The medicated stent keeps my heart working. As part of the deal, I take Plavix for a year to keep the stent working. Plavix is not a blood thinner. It’s more like a blood lubricant. It prevents clotting by making the blood platelets more slippery. Whatever, it’s working. I’ll idly scratch a mosquito bite and next thing I know, blood is running down my leg toward my shoe. No clotting by Band-aid Boy! The side-effects aren’t fun. My neck aches and it feels like someone poked me in the solar plexus. No problem though. Advil helps the sore neck. I make a mess from time-to-time and ruin some clothes, but what the heck. It’s for a good cause. So what’s the milestone part? I started the Plavix a month ago. One bottle of pills per month. I finished the first bottle today. Only 11 bottles to go! Meanwhile, we’ve moved north. We’re at the Fortune Bay RV Park outside Tower, Minnesota. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&ll=47.41322,-92.345581&spn=2.092764,7.113647&z=8
Tuesday
There is a blues festival in town starting tomorrow. The KOA here is all booked up. We’ll head north tomorrow.
While we were here we had good looks at Common Loons,
…a juvenile Peregrine Falcon,
…and pitcher plants.
Day-trip
Sunday was a driving day. Exploring the North Shore of Lake Superior.
135 miles up the coast to Grand Marais for a fish and chips lunch on the waterfront. Back by way of Temperence River State Park. They have a really nice campground there, you can hear the water lapping at the shore, but it’s booked solid for the rest of the summer so we can’t go stay there.
Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.
Gooseberry Falls State Park:
It was a four state park day.And we got the Purple Finch.
Bemidji area birds
We Saw White-Winged Scoter, Ruffed Grouse, Pileated Woodpecker, and several warblers while we were in the Bemidji area. The Scoter and Ruffed Grouse are life-birds. Here’s the list:
| Canada Goose |
| Trumpeter Swan |
| Wood Duck |
| Mallard |
| Ring-necked Duck |
| White-winged Scoter |
| Common Goldeneye |
| Common Merganser |
| Ruffed Grouse |
| Common Loon |
| American White Pelican |
| Double-crested Cormorant |
| Osprey |
| Bald Eagle |
| Broad-winged Hawk |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
| American Kestrel |
| Peregrine Falcon |
| Franklin’s Gull |
| Ring-billed Gull |
| Black Tern |
| Rock Pigeon |
| Mourning Dove |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird |
| Belted Kingfisher |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker |
| Downy Woodpecker |
| Hairy Woodpecker |
| Northern Flicker |
| Pileated Woodpecker |
| Eastern Wood-Pewee |
| Eastern Phoebe |
| Eastern Kingbird |
| Warbling Vireo |
| Red-eyed Vireo |
| Blue Jay |
| American Crow |
| Common Raven |
| Tree Swallow |
| Barn Swallow |
| Black-capped Chickadee |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch |
| White-breasted Nuthatch |
| Brown Creeper |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Eastern Bluebird |
| American Robin |
| Cedar Waxwing |
| Golden-winged Warbler |
| Tennessee Warbler |
| Nashville Warbler |
| Yellow Warbler |
| Chestnut-sided Warbler |
| Magnolia Warbler |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| American Redstart |
| Common Yellowthroat |
| Chipping Sparrow |
| Vesper Sparrow |
| Savannah Sparrow |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
| Red-winged Blackbird |
| Common Grackle |
| American Goldfinch |
| House Sparrow |
Happy Anniversary to us!
Five years in the Beaver Monterey. My how time flies.
I misrepresented the Bemidji KOA. It’s a busy place; mostly with overnighters. It fills up every night and clears out the next day. I took a picture of the wide open view out our windshield in the late morning. We really enjoyed the KOA and so did Annie. She immediately adopted Roger and Sue next door. She went to their house for a play-day every day. Now we’ll stay in touch with them as we travel and watch for the next time for Annie to get her Roger and Sue Fix.
It didn’t feel like time to go yet, but we left anyway. There are a few more things in Minnesota we want to see.
Off we went to the east on Highway 2. Know what we noticed about Minnesota roads? They’re really stingy with their speed limit signs. They don’t put them out after major intersections. If you turn onto a highway, you can drive for miles and miles and not know what the speed limit is. The only way you know is when you get to the next town, and it tells you to slow down to 30 mph. On the way out the other side of town, there will be one sign telling you what the highway speed is. Don’t miss it. It’s going to be the only one until after the next town.
We arrived at the Cloquet KOA. (Think Croquet when pronouncing the city name.)
It’s outside Duluth. We keep hearing about the North Shore of Lake Superior above Duluth. We’ll day-trip to check it out tomorrow.
We looked around for a place to take a walk here near the RV Park and discovered Jay Cooke State Park. It’s right on a scenic section of the St. Louis River.
Their bird list says they have Ruffed Grouse, American Woodcocks, and Purple Finches here. The thunderstorm sent us back to the car wet before we could find out.