2009 Road Trips

[Gene]

I found out this is a city owned campground. That explains its casually maintained quality. They have a campground host who gets to live in a Streamline. It looks very good on the outside.

We went into Duluth, shopping for food at the Whole Foods Co-op (no relation to the megachain) and going through some shops. Ate at the Lake Avenue Cafe. Good food! The bread served was very good—nice hard crust like we like and I bought a loaf for down the road. We'll have to bake it for 10 minutes to finish the process, so it'll be fresh then whenever we do it. Downtown is pretty simple to figure out and looks like a good place to live, though the area outside of downtown is rundown a little. Looks like the kind of place students at the local university would live.

Some photos:

1. Terraport. On the gov't permit it says "Terreport".

2. Mackinac Island: street sweeper pulled by horses, but the sweeper has a motor to run it. Seems like cheating.

3. Hotels with horse drawn cart for supplies and luggage in foreground.

4. Road around island, notorious tandem bike on left, tired bike rider on right.

Gene

[Gene]

More photos from the island:

1. The one of the right is a hotel, not sure about the one on the left.

2. Store and possible residence with harbor in background.

3. Barb at cannon at British Landing.

4. Some old guy with notorious bike with straits bridge in background.

[Gene]

Trying again…

[tksbaskets]

Great update. I should be sleeping but instead I'm LOL at your 'skinny' and 'teethbrush' comments! Good thing I wasn't sipping my Diet Pepsi when I read that!

Enjoyed the pictures. My hubby and I are having our 22nd anniversary this summer but are not as well traveled as the two of you. Looking forward to changing that!

Thank you for sharing!
TK

[jaojamjab]

Hey now the men aren't the only ones getting stuck with the very exciting sewer job!!
Now that I think about it every time I have traveled with my husband I am the one that gets that lovely job. He plays dumb. What am I doing wrong??? Although.........
The Flush King it's like watching a fire burn and makes the job fun.
I have just spent the last year and a half living my dream seeing our beautiful country in my Airstream. Back to reality now Loved every minute of it but I never made it to Michigan. Thanks for the pictures.
Happy Trails,
Julie

[PeeWee]

A destination of red rock beauty.

[dstalzer]

Great pictures Gene. We hope to make a trip through Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Manitoba next year to see family and friends. For this year we have been out for one 2000 mile trip in March and a 200 mile long weekend in April. Planning a trip to Big Bend and Guadalupe mountains in west Texas in a couple weeks.
I hope you are able to get a good internet connection for the rest of your trip.. I look forward to your travels and now pictures every day. Have a safe and trouble free travel for the rest of your trip.

Dennis

[Gene]

Today they turned on the water in this campground. Hooray, civilized again! Showers for all. Filled the water tank too.

We spent the day in Duluth seeing the sights. A very easy city to understand and get around. It's spread along the shore because of a bluff just behind the rather narrow waterfront. A lot of streets are very steep which must mean interesting trips downhill in the winter.

It feels like an old industrialized city, which is what it is with emphasis on the shipping trade. Lots of new buildings downtown which have unfortunately replaced historic ones. There's a peninsula into the lake which has much redevelopment of old buildings and is nice to visit. Further along are lots of houses and some new condos on what feels like barrier beach along the ocean.

Nearby is the old train station, quite an architectural treasure. The interior has been messed up and needs a real restoration project. It is the site of railroad museum. The museum needs some work too. There were a lot of old steam locomotives and rail cars. One locomotive is a massive unit, unbelievable in its size. It was used to haul iron ore I think. Burned enough coal in one hour to heat a house for two years. They have a lot of good stuff here, but it's obvious they don't have the monetary resources to maintain a collection of this size. It's well worth a visit nevertheless and you have to give them a lot of credit for doing this at all. Reminded me of watching steam trains and the town railroad station when I was a kid visiting my grandmother, scenes long gone from America. We love museums, but after a few hours standing around at exhibits, my back hurts a lot and exhausts me. Now Barb's back is bothering her and we leave like cripples.

Then to lunch at a redeveloped brewery—Fitgers I think. Food was kind of heavy, but we survived. Then to the visitors bureau which has a small museum on lake shipping next to the port area. It's free too. And we saw the Duluth Aerial Bridge go up and down. This bridge is a big deal here. It sits astride a shipping canal and the entire roadway goes up at once, not at one end like most do. There are two steel towers at each end and cables and pulleys lift it up about 130' using massive counterweights. Originally, about 100 years ago, it was the Duluth Ferry Bridge and the upper part moved a gondola back and forth across the canal with people, cars and freight. In the '20's, they rebuilt everything with a roadway. We took photos and will eventually download them.

Thought about driving the Skyline Drive—it runs many miles above the city on a bluff 600' above the lake and was once the shoreline of Lake Superior. Hard to imagine that. Ran out of time and energy.

Barb found her favorite coffee here—Caribou Coffee. She searches for this stuff all over and there was a Caribou store here. Maybe it's blended here? Went to a supermarket and when we came out it was hailing—the Airstreamer's fear. Just soft stuff, marble sized, but when we came back to the trailer, I checked the weather and there were tornado watches just east and north. They're following us again.

This is considered a very desirable place to live. Lots of cultural opportunities, good restaurants (one we couldn't find, maybe out of business) and easy access to the national forest, fishing, hunting, hiking, skiing. Because of the influence of the lake, it's about 10˚ cooler here than inland. We haven't seen much of anything but the downtown area and port. To me, coming from the northeast, it feels familiar and comfortable, but I like rural communities better now.

Tomorrow it looks like Grand Marais, 109 miles up the lake coast. Apparently a very artistic village. Looking through this thread I see many recommendations for places to stay and I'm not sure we have stayed at any of them. Things seem to present themselves in some sort of way that makes sense at the time—getting to certain destinations like Mackinaw or Duluth. Grand Marais (Big Swamp, doesn't sound so inviting in English) has a large municipal campground with all services though I don't think it has wireless. I've noticed since we got to Michigan and here some towns have a large campground with full hookups and sometimes wifi. The one in GM has 300 sites, 1/2 with full hookups. We'll be able to take our time traveling up the coast, avoiding the major highway (61 of Bob Dylan fame) when we can and get to GM fairly early and spend a couple of nights there.

The plan, which we have kept to so far, is to travel up the Gunflint Trail into Superior NF after GM. It goes almost to the Canadian border and the Boundary Waters. The Border Patrol may disguise themselves as trees up there watching for drug smugglers (no terrorist would be crazy enough to use that route). There is a private campground about 40 miles in with wireless, but maybe we'll go native and look for a NF boondocking site. I used to backpack many miles into the wilderness and curl around the rocks to sleep, but now that I have this luxury trailer with HDTV, I have been transformed into something I never thought would happen to me. My father used to tell me things like this would happen to me and I thought he was crazy. He was wrong about rock 'n' roll—I still like it.

Gene

[Lily&Me]

The drive to Grand Marais should be beautiful, even if the weather is poor. There is a tiny donut shop in town that makes wonderful donuts as fast as they can sell them, if you are interested in indulging. Travel safe.

[Gene]

Dense fog this morning. It may stretch along the coast because the humidity is 96˚ in GM. But fog along Lake Superior seems appropriate. Showers and t-storms predicted, possibly some severe with hail. Perhaps an adventurous drive. Moving slow since we only have a short drive. Don't know about donuts, we've been eating ice cream and we have to stop before we "eat" up all the payload. Fudge, donuts and "pasties" wherever we go—it's a conspiracy to make us fat. I guess "pasties" mean "pastry items"; I thought pasties were something else.

Gene

[Nuvite-F]

Gene,

Pasties are meat and potato pies in a thick crust eaten out of hand. They were brought here with the Cornish miners who came over to work in the mines. Used to be they always had sliced meat, potatoes, onions and rutabagas in them, but nowadays the term has broadened to include just about any filling--ham and cheese, for example. Try one--they're good.

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by Nuvite-F

.....Pasties are meat and potato pies in a thick crust.....

So what keeps them from falling off the dancer?


*moves to an undisclosed location*

[Aage]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

So what keeps them from falling off the dancer?


*moves to an undisclosed location*

See there's one of the weaknesses in talking online:

the word is pronounced "PASS"-teez...

[Nuvite-F]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

So what keeps them from falling off the dancer?

Right-o. Like somebody or other said, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Pasties, pronounced with a short "a" as in past refers to the meat pie. Pasties, pronounced with a long "a" as in paste refers to the. . . um . . .er . . adornments sometimes worn by ecydiasts.

The numerous roadside stands in the UP and northern Minnesota will invariably have the former rather than the latter. As for what holds on the latter, the name would suggest "paste", which sounds messy. However I do know that costumes worn by exhibition ballroom dancers (think Dancing With the Stars) are frequently held in place in strategic places--to prevent the dreaded "wardrobe malfunction"--with a double-faced adhesive tape colloquially known by the performers as "titty tape".

(But then, you knew all that, didn't you. . .)

[denellen]

Hey,Gene: Really enjoying this trip with you.
About a mile or so back, in the fog, Rodney took the wrong fork in the road and some of the caravan are following him.
KEEP EM COMMING. Looking forward to each episode.
Dennis

[Gene]

Meat pie, hmmmmm. I could run with that one, but better not.

We're in Grand Marais and found a free hot spot since the local provider charges $4/hour or $10/day. The municipal campground is adequate and has full hookups, through right now most of the sites with water aren't functional—probably a line froze. This is a small town with many small houses—says something about the local economy. I was looking at the real estate ads and the prices for property seem pretty low to me, but it depends where you live what "low" is. We found another health food store—Whole Food Co-op—same name as in Duluth, but different people. Nice store. Walked around, ate a pretty good pizza at Sven and Ole's (Swedish pizza is just like any other). Usual selection of tourist shops. I've had enough of that and have to take Barb far away from any town for a while.

The drive up the coast was pretty and we took it kinda slow. The campground is full of long term trailers and a few moho's. Apparently people come here and stay for months. There's a lot of festivals and such, and if you're into fishing or hiking, it's a good place to be. In the summer, you would surely need reservations.

Tomorrow we go into the Superior NF up the Gunflint Trail. Either stay at a private campground with wifi or go to the end of the road at a NF campground and boondock. We'll make up our minds on the fly. The Trail, really a paved road, cuts through the Boundary Water canoe area and so there will be plenty of lakes, swamps, creeks and trees. I'm sure in a month or so the mosquito population will be plentiful. I think we'll spend 2 nights there, get some real hiking in and then come back and go to Ely for more of the same, including, unfortunately, shoppes.

Gene

[Gene]

We're in Ely, Minn., after spending 3 days by Gunflint Lake. It very pretty there, the folks at the Gunflint Pines Campground were very helpful when we limped on 3 wheels.

There was a wheel bearing failure. It was the wheel the mechanic claimed needed readjusting of the castlelated nut when I had the metal valve stems installed, and, figuring he does this for a living, I let him do it. I hope he find another job soon. The three I did are fine. Rebuilt the thing at the campground, drove away and it's fine. Checking wheel temps more frequently now.

Too often you have to do things yourself to get them right and fear the "experienced" mechanic. I caught it in time before there was too much damage (sure glad I didn't have to get a new spindle where we were) and the tire didn't get messed up.

Another Airstream adventure.

I'm at a hot spot, battery is getting low and when we get to Canada I think I can find a campground with wireless, post photos, and babble some more. Weather looks cold in western Ontario and Manitoba, but that isn't news. I'll start practicing my Canadian today, eh?

Gene

[RangerJay]

Hey - we're lurking ..... watching ..... listening ...... and waiting ......

.... it's not just the "eh" you have to get - the inflection is most important - placement is critical - and of course both will vary with the subject - and the energy behind the subject - quite complicated really - very strict rules - you pretty much have to be born here to use "eh" effectively in routine conversation ....


Jay

[Boondocker]

You are killing me Gene, how can you be in Ely and not be canoeing? Oh well. Sorry to hear about the bearing, but now you have had your glitch for the trip. (uh oh, I think they may of said something like that on the Apollo 13 mission forget I said that).

[Gene]

We've made it to Brandon, Manitoba. Possibility of snow and freezing rain tonight and windy, high here 34˚ tomorrow. The weather is better to the west and we head to Moose Jaw, Sask., tomorrow. Seems like there's a lot of do in Moose Jaw besides marvel at the name. We plan to spend a day there as we are ahead of schedule (pron. here: shed-ul).

I have been secretly practicing Canadian and will carry a hockey stick around and try it out before we leave. I think I can do ok with the inflections and will try to avoid the definite article before "university" and "hospital". I do have trouble with "aboot" as in "I'm aboot to go oot to university because I got injured playing the hockey".

Grand Marais and Ely are both launching points for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, but 2 towns could not be more different. GM is artsy, in a dramatic setting on Lake Superior and more modern touristy. It's hardly a wealthy area—most of the houses are small, always a good indicator of community wealth. I think a few second homes have been built, but prices seem low to us. Some good restaurants—Angry Trout on our trip into town to get parts. People are really friendly and helpful. It has a good health food market.

Ely is a working class mining town being transformed into a tourist town. This was in the iron mining area of Minnesota, but most of the mines are closed now. But because the buildings are distinctly practical and not northern tourist, it just doesn't have the atmosphere. We ate at the fancy hotel's restaurant, the Evergreen, and one dish was good, one dull, and the room was new hotel style, i.e., antiseptic. Nice view of Shagawa Lake. The best restaurant in town (as the guide books recommend anyway), Burntside, was still closed and the Chocolate Moose, also recommended, was also still closed. The Northland Market has some specials—Taco Tuesday ("Tacoriffic!") and Thursday is "Hot Bologna (regular or cheese)", but we deferred. Ely is now promoting itself as a candidate for the 2016 summer Olympics, so they have a sense of humor. We stayed at the Silver Rapids Campground. We choose it because it was close to town, had full hookups and their website was so well done, we thought it might tell us something. A mistake. Motel rooms, campsites and cabins jammed in together and a difficult back in. Another nice lake view though.

It rained hard when we got there and when we got back to the trailer, it was leaking. Not big leaks, but several small ones. They only get worse over time. I went looking for sealant (had planned to buy some before, but forgot) and found something that seemed it would work and then to the local garage to see if they had a ladder, gun and a willing guy to go up there. We found Bob at the Goodyear dealer and he had those items. He found all but one place where it was leaking (Fantastic Fan cover, skylight, over a front window). One of the side oval windows is still leaking a little, but we can live with it for now. Long ago we used to call a car that you couldn't trust a "county car" because you didn't want to drive it outside the county in case it broke down again. I'm beginning to think we have a "county trailer". It's getting to the point of "what's next?"

So Gunflint Pines Campground at Gunflint Lake was a good place to be especially fixing wheel bearings, Grand Marais is a great setting and some good restaurants, but Ely was a disappointment, but a good place to do laundry. If you are wanting to canoe, a lot of this doesn't matter, but we, unlike Rodney, aren't interested. We did a little hiking at Gunflint. We also checked out the FS campground at the end of the Gunflint Trail ("Trails End") and it had some good sites, some with water. They don't have a dump station, so, in effect, they are telling you to dump grey water on the ground.

After Ely comes International Falls, one of those places that claims to be the "icebox of the nation", but it has warmed to near 70˚. Ft. Frances, Ontario, and IF each have a paper mill and sometimes the smell of a paper mill makes me want to throw up, so after a quick border check, we drove quickly west and on toward Lake of the Woods. There are a gazillion islands in this very big lake and we had thought of staying in either Sioux Narrows or Nestor Falls, but decided, as it was early, to go on to Kenora at the north end of the lake. Five years ago we had eaten lunch at a hotel downtown (Best Western I think) which has a restaurant on the the top floor overlooking the lake. We watched float planes land and take off and not hit any boats. Great view, ordinary food. So we stayed at a campground with an unspellable, unpronounceable name—Anis… something, maybe. Pretty new looking, great view of the lake, wireless not installed. New people running it and trying to straighten it out.

On the way, about 15 miles south of Nestor Falls, we saved Canada. It was very windy and a tree had fallen at the edge of the forest and almost to the road. It was on fire, maybe having hit electric wires on the way down. It looked like the fire had only started several minutes before. A woman was on a cellphone down the road, we drove on looking for someplace to tell someone if her phone didn't work (ours didn't). About 3 miles down the road was a bar and it was closed, but there was a guy with a phone and a radio in his truck, so he said he'd call it in. Canada saved! I'm sure Stephen Harper will be calling soon to award us.

About a half hour up the road rain started and the temp kept falling. By the time we got to Kenora, it was dropping to about 40˚, still very windy and raining—bone chilling cold. When we went out to the restaurant, it was spitting a little snow and down in the 30's. The view was still great, the food mediocre. I should have learned now to not order Mexican food in Canada. At best it's "Mexican influenced". Strangest tortillas I've ever eaten. Couldn't eat more a half of one.

A little snow during the night, but it didn't stick and we were off to Manitoba. We decided to drive to Lake Winnipeg—it's very big and we just want to see it. We drove around what seems to be something like a peninsula on a very bad road and then some not so good roads—bouncing along, avoiding potholes and bumps and dips. We getting out of the land form that dominates northern Ontario and some of northern Minnesota and into the prairie. Unlike the US, there are plenty of trees rather than almost all grassland. Once out of the lake country, farms and flatness. We did get a glimpse of the lake, but mostly the roads avoid it. We drove around Winnipeg on roads that turn you into bobbleheads. I am not impressed with the quality of Manitoba's paving practices (northern Minnesota wasn't so great either, but this was worse). The cold here makes road maintenance difficult, but Ontario, BC and Alberta seem to have mastered it.

We have seen billions of bogs, rivers, lakes and trees. It's beautiful country, but it was time for something different. I didn't even find the flat, straight road across Manitoba to boring, but tomorrow is another day.

We were going to change some money at bank, but unlike the US where there's a (broke) bank on every corner, we haven't seen any. We're using the credit card for everything and have about $20 Canadian, so I guess we'll survive.

Later I'll post photos.

Gene