Day 2 of our 21st Anniversary Vacation

Got the GPS thing figured out - as long as it's in "Nav" mode, and not "Map" mode, it'll stay on.

Which is good, because we did a lot of backwoods driving today.  Towns that were just blips on a map, and some, not even that!

We did stop at a dam on the Mississippi river, and a few other places, like Cass Lake, before we made it to the actual headwaters of the river, or as close as you can get without a canoe or kayak.

It was a good thing it wasn't rainy yet, because the road to get here was just sand, not really even a road.  There was a family camped here, and another couple had just loaded their kayaks.  They had a goal to kayak on every part of the Mississippi they could.

We then drove to the official headwaters of the Mississippi.  So, so far, it took about 4 hours to get to the actual headwaters, and another 1.5 hours t get to the official one in Itasca State Park.  We walked through the visitor center, then drove on up to the headwaters, where there were quite a few people and little kids.  We watched a couple of kids cross the river on slippery stones.  Not for us older people!  We did get eaten up by mosquitoes the size of my thumb, though.

After that, it was time to come back to home base.  A long day of driving, ended by driving back in rain and fog, on roads where the markings were impossible to see.  Really stressful.  Going to cap the day with a cup of chicken wild rice soup at the casino, and maybe a little gambling.