We had originally planned to go to Two Harbors for our 30th anniversary, but several intervening circumstances derailed that idea, so we went with Plan B. A camper cabin at Whitewater State Park for a night! Not quite the same but still a celebration in an area that we love and appreciate.
Monday was just as hot and ugly humid as the weekend had been so by the time we got everything rounded up, organized, packed and loaded, we were both sweaty. Air conditioned car...here we come.
After a couple of stops in Rochester to pick up some grocery items that we needed, we headed southeast. We saw some farmers already combining soybeans on the way down! It's actually really early for that to be happening.
We got to the park office and got our cabin key. These are brand spanking new cabins in the newest addition to the park on the east side of the highway. That makes five total in Whitewater. Ours was the first one in the group of four new ones.
We had some steps to go up to the cabin but nothing strenuous. We unloaded the coolers and other totes as well as the firewood before heading to Altura to find cell service so Captain could call his bother with some last minute feeding instructions for a sick calf. During that phone call, his brother told him two severe wind storms had moved through our neighborhood but everything looked undamaged.
Right about then the wind came up, it started to thunder and lightning, and the rain came down sideways in sheets. Captain hung up with his brother, and we high-tailed it back to the cabin.
Once we got parked, we dashed for the cabin. Unfortunately for me, my shoes didn't gain traction on the wet wooden deck, and I proceeded to do my impersonation of a pinball and went careening across the floor before slamming into the door with my shoulder. This caused my coffee travel mug to become dislodged from my hand and go flying back OUT the door where it almost hit Captain. He was quite concerned that I had smacked my head, but mostly I just bruised my pride. And my butt.
We decided to unpack and just sit still for a bit to recover from all that high drama. About then we decided we should probably get the little charcoal grill going since the rain had let up to just an annoying drizzle.
Remember how I said we unloaded the firewood on our first stop at the cabin? Yeah...that was outside so it was wet. Captain did find a couple of dry sticks in the middle of the bundle and got a fire going with the use of copious amounts of charcoal starter fluid.
Right about then, it started raining again. And it rained, and rained, and rained. Now it was full dark out, wet, and we had no way to cook supper because the DNR frowns upon charcoal grills inside the cabins.
We could have filled up on popcorn, chips, and salsa. Instead we opted to drive into St. Charles and get Subway sandwiches to bring back to the cabin. When we got up to walk out to the car, I realized that my pinball impersonation had done more damage than I had originally thought. I could walk, but I looked like a constipated penguin. I had to take the steps one at a time rather than in alternating fashion. Yeesh!
When we got to Subway, I realized that even though I remembered to pack the camp chairs this time, I forgot something more important. My debit card! Luckily Captain had some cash in his wallet, or we would have had to resort to the popcorn and chips option.
We got back to the park and into the cabin for supper and to read the newspaper Captain picked up for reading material. There is NO cell service in the Whitewater Valley, so we couldn't even check Facebook. I guess maybe that's the point of a vacation...getting away from it all...right?
Captain decided he needed a shower, so off he went. I stayed behind to lounge, eat popcorn, and have an adult beverage. First I had to use the outhouse. Conveniently there was a path from our cabin to the outhouse 100 feet away. Captain had left the lantern with me, so I took that and started down the path in the dusk.
Halfway between the cabin and the outhouse, a large toad decided to leap from point A to point B. The sudden movement startled me so I hippity-skipped a little bit right into his flight path so he bonked into my shin scaring the living crap out of both of us.
Now I'm hopping on one foot trying to not step on the poor little guy. I mean, come on, he's just doing his toad thing and here comes this behemoth of a woman lurching into his travel plans!
With all the hopping, I get a little bit off the path and stepped into a puddle. Now I have toad poop on my leg and cold water and mud on my foot. And I still have to pee! I lurched back onto the path and over to the outhouse. Never have I been so happy to step into a dark, semi-clean, kind of stinky vault toilet as I was then!
I beat Captain back to the cabin and indulged in a long swallow of adult beverage to calm my nerves. By now it had quit raining again, so when Captain returned we decided we would try the fire thing again.
Despite our best efforts with tenting the wood over paper/cardboard and using more lighter fluid than was probably wise, we ran out of lighter fluid and still didn't have a fire. Dang.
Having had enough alcohol now that the snark was coming out, I asked if he wanted to try that stupid idea about starting a fire with potato chips. He said to bring them out and he would try it. Ten minutes later, I had to admit he was smarter than me because there was a lovely fire going in the fire ring. Whoda thunk it?!
We got over an hour of time by the fire and under the stars. We even danced a little in the moonlight. Not very well; we are both terrible dancers. But we tried!
We both decided that sleeping through a rainstorm in a camper cabin was FAR preferable to sleeping in the same conditions in a tent. With the windows cracked slightly to let in a fresh breeze and the sound of pattering rain, it was great sleeping weather!
The next thing I knew it was 4:30 and Captain was standing looking out the porch screen door, and he announced that it was hailing. Okay, that's a good reason to go back to sleep! When I woke up again, it was light out and Captain was making coffee in a light drizzle.
It was raining too hard to cook bacon and eggs on the camp stove, and popcorn and chips were just a distant memory, so we headed toward the river. We had a nice "Sunday drive" kind of thing through Altura, Rollingstone, Minnesota City, and into Winona where we found a McDonalds that wasn't busy.
Fueled up ourselves and then the car before heading back to the cabin. We drove down through the old campground and were surprised at the number of occupied sites.
We returned to the cabin and packed everything up, followed the cleaning instructions on the wall, and locked up. We took the key back to the park office and spent some time looking around the visitor center before hitting the road again.
We spent some time exploring the picnic and beach area of Whitewater and the base of the steps that go to Chimney Rock and/or Inspiration Point. We were getting soaked, but at this point we both decided we weren't so sweet we'd melt in the rain, and since we came to explore the park, that's what we were going to do!
We detoured toward Plainview and Carley State Park on the way home then looped back to Rochester to pick up some medicine at Target. By then we were ready to be home, so off we went.
Somehow it seems like there is more stuff to unload upon return than to load when heading out. Why is that?? No matter; we got it all into the house and then collapsed in our chairs.
It was a whirlwind trip and completely not what we had planned, but we enjoyed our time away anyway because we were together. Together still after 30 years.
Go us!!
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