Our drive from the Wildwedge RV Park in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota took about four and a half hours and was uneventful. We followed Brian and Lorrayne Graham, who were staying at Rainy Lakes RV Resort (they were full and we could not get in) out on the road to Voyageurs National Park. The Rainy Lakes RV Resort provides a docking slip for boats if you reserve an RV space. Pretty cool! We stayed at Arnold's RV Camp in town, and, even though we were a little nervous about it, we were able to easily get into our slot. We had great WiFi there and a constant four bars on the LTE. Brian and Lorrayne were not quite so lucky. Lisa and I did take a walk into the center of International Falls (which is not hard since the town is pretty small) to check it out. There is a large paper producing mill there, so one of the key industries of the area is timber. They cut the trees, chip them into small chunks, pulverized them even further and then compress the mulch into paper. We say the plant and the large stacks of lumber near the Rainy River. We also saw the 29-foot tall statue of Smokey Bear that is located in the center of the town. It is the largest Smokey Bear in the United States. We also saw the historical museum for the town that talks about the Voyageurs who used to traverse the area and the origins of Voyageurs National Park. They also have part of the museum dedicated to Bronko Nigurski, a home-town boy, who played football for the Chicago Bears from 1930 to 1937 and again in 1943. He was a running back and a linebacker who was "one tough hombre." We then returned to our RV with a plan to do some shopping in town when we got a chance.


One think that I need to mention is the weather. Normally, we travel not and do not get much hot weather at all, but the entire center of the country is having a heatwave right now, and our temperatures during the day have reached 97 degrees. This temp coupled with a humidity of over 70% have made the days pretty sweaty. After any work outside, you have to take a shower. We have been running the air conditioners day and night since it does not cool off in in the evenings like we are used to. We have also been having afternoon thunderstorms in our area, so you really have to take the weather into consideration when planning and outing.


Also, we are here for the 4th of July holiday weekend, and the area is filled with people form other parts of the state out camping or boating on the many lakes here. All of these lakes are ringed with vacation homes or cabins, so the population of International Falls has grown considerably over the last few days. We came upon one boater who wasn't so happy. He must have forgotten to tie-down his pontoon boat on his trailer, so when he made a turn off a major road, it slid off and ended up up-side-down in the middle of the road. He had someone with his jeep tied up to it and trying to pull it off the road. It looked weird seeing a pontoon boat with its outboard motor propeller sticking straight up in the air.


We decided to rent E-Bikes to take a ride in the local area. The bikes are rented through a concessionaire located right next to the Visitor Center for the Voyageurs National Park. They delivered the brand new E-Bikes to the Rainy Lake RV Park where Brian and Lorrayne are staying. We got a great price of just $40 for half a day with our military discounts. And since there were no people reserving them after us, they were not too picky about the return time. These bikes are a ton of fun. They have a throttle that you can rotate with your left hand. You do not even have to put your feet on the pedals and you can ride for about five hours on the battery alone. You can reach speeds up to 28 mph. These bikes also have the very fat tires, so you can take them on just about any terrain, although, we stuck to the paved roads and smooth surfaces. We rode these E-Bikes out to the end of the peninsula and Voyageurs National Park. The Visitor Center is closed, so there is very little traffic on the roads. The bike lanes are wide and smooth. We also have several stretches of paved trails on the route. We planned to have lunch at a great restaurant at the end of the peninsula called "Sha Sha," but we got there so fast, we were not hungry. We then headed for International Falls with a side trip through a town called Ranier. That was a lot of fun. We continued into International Falls and rode around the town. We stopped at the Smoky Bear statue and the Bronko Nigurski Museum. I don't think that any rioters will be coming out to tear down these statues. They would likely end up on the business end of several AR-15s out here. But I digress. We decided to ride back to Ranier to a cute little cafe called the Cantilever Distillery. They served up some great hamburgers and drinks. After that, we rode back to the Rainy Lake RV Park and returned the bikes. All in all, we rode for about 35 miles and no one was tired. These bikes make it pretty easy to ride; especially in the hills. We planned to rent them another day, but did not find any local trails that we could use. We would have had to load them on a truck too, and they are about 50 pounds each. Since they were new, we did not want to scratch them, so we did other activities instead.


Brian and Lorrayne had some other chores that they need to do, so they need a day at there camper to get them done. Lisa and I decided to take the kayaks to Tillson Creek for a morning on the water. We arrived at the boat launch and pulled the kayaks off the truck. After launching, we had to go under the concrete bridge to the other side of the road. It is always fun to kayak through a tunnel; as long and there is clearance between your head and the bridge. We then entered an open expanse of water. It was not too deep and there were plants growing in the water in some areas. As we continued through the small lake, we noticed that it was getting narrower and narrower. After a while we were in a small channel that was about twenty yards wide. It then formed a "Y" and we had to choose a direction to follow. We went left and proceeded back into a really cool slough. The water did not seem to be moving at all. We then began to glide among a channel filled with what looked like small bamboo plants that grew to about 20 inches above the water. There was still a small clear channel in the middle. I was watching Lisa who was ahead of me and all I could see was her head and her hat as she turned to stay in the channel. After a while, the channel got smaller and pretty soon, the channel was only about the width of two kayaks. We would have to "back out." Then we came to the end of the road; beaver dams. The beaver had dammed up the waterway and we could not go any farther. We backed out a ways and then turned around and went out to try the other direction at the "Y." We then followed the other direction and were soon in the same predicament. Again, another beaver dam blocked our path. It was really pretty and fun to ezplor