We left Milwaukee yesterday and headed toward Minneapolis to set up camp north of the city. We slept hard.

We had a busy day today with lots of stops. We visited St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, and the Minnesota Valley NWR.


We also visited the Mall of America, the second-largest mall in the USA. It was a pretty amazing place – especially the small amusement park on the inside with a couple of different roller coasters.


We stopped at Shake Shack for lunch, played Rock of Ages Blacklight mini-golf, and had dinner at Dixie Blue BBQ. Busy, busy day.
The van began to annoy us with a notice that the oil needed changing. I located a Camping World to the west of us and called past the service center’s closing time, so I had to leave a voicemail to try and set up an appointment.
Early the next morning we were on our way to St. Croix NSR for a hike when I got the call from Camping World that they could take us at noon. The trail was two hours away from their location so we decided to just hike as far as we could (instead of the entire trail) and then turn around and head back.
We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon at Camping World, but the oil was changed, and they gave us a slight discount for making us wait so long.