All good things must come to an end, and that includes our family trip up north. For Beth, Braxton, and Zoe, it ended Tuesday morning. After a little bit of morning fishing and a trip to Marion's to re-learn some knitting, it was time to pack up. Braxton had an appointment in the Cities to get his arm evaluated and either surgery or a cast.
David, Paul, and Gretchen decided to do the extra driving to go see the Headwaters of the Mississippi River. It would take a 2-hour drive from Grand Rapids to Lake Itasca and then a 3 1/2 hour drive to drop off Paul & Gretchen in Cold Spring. Then another hour for David to get home to Arden Hills.
The drive started off quietly with Gretchen and Paul doing some reading. We soon learned, however, that cars and reading don't mix for Gretchen. After fifteen minutes of reading Gretchen's head started to hurt. She started to feel a bit dizzy and light-headed. Thirty minutes later she got sick in the car and we pulled over to get all cleaned up.
After that all was well. We had a good drive to Lake Itasca and saw the headwaters. We learned that the lake got its name from the latin for "true head" - veritas capitol. Take the last four letters of veritas - itas - and the first two letters of capitol - ca - and you have a made-up name Itasca.
We did the tourist thing, went immediately to the headwaters, and took pictures. We walked across the stepping stones that form the beginning of the Mississippi. Then we got in the river and waded down stream about a 1/4 of a mile.
After that it was time to wrap up the vacation and head home. Gretchen had Subway for dinner while David and Paul got food from McDonalds.
+ posted by David
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