty five feet wide as it leaves Itasca Lake. A very popular place. The were many kids wading in the water. Many trying to walk across the wet slippery rocks.

Amazing the this little stream turns into the mighty Mississippi. The Mississippi drains water from 31 states and two Canadian provinces, an area of 1.25 million square miles. It gathers water from 41% of the continental United States. It drains half of the land area in Minnesota. It takes a drop of water 90 days to travel from Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.

Itasca is a great place to visit. There are many hiking trails to see things like Minnesota’s largest White Pine, second largest Red Pine, a 100 foot Fire Tower, and many more. There are many camping sites in two large campgrounds that accommodate tents to big rigs, from primitive to full hookups.

I took a few photos that you can see here.

Click here to see a Video while I was driving in the trees.

Until next time, Duane

I am in Itasca State Park. This is a beautiful place! Eating breakfast right now, will explore the park in a few minutes.

On Wednesday the 3rd I drove up to Babbit, MN (50 miles from Canada) to my brother Bennet and Michelle’s cabin. They have a deck on three sides of the cabin with a screen porch on the corner. The screen porch was in bad shape so we torn it down. Then there was no railing so we made a railing. Then…one section had a few boards that were in danger of stepping through. We got a few boards to replace the bad ones then decided to go get more boards and replace the deck boards on the whole section. Went pretty easy but the sun was really hot. I am not used to such hard labor!

But before all this work we went to Ely for the 4th of July Parade. Nice parade with LOTS of candy. Then in the evening we watched the fireworks. Nice!

Now, on to see the park.

Some photos of the performances at the Grand Ole Opry.

Click here for photos

I made it home! Yesterday I was on the road for eleven hours. Google maps says it is 8 hours of driving. I stopped about every half tank of gas. And a couple rest stops. It was easy driving but it was a long day. Total round trip was 1,970.7 miles.

If you like music you need to take a trip to Nashville. I can tell you some of my favorite spots. The American Pickers has a store there. Not very big but fun to visit, especially if you watch their TV show.

Where to now? I do not have any specific plans but i do have a few ideas.

If you have missed my previous posts, you can simply click on BLOG in the menu and you can scroll through them.

Until next time…

Fun day today. I went to the zoo today. Lots of cool animals. This is a very large zoo. Very nice grounds. Lots of bamboo. It was 85 and humid today. It wore me out walking.

Went to the Opry again tonight. Great show. Scotty McCreey, Carly Pearce, Home Free, Lorrie Morgan, Tegan Marie, Oakridge Boys, and Chris Young. A group of great singers.

Tomorrow I start the drive home. I am going to take a couple days to drive it. Nashville is about 14 hours drive from home. It will be a little easier making the trip in two days.

I went to Gruhn’s Guitar store and Carter Vintage Guitars. Wow, so much fun! I played a Martin Custom 12-string. I have a Taylor 12-string which is very very nice, and not cheap. This custom Martin was nicer. It was also $6000. I did not buy it 🙂 Carter’s had some great mandolins. They had 12 Weber mandolins, which I think are some of the best. It is fun talking with other players and see what they like.

Then I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. There are displays about all the old greats. Also display and videos of way way back; early 1900’s. There is a special display and video honoring EmmyLou Harris.

Then to downtown. Heard good music in many bars. But the big stuff is going on outside. It is CMA Festival week. This bring many thousand people to Nashville. Broadway is closed and there is a large stage setup n the middle of the street. CMT Awards is happening right now and there are TV cameras pointing and the stage. (I do not have tickets to the awards show.) There are many performances at the awards show. Some are outside at the Braodway stage. If you watched the awards on TV, did you look to the left of the stage and see me? I was standing on the curb watching and listening. I saw Kane Brown, Cole Swindell, and Toby Keith.

I few pictures at Carter Vintage Guitars.

I am in Nashville!

I setup camp; only takes a few minutes. I am in the exact spot I have been twice before. The campground is only a mile and a half from the Opry and just a few miles from downtown.

Went to the Grand Ole Opry tonight. I have been to the Opry a few times now and tonight was the greatest line-up yet. Travis Tritt, Travis Denning, Tenille Townes, Michael Ray, Darius Rucker, Josh Turner, Chris Janson, and Carrie Underwood. WOW! It was a great show.

Tomorrow I go downtown bar hopping, listening to music. There is some great music. Some are new to the scene and have been playing a long time. Some have played with big name performers.

Tomorrow I also go to a couple of very large guitar stores. I am not in the market for a new guitar but it is fun trying out some amazing guitars that are out of my price range. They both have new and vintage instruments, everything from a couple hundred dollars to $90,000.

More tomorrow…

Today I went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. Very nice; very moving; very inspiring. Highly recommended. Walking through this museum you see video, read, see displays that show the devastation of the times and the civil war. Over 600,000 people died, many thousands more maimed. Some of the soldiers and drummer boys were 12 years old!

And then there was slavery. What can we begin to say about how horrible that was? One display shows mannequins at a slave auction. The mother being dragged to one side and the father being dragged to the other side. The little boy crying in the middle. Brings tears to my eyes!

Then I drove to the Lincoln cabin, a couple hours east of Springfield. It was in the middle of nowhere!!! Very nice.

First I stopped in a small town to get some ice cream. I said to myself “Be sure to get gas”. I got in the car and drove a few miles and my car went beep-beep! You know what I did. No gas! The car said 50 miles to empty. No problem. Well almost was a problem. There were no towns, just endless farm fields. Finally found gas. I put on 18.4 gallons. I don’t think my tank is that big.

This was Abe’s father and step mother’s farm. Abe did not live here as he was grown and away from home when they moved here; about 1845. Abe did visit many times. There is the cabin with a couple out buildings. Next door was another farm which is also in the state historical site. They have chickens, pigs, cow and calf, and sheep. I was the ONLY person there. Mondays are slow. They have events during the year which draw many people. September harvest festival draws over 4000 people. They have period re-enacters at events and some Wednesday through Saturday. Looks like fun.

Driving back to the freeway was an adventure in itself. I like exploring things off the beaten path, but this was really off the path. If I didn’t have a GPS it would have taken me a couple days to get out of there. This is out in the middle of nowhere! Some of the roads were one lane! Paved but narrow. About 12 miles of this road. I knew what direction I needed to go, just not which roads. Good thing I had no lace to get to on time. I made it to Love’s truck stop in INA, IL. Will sleep here tonight. Tomorrow I drive south throuogh a little Kentucky and then on to Nashville.

Just a note: I have seen 15 deer road kill so far. Seems like a lot. Most were in Wisconsin.

I am on my way to Nashville. If you haven’t guessed, I like Nashville.

Right now I am sitting at the Love’s Truck Stop in Williamsville, IL. I will be spending the night here in my camper. It is 70 degrees right now. Should be nice sleeping.

Tomorrow I plan on going to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield and the Lincoln cabin a few miles away from there.

I have a ticket to the Grand Ole Opry, will listen to music downtown, will visit a couple very big guitar stores, what more could a guy want?

On my way home I plan to stop in Davenport IA to visit a friend that raises Zebra finches. Nice ones!

This is going to be a fun trip! I will update you later on more details.

Thursday May 9th I spent the day in Duluth, MN.

I went to the railroad museum (I am a train nut, always have been). Lots of cool trains. I have been here before but it has been a long time. Was here with Lori and the boys when they were young. Saw the first locomotive ever in Minnesota. It has been restored and looks great. Small compared to the one next to it. The Big Boy is an articulated 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive. The loco and tender are 128 feet long. 6290 horse power. I think it was the largest ever steam loco.

I also went to the aquarium. Lots of cool stuff. A five foot long electric ell. They had Christmas lights hooked up to his tank. Every time he produced a shock the light flashed. They flashed every few seconds. I saw them feed him. He really sent out the shocks then! They had a special display of sturgeons. They had 21 different varieties, from two feet to six feet. Interesting looking fish.

I watch the waves come in on Lake Superior. The is a very big lake. There were people surfing on those waves. May 9th, cold! Look closely at my photos and you can see the surfers.

In the evening I went to AmSoil Satdium To here Kelsea Ballerini in concert. Great concert! There were two warm-up bands, not near as good as her. Duluth was the end of her tour and she said we have the loudest cheering crowd. Is that an honor? I guess it says that Minnesota has a lot of her fans.

A couple of links to some pictures.
Duluth Railroad Museum
Duluth Aquarium
Duluth Waterfront

I volunteered at the Beargrease sled dog race this year (2019). Great fun! Amazing dogs!

January 27-29, 2019

There were multiple races of different distances. I worked at the 300 mile race; the longest in the 48 states. Wow! It is absolutely amazing. There were 12 teams that started the race. Three teams scratched (dropped out). They scratch for many reasons; dogs problems, mechanical issues, injuries, etc. Most of the teams started with 10 or 12 dogs. They must have a minimum of 6 dogs. The race contains 30-50 mile legs, in-between which they have mandatory rests. They must rest a minimum of 24 hours during the race. After each leg there is a check point where their time is clocked and dogs counted. I was at the last check point at Mineral Center. There was one 35 mile leg from there to the finish.

At the check point the musher can drop a dog that cannot continue. The musher must use the same dogs for the entire race. So if he drops a dog now he runs the rest of the race with one less dog. If this team is down to five dogs, the team is eliminated, as they must have at least 6 dogs. There are vets at each check point and the dogs get looked at.

At least one of our crew had to be at the check point all the time, even through the night. We took turns getting a little sleep. The motel was only five miles away so that helped. Jeff brought his red ice house (you can see it in my pictures). It has heat so we could rest in there. The heater ran for 36+ hours.

The race started Monday morning just north of Duluth and worked its way up to Grand Portage. Grand Portage is in the northeast tip of Minnesota, about four miles from Canada. They ran all day and all night, taking the mandatory rests. It was cold this year, high was maybe 10 degrees and the low was -20 degrees. It was negative degrees most of the time. The dogs run better and faster in the cold because they do not over heat as easily. Of course it would not have to be this cold!

The winners this year were a married couple coming in at first and second place. The first time this has happened.

I took a few pictures but it was too cold and I was too busy to take very many. You can see some here.

On my way home. As I write this it is 7:30am Monday morning the 29th. Yesterday I was on the road for 12.5 hours. I stopped a few times; didn’t push it. I was going to take a few days to get home but I just wasn’t in the mood. I spent the night in the parking lot of Love’s Truck Stop in Waterloo Iowa. When I woke up this morning it was 34 degrees. As long as I was in bed I was fine. Getting up to pee in the middle of the night was chilly!

I didn’t take many pictures this trip but here are links to them.

Carter Vintage Guitars

Opryland Hotel

I suppose that when I get home I will park the camper and put on the cover for the winter. I don’t have any travel plans for the winter with my camper. It has been a fun summer. I got to see some amazing sights and visit some good friends.

Looking forward to next summer, Duane

There is a lot of great music here! Thursday I was downtown on Broadway going from bar to bar listening to music. Guitars, mandolins, fiddles, singers so much fun. The band are made up of a variety of people, young to old. Many of the bands have a couple older guys that have played with big names for years.  One steel guitar player played with George Jones for 32 years. A couple other guys played in Randy Travis’ band for 16 years. Cool!

Yesterday I visited the Opryland Hotel. When you first walk in it looks a little like the Mall of America. Water all around, retail stores, restaurants, water falls, tropical plants everywhere. And there is a convention center included. I took a few pictures. Opryland Hotel.

Last night I went to the Grand Ole Opry. Wonderful place for great music. I heard well know singers including Connie Smith, Jeanny Riley, Ronnie Milsap, and Carrie Underwood.

Today I went to Gruhn Guitars and Carter Vintage Guitars, both famous guitar shops. Wow was that fun! Hundreds of guitars; acoustics, electrics, mandolins, new, used, and vintage. Guitars from $199 to $89,000. I almost bought the $89,000 guitar, NOT! See some pics: Carter Vintage Guitars

The last two nights I went to the Nashville Palace, a bar near the Opry. Not a fancy place but good local music.

I am on the road again! Great fun!

I am driving south on I35. I am spending my first night in a rest area ten miles north of Missouri (I am there now).

Tomorrow I am going to Rocheport, MO, three and a half hours from here. I bought a new (used) mandolin last week. The brand is Big Muddy, made in Rocheport. It is a small shop. I thought it would be fun to meet the guy who made it.

I will get to Nashville the evening of the 25th. I will spend Friday the 26th downtown listening to music. Go to the Opry and hear Carrie Underwood on Friday. Go to the Opry on Saturday to hear Little Big Town. Should be great fun.

I will let you know how the music is. (Its always great).

Duane

On my way home from my ND, SD, WY, ID, MT trip I stopped at our farm in NW North Dakota. It hasn’t changed much. The house has settled a little more. It won’t be long before the house falls down. The garage is the best building there and it has holes in it so it will go also.

It brings up interesting emotions. As a kid I spent my entire summers there. I had friends and relatives there, still do. It felt like a big part of my life. Now it is all disappearing, all falling down, only a memory. Even the memories will disappear when my siblings and I are gone. Our kids do not have the same attachment to the place as we do. Kinda sad.

It was fun seeing the place and the neighboring farms that I knew so well. I drove to Thorstads farm with their half mile long driveway. The weeds were three feet high, the whole half mile! I talked with Vaughn and he said he mowed the driveway this spring!

Zahl and Hanks are towns seven miles from the farm. Both are almost empty; a couple houses, a couple ag businesses, and that is it. But they are both on the map.

I drove about seven miles north of the farm (maybe 15 miles from Canada) to Writing Rock. A couple of rocks 3 to 5 feet in diameter with Indian carvings on them. It is a state historic sight now. This is out in the middle of nowhere; wheat fields all around is all you can see. There is a picnic shelter and pit toilets, that’s all. In the shelter covering the rocks there is a guest book. I signed it. The person that signed it before me, signed it earlier the same day! People had signed it each of the previous four days! From WI, GA, MT, ND. As I was driving out a car from Colorado was driving in! How do these people hear about these rocks?

I went to the rural cemetery where the church used to be that I attended as a kid. My Johnson grandparents are buried there. Many relatives and many neighbors. I knew almost all the names. This cemetery is very well kept. It looks like someone’s lawn. I was told Ellis maintains it. The old church bell is mounted very nice. You can even ring it. Something I found interesting, the oldest person I found was born 1829; I do not know the name.

I met with Alvin (nickname Alvie) and his wife Jane. Alvie was a very good friend as a kid. We got into a lot of mischief as kids. It was so much fun visiting with him and reminiscing old times, and we laughed at all the good times we had.

On my way home I stopped in Fargo to see my second cousin Vaughn and his with Leslie. Vaughn’s mother Hulda, my father’s first cousin, lives with them. Hulda is 103. She did not recognized me. Vaughn says maybe tomorrow she will. It was so much fun visiting with them. Vaughn and I talked non stop about old times, relatives, old neighbors, oil. It was a fun couple days.

Go to my North Dakota Pictures page to see the sights.