Day 50 - Lake Shetek, MN to Battle Lake, MN

Mike Mladenoff
May 21, 2016
5 min read

Today, the museum was open and we thought about buying a couple of souvenirs, but after walking around we decided that we did not need any momentos here.

Technically, the grounds were not open, so we partook in the self-guided tour.

Right across the street was an abandoned mill.

A couple of quick photos with some 150 year old wood as a back drop.

Now headed north, we zig-zagged through farmland and passed lake after lake after lake...and this harvester.

Finally making it to Battle Lake, the first place we stopped was Swedberg Nursery which was started over a hundred years ago by Kristen's great grand father. We walked around for a bit and then purchased some vegetable seeds. Before leaving, we made arrangements to stay at Tim's sister's house just up the road. She was not home, but he said that we could just park the RV in the driveway for the evening. More on this later...

Kristen with Tim Swedberg.

It was just a short drive to the main part of town and we found a good spot to park the RV in a empty lot behind the Larry's Supermarket. Before going into the store, Kristen spotted a lilac bush that reminded her of the pictures she was looking through when going through Alton's house last year.

Inside the grocery store Kristen wanted to disown us again for our admittedly obnoxious behavior. We found some Spam (Minnesota is the birthplace of Spam-who knew?), which we put in the cart, but I just could not bring myself to buy. However, just a ways up the aisle was the holy grail, my favorite cereal, Blueberry Morning. I love this cereal, but I have not eaten it for years as stores no longer carry it in SoCal. We wound up buying all 7 boxes they had on the shelves.

After the grocery store, we loaded top the RV and then walked around the town for a while.

Battle Lake definitely had that Midwest small town feel.

We enjoyed some blended smoothies at Smacking Cakes downstairs and did a little shopping upstairs at Uff-dah.

We decided on the Rusty Nail for dinner since they were the only place around to have "somewhat" gluten free options. Before heading upstairs to our seat, we noticed a juke box! We queued up six plays of Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat" followed by one play of "It's Not Unusual" followed by Guns N' Roses "November Rain." To understand why we did this, you will need to read our Day 45 post detailing our time in Chicago.

Luke doing his "Carlton" dance to What's New Pussycat.

After dinner, we parked the RV in the driveway at Lynn's house as Tim directed us to. Right next door was The Shoreline Restaurant Bar & Bowl. As people were driving in to the restaurant, a number of them gave us a look like "you don't belong here." They were right, it was a little strange to just park the rig at someone's home at a prime location right on the lake, but we were told we could...Most days, our ritual would have been to start dinner at this point, but since we already ate, we decided to take a walk on the shores of Battle Lake.

This was one of the warmer days we had experienced in a while and the mosquitos were out in full force, but despite this we did enjoy our leisurely walk along the lake. After about 30 minutes we turned around and headed back to the house. Just as we could see the RV come back into view, we also noticed that we had company in the driveway. There was a police car parked right behind us. From across the street, I waived him down and let him know it was our RV.

We ran across the street and began to inform the officer that we were told that we could stay here by a family member and just as we said this he made a waving motion to a lady driving her car away from the house. The car stops, the lady approaches and Kristen begins to explain who were are and that Tim told us we could stay here. Roxy, the lady's name, as it turns out is Tim's sister and was taking care of the home while her sister Lynn was overseas. However, Tim did not inform her of this. So when she happened to be driving by and notice the RV parked in the driveway she called the cops. With the truth revealed, Roxy now somewhat embarrassed for calling the police tells the officer that all is OK and that she had no issues with us staying the night.

The cop however, was not willing to let it go that easily. He was OK with us being there, but his problem was that the RV did not have any identification. Since the RV was brand new, we left California before the tags arrived and California is one of the only states in the US not to provide temporary paper tags. He and I proceeded to have a circular discussion that went something like this... P: Show me your license and registration and proof of insurance. M: OK P: Where are your license tags? M: We are not issued temporary tags in California. P: But you are in Minnesota. M: Yes, that is correct. P: We issue temporary tags in Minnesota. M: OK, What do you want me to do? We are only driving through for a day and we are leaving in the morning and it does not make sense to register the vehicle in this state...and I don't even own it. P: Where are you headed? M: Eventually, California, but tomorrow we'll be in North Dakota. P: OK, once you cross the border into North Dakota you will need to stop at the Ports of Call office and register the vehicle. If you do not, the police will definitely pull you over and fine you. M: OK. P: It would be a good idea to make your own paper tag that says "California" and tape it to the back of the RV. M: OK. And with that the police office went on with other business. On a side note, we did not make a paper tag...We just rolled the dice on this one.

During my discussion with the officer, Roxy and Kristen proceeded to catch up on family business and fill in some details of the story. Now, with the police ordeal behind us, Roxy gave us a tour of the home. In fact, she gave the key so that we could more easily shower in the morning.

Kristen and Roxy after the dust had settled.

Being next to the lake, we of course had to go fishing. There we a couple of boats near us in the lake that were catching fish left and right, but neither Rachel or Luke caught anything.