The last few photos of one of our favorite campsites- Jeanette Lake.

Mississippi Headwaters - Reenacting some of the photos we took in 2010.

So this is it folks, the Mighty Mississippi, even the greatest things have humble beginnings.

Mississippi Headwaters Visitors’ Center

5:15 – Showers!  Only our third shower on the trip.  The last shower we had was in Copper Harbor on the 15th.  Six years ago when we visited the Mississippi headwaters in Itasca, Minnesota this shower was the most memorable.  It was still a fantastic shower, but Copper Harbor is now the best campground shower by far.  Copper Harbor does not require you to constantly hit a button to keep the water flowing and Copper Harbor also allows you to change the water temperature.

8:30 – We stopped at a little town outside of Oriska, North Dakota to go to the bathroom and get Cody a blanket.  He said he was tired and ready to sleep.  Scott wanted to drive as long as we could due to the ninety plus temperatures during the day and not wanting to cook in the tent any longer than he had to.  Cody requested “The Three Little Pigs” from Green Jelly to get him ready to sleep.  It is a family vacation song favorite.  It isn’t exactly G rated and includes an impression of Rambo taking on the wolf.  If you happen to see an overloaded mini-van from Illinois with a family head bopping on the road, it might be us.  I tried to get a picture of Cody’s smile during the song, but he was camera shy again.

11:30 – Bismarck, ND – The tent and all the sleeping mats were set up in under ten minutes. Scott was going to drive longer, but Cody hit super cranky and he is usually pretty easy going.  Both kids did a fantastic job sitting in the car for twelve and a half hours.  Scot turned off to a dam recreational area that he thought was a tent site, but it was not.  I looked up the next closest campground and we headed towards it. It turned out to be just an RV park. Not long after we finally were settled we had to put the fly on the tent.  We had waited to put the fly on as it was still 86 degrees at almost midnight and the fly restricts airflow.