Minnesota, Preston - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - Old Barn Resort

We are spending the night at the Old Barn Resort in Preston, Minnesota.  The old barn that is the location of the office, restaurant and hostel is a 130 year old structure that was once owned by Edward Allis, the original owner of the Allis Chalmers Company.

On our way we stopped for lunch at the Blue Earth rest stop on I-90.  Where the rest stops sits is the site of the 1978 celebration of the completion of the last four miles of I-90 (the asphalt was tinted gold at the time).  I-90 stretches from Boston to Seattle and is the nation’s longest interstate.  We have been lucky since we left Arizona to come across nice rest areas right at lunch time.

In Minnesota we have lost the black ground of eastern South Dakota.  Although we haven’t had wind quite as strong as it was through Nebraska, we notice that nearly every farm has a huge windbreak, sometimes on all four sides of the house.  The ancestors of these folks planted a whole lot of trees!

One other thing we have noticed is that Minnesota takes it “Adopt a Highway” very seriously.  There are signs every mile or so recognizing who is responsible for that section of highway.  We have been on the interstate, state roads and county roads and litter is non-existent.

The campground where we are staying has a high Good Sam rating, but it is definitely off the beaten path.  This is part of the descent into the campground.

This guy is on a small tractor in a very large field.  We noticed the next morning that he was done.

More of the road into the campground.

This little area that goes from the office parking lot to the campground is a bit of a problem, we scraped bottom a little.  Definitely going to have to go out with the Jeep unhooked.  We’ll stop and hook up in the parking lot.

Here we are in lot M9.  Greg’s worry was that we might sink since the sites are all grassy.  We’ve been here a few hours as I write this and all is well so far.

This is the view of the “Old Barn” from our site.

I walked up to take a few pictures of the old barn.

And, the barn swallows who call it home.

This shot is looking from the check in area into the restaurant.

There is a nice restaurant and bar located inside the barn that is open Thursday through Sunday 11-8.  We had the cod dinner tonight – it was great!!

Just outside the barn are some colorful chairs where you can sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

There were people in and around the pool I was trying to avoid getting in the pictures.  This is a shot of the outside, all of the garage-style doors can be raised if the weather permits.

The indoor heated pool is larger than most resort pools.

Another feature of the resort that doesn’t really interest us is the 18-hole golf course that looks really nice.  The weather is nice today and several golfers were out enjoying the course.