We had our first Get Acquainted Meeting and received our drivers book. This is our guide, it contains turn by turn directions to each campground we will be staying at along with the general itinerary for that day. This evening we will be ride sharing with Ryk and Cathy from Hebron, CT. It is nice that we get a paper with photographs of all the attendees. Now if I study hard, I will be able to remember all names probably by Christmas?
Some interesting facts came out of the meeting, There are a total of 25 rigs and 48 people that are from all over the country. Two couples drove 1983 miles to get here, which is the farthest and one couple was the closest and drove 435 miles to get here. All totaled we drove a cumulative 38,900 miles to get to the start of the caravan here in Bemidji, MN.
Tonight we started with a hosted dinner at the Ruttgers Birchmont Lodge. The lodge started as a cabin or two owned by a farmer who catered to fishermen from the twin cities and since the summer climate is cool, guests came from Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri to stay the entire summer. At one point there were five Ruttgers Lodges built in MN and FL. The Birchmont Beach Hotel prospered in the 1920s, becoming one of the few fine resorts in Minnesota. It was so popular for guests to brings their maids and chauffeurs while traveling that a special dining room was set up for guest’s personal staff. A golf course was carved out of the dense forest and the annual Birchmont International Golf Tournament got its start during this time when a large group of resort guests from Winnipeg challenged Bemidji golfers to a match. The tournament is still played in the last week of July at the Bemidji Town & Country Club.
Here is a view of our company of travelers
This is the view from the outside terrace of Lake Bemidji
Lake side rooms over looking the lake
Tomorrow we board a tour bus that will take us to our tour of the Wool Factory and downtown to the the visitor center on the lake. We will also get to Lake Itasca and be able to walk across the Mississippi as it starts it run to the Gulf of Mexico. If you want you can log into: www.bemidji.org/webcams at about 10am Central Time and we will wave at you as we have a group picture taken at the Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox.
Hope all of you have a great weekend. I intend to post something everyday that we travel so come on along if you like.
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