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Minnesota Winter Wonderland

AlexPeterson

Well Known Member
You all know we crab about the winter, but there is something magical about it anyway. Things like tons of performance, no cht worries, oh, and no bugs!

You saw a preview of this from Pete H. earlier, but even those of us who live here will find these pictures amazing. Lake Mille Lacs is on of the larger of our ten thousand lakes, at about 20 miles by 10 or so. It is one of the best fishing lakes, and in the winter there is a virtual city out on the ice, complete with plowed roads and street signs (I'm not kidding). There are hundreds of clusters of houses scattered across the lake. There are thousands of fishhouses on this lake, most around 8' x 12' or 16'. All have heat, many with generators, satellite tv, etc..

We saw what seemed to be a runway plowed into it, which looked good from about 30 feet and 160 knots! :) You can imagine I didn't try to get a picture of that.



Enjoy:









 
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Looks like where I'm at right now. Baudette Minnesota. Up here doing winter performance testing. It got a little warm for us today. Hopefully it will cool down so the snow holds up well.

http://www.aettesting.com/
 
I have known folks that love to make a strafing run at the Ice houses. I of course would never do something Illegal like that.
I got cold and became a snowbird but remember the cold well.

Gary
 
Interesting to see

Thanks for the pictures.

I haven't seen any of that in person either, so it was nice to see your shots.
 
Memories

Brings back memories of growing up in Minnesota and my first cross country. Lots of other threads today bringing back memories. The one on the Airplane tracker with Pete flying out of Anoka County. I got interested in aircraft building there as part of the Explorers at Anoka. Also the mention of Lake Elmo airport where I learned to fly.
 
Thanks Alex

My wife has a distant cousin that does what you are describing every winter, but we have never been out there to see it. I had no idea the ice fishing houses were so popular. Thanks for sharing the great photos.
 
I've seen a couple statistics citing around 5,500 fish houses on this lake alone. I haven't found the number for the whole state, but it should be available as any house left unoccupied needs a license. I will dig for a total number, but I think Minnesota can safely claim more than any other state:p

Another piece of trivia: Those folks with the fish houses have a lot of boats also - more boats per capita by a fair margin than any other state.

Certainly someone will calculate which state has the most RV's per capita...:cool: Start a new thread...
 
Arizona?

Actually it's Arizona and California recently passed Michigan for the most total.

Huh? Arizona? Were you joking?!? AZ is around 30th for total boats and 43rd per capita. This is from the Coast Guard 2004 I believe, so some shifting might have occurred.

 
Come on Alex, it's so much funnier to have Arizona as the most boats. (do a web search to see the crazy stories):D

Now if Minnesota wants to take credit for something, how about some of the best punk bands ever. Now that's something to write home about. I'm from Texas and went to school in Austin (people from Austin know what I'm talking about here) and I've always thought Minneapolis was a close second to Austin as far as live music went.

The Mats, Husker Hu, The Commando's, now that's something to be proud of.

Cam
:D
 
I remember some trivia question once that said Minnesota is first in miles of "shoreline," so it wouldn't surprise me if it had more boats.

When I first moved here, the strangest thing I saw was the third garage bay... for the boat.

Since then, though, I've thought "that would be great for RV building."
 
Theatre, too

Cam,

We have a great music scene and awesome live theatre, too. The Guthrie and the Minneapolis Children's Theatre have won major awards and we have hundreds of smaller professional theatres as well.

Don't tell anyone, but there is a group of he-man RV builders who attend theatre productions on a regular basis as a group! We call it "Culture Night for RV Knuckle-Draggers"..........

Now back to our regularly scheduled, semi-RV related debate on boats....I love the forums!:D
 
Had to add...

We do get to do some pretty neat stuff. Coldest I've flown in was a J3 at -22F...lots of duct tape helps. Eelpout Festival in Walker, MN last year:

eelpout10mediumwv1.jpg


eelpout8mediumxj2.jpg




Now, I'm not this nuts...believe it or not, Rugby on the ice, 10F and 15kt. wind (note kid wearing SHORTS).

crazykidsmediumfh2.jpg



Of course, sometimes winter just sucks. Imagine digging this out (1 day after blizzard). That's a one story house, with a garage behind that lump.


snotmemediumpb1.jpg



Can't wait for this. 85 degrees, and because it's cold most of the year, NO BUGS.

reallightwindmediumhp0.jpg


I'm new to posting here, but have been lurking a long time. What a great resource. Thanks to all.

Adam
 
Adam, nice pictures. Things that we Minnesotans take for granted like landing or driving on a lake are wonderful things to share with our "warmer" friends. Thanks.
 
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