Travel Trailer Tales

Jan Lasar, Minnesota Trails Editor

When Jen and I joined the travel trailer crowd we started keeping a journal. I’m happy we did, because it documents in black and white how quickly I forget things I thought were forever etched into my brain. Not all of our camping experiences were stellar, pleasant or dripping with travel brochure-like happiness, but that’s not why we do it. Thumbing through the pages of the journal, a few entries stand out.

July 18, 2019 Split Rock Creek State Park

On one of our first excursions, things got a little hairy when a severe thunderstorm swept in during the night. “We ran and took shelter in the bathroom building. There was one other guy in there from the group camp,” my brief note reads. That leaves out the part where we stood there, drenched and dripping when suddenly the door flew open and a bewildered, young man burst in. His camping party had fled their tents and taken off in their cars and, somehow, he slept through the ruckus and was left behind. The three of us waited out the worst and he was able to finally call someone on the phone and everyone reunited. His tent was in a tree, however. Nobody was hurt, but please don’t leave camp without your camping buddy.

November 16, 2019, Sibley State Park

Some campsites at Sibley stay open late into the season and as long as we have electricity, we’re good. We were the only ones in the campground when there was a knock at the door. According to my scribblings, “At one point Saturday morning Jack Nelson, the park manager, stopped by and asked if he could take a picture of our rig in the campground. He needed a photo for bragging rights for his weekly report.” It was the latest we had ever been camping in a year, but we would soon break that record on December 6, 2020 at Whitewater State Park.

Sept. 6, 2020, Pine Island, MN

Sometimes you’ll fi nd happiness in the unlikeliest of places. The city of Pine Island off ers camping across the street from the trailhead of the Douglas State Trail, on a lot next to the Dollar General. For a modest fee you get electricity, water and a place to drain your tanks. There’s even a couple of giant walnut trees for shade. After our daytime bike excursions, we sat and watched the goings-on at the trail entrance. During our stay we observed a farmer’s market, a taco truck and a piñata party, but nothing captured our attention quite like the store in the parking lot next to us. “The activities at the Dollar General never cease to amaze us,” I wrote.

November 13, 2021 Mille Lacs Kathio State Park

Another festive camping experience at a state park. We caught the holiday spirit early and put lights on the only “tree” at our campsite, a buckthorn. “It started snowing and we had a bonfi re and Dutch oven pizza while we got snowed on,” I wrote. During the day our decorated, decrepit shrub resembled Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, but just like in the show, the real magic happened when the sun went down and the lights came on.

October 31, 2020 Banning State Park

It was a tough time in Minnesota. COVID-19 was on the loose and pretty much the only safe thing to do was to stay away from people. It was an odd time, too. Parks were full, but people were actively avoiding each other. Where you might have struck up a conversation with someone at a scenic overlook and shared in the joy of being outside, you now waited your turn and passed each other at a safe distance, silently. It was to our delight that someone walking by our campsite stopped to tell us she liked our Halloween decorations and the bowl of candy at the end of our driveway. It turned out she was the only other camper from two sites down, with her own display. When the sun went down, our campsites lit up with pumpkins and ghosts glowing festively in the woods and for a moment all of the fear and anger and bone headedness of the pandemic disappeared. The entry reads “Sadly, none of the little bags of Skittles went.”

We’ve been out six times so far this year and it’s hard to pick a highlight at this point. However, Jen finding a garter snake in her kayak is certainly a contender.

See you at camp!