After an even better night sleep last night, and a good breakfast this morning, we saddled up (I went back to my regular saddle, which took a few minutes to re-fit) and headed out the back gate (which appears to be the only way to exit the campground without trying to get over a cattle guard), then circled north to pick up the loop trail at the closest point to the campground. We headed west first, a little disappointed to see they had put some small pea gravel down on the entire trail (on top of lovely sand… go figure,) but later it actually helped us stay on track a bit, as it was often the only thing that clued us as to it being the right trail whenever we came to an intersection of other trails (which was often!) As long as we followed the gravel, we managed to stay on track. My Google-made trail was perfect for the first half of the loop, then got off quite a bit on the second half because of a wrong turn I made, but we just kept following the gravel, and the posts that popped up at opportune moments with HH on it, and that kept us on track. At one point we saw some cattle, and when they saw us, a few started heading down a road in the general direction of where we were headed. Now, although they have a lot of quarter horse in them, my horses haven’t really been around cattle that much, and Apollo started to get a bit excited when he saw them, and in particular when they headed for us. As they came down the road, we realized that we would have to cross that road directly in front of them in order to stay on the trail, and it became a test of timing. I didn’t want to hurry Apollo along (it’s never a good idea to teach a horse to run when it gets nervous), so I actually slowed him down to let him get a good look at them, except that meant they were getting closer to the spot where we would intersect with them. Fortunately, we made it to the crossing while the cows were still about 50-60 feet away, then Apollo started moving up the trail sideways so he could keep on eye on the critters behind him. Once they ignored him and passed us, he settled down again. Later on, we ran across a lost dogie near the trail, and he handled it with much more dignity, probably because there was only one, and it was small. As for the trail, other than the gravel, it was wonderful! Very surprising actually. We thought that because the terrain appeared to be mostly grassland that it would be a fairly boring ride, but the trail managed to weave itself through practically every copse of trees on the tract. Some were copses of oaks, others Aspens. In between we were able to trot and canter regularly, which my horse really got a kick out of, since we had been doing mostly walking while my niece was here. We didn’t get lost during out three hour ride because we followed the gravel, but there were obviously a lot of other trails out here without gravel, which would provide more interest for anyone staying longer than the few days we will be here. Nevertheless, it is a small tract, so the variety would be limited. Though water is a bit of a challenge, this is a very nice campground, and will definitely stay on our North Dakota list!

Slept a bit later today, feeling a bit more relaxed. Our horse neighbors left early this morning, though I barely heard them, so now that the horse camp was empty except us, and seeing that it’s fully enclosed with lots of grass, we let the horses off the highline, and didn’t even put them on the anchors. They galloped off in excitement at the prospect of grazing like real horses all day. Another lazy day, other than tracing out a path on Google Earth of what looked like the 8-mile loop, and downloading it onto my GPS so that we would at least have something to follow tomorrow, even if in only general terms. I remembered that I had an old Sonicview FTA receiver hidden in a cupboard with some movies still stored on the hard-drive, so I got that out and hooked it up and found quite a few good movies, all only a few years old (rather then decades old, which is all we have on DVD). Other than a little problem getting the sound to play through the speaker correctly (it had a hum), we enjoyed a good movie as we settled in for the evening.

After our busy last few weeks, we’re taking the day off, other than catching up on a few computer items, like finding where we can have the new Dish receiver sent. Walked over and visited with our horse camp neighbors to pick their brain about the trails here, and, as is often the case with locals who know an area really well, they weren’t too much help other than, “you can’t really get lost here.” Famous last words! Though I admit, it’s a fairly small tract of land, so they’re probably right, and from all I’ve read, somewhere around here there’s an 8-mile loop, but they couldn’t exactly tell me where it started or went, so I’ll just have to figure something out on Google Earth. Read much of the day, then watched an old DVD in the evening, still feeling tired, but slightly less achy than this morning. Another day off tomorrow should just about get us back in shape!

Set the alarm for a slightly later start, knowing the office wouldn’t likely be open until 9:00, grabbed a liquid breakfast and left right on time, having had to empty the rain barrel (so much water-and time-wasted here!) before getting the horses back in the trailer. Got to the office just after they opened, got a refund for the three days we won’t be here, then headed back to nearby Fergus Falls, where we did some shopping at the local Farm and Fleet (the Midwest Farmers version of a multi-department store that has everything except groceries for humans!) to pick up more horse feed as well as a few other things we needed, filled up with gas, made a quick sandwich in the RV (half of mine I dropped when someone startled me coming out of the RV door), then headed out to Hankinson Hills in North Dakota. We both sighed with relief when we crossed the Red River out of Minnesota, SO glad to be out of that very unfriendly state. It’s amazing, it only took half a week to drop like a stone on my list of favorite states, and after just a few hours on another day, down to the absolute bottom of my list, just slightly lower than Massachussetts, which had previously been my least favorite state. Following Google Maps Navigation on my phone, which thankfully had a signal all the way, and several miles on a gravel road, we arrived at the campground. Two loops, one livestock friendly, the other just for campers, we soon picked out a perfect site, nestled in the trees, with a good view for the satellite signal, perfect trees for highlining, lots of open space for grazing, just one other horse camper site taken, though no horses in their corral, so they were obviously out for a ride. Hubby checked the water supply, the hand pump in the horse area was a lever type, and in the regular campground there was a wheel-like pump we’d never seen before, you just crank it like an ice cream machine and water comes out of the hose pipe. Since it had a spigot, we chose to fill up the rain barrel that way, so after putting the horses on their anchors to graze, we took the rain barrel over in the horse trailer and cranked away! We tried to use a drill on it (which would have been really helpful!), but couldn’t get it to work, but the water came out pretty well, and is less than half an hour the barrel was full. I very carefully drove back to our site, without spilling hardly a drop, and proceeded to get settled in. Though Hubby got the satellite dish set up, something went wrong with the receiver, and the only support Dish could give us was to offer to send us a new receiver. Question is, to where? Good question, one I can’t answer at the moment, so I let it go. Over 200 hours of recorded movies and TV, gone. Disappointing, considering the unit is less than 6 months old, but sometimes going over rough roads is hard on electronics, and we haven’t done as good a job surrounding this one with cushioning like we had in our old RV, so I guess we share in the blame. I’ll do some research as to the nearest UPS distribution center, or at least along the way to our next destination, then decide what to do. Meanwhile, we pulled out an old stack of backup DVDs we keep just in case, watched most of a thriller, though I went out for awhile to watch the stars come out, and saw two shooting stars and a satellite pass by! Not the ISS (according to their website the timing wasn’t right), but definitely something, though oddly, rather than getting brighter as it went west, like the ISS usually does, it faded out. Not sure why, but I’m sure there’s a good explanation. Anyway, it’s very quiet here except for the occasional train whistle and vehicle coming down the road next to the campground, and the temps are dropping, so we’re looking forward to an excellent (and more relaxed!) night’s sleep!

Headed out early, stopping at the dump to do a good flush of the tanks, then headed west, by-passing the Twin Cities, only stopping for fuel, lunch at BK and again for Walmart before heading north the Maplewood. It was a fairly easy drive, so we managed to arrive around 3:00. Stopped at the office to get checked in, and then the trouble started again. At first, I was pleased that the woman there said she would assign us a spot, and if we didn’t like it we could simply call her and she’d move us over in the computer, saving me a trip back to the office (something the other camp wouldn’t let us do), but then she asked about vehicle passes, which I told her we had purchased at the last place. She said she couldn’t see it on my windshield and I told her it was laying on the dash in the right-hand corner where they wanted it, and that I could bring it in and show it to her, but she said, no, it had to be stuck on the windshield. I looked at her amusedly, then went out, took off half of the backing and stuck it on the windshield (I wanted to be able to get it off as soon as possible, and sticking only half on would make that possible,) and walked back inside. She said, no, it had to be fully stuck on the windshield. I explained that we were on our way out of the state, and that I wanted to be able to take the sticker off easily, and she said if I didn’t stick it fully on the windshield she’d have to charge me for another vehicle pass! It’s amazing, as soon as you present certain government workers with logic and reason that disagrees with their rules, they immediately resort to bullying and intimidation with threats of fines. That seems to be the entrenched mindset here in Minnesota, and frankly, I’d had enough! Unfortunately, it was too late in the day to find an alternative, so I went back out, finished sticking the sticker to my windshield, paid my $80 for four nights, and was about to leave when she asked me if we had our Horse Passes. I told her I thought that was covered in the camping fee, as the last place hadn’t asked us that, and she said, no, it was a separate fee, $5 per person per day, or $30 per person for an annual pass! I told her I didn’t know if we were even going to be riding, and she told me to come back and get one before we rode. I was seething again by the time I got back into my truck. I radioed Hubby and told him what happened, and we made our way to the campground, which was rounded hills throughout, with hardly a level spot to be found. While he went looking for a spot, I started to fill up the RV fresh water tank from the one and only spigot in the camp, about 20 yards off the road, but with no pullout, so I was essentially blocking the road the whole time. A couple of women day riders came by and we had an informative chat about the trails, and the park, and some other parks. They were formerly from southern Illinois, so we had some camps in common (Garden of the Gods), but they also expressed frustration about needing Horse Passes just to ride the trails. I asked them to stop by on their way back, to talk more about what was in the Dakotas, and they agreed before heading on their way. Hubby finally found a spot that would suit him for a satellite signal and radioed to tell me where. I finished filling the RV and turned to filling the portable rain barrel, which I only had room to put on the tailgate of the truck since we had such a full load of hay. I tied a rope around it to keep it from moving, which would have worked fine if the roads and/or sites had been level. After spending nearly an hour filling up, I finally headed down to the site Hubby had chosen, which was tucked away mostly in woods, though clear to the southwest for his satellite. Unfortunately, it was a reverse uphill climb for me, and halfway up, my rain barrel lost it’s balance and tipped over, ripping a seam along the top zipper in the process, and completing emptying out, darn it! It’s amazing, once we are confronted with negativity, it just seems to compound itself, and more things always seem to go wrong! Anyway, we finally got the RV settled in, then I had to take the rain barrel in the back of the horse trailer (they were on their anchors by now, grazing), and went back to the spigot and spend another 20 minutes filling that up again. By the time I got back it was after five, and Hubby had decided not to bother with the satellite dish tonight as it was so late. We both commiserated on yet another bad Minnesota/State Park experience, and after some discussion and research, decided that $20/night was WAY too much for a spot that wasn’t level, water that wasn’t accessible, no electricity (which for $20 a night most places would have), plus the requirement to spend yet ANOTHER $10 just to ride the trails, or risk being caught without a pass and being cited for that. Oh, I forgot to mention that just after we arrived at the campground, a ranger showed up, ostensibly to help us choose a site, but it quickly became obvious he just wanted to make sure we had stopped at the office and paid all our fees. Anyway, we decided we would both be miserable under these circumstances (the only thing this place had going for it was at least it had highlines rather than hitching rails), so we determined that we would move again tomorrow, this time to Hankinson Hills Campground in a small section of the Sheyenne National Forest about 80 miles from here. It’s only $6 a night, with 50% off for Hubby’s Golden Age Passport bringing that down to $3 a night, it has two water outlets, albeit hand-pumps, but since the RV was full anyway, all we’d need it for is the horses. I haven’t been able to find a trail map, but apparently there’s at least an 8-mile loop around the park, and it’s small enough where it doesn’t look like we could get lost, and the Google Earth shot makes it seem like there are a number of other trails that crisscross the main trail, so it should be interesting for a few days. Plus it was a bit out in the boonies the way we like it (and NOT a State Park!) so the rules and enforcement will likely be much more relaxed. Anyway, with that decision made, and after a short visit with the ladies who kept their word and stopped by for a while, we settled down to a movie on PVR, and went to bed early, tired from all of our recent ordeals.

Woke up fairly early, though the flight wasn’t leaving until 1:30, had breakfast, my niece got everything packed up, and we headed out. Fortunately another nice day with just a few clouds and a small possibility of rain. Arrived at the airport early, got a gate pass so I could sit with my niece until her plane boarded. There was extra TSA personnel there, so I was a bit concerned, but I figured their extra scrutiny should make it an even safer flight. After she boarded, I headed out, got gas, dropped off the wheel, backtracked to Lowes to return some stuff and to purchase more stuff, stopped at White Castle for a quick lunch (only place on the way, pretty horrible food), picked up the tire, stopped at Walmart, then headed back to camp, arriving just before 5:00. Hubby and I packed up everything we could, as we’re leaving again tomorrow. It’s a pretty long drive across the state, and we want to give Minnesota one last chance to change our impression of it, willing to accept that maybe it was just the management at this one camp that was so negative, so we selected the farthest west horse camp we could find, Maplewood State Park, to go to for the weekend. Settled down for the evening, ready to get back on track with our journey.

Another good night’s sleep, another good breakfast, another great ride, though this time we skipped the second loop (my niece was a bit worn out from yesterday’s long ride), though we took one side trail down to the lake, where we saw a couple of Canadian geese on the water, and a couple of boats of fishermen and families. Along the way, we saw a black house cat out in the woods, fat and sassy, but smart enough not to move an inch when we went past. When we got back to camp, we ran the horse trailer up on the Jiffy Jack (one of the best investments we’ve ever made!), Hubby took off the errant tire so that I could get a new one put on when I go into the city tomorrow, as well as some other items that needed to be returned, and packed them in the van. Another very enjoyable day!

After much discussion about resolving the unpleasantness of our experience here, we decided to leave early. Though we had planned on staying here until Thursday, we decided to pack up this morning, drive over Mystery Cave for their first tour at 10:00 (which was quite interesting and enjoyed by all), then headed out to a farm where I had made arrangements to pick up hay around 11:00 (where my niece’s help was greatly appreciated), then headed east and north, back the Highland Ridge Horse Camp in Wisconsin. Going backward is not something we typically do, but we didn’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, and were a bit worried that any other new place might be just as bad, but we knew the camp and trails at Highland Ridge, and thought it would be a good choice, plus it was closer to the airport than most other places in Minnesota for when we had to send our niece back home. Another advantage is that my niece got to add another state to her list of visited states, AND she got to cross the Mississippi River on the ground. When we were about a half hour from the campground, Hubby pulled over because a passing vehicle signaled to him that something was wrong, so he pulled over, then I pulled over. The guy who waved at him stopped by me to tell me that one of the tires on the horse trailer was flat. Hubby pulled up behind me, and we got to work. We didn’t want to bother with the spare, as it was buried in the tack room of the horse trailer, but we had a Fix-a-flat repair kit that he injected into the tire. We soon saw the hole, right along the sidewall and the first tread. This has happened so many times with these Goodyear Marathon trailer tires! It has such a weak sidewall, we used to blow them all the time when they were on our old RV trailer, we finally switched them over for a variety of different brands, all of which lasted longer than the Marathons! This tire was less than a year old and still has great treat on it, but it’s useless! He managed to put enough air in it to keep moving, and we stopped at a truck stop in the town closest to where we were heading to get generator gas and to fill the tire up again. Anyway, we managed to get to the camp okay, though the tire was obviously still leaking and would have to be replaced before we left, got our long highline up quickly, my niece put up her own tent again in a lovely copse of trees between the RV and the horses, and we soon settled down. We managed to gather enough wood for a fire again, and it was quite dry so we managed to get it going almost immediately, then I grilled steaks and, of course, had another helping of s’mores for dessert. Despite the loss of a day of riding, I think it’s turned out to be best for all concerned, I feel more relaxed already, and I get the feeling the horses and the dogs are more relaxed as well. Another quiet, relaxing evening with a movie.

After much discussion about resolving the unpleasantness of our experience here, we decided to leave early. Though we had planned on staying here until Thursday, we decided to pack up this morning, drive over Mystery Cave for their first tour at 10:00 (which was quite interesting and enjoyed by all), then headed out to a farm where I had made arrangements to pick up hay around 11:00 (where my niece’s help was greatly appreciated), then headed east and north, back the Highland Ridge Horse Camp in Wisconsin. Going backward is not something we typically do, but we didn’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, and were a bit worried that any other new place might be just as bad, but we knew the camp and trails at Highland Ridge, and thought it would be a good choice, plus it was closer to the airport than most other places in Minnesota for when we had to send our niece back home. Another advantage is that my niece got to add another state to her list of visited states, AND she got to cross the Mississippi River on the ground. When we were about a half hour from the campground, Hubby pulled over because a passing vehicle signaled to him that something was wrong, so he pulled over, then I pulled over. The guy who waved at him stopped by me to tell me that one of the tires on the horse trailer was flat. Hubby pulled up behind me, and we got to work. We didn’t want to bother with the spare, as it was buried in the tack room of the horse trailer, but we had a Fix-a-flat repair kit that he injected into the tire. We soon saw the hole, right along the sidewall and the first tread. This has happened so many times with these Goodyear Marathon trailer tires! It has such a weak sidewall, we used to blow them all the time when they were on our old RV trailer, we finally switched them over for a variety of different brands, all of which lasted longer than the Marathons! This tire was less than a year old and still has great treat on it, but it’s useless! He managed to put enough air in it to keep moving, and we stopped at a truck stop in the town closest to where we were heading to get generator gas and to fill the tire up again. Anyway, we managed to get to the camp okay, though the tire was obviously still leaking and would have to be replaced before we left, got our long highline up quickly, my niece put up her own tent again in a lovely copse of trees between the RV and the horses, and we soon settled down. We managed to gather enough wood for a fire again, and it was quite dry so we managed to get it going almost immediately, then I grilled steaks and, of course, had another helping of s’mores for dessert. Despite the loss of a day of riding, I think it’s turned out to be best for all concerned, I feel more relaxed already, and I get the feeling the horses and the dogs are more relaxed as well. Another quiet, relaxing evening with a movie.

First thing this morning while I was out tending the horses, another different ranger came by, immediately and forcefully telling me that we couldn’t highline the horses, unless we kept them within 10 feet of the hitching post! Ten feet! That’s barely enough room for them to swing their butts around! This time I had a harder time holding my temper, because this guy went from 0 to Bully in his first sentence. We’ve never been in a place where the rules were so irrational, unreasonable and inhumane, nor where they were enforced with so much enthusiasm that it would make the Gestapo proud. Well, Hubby and I tried to put the best face on it we could, despite our internal seething, had breakfast, then I headed out on another trail ride with my niece. Our plan was to ride down to where they were having the special Civil War Encampment in the old Forestville. When we reached the first water crossing, we were delayed by a group of riders who were having a bit of trouble getting a couple of their horses into the water, a problem that was compounded by the fact that rather just simply cross the river like it was no big deal, all of the first riders stopped in the middle of the water and turned around to watch. It was nearly 20 minutes before we could finally cross, but it was fairly entertaining watching them attempt a number of different ways of getting them across, none of which really worked, it was just the horses getting tired of arguing that made them finally cross. We let them clear out, then approached the water, where Apollo took one sniff, then stepped in immediately and crossed, no problem, with Clio and my niece right behind. The water was a good deal higher than when Hubby and I passed this way a couple of days ago, since we had had a lot of rain since then, and the water was brown where it had previously been clear enough to see every stone on the bottom, but it was no problem for my guys! We crossed the road and another smaller creek as we headed toward Forestville, but once again our plans were foiled by a sign saying the trail to the town was closed because of the event. Apparently the powers-that-be decided it might not be a good idea to have horses around when they have their arms demonstration, though once again, I think that should be the horse owners decision, not theirs. In any event, we turned around and crossed the two water crossings for a second time and came around another side of the loop that brought us near Forestville on the other side, and then back to camp. It was a nice ride, though my horses are showing a bit of frustration at the gravel trails and their inability to move much when they’re back in camp. My mind has been working overtime to try to solve the problems we’re facing here, especially the negativity this place is fostering in us, and I’ve thought of several possibilities, to be discussed with Hubby later tonight. Meanwhile, my niece and I ran out in the van to make a few phone calls to find some hay, then drove down to Forestville so we could at least walk around a bit, and see the action. There were a few people in costume, but the troop encampment consisted of just a few tents of Confederates on one side of the barn, and a few tents of Union troops on the other, a lot less than we expected. We toured around for a little while, but there wasn’t much to see so we soon went back to camp, where we settled in for the evening, with Pigs in a Blanket for dinner tonight, cooked inside, so we wouldn’t have to deal with the wet wood in trying to make a fire, and finished it off with another PG movie.