On Tuesday we left Bemidji and drove down through the center of Minnesota to our present location at Lebanon Hills State Campground. Minnesota is truly the land of 10,000 lakes as we saw lake after lake during our journey. This is our third visit to Minnesota and our second visit to the Minneapolis/St Paul area. Last summer we attended the FMCA International Rally in Madison, WI and afterwards decided to check out Nodine, MN and the Mall of America near Minneapolis.

Yes, there is a town named Nodine just across the Mississippi River in Minnesota. We have known about this town for some years and always thought we needed to make a visit and check it out. After all, it could be named after a famous relative. Since Madison, WI is so close we felt compelled to drive over to Minnesota. When we arrived in the small community of Nodine we saw a young man mowing his lawn. We approached and ask him if he knew anything about the history of the town and if it was named after a Nodine. He told us his brother had done some research and the town was not named after a person but was named by the Minnesota Highway Department. Seems they were in the area and looking for a place to eat. Since there was nowhere to eat at this location they named it "no dine", hence the name Nodine. Was my bubble ever burst!

Looking for a place to camp close to the Mall of America we discovered Lebanon Hills State Recreation Campground. It is rare to find any decent campground in a major metro area, let alone a state campground with 50 amp full hookups and free WiFi. Lebanon Hills is a beautiful and well maintained campground at the edge of the Minneapolis/ St Paul metro area and within a reasonable distance of attractions. Wikipedia says the metro area has a population of 3.5 million and is a major economic center between Chicago and Seattle. This link to a google map shows our campsite and some of the places of interest in the area.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&hl=en&authuser=0&authuser=0&mid=1p9HFFm9KfPRh57d5UQl34eEujwk

Entrance to Lebanon Hills

Campground office

Our campsite

This morning we are moving further south and slightly west to North Sioux City, SD and need to wrap things up and get ready to travel. We will make another post about our visit to this area in the morning.