Time to go home

Another beautiful morning today. As we've always noticed in the past, on the last day of the weekend (Sunday on a normal weekend, Monday on a holiday weekend such as this one), everyone gets up, has breakfast, packs up all their stuff and leaves. We can never quite understand this, it seems to cut your weekend short by a whole day. I guess I can understand where you might want to get home and do some laundry and mow the lawn, so you don't lose your entire weekend at home, but we've always felt like we would rather be away as long as possible and let the other stuff get crammed into the weekdays instead.

There is the matter of checkout time, however. I looked it up on our paperwork, and it turns out that it is noon. The staff is already tipping picnic tables up on top of fire pits getting ready to mow the grass. We decided we could pack up and drive down to Harmony to look for some Amish furniture stores (the one in Lanesboro seems to have closed).

It's kind of sad to watch the campground empty out. I took the dogs out for a bit of a leg stretch before we get in the car, and we took one last walk down to the river. The stretch of rocks and sandbar next to the campground had been packed with people fishing, kids grossing out over a dead fish, and labs retrieving their toy out of the river, as well as canoers in the water and bikers zipping past on the downhill trail on the other side. Today it was empty. Instead of seeming like a relief, more of a "'back to nature" kind of experience, it just seemed lonely and deserted. Scarlett walked into the water and took a drink, and I put my hand in. It feels just like the stuff that comes out of the tap at home, but hearing the sound of the water on the rocks and touching the cool wetness was like making a little connection with someone you've had the pleasure of visiting for a short while.

As we were walking back I saw the sight in this picture. Except you have to imagine an eagle gliding above the top of the cliiff. I thought, that really is Eagle Cliff Campground all in one picture. I came back with the camera but of course the eagle didn't make another appearance. This campground is situated on a large bend in the river, so the river wraps around three sides of it. The campground side of the river is low, but the other side is all tall cliffs. It is one of our favorite places to camp. Not only is the campground really nice, but there are so many things to do: visit downtown Lanesboro, bike, canoe, tube. We did everything but the tubing this trip (a little early yet for tubing).
Here's another picture of our camper, with some tents in the background which are right along the river. Everyone else had left, this area was packed with campers a few hours previously.