3 Sep - Preparing to Depart Camp Ripley MN - Next Stop Northland Camping and RV Park WI

3 Sep
This morning I finished yesterday's blog entry, then we headed to the base laundry.  Currently Camp Ripley is nearly empty.  There are hundreds of barracks here and  none of them appear to be occupied.

That worked in our favor as we had no trouble getting right in and using a few of the 16 washers and 16 dryers!  Very nice that they are all free!

The laundry facility.  Except for the camp host and his wife who were in there doing their laundry, we owned it!  Doreen gets a kick out of the weapons clearing barrels in front of each building!  Soldiers are expected to unload their weapons before entering the building.

While the laundry was drying we drove around a bit and noticed a huge solar panel array.  This was installed in 2016 as a partnership between the Minnesota National Guard and the Minnesota Power Company.  The system generates 10 megawatts and this is the largest project of it's kind at a National Guard facility in the entire nation.  

Solar panels as far as the eye can see

This is what they look like up close.

 Camp Ripley is a very nice facility.  It is massive and you can almost hear the thousands of Soldiers heels hitting the pavement as they march about when they are up here for summer camp.  These facilities have grown in importance as we have been involved in overseas operations.  They are used for mobilization/demobilization (Mob/Demob) sites - training the Soldiers for their missions and preparing them to deploy, and then receiving them back home when they return and helping them transition back here.  They turn their equipment back in, ensure all their paperwork is completed so they get paid, get various briefings so they understand the benefits which they have earned such as with the VA, etc.

After finishing our laundry we headed a few miles south to Little Falls MN and restocked supplies at Walmart.  We also grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to the campground for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we will drive to our next destination, Northland Camping and RV Park south and east of Duluth MN, actually in Wisconsin.  

Estimated travel time is 2 hrs 38 minutes but it will likely take us about 3-1/2 hrs with stops and our travel speed of no more than 60 mph.  

Next report:  Northland Camping and RV Park