Day Fifteen

Got off slowly after a bout with loose stool. Paused to pick up info at
the Minnesota Welcome Centre passing up their coffee. Stopped at
Worthington for gas having to drive into 'town'; I lacked the appetite
to stop at the local Perkins Restaurant recommended by my last host.
During my travels I've passed at least a score of Laura Ingalls-Wilder's
Homes. I suppose if she was going to become famous for writing Little
House on the Prairie it was generous of her to spread the wealth around
however--though I've heard of being born again I don't quite understand
how she can have all those multiple birth places.

Found my way to Pettibone RV Resort in Wisconsin without incident. It is
open but the promised Wi-Fi doesn't exist. Walking a quarter-mile up to
the office to use the internet just doesn't cut it. That a steam-shovel
was dredging out a boat channel opposite me didn't add to the park's
appeal. The bleeping of dump trucks is annoying. The young hunk running
the office/bar while he browsed E-mail and watched a sports channel
seemed utterly indifferent. Pettibone is on an island in the middle of
the Mississippi on the Wisconsin Side of the Border--that border running
close to the West bank. My campsite backed on that backwater. The place
being in a flood plain the electrical hookups are at eye-level. When I
sampled the water I was thankful I'd filled up in Sioux Falls on the
soft water there. That night the temperature dipped to freezing and I
was thankful to awake next morning and see nothing white outside my
windows. Spent the day walking about the park, reading, and talking to
my neighbour; a retired probation officer from Winona. It was he who
recommended I head North-West toward the resort area of Lake Pepin.