Sep 2007

Starting Mileage: 113295, Brimly MI
Ending Mileage: 113488, 20 Mi N of Cadilac MI
Weather: Thunderstorm & Heavy Rain, clearing as we went south, head wind most of the day however

First a little housekeeping:

(1) If you're new to the blog, we've been unable to connect to the internet at any more than dial up speeds for some time, so I'm really behind uploading photo's (and the farther behind I get, the longer it will take to get caught up of course). So what I'm trying to do is at least write up a text blog entry daily and just call it a Placeholder - until I can get the photo's uploaded later. Usually I write the Placeholder entries off the top of my head, so they may not be 100% correct. I try to go back and check facts & spelling later against the travel brochures or ??? when I add the photos. I haven't had any internet service of any kind at times, so sometimes even the text doesn't get uploaded (I do write the entries on the laptop, just have to upload them later when I get a signal).

(2) If you have anything to add or correct - please do! We read and appreciate all comments.

(3) We take a LOT of pictures. I've been trying to decide how many to upload and how to organize them. When we went through the Pioneer Village in Cashmere, WA, I took pictures of the interior and exterior of every building - but only uploaded a couple of them. Mom has been taking a lot of pictures of wild flowers, which I've been uploading - signal permitting, but they aren't shown in a blog entry yet (you can view photo's in our photo albums if they've been uploaded). Going forward, here's what I've decided to do:

I'll continue to write daily blog entries just as you normally would in a Journal. On this day, we went here, did this, etc. However, I'll also start to write journal entries for specific Topics, but use other categories for them. Travellerspoint has a category for "Animals", one for "Photography". I'll use these for 'theme' based blog entries. For example, (when I get time...), I'll create an entry for Wildflowers and display Mom's photo's for those in that entry. For a brief period, those will show up on the main page - but thereafter you can see those by selecting the "Photography" category. I'll do the same for each Pioneer Village or Museum we post pictures from - so if you want to see those photo's, you won't have to sort through the blog entries by date, but can select the "Photography" category instead. <<When I can get to it that is...>>

--- On to today's travel ---

I started raining last night, hard, with thunder and lightening. This morning we had trouble waking up (also because our bodies weren't quite on Eastern Time Zone yet), but we didn't get up until a quarter to nine! OK I thought, we would stop in Sault Saint Marie for a bit, then drive hard and make it 1/2 way down the Lower Peninsula - and a short drive to my Uncle Bob & Aunt Madeline's house. False assumption based on the lack of knowledge of what interesting things lay ahead.

So we woke up on 50 feet from Lake Superior, drove a short distance to Sault Saint Marie (in driving rain) and found the downtown area - very old town, founded in the 1600's by fur traders and a Jesuit missionary. We found the Soo Locks first, much bigger then the Ballard Locks we have in Seattle (they have to accomidate the big ships on the Great Lakes), but they operate the same way. There is a twenty-one foot difference in the level of Lake Superior to Lake Huron, so the locks raise and lower the water level to allow ships to pass between the lakes. While we were there, large ships came through the locks in both directions (and more were waiting to go through), so it is a busy place.

At first Mom didn't want to get out of the car since she hadn't gotten a good nights sleep, what with the storm, and it was raining so hard. However, once I went into the visitors center and saw how much information they had about the Great Lakes, I went back and told her. The visitors center wasn't much of a walk from the RV and was warm and dry, and she was really glad she made the trip. We found out a lot more about the lakes, the locks and the history of the area. She was also able to watch the ships go through the locks from the visitors center - every time a ship entered the locks, they announced it on the PA system with the length of the ship and a little other info.

I went on up to a cat walk that overlooks the locks and tried videotaping some of it. When I get all this info caught up, it might be interesting to watch...

We spent so much time at the locks, we just picked up some postcards and fudge and decided to skip the maritime museum (the visitors center at the locks was enough for us today) - so we swam back to the RV (only 1/2 way kidding) and headed south on I75. We left the rain about 1/2 across the peninsula and I thought we'd make pretty good time. However, I also decided to pull off at St. Ignace. First I had to climb the "Castle", a natural promatory (with added steps, fences and gift shop) - that is 183 feet above the highway and has a great view of Lake Huron. It also has 170 steps to the top, but I made it. Mom fixed lunch in the RV, so after I got back and we ate (it only takes about 10 minutes to climb, but a few to recover also) - we drove on down to St. Ignace. This is on Lake Huran (Mom collected sand of course) and across the channel from Mackinac Island. Aparently people come from all over the world to visit this Island, but we didn't feel we could afford the time (and the peak season was over, although many things were still open). In 1898 the Island decided to ban automobiles, so you take Carriage rides to visit various places on the island. It has a 1700's British Fort and other historic sites and a town, as well as a 'Grand Hotel', but we will have to visit it from the brochure, we didn't take the ferry across.

We did however stop at a native museum in town that had a birch bark tipi and longhouse. (Mom's trying to sleep, I'll have to add more later).

Then we drove across the Mackinac Bridge, which connects the upper and lower peninsula's of Michigan. This was built in 1957 and is the third longest suspension bridge in the world - the longest in the western hemisphere. The suspension bridge is 8,344 feet long. The total bridge length is 26,144 feet, which includes the steel superstructure leading into the suspension portion - it is a very long bidge. Other than getting a picture, I figured we just drive across the bridge and keep driving. However as we got across, I couldn't help but spot a wooden stockade or fort just below the bridge.

Sure enough, there was a really interesting replica of Colonial Michilimackinac, a British fort from the fur trading era founded in 1715. It was moved to Mackinac Island during the Revolutionary War since the commander at the time felt the original location wasn't defensible from the 'rebels', but has since been reconstructed to how it appeared in the 1770's. Historical interpreters act as soldiers and civilians of that period (and we have pictures to post of course). I thought Mom might be too tired to go through this so was suggesting things she could do in the RV, but no - she wanted to see it and made it through the whole, long journey back through time. This was the 5th historical type 'village' (town or fort) we've seen on this trip so far and by far the one depicting the oldest time period. Of course, pictures to follow

We finally 'hit the road' again and, despite a nasty head/cross wind - made it almost to Cadelac, MI tonight. Will finish the journay to Bob & Madeline's tomorrow...

As I was helping Mom with the Laundry, I looked down and saw a rock in the gravel that looks black with shiny streeks - it looks like a piece of metal. Hmm. We finish the laundry and RV maintenance (vacuum, dishes, holding tanks, check the stuff tied to the top, repacking) and head to town to check out the "Cliffs Shaft Mine".

The tour started at 11 AM, and we were the only people who showed up for the tour (more folks came for the later tours), so we got pretty good treatment from our tour guides, Al and Joyce Smith. The tour cost money, but everybody working there was volunteers - the mine has only been open for tourists about six years and they are still trying to do a lot of restoration work to improve it, but it's still a very interesting place to visit. Mom started the tour with me, but quickly decided she didn't want to go into the tunnels (only the top level tunnel is open), so she waited up top.

This was a shaft mine because there were three verticle shafts (A, B, and C) that raised and lowered miners, equipment, and ore from the mine. There were 12 different levels in the mine, each one at least 100 feet deeper than the previous (all are filled with water now, but an upper tunnel is open for the tour as well as the buildings, equipment and the C shaft). This was a hard sided mine (I'm not sure I'm using the correct terms here, unfortunately I didn't take notes during the tour so may be getting some of my facts wrong. If anybody wants to add or correct things, please add comments and do so!) Anyway, many or most mines are in softer rock, so need a lot of beams to shore up the walls and roofs. The Cliffs Shaft mine was in very hard rock, so the walls & roofs didn't need much support. It had a very high grade ore, mostly 60% or more iron content (Hemitite, like the rocks I found in the RV Camp area). We also learned that a form of Jasper and Iron layered rock is found in the area, a piece of which is in the Smithsonian Institution and is labeled as coming from Ishpeming, Michigan.

The Cliffs Shaft mine was the longest operating shaft mine in the US due to the very high grade ore. It finally just got too deep to mine any longer (it would cost a million dollars a year just to keep pumping the water out - to say nothing about all the other support that goes into keeping an underground mine operational.) The Cliff Shaft mine had about 50 miles of track in it's 12 layers of tunnels by the time it closed. Most iron mines nowdays are open pit mines, some of which are also in this area of Michigan. In fact, we found out that Upper Michigan has quite a bit of copper and iron deposits as well as other minerals. I took quite a few pictures, these are thumbnails, so if you'd like to see what they are, just click to enlarge and get a description.

The Cliffs Shaft Museum also contains a room where various minerals and rocks are displayed (geode's, copper sheet - as found in nature, ores, crystals, etc.) Mom really enjoyed the geodes and I enjoyed seeing exhibits of raw minerals as well as various forms of ores). Outside the gift shop was a piece of raw 'float' copper about 3,600 pounds. (This was thought to be deposited after 'floating' on a glacier during the ice age.)

We didn’t visit the other sights in Ishpeming, having just spent 2 hours at the shaft mine and needing to make some tracks, but it apparantly also has quite a history as one of the oldest locations for organized skiing in the US. Although the terrain looks relatively flat to me, they get 300 inches of snow a year - and most of this region is considered ski territory anywhere there is any kind of small slope. So this is a big ski destination in the winter.

Since we had also entered the eastern time zone sometime yesterday - we didn't leave Ishpering until about 1 PM and we really had to get moving. Unfortunately (for our schedule at least), much of the early part of the trip was along Lake Superior - so I kept stopping at scenic turnouts to enjoy the shore. This is a 'National Seashore', but the term 'Sea' seems a little odd to me since Lake Superior is a fresh water lake - but since it is the largest fresh water lake in the world and since you can't see the opposite shore along most of the way - perhaps 'sea' is more appropriate? It was a little windy today, so there were waves over a foot at times. The sand was very soft and not as red as it had been farther to the west (in Wisconson), but still lovely.

In Munsing was a U.S. Forest Service Visitors Center - the Hiwatha Forest covers a large area of the shoreline. It had a lot of great information and I wish we'd had more time to explore this area. We did finally leave the shoreline in Munsing for awhile, so I thought I'd make better time. I guess we did go a little faster, but I continued to stop on occasion to try to get pictures of the beautiful fall foleage (I didn't like the way yesterday's pictures came out - I've got to learn how to use filters for some sorts of conditions).

By the way, Munsing advertises itself as "The Snowmobile Capital of the World" - could be correct, there are many roads and paths marked for ATV's and Snowmobiles. In the winter, many people use various forms of vehicles on Lake Superior. Also, there were turnouts along the Highway with big thermometer's on them reading down to 60 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) - probably to help the snowmobiler's know when it was time to bundle up?

Finally, we made it fairly close to Sault Saint Marie - Mom wanted to see the locks there, so that's on tap for Friday morning. Tonight we are staying in Brimley State Park, which is on Lake Superior. Our campsite has a lovely view of the lake and is only a short walk to the beach. Last night, I kept Mom up too late while I organized my pictures, so tonight I'm trying something different - using the laptop in the top bunk (cab over in a Class C RV) with the curtains closed. Some light & noise gets through of course, but it seems to be working as I can hear her snoring (very lightly). Going to work a bit more on the photo's, then call it a night. Mom says forget the photo's and/or the blog - keeps me up too late at night. However, I am planning for this all to be MY journal of the trip throughout the years - so I told her I need to do this for me. Even if it gets posted too late for anybody else to care, I want the text and pictures organized so when I'm done with the trip - I can print it all out and have a nifty journal of this period. So, dammed the torpedo's - full speed ahead (aka - who needs sleep!)

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 166, Cumulative - 3,405
Camped at Brimley State Park, MI (12 Miles W of Sault Saint Marie)

Provisions - Gas $29.95, 9.48 Gallons at 113,246

Today was my sister, Que's birthday. We remembered to send her a birthday card earlier this week - but we forgot to call her today. We're sorry Que - Happy Birthday!

It rained pretty hard most of the night, so I was a bit surprised when we woke up and the sky had patches of blue and it wasn't raining. We could see the water below our campsite and the Apostle Islands that were all fogged in last night. We decided not to take the 'grand tour' of the Apostle Islands and Lighthouses to save time (I'm still second guessing that decision), so we took a little time to enjoy Bayfield. Mom bought some smoked fish in Bayview and enjoyed it as we drove along (we've been eating a little too well on this trip I fear - having seen some of the pictures of myself!)

Before we left on the trip, we figured we would only be driving about 4 hours a day, so we'd have lots of free time. We brought some hobbies along, such as music instruments and paint sets, to help us fill up all our free time. Well, we spend a little time on housework, a couple hours a day sightseeing (sometimes more), a lot more time then we thought with just short stops (to take pictures of just about anything we think is cool), and of course driving. If I spend an hour or two on the laptop at night, the day is pretty much gone and the blog usually behind.

After we get through New England, we'll probably budget more time for rest, e.g. stay at a nice place a couple of nights and get caught up on things. We did plan an eight month trip afterall, but only budgeted one month to go across the north of the country (so we'd have a month to spend in New England before things started shutting down for the winter). So we should be able to take things a little more leisurely the last six months (I can dream, right?)

However, the main thing tripping us up is just that there are so many more interesting things to see and do than we had expected. Every state we've been to has had so many more interesting things to see than we can take in. We've felt rushed most of the trip and we've both picked up brochures for places and things to do that we just haven't had time to do. I met someone who's sister had RV'd around the US and took eight years to do it, not eight months! Given what we've experienced so far, I think that's about right. However, I haven't the time or money to spend that long on the road (I'm pilfering my retirement savings to do this trip as it is), so we'll just have to do as much as we can in the time that's available. I'm not sorry I took the trip, I'm just musing a bit on wishing I had time to take in even more, write even more in the blog, etc.

So anyway, about Bayfield (and many other small towns along the Lake Superior shoreline), we were both impressed about how similar this seemed to small coastal villages or towns we've seen along the Pacific Coast. The nautical theme is often used for shops and covered thoroughly by gift shops. We saw marina's and boat yards that could have been twin sisters to those in Puget Sound (smaller however). Mom also noticed the 'sea' grass in the sand dunes. Lots of seagulls, although we've seen them all along our trip, even in the Rocky Mountain and Plains states. The one thing different was the smell - no salt air. For some reason, this bothered me, these places just didn't smell 'right' to me. Mom didn't seem to think it was a problem. Also Mom noticed the lack of shells on the beaches. Where we live there are lots of clam shells and sand dollars (out at Oceanshores anyway). Perhaps there used to be here but they were all used for Buttons (I think that's what the Pierre Museum said?)

We hugged the shorelines of Lake Superior through Ashland, Wisconson and had lunch at a Country Kitchen there. Mom remembered these to be a buffet style restaurant out west that she really loved. We had seen these all over out here also (like DQ), but out here they are (or this one was) a sit down restaurant more like Denny's. In the parking lot was a small tree that looked like it had clearish cherries on it. We asked the waitress what it was and she had no idea there was a tree in the parking lot. However, a nice young fellow eating in the next cube over overheard us and went outside to check. He thought it was a choke cherry, but the fruit wasn't ripe yet and probably wouldn't have time to ripen before winter hit (we are in the far north now). His name was Buck and he was on a mini-vacation since his job is to load grain ships for export and he didn't have any ships to load for a couple of weeks. It turns out that Wisconsin is a big grain exporter and Lake Superior has a lot of ports on it (Duluth is one of the largest ports around). I thought that was pretty neighborly for him to overhear a question and run outside to check into it - but we've been meeting mostly nice, helpful people all along the trip so far. (We'll see if the east coast can compete in this category!)

Ashland does have a small lighthouse in the harbor - we many not have taken the tour in Bayfield, but we can sometimes take pictures from shore!

There is also an old railroad trestle used to load ore onto ships. It's something of a neighborhood eyesore and the community is trying to get the railroad to tear it down. I thought it was rather interesting however.

We crossed into Michigan exactly 3,108 miles since we left home - it was supposed to be 3,000 miles across the whole country! I guess all those north/south jaunts have taken their toll on our mileage, trip time, and my budget.

The visitors center was very helpful, and of course we picked up a lot of brochures & information. We learned that the two parts if Michigan are the Upper and Lower Peninsula's and the visiters center was mostly geared to the upper peninsula. A lot of folks here sound like they have French Canadian accents, and the local's seem to call themselves 'Yoopers' (gift shops carry all sorts of cards, T-Shirts, and other sundry items with "Da Yooper" on them, sort of like Uf Da I suppose). Shortly after crossing into MI we spotted this unusual post office. I forgot to note the name of the town however.

As we were driving along, we saw a bridge and sign saying we were at Agate Falls. We stopped since it seemed it was right along the highway and took the path to the falls. Even the bridge over the falls is picturesque (and somewhat historic).

It was surprisingly beautiful (surprisingly because Amnicon Falls had been a bit of a disappointment, but Agate Falls was much bigger and more spectacular). I think even Mom enjoyed the hike, but of course was a little tired at the end. I went back to get the RV to save her some walking, but forgot to take the bungee cord and strap off that normally ties down her walker. So when I went to put the walker back on, there was nothing to tie it down with. We put the walker inside the RV and I drove back to where it had been parked, and sure enough, found them both. (We have 'lost' several items during this trip, but most don't stay lost more than a couple of days).

The seaside towns were nice, and we've really enjoyed the 'seashore' (e.g. lake shore for Lake Superior), but I think what has surprised us the most has been the fall colors. We were expecting to see some fall colors in New England, but they came earlier here. We started seeing reds and yellows at Lake Itasca, MN - then more in Wisconson, and finally really spectacular ones here in northern Michigan. According to the tourist brochure's, there are about three weeks in the fall where the colors are so beautiful, people come to Upper Michigan just to see them, including artists who like to paint them. Having seen them ourselves, we can certainly believe it. (And we weren't the only ones enjoying the colors!)

Finally, I decided my blog was far enough behind and we really needed some luxury (ok, housekeeping), I'd splurg on a really nice RV park. The campground guide said there was an RV park in Ishpeming, MI, which was about 193 miles from Bayfield and I decided to stay there. After setting up and paying the high fee, we found out their wireless internet hadn't been working all summer - so I'm still typing my entry in Outlook and will have to upload it later. Oh well, at least we got the rig vacuumed and some laundry done (my Aunt Madeline has gratiously offered to let us do laundry there, but once we realized how FAR we still had to go to get to Berrien Center, MI - we felt we'd better go ahead and do it now. We'll have more in a few days…)

Ishpeming is pronounced ISH-pem-ing, with the accent on the first sylable. It is a lot more interesting place than I realized - check tomorrow's blog and learn more...

Logistics:

Starting Mileage: 112936, Bayfield WI
Ending Mileage: 113129, Ishpeming MI
Weather: Sunny, 70 F

After a good nights sleep, we both woke up with a renewed interest in sightseeing this morning, this in spite of the overcast and rain we had all last night and almost all day today. So when we got to Duluth, I tried to take a side trip to the downtown area just for fun. After driving through some dreary areas and not being all that keen on the city, we went on across the bridge to Superior, Wisconson (yes, finally another state). Oddly enought, there were no "Welcome to Wisconsin" signs until after we'd gotten though a good portion of Superior, so we updated our maps when we stopped at the Superior, WI Post office.

Also in Superior, we saw a "Barkers Island", which looked interesting so we took a quick loop through it (Mom got some sand), then looped back to the Visitors center and picked up a bunch of brochures. Although it was closed the day we were there, there was a most interesting boat on Barkers Island called a whaleback boat.

Across the street and down a bit was a historic mansion called the Fairlawn house. We stopped by there and took the tour. It was built by a mining and timber baron around 1890, then was converted to a childrens home from the 1920's through 1963 or so. Finally it was restored to it's original self (for the most part) and is quite splended. Each of the first floor rooms is decorated in a different wood, Philippine Mahogony, Cherry, Oak, etc. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so just enjoyed the tour and went along our merry way.

Mom wanted to take Hwy 13, which is part of the Lake Superior Circle Tour. It is very scenic, but not the fastest route across Wisconsin. Also, this will take us the long way through Michigan (across a bridge which is supposed to be pretty cool). We drove through a lot a farms, mostly red barns here for some reason?

This is the Iron River and where it flows into Lake Superior:

We stopped at Amnicon Falls State Park. The water here contains a lot of tannon and normally the falls look a lot like Root Beer. Today however they were a pretty normal waterfalls, I suspect due to all the rain.

We also stopped at a couple of places where there are rest area's or lookouts over Lake Superior. Mom collected some more sand. She also spotted some interesting fungus on a tree.

We drove through a town called Port Wing. At one time they exported red stone bricks that were used in many famous buildings throughout the country - including the Fairlawn Mansion. They also started using the first school busses in Wisconson.

These are from Cornucopia, a very tiny fishing village:

Finally, we decided to camp at a city park near Bayfield, WI. (That is Lake Superior you can't see through the tree's and fog)

This is near the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. We couldn't see the islands tonight because of the fog and the visitors center is closed tonight, so maybe we can see a bit more in the morning. Bayfield looks like a quaint little town and may be worth doing a little sightseeing in. Also September is celebrating the lighthouses month and there is a grand tour of the lighthouses on the islands tomorrow at 10 AM (3 hours duration I think), so we may take that (unfortunately, we didn't). There is an island offshore called Madeline Island, and a ferry that goes to it. Thought this might be fun to include in honor of someone we know...

In any event, according to the map, we are still over 600 miles from my Uncle Bob and Aunt Madeline's in Berrien Center, MI. I thought we'd be there by tomorrow night, but obviously not - if we do the lighthouse tour, maybe Friday night if I really book after we leave Bayfield?

I may not be exactly on schedule, but we are really getting to know a lot more about the states we've visited. We really didn't do a very good job visiting Minnesota, maybe someday I'll make it back.

Logistics:

Starting Mileage: 112823, 20 Miles W of Duluth
Ending Mileage: 112936, Bayfield WI
Weather: Light Rain, Overcast

First - I want to assure everyone that we DO read your comments! I need to edit and/or update the blog at a different web site (www.travellerspoint.com), so it is a little less convenient to read comments and reply to them within the blog itself, I usually read them from the blog management page (which doesn't let me reply to them). I'll have to work this out - but please don't assume that we aren't reading your comments if we don't post a reply! AND we very much appreciate hearing from you and getting your feedback!

Last night, I finally figured out why my blog entries weren't posting. Perhaps I got a little carried away, but ended up staying up half the night getting a few things caught up. (I had been writing in Outlook, but hadn't been able to post to the blog until last night.) So I've been a little on the grouchy side today, didn't take very many pictures, and didn't do much sightseeing. I try to avoid this, hate to waste the opportunities a trip like this can offer - but I guess we're all human (ugh). Also, we had to take care of a few chores this morning (as well as more internet catch up), so we got off to a very late start.

The weather has changed, instead of warm sunny skies as we've had the last few days, it's overcast and rainy. A thunderstorm hit last night and I had to fight some wind during the drive. The RV can handle the wind, but I have to keep my speed down. All in all, a slow day without as much 'fun' as some days (isn't life like that though?)

Before going to bed last night, we also heard a sort of screetching and mewing that was really odd. Mom thought it sounded like a racoon, so I turned off the lights and checked with a flashlight, and sure enough - a racoon tail just ran off. Of course, he didn't wait around until I could locate a camera...

This morning, I had to get out the ladder and refasten the stuff I'd moved up to the RV roof - I hadn't tied it down as well as I'd thought.

When we left Lake Itasca (pronounced I-task-a) State Park, we couldn't help notice how much the tree's in Minnesota had already started to turn to fall colors. We did take a few pictures of these. We also tried several times to take pictures of the many birds in the park - but the little twirps had the nerve to fly off as soon as I'd slow down the RV!

Even Mom got into the spirit!

We headed east on state Hwy 200 (a more rural, 2 lane road) and passed many beautiful lakes and lots of tree's. In the last few states, grasslands were the rule although we also saw tree's. In this part of Minnesota, tree's seem to be the rule, although we occasionally see cleared land. The tree's here aren't as tall as the Douglas Fir's in western Washington, mostly red or white pine and leafy tree's that change color (I need a spell checker - disidous, no desidous, no, dumb trees with leaves).

We stopped for lunch alongside a very large "Leach Lake". A car noticed our out of state plates and stopped by to investigate. Mom also got a call from a newspaper reporter in Pierre, South Dakota who had gotten our card from someone there and was asking about our trip (maybe I'd better improve my spelling, writing, attitude before this get's out?)

We passed a lot of 'resorts', not all of which appeared to be doing well. Maybe if you have 10,000 lakes - lakeside resorts aren't so special?

We also drove through two, smaller indian reservations today: the Fort du Lac Reservation and the Leach Lake Indian Reservation.

We drove through several very small towns (most under 600). When we finally got to the big city we were heading for, Grand Rapids, it only had less than 8,000 people. We had learned from the Grand Forks visitors center that Judy Garland was born in Grand Rapids and you could visit her house there. We did that, but neither of us felt like spending money on the tour or gallery (probably because I was being grouchy), so we just went through the gift shop and bought a few things. Of course, I wish I'd taken the tour (at least I bought a yellow brick, foam, but never the less - some spirit?)

We did pass a pond with a beaver dam & island on it on Hwy 2 and saw another hawk. Mom also spotted some deer.

I had wanted to go to the MN Mining Museum, but it was too late to get there today and quite a bit north of our route, so we wimped out and drove on to Duluth. I seem to have a pretty good signal (not HS, but OK), so am again trying to catch up a bit on the blog - and will shortly hit the sack and catch up on some sleep.

In case anyone has been trying to contact me, I haven't had AT&T Cellular Service for several days - e.g., no phone (my unit doesn't have 'roaming' capability. Mom's phone has 'roaming', so we've been able to make & receive calls on her phone.)

Logistics:

Starting Mileage: 112657, Lake Itasca MN
Ending Mileage: 112823, 20 miles west of Duluth, MN
Weather: Overcast & Raining