(upbeat electronic music) - [Robert] Ladies and
gentlemen, greetings from Iowa, the Hawkeye State. In this episode, we're gonna visit Captain Kirk's birthplace. We'll experience hurricane
force winds in Iowa city while having lunch with new friends. We'll have dinner in Des
Moines, also with new friends. Then on to Minnesota. We'll stop by Buddy Holly's crash site. We'll spend the night
moochdocking at a lake house making more new friends. Then after a pit stop
in Fargo, North Dakota, we'll visit the headwaters
of the Mississippi and go almost as far north as one possibly can in the lower 48. (jazzy music) ♪ I'm riding, riding, riding ♪ ♪ Riding in my RV, my RV ♪ ♪ Where I want to be ♪ ♪ Because I'm free in my RV, yeah ♪ (upbeat music) Our first stop is going
to be Riverside, Iowa, famous for being the fictitious birthplace of Captain James D. Kirk of Star Trek. And here they have the Voyage Home Museum named after the "Star
Trek IV" movie I suppose, where they first revealed
that Kirk is from Iowa. - You're from outer space. - No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space. - Check it out. Here we have James T. Kirk. Here's a statue of the man himself. Although it doesn't really
look like him now does it? It kind of looks like George
W. Bush to me, to be honest. But I digress. This has got to be like
some kind of pilgrimage for every Trekkie right? Or Trekker as some prefer it. It is the USS Riverside. Had it been the Enterprise,
it would have been the 1701 and the 1708, two of the best ships ever. Here's the museum. But I don't think it is open yet. Museum doesn't seem to be open yet, even though it's supposed to
open right now at 11:00 a.m. Let's go to the actual birthplace and we'll stop by the
museum here on the way back. It's a free museum. They do take donations apparently and they sell t-shirts and stuff. I'll probably just buy a t-shirt. Riverside proclaimed itself the future birthplace of
James Kirk, back in 1985, based on Gene Roddenberry's
book, "The Making of Star Trek". One year before the "Voyage
Home" movie came out actually. The birthplace marker is
somewhere around here. Riverside, Iowa here. There, birthplace! It must be through here. They have a shrine of sorts and a mural. And this one doesn't really
look like Kirk either. All right, let's stop by the museum. It should be open by now. They do not allow commercial videography, but she said that still
photography was fine. So here you go. I used to have that exact same poster. Got it at a convention years ago. Let's continue. Kind of ironic that at
James T. Kirk's birth place there's hardly any internet connectivity when it comes to cell phone service I was trying to get a
hailing frequency out to see if Ili would
like a t-shirt in there. Ili or Bryan. And wouldn't send the pictures. Long-time viewer Anant, from Iowa City has invited me to lunch at
this place called Joensy's. Another time viewer Steve
from Des Moines is texting me that bad weather is coming my way. And I'm like, how bad
could it possibly be? Right? (bright music) Of course, Anant said that
there was oversized parking in the back. And of course I didn't
follow instructions. If the Google lady says, turn here I'm like a robot programmed to obey. It is tight but I think
we're gonna make it. Okay, here we go. I'll park right next to this Airstream. As I am parked here
waiting, a concerned local came up to me and mentioned
the bad weather coming. So I started to get
concerned and I decided move and park facing west where
the wind is coming from and next to a building
for some protection. And I think the folks in the Airstream are going to do the same. Yeah, go figure, apparently
there's a storm coming, 80 mile an hour winds. I don't know, it's coming that way. So we'll see. I do need a car wash. Look at those ominous
clouds moving from the west. They are in the white Kia, Anant, his brother, Jay, and friend Sarah. Let's go eat. (ominous choral singing) This rain is imminent. Here we are Anant and
family and we're gonna eat. I think it's the largest sandwich in Iowa or something like that. - [Man] Largest pork tenderloin sandwich. - You think tornado's coming? - [Man] (laughs) I don't know. - It looks bad. I mean, I'm only used two
hurricanes back in Florida, but this is worse I think. Lunch was definitely an experience. Not only because of the
food and the company, which were great, but
also the weather outside. And oh, I missed it. A transformer just blew out. This is incredible. This is like a hurricane. Meanwhile at the parking lot. Oh boy. Well back there we have the storm but in here you have
this ginormous sandwich. Let's partake. (dramatic music) This type of storm is called a derecho, which means straight
in Spanish, by the way. And it happens here in the
Midwest on average once a year or every other year. And apparently this is one of
the worst the area has seen in a while, winds up to 80 miles per hour. It is always great to make new friends on the road. 'Til we meet again. Well I'd say we got to experience an authentic Midwestern storm. Great to meet up with Anant and Jay and Sarah here in Des Moines. They got me some sweetcorn and some IPAs. And these neighborhoods has no power. So I guess we treat it
like a four-way stop. - [GPS] In 800 hundred feet turn right onto the I-80 West ramp. - In other news, the KOA
canceled my reservation because they don't have power, they have a bunch of down trees. So yeah, it was- - [GPS] Turn right onto
the I-80 West ramp. - It was like a mini hurricane. Like imagine a hurricane
that lasts half an hour. - [GPS] In a quarter mile
merge onto I-80 West. - The right side of the truck gotta pretty nice pressure wash. So... (laughs) Alright, onto Des Moines we go. We'll see what the for
the future brings today. It's still 2:20 p.m. I'll be in Des Moines by 4:20 p.m. I really wanted to see the
world's largest truck stop which is on I-80 about
40 miles east of here. But since they canceled
my reservation for tonight I'm gonna head west, actually
straight to Des Moines. Steve told me I could
moochdock at his place. And even if that doesn't work out and I end up staying somewhere
else, I want to keep going. It is now almost like a
tradition to drop something off the original plan in every state. It gives me an excuse to
return as if I ever needed one. And if it feels like I am
rushing this part of the trip I am. I have to pick up some packages in Fargo in a couple of days, and they are gonna arrive
earlier than expected. Take a look at that. That winds must have been
much stronger around here. And I think I really dodged a bullet by staying in Iowa City and not attempting to drive through this. And it looks like there's
another wreck coming up. We are in Des Moines. And I am really looking forward
to meeting Steve and Karen. Steve was originally going to
organize the Des Moines meetup that eventually got canceled. I didn't film my arrival,
but Steve and Karen are taking me to dinner and
a quick tour of the city. This property we're
circling is known locally as the spaceship house, owned by soy and corn
millionaire, LeMar Koethe. It is a vast property here in Urbandale, just northwest of Des Moines proper. Here we've got some damage
from that derecho storm. As we cruise along going
towards the downtown area. This is Terrace Hill,
the governor's mansion. (upbeat music) Next here to the left we've
got Pappajohn's sculpture park and we're going to stop for a few minutes. From here we can also
see the capitol building with its golden copula, probably one of the most
beautiful in the United States. We actually visited last
year when we were here. (bright music) This is one of the most important pieces here in the sculpture park. It is called "Nomade" by
Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. - [Woman] Robert, this area right here, right when we first came past Meredith, coming in is called the Gateway District. So it's newer, like in the last 10 years. - I definitely have to
return, hopefully next year. There it is once again,
the gorgeous state capitol. (upbeat electronic music) Here, a view of downtown from the capitol steps and
according to Steve and Karen, it is supposed to be even better at night. All right, let's go eat. And there is a Cuban
restaurants here in Des Moines, called Ceviche Bar. Well here we are at Ceviche
bar here in Des Moines. Who would have thunk it
that there's Cuban food in Des Moines, Iowa. We're having the fried Yuca appetizer and I've got something
called the Cuban burger. Although to be honest, I
probably should have gone with the standard Cuban sandwich
and the flan for dessert. That looks like a brewery. Of course it is the Iowa Taproom. Very tempting but I still have some more driving to do today. And with that, we're
gonna start saying goodbye to Des Moines this time around. This wasn't really in the
modified 2020 plan anyways, where I said I was going
to avoid big cities but I am so glad I stopped. This is cool. This is the Iowa Women
of Achievement Bridge with two lanes, one for
pedestrians, one for cyclists. So much to see and so little time. And our time here today
is running out quickly. So it is from here from the
bank of the Des Moines River that we're gonna say 'til next time. (pensive chiming) Well, very, very nice to
finally meet Steve in person, Steve and Karen, and now we're gonna do a Wal-Mart to tonight
because that big storm really, really changed our plans, really. This is us. You know the KOA canceled my reservation, so everything happens for a reason. I had a 400 mile day ahead of me and now I have like a 320 mile day. I'll figure it out tomorrow. (upbeat electronic music) So many overturned semis. That's just insane. We're going north now. And the prevalent wind
was coming from the west. So it probably just lifted
them off the ground. Can you imagine getting caught in that? Nuh uh. (peaceful music) This whole area by the way,
seems to be without power. So it is gonna be a dark
and lonely night at Walmart. Before we continue, let me tell you about Surfshark VPN. And VPN, it stands for
virtual private network. And what it does, it creates
a secure, private connection between your devices and the internet. And that's particularly important at a place where you have no
cell phone signal, for example and you have to connect to
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potentially steal your passwords hack your machine, and you
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closest fastest server. And that's it. Boom, you are secure. It is also very convenient. For example if you're traveling abroad something we cannot do right now, but eventually we will right? And let's say you want to watch that your, your local
football game or something you're used to watching and it's not available in
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virtually, that's it. It has other features: CleanWeb ad blocker, all kinds of stuff. Just go to Surfshark.deals/myRV and when you enter promo
code myRV at checkout you get 85% off and three months for free. - Good morning. This was actually a pretty
quiet boondocking spot. I'm gonna go into Walmart,
get a couple of essentials and on the road again. 60 degrees Fahrenheit here in the morning. Of course, that won't last, but it's nice that it gets, it gets down to
cooler temperatures at night. I'm gonna move closer
to the, to the entrance, just so I don't have to
drag the shopping cart all the way back here. I don't really need
anything like emergency but since my Cuban
coffee machine is broken and I'm out of filters for
my regular coffee machine. So I'm gonna get some filters and.. And you always buy more than you need. Just a few essentials. I think today I behaved. I only bought some potato chips besides the essentials, of course. (upbeat music) Somewhere around here they have the world's
largest concrete gnome but I don't think you
can see it from the road and there's nowhere to park with a rig. So we're gonna keep going. Today going north towards Minnesota I-35 here going north, not the
most captivating of drives. Let's be honest. It's straight and flat, kind of reminds me of
some roads in Florida. Let's take a break at the
rest area here real quick. And what do we have here? Dump station! Might as well. Let's empty the gray holding tank and that way we have no
problem boondocking tonight. All right, well, thank you Iowa for having dump stations
at your rest areas. Even though it is straight and flat it is still very pretty countryside. Although today it's definitely more about the destination than the journey. We're gonna be moochdocking at a lake house in Northern Minnesota. This gentleman Earl and his wife, Kathy, they contacted me a while ago and they offered for me
to stay at their place. And I emailed him back and he said, yes, and
that's where we're going. But before we go into Minnesota, there is one last thing I
want to see here in Iowa, before we continue. And there it was, I'm gonna
have to turn around somewhere. And that's how you do it. Here we are walking
along these corn fields. - Whenever I see cornfields it reminds me of that 80s horror movie. It's like "The children of the Corn". I guess this is it. February 3rd, 1959. The day the music died. Buddy Holly, along with Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper decided to take a plane instead of riding the bus and here's where they crashed
only six miles after takeoff. People leave all sorts of
offerings at this shrine of sorts, which was built by music
fan Ken Paquette in 1988. Yep, beer Mardi Gras beads, glasses. There's also a memorial dedicated
to the 21 year old pilot who crashed the plane. All right, let's continue. Yeah, very cool. I'm glad I got to see it. And the fact that it's still here and people still come to see
it after all these years. Alright, I'm back. Let me check. Mm, nuh uh, no internet. Actually let me go into the trailer. Still, no internet. (bright country music) Corn as far as the eye can see. You know there always has to
be a casino at the state line especially between a gambling
and a non gambling state. - [GPS] Welcome to Minnesota. - [Robert] And yeah, we are in Minnesota. Let's take a picture with the sign. Well, I didn't show you, but
I went to the welcome center, got a map, took a shower inside Minitini, and now it is nearly
nonstop to the lake house. There's Minneapolis. Take a good look because this is as close as we're gonna get at least on this trip. Coming up on Mille Lacs Lake. Huge and apparently an
excellent opportunity for fishing and swimming too. But this is not our lake. We're going to another one,
a little farther north, Coincidentally named Pelican Lake. And here we are crossing
the Mississippi River. That's pretty cool. Here we are. Wow. This is just perfect. (easy going music) Of course Earl and
Kathy fed me like a king and just when things
couldn't get any better, Earl says "How 'bout
we take out the boat?" - Between these two houses
is another old house. That you can see the deck over there. It was built in the '30s as well. - Didn't I say recently
that I wanted a pontoon boat or even better a friend with one? Well, it looks like I got my wish. As I said, we are riding in
Earl's pontoon right now. - Hello. - Thank you so much for
inviting me to your place. - Oh I tell you want, we are
so glad you're here, Robert. This is such a great experience for us. Couldn't it be better. We've been waiting to get
this opportunity for some time and thank God it finally
came and you're here on Pelican Lake visiting us. - Pelican Lake with my pelican t-shirt. Just you know.
- Fly, pelican, fly. - Just bed, you know. (men laughing) This is great. All kidding aside, this is definitely something I would love to do more of. - [Earl] Well, Robert,
thank you for so much for coming and visiting us. And we just love to have you here. - I'm driving now,
sailing into the sunset. ♪ Sailing to the west, into the sunset ♪ ♪ Sailing to the west ♪ (Earl laughs) - [Earl] I love it. You come and visit me for
a longer period of time. I'll take you walleye fishing. - Well, you heard it here first and there are loons all over the place. (upbeat music) - [Earl] It was a lot of fun. Wasn't it, Kat? It was awesome. - [Kathy] Hopefully now
you know where we're at, you'll come back. - This is the effect that I
like, it's called quick shots. - Oh yeah.
- And it's the... hold on, the Dolly zoom. - [Earl] Oh yeah. - Okay let's...you have
to choose a subject and it'll fly back while
zooming it at the same time. - Well look at that.
- And it creates that tricky effect there. - [Earl] That just holds
the part, you stay the same. - Yeah. You see I'm trying to
sell Earl here on the idea of buying a new drone and
I think I'm succeeding. It is now magic hour in
what can only be described as a magical afternoon. And what a great way to end it, right here (mystical music)
on Pelican Lake watching the sunset. (thoughtful music) He's on, oh! (laughing) (ominous tones) (thoughtful music) - [Earl] Robert's getting ready to leave. All packed up. - I need you to send me that footage. - I'm gonna send you all of it. Yep. I have to transfer it over. Haven't done it yet, but anyway. Been nice having ya here, Robert. - Great having me here.
- Thanks for coming. - Great being here. Thank you so much.
- So awesome. (upbeat music) - Let me put the GoPro on the roof and off we go 'til we meet again. Thank you, Earl and Kathy,
for your great hospitality and for providing this
unforgettable experience. Now the journey continues. ♪ Riding ♪ ♪ Riding in my RV ♪ ♪ Wherever I want to be ♪ ♪ Because I'm free in
my RV, yeah I'm riding ♪ ♪ Riding, riding ♪ ♪ I'm riding in my RV, my RV ♪ ♪ Wherever I want to be ♪ ♪ Because I'm free in my RV, yeah ♪ - [GPS] Welcome to North Dakota. - All right, one more state. Out time here in Fargo is
going to be mostly utilitarian. I gotta pick up some packages, get a set of tires for the Colorado, and an oil change. And we're gonna make one day trip, but this is one of those rare occasions where I'm gonna break the timeline and show it to you on the next episode. That way we have all of Minnesota together and all of North Dakota together as well, except for today's detour, of course. Lindenwood Park here. Very nice, right on the
Red River, bunch of trails. But unfortunately we're not gonna get to enjoy any of that this time around. (upbeat music) Let's do a car wash, get my packages, get some new tires and tomorrow
we'll do the oil change. You know what this is? The Bialetti Moka Express. We can have Cuban coffee again. Should I do a dry run? I don't have the time. (jazzy music) Salud, my friends, cheers. (sighs) Yep, this is the good stuff. Well good morning from
Fargo, North Dakota. Just did an oil change
here at Gateway Chevrolet. Let me tell you, the
most efficient dealership I've ever been to. Yeah, that's all I got to say. It was a dark and stormy night in Fargo. (electronic music) Today we're going back to Minnesota. Good morning. Perhaps not the best weather
to be on the road, but... There was some hail this morning not here, but like north of here. I saw it on the news. And today the destination right now it's to see the headwaters
of the Mississippi River. And if it's raining,
I'll pull out an umbrella and we'll see it anyways. Bunch of people jogging here in this park, which I barely knew, but you know my original idea was to go
out jogging this morning. And well, scratch that, right? Let me go slow. All right, well, enjoy the ride. It should be about a two hour drive or so. That's a nasty storm coming from the west. Look at that, look at that
dark color over there. Yep and back in Minnesota we are. - [GPS] Welcome to Minnesota. - Yay, thank you. Yes. Oh, look at that. This was perfect timing. And I'm gonna try to do my
best to out run that storm. I'm kind of traumatized
after that derecho in Iowa. I was debating because just
10 miles south of here, there's this giant pelican sculpture that somebody told me
and recommended to see but I'm really worried about that storm. That does not look good. I'm gonna have to change
my route, make a detour. I'm gonna change my route, I cannot get caught in the path of that. Change of plans. I don't want to be caught
in the path of that storm. So, we're going southeast,
you know, just to avoid it, wait it out somewhere further south and then we'll come back up. If we lose an hour or two in the process, it is what it is. But that just looks too scary, too much like that derecho we went through a couple of days ago. And nope. I'm gonna go towards Wadena and I am so glad I don't
have reservations anywhere because it is a pretty big detour. (bouncy electronic music) I'm gonna stop here ever so briefly, put a fresh new battery on the GoPro and then we continue. Well to make a long story short less than an hour later,
we are arriving in Wadena. And I'm gonna have lunch here real quick. Right here I just parked in the street and let me show you something man, this storm seems determined
at catching up with me. By the way, easy little town here. Look at that. So this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna drive 20 miles further south. See if we can, you know,
I'm gonna show you the map. I'm gonna put the map here and show you what I'm thinking about. But it's pretty crazy. I drove all the way down to
a town called Eagle Bend. And I parked at a church and waited for the weather to improve. And we won't be able to
avoid the rain entirely but at least the worst is over by now. And since there is good internet I'm gonna make an otherwise boring drive more interesting by live streaming the whole thing on Facebook. An eternity later here we
are , Itasca State Park. - All right, let's go see the
headwaters of the Mississippi. (dramatic music) That's pretty cool. This is where we are headwaters. "Great Rivers of the World". That's what this one is called. And of course this would be Mississippi. And the other big one is the Nile. The Nile would be another
important river here. And of course the Amazon
and South America. All right, let's see headwaters. 800 feet six feet or two
meters, social distance. Here's a sculpture of the
headwaters caretaker woman. And we are about to cross
the Mississippi once again. Yeah, I think I should've worn my hoodie. It's, the temperature is dropping. I mean, we're in the
middle of August here. What's going on? (chuckles) Here we are the very beginning of the mighty Mississippi here at 1,475 feet above the ocean, the mighty Mississippi begins to flow on its winding way, 2,552
miles to the Gulf of Mexico. That's Lake Itasca. And here they have some rocks
where you can cross the river if you feel so inclined. Well, I suppose this would be the shortest and northern most bridge
over the Mississippi. We are crossing the mighty
Mississippi River here on this, a wooden plank. It's pretty cool, actually. Well, welcome back to the visitor center and what a cool experience
to be able to to see this here in Northern Minnesota, the headwaters of the Mississippi. Now we have another two and
a half hours going north here and yeah, let's hit the road. Doesn't it kind of have
that Washington State look, like that rainforest with all the ferns? I mean, the trees are not as big, but yeah it's got that rain forest look to it. And yeah a little muddy. Yeah, I think the fact
that it's a rainy day adds to the whole, that whole feeling. (upbeat music) Here we are, the Seven Clans Casino. They offer free RV parking
with electrical hookups. And even though I don't
really like to gamble in a different time, I would
have gone into the bar, maybe have an IPA or maybe even dinner. But in the summer of 2020 here, I'm just gonna park, do my livestream, maybe edit a little video and go to sleep. Very crispy this morning, the air. You can tell we are in like in a totally different climate here. I mean, we are in the
great White North, right? It's just not white. It's beautiful. Beautiful day today. It's probably, temperature is probably 60. It's a little bit of a breeze. So, and I'm not using the
good microphone, so... Really have this very
nice outdoor area here. I guess that's part of the buffet. I doubt the buffet's gonna
be open in the year of COVID. And there's a nice gazebo here. I was looking at my map and
that landmass over there in the distance, that's probably
Buffalo Point in Canada. That will be kind Canada right there. I'm getting hungry. So I'm gonna make some of that sweet corn that that Anant gave me a
couple of days ago in Iowa. I'm just gonna boil it for five minutes. That's what they said. And then we're gonna
get on the road again. (upbeat music) This is called Lake of the Woods. And why have we come all the way up here? Well let me tell you for many years now I've been meaning to visit
all the extreme points of the United States. And this one is a geographical oddity. Somewhere beyond Buffalo Point over there is the Northwest Angle. Let me show you on a map. Angle Inlet, located
at the Northwest Angle is the northern most point in the contiguous United States. Apparently at the time of
the Treaty of Paris in 1873, they didn't really know the
origin of the Mississippi River and the map they used was wrong. And in the end we're
left with this enclave only accessible through
Canada or by boat, I suppose. Guess what? As of August, 2020, the Canadian border is still closed and this is pretty much
as close as we can get. Actually, I'm gonna try and
get a little bit closer. If I could just fly a little bit higher we could probably see it, but
we're limited to 400 feet. So I'm just gonna drive Muskeg Bay here to a point that is actually closer. Well, what a difference a day makes. And today it's just beautiful. I mean, there's some clouds
coming from North Dakota, but I'll monitor the weather just in case. We're gonna backtrack
west even a little more, see if we can get a glimpse at that inlet, since we are here all the
way, we came all the way. What's 25 minutes in the
grand scheme of things? - And then we're going to North Dakota. How do you like my North
Dakota shirt, by the way? It's got a bison. There's the border patrol. And I don't think I've
ever seen a flatter land. This is called Rocky Point,
the end of the road here. There's a resort called
Arnesen's Rocky Point. They even have an RV park. Let me see if I can find a
place to park for a few minutes. Try and see if the
Northwest Angle is visible and I really hope I don't run
into a dead end situation. Let's turn around right here. (wind blowing) Oh yeah, this is probably as close as I'm going to get on this trip. Somewhere out there. Canada over there. Yeah, if that's Buffalo Point, then the inlet is just beyond the horizon. (jazzy music) Let's make sure the GoPro
is recording and off we go. Next time, I might want to
stay at this RV park here. And I was gonna fly the
drone but it's a little windy and I don't think it was
gonna make a big difference. You know, 400 feet above ground. It's just beyond the horizon. The inlet, I was looking in the map. If we can barely see
Canada on the left there, we can, we're not gonna be able to see. But yeah, we're pretty much here. Very close to the parallel
where Canada would begin except for... Someday, I... Maybe you can take a boat from
here into the Northern Angle. We'll do that next year
when the border is open. We'll do it the normal way. Now I've got a two hour drive to, oh, and I forgot to
get a bottle of water. Let me stop here real quick. Just to get a bottle of water. (upbeat music) Today the road will take
us back to North Dakota and we're gonna spend a few days exploring but I'm gonna save all that
along with the day trip we did from Fargo for the next episode. Until then, thank you
so much for watching. And see you on the road. (upbeat music) (bright music) ♪ I'm riding ♪ ♪ Riding in my RV ♪
