Tahquamenon Phenomenon: Tahquamenon Falls State Park, MI 9/23/2009

Gorgeous, gorgeous day! We are SO appreciating the blue skies, dry weather and temp at around 70-75 deg. Trust me, we are not taking this for granted knowing that at any day the rains and cold weather can set in.. We left the campground at 10 this morning, but didn’t get very far before our first stop. But, how can anyone pass up “Yooperland.” (Yoopers are slang for Upper Peninsula inhabitants) which included a yard filled with kitschy sculptures, like the world’s largest shotgun and chainsaw, and a gift store that seems to be a cross between dogpatch hillbilly and Scandinavian folk lore. We frittered away about an hour walking around the yard and viewing every hand built contraption you can think of, like a bicycle lawnmower. We proceeded from there to Marquette, the largest city on this stretch of highway in UP. It’s a beautiful city, built right on the lake, with lots of stately brownstone buildings. We did get a chuckle out of region specific businesses, like a skate sharpening shop and a bingo supply store. The next hour or so we drove along the shores of Lake Superior, quite beautiful with all the fall colors next to the blue waters. I think the bread gods were smiling down on me. On one of the backroads we stumbled across a bakery that made sour dough french bread baked in a brick oven! It’s not Truckee, but it’s not bad either and should go fine with the wine this evening. (James, you would appreciate the fact that the woman was from Wawa.) We finally made it to Tahquamenon (rhymes with phenomenon) Falls. WOW – really spectacular and well worth the extra day in Michigan to see it. (See today’s pic). The falls are the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more that 200 feet across. A maximum flow of more than 50,000 gallons of water per second has been recorded cascading over these falls. This is also the land of Longfellow’s Hiawatha, “by the rushing Tahquamenaw” Hiawatha built his canoe. We had a fun couple of hours hiking to the falls and viewing them from the brink as well as from the lower gorge. After procuring a campsite at the falls for the evening, we decided that we had just enough time to make it to the Shipwreck Museum located on Whitefish Point. This point has been called the graveyard of Lake Superior. Since navigation began on Lake Superior there has been approximately 550 wrecks (6,000 throughout all the Great Lakes). The museum, movie, lighthouse and beach were just fascinating. There were several fresnel lens, replicas of the ships that are located at the bottom of Lake Superior, and interesting history lessons on many of the wrecks. I love this stuff! Currently, we are sampling the french bread with a glass of wine. Ned has the steaks on the grill and we are camped near the rushing of the lower falls. Life is good. Tomorrow we venture into Canada. I think we'll be two days in remote areas before hitting Montreal.

Appreciating the Local Flavor: Van Riper State Park, MI 9/22/2009

Plan A was to get up early and bike the island. We woke up to a rainy morning so decided to hang out for awhile in the winniemoble. After a few games of Skip-bo (where Ned kicked my butt I might add), we decided to check out the quaint town of LaPointe. If you’re not bike riding what’s the next best thing? A couple of blueberry muffins and sharing a mocha, of course! While we were hanging out in the coffee shop WISC-TV Channel 3, Madison, WI was shooting video for a feature spot on Bayfield and Madeline Island. There were about a dozen people in the coffee shop – a family playing UNO, two old codgers, another couple and us. (Good thing we aren’t in the witness protection program hanging out in some Podunk town!) After departing the ferry, we were quite pokey driving along stopping to take pictures and visiting local establishments, including a smoked fish shop. My new favorite food is brown sugar smoked whitefish - to die for!! We continued into Michigan on Highway 28 appreciating the slightly overcast cool day (mid-70’s) and admiring all the colors. The fall colors here, in the Upper Peninsula, have a lot of red, but not so much yellow or oranges. Perhaps those will come later in the season. When we pulled into our campsite, on the shores of Lake Michigamme, we were quite amused by the scary signs, fake RIP cemetery tombstones and Halloween decorations hanging from the trees. Turns out this campground will be completely sold out for the weekend. The locals camp here, decorate their individual campers and the kids trick or treat from campsite to campsite. What a hoot! We asked the ranger why they did this a month before Halloween. He stated that it’s the last chance for the local folks to enjoy the park before it gets too cold. He noted that it’s usually 30 degrees on Halloween and too cold for some of the kids. After our bike ride around the lake and through parts of the park, we were quite hungry and decided to make our dinner out of all the local food we’ve been sampling. Tonight’s fare included the smoked whitefish, a local variety of apples called “Red Free” and pears from Bayfield Apple farm, local cheese from Marquette and french bread. Note we definitely stayed with a California wine. The local “cider” wines didn’t quite do it for us. (For the record, all bread outside of California sucks – pretty bland white tasteless clouds, like bad dinner rolls. I do miss our Truckee Baguettes.) Today’s pic is of our locally procured bounty. Bon Appetite!

A Superior Day: Madeline Island, WI 9/21/2009

We had so much fun hanging out with Craig and Julie, that we didn’t leave their place until 11:00. We took a lot of county back roads from their place to Duluth, and crossed the Mississippi River. It’s amusing to see it in its infant form (barely a creek), considering last summer we watched huge barges pushing cargo upstream in the South. I’m so enjoying the trees, greenery and hint of fall colors after the plains. When we reached Duluth we were rewarded with spectacular views of the city overlooking Lake Superior. We decided to take a lakefront walk and visit some of the attractions near the harbor. We viewed the Aerial Lift Bridge, famous for raising 385 ft. in under a minute; we toured the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center and enjoyed the display of old boat engines and “hands-on” exhibits; walked thru the marketplace and a couple of shops; and had a late lunch at an outside café. We are amazed at the great weather, clear blue skies and temperature holding at about 75 deg. Absolutely perfect! After spending awhile in Duluth, we crossed over St. Louis Bay into Wisconsin. (Pam thinking of you!) We decided to detour off of highway 2 and take a 100 mile detour to Wisconsin’s northern most village of Cornucopia. The tip of this area is also known for its Fruit and Flower Farms, much like Apple Hill in our area, but much less populated. We stopped at a couple of apple farms, and took a tour of a mom and pop operation making apple butter. While I was fascinated with the operation, Ned was a little frustrated with the labor-intensive process. By the time we left he had devised a more mechanized approach that included a pump and level regulator for the fill hopper, to more efficiently package the 300 jars for the day! (Today’s picture is outside one of the apple farms.) We then traveled into Bayfield, viewed some of the brownstone and Victorian homes, and caught the ferry to Madeline Island. It was stunningly beautiful and still quite warm. (We are not taking this for granted – knowing that any day the cold weather is a-coming!) In the winter, the school children cross from the island by windsleds to attend school in Bayfield until the “ice road” is passable by automobiles. We are staying at the Big Bay State Park on the other end of the island. It’s quite wooded, and there are lots of deer wandering throughout the campground. We are about 8 miles from the little town of LaPointe and hope to bike ride into town & back tomorrow before catching the ferry back to the “mainland.”

Paul Bunyan and his babes: Remer, MN 9/20/2009

We had a wonderful evening last night hanging around the campsite and talking with Craig. He has a wonderful gregarious personality and is quite entertaining. Even though we woke up around 7:00 we didn’t pull out of the campsite until at least 10:00 – too much gabbing. (I think with Craig I met my match!) We decided to meet up at Craig’s Minnesota summer home, a drive that took about 6 hours. Ned and I had a blast driving through all the small towns and stopping at all the hokey roadside stands, like the “World”s Biggest Ox Cart”. For me the biggest thrill was arriving in Bemidji and seeing the original Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, Babe. We left the wide open great plains of North Dakota and entered into the mixed woods of Minnesota. As we drove by lake after lake we noticed some of the trees just beginning to change – hints of bright red and yellow. For the first time it really is beginning to look and feel like fall. How exciting! Craig and his wife Julie have a beautiful summer home on Lake Trelipe. Their back deck overlooks the lake where they have a couple of summer boats ready for fishing. We had a special evening getting to know them and being treated to Midwestern hospitality (this included supersize steaks, potato salad, baked beans, fruit salad and apple pie). We’re actually sleeping in a real bed tonight for the first time in over a week. Feels kinda strange to have all this space, especially since Ned and I won’t have to do synchronized turning. Tomorrow – land of cheese heads.

Center of My Universe: Graham’s Island SP, North Dakota 9/19/2009

Everyone here is so nice, like really, really SO nice. As we pulled into our campground last night, the folks hanging out in their chairs in front of their campsite all waved and said howdy. We took a bike ride last night and this morning and I felt compelled to keep waving “high” back to everyone. You can’t help but smile hearing everyone with their clipped North Dakota accents. We zigzagged between time zones (seriously check out North Dakota’s time zone line between Mountain and Central. It’s crazy!), and reached Minot at noonish. There’s a wonderful park in the middle of town that hosts the Scandinavian Heritage Center. We toured thru the miniature Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish houses and strolled through the park. It’s a bit cooler today, about 88 deg. and windy, so it felt a lot better to stroll around outside. After having lunch in Minot, we moseyed on down highway 2, our main corridor until we venture into Canada. The next town is Rugby and we couldn’t pass up a sign announcing “The Geographical Center of North America.” Today’s picture is Ned, the center of my universe, standing at the geographical center of North America. Flying overhead are flags of the US, Canada and Mexico. Classic road trip photo! Tonight’s camping destination is Graham’s Island on Devil’s Lake. It’s still pretty much prairie camping, but at least there are a few oak and elm tress scattered about. Ned’s cousin, Craig, is also doing a road trip. He’s high-tailing it from Eugene, OR to his summer place in Minnesota. He’s due to join up with us about 9ish tonight. Unlike us, Craig actually drives long distances in a day!! Tomorrow we plan on staying at his place in Remer, MN. For now, it’s happy hour so I’m pouring myself a glass of wine and signing off…

Home on the Range, Lake Sakakawea State Park, North Dakota 9/18/2009

We left Montana and headed into North Dakota early this morning. Our destination was Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had my heart set on doing a 2 hour trail ride in the park, but unfortunately the stables are closed for the season. The last time I was on a horse was when I was 14, so this was going to be quite the event. (The down side of traveling in Sept). Plan B turned out to be exploring the park via car instead. We hung out at the visitor’s center for awhile, watched a movie and perused the exhibits. (It was over 90 degrees again, so it felt like a good excuse to be inside an air-conditioned building). When we finally explored the park we were treated to seeing bison and hundreds of prairie dogs! (See today’s pic of these cute fellows). Unlike Yellowstone, which has lots of visitors, this park is practically empty. In Yellowstone there were always large crowds mulling around any animals. Here we had the bison all to ourselves. Yes, I now know more about Teddy Roosevelt than I ever thought possible. The rest of North Dakota was pretty much the same, miles and miles of rolling hills with amber waves of grain, except for the occasional sunflower field. It’s harvesting time so it was pretty typical to see the large rounds of hay scattered throughout the countryside along with combines harvesting wheat. On another note, in the south all we seemed to drive by were Baptist Churches, in North Dakota it’s Lutherans. We are camped in the heart of North Dakota next to Lake Sakakawea (alternate spelling). named after the Indian girl who was Lewis and Clark’s guide. Everything in North Dakota is broken down into three categories; Teddy Roosevelt, Lewis & Clark and Sakajawea. – anything else fuhgedaboutit. The campground is definitely prairie camping. Not something I am used to, but nonetheless I’m still enjoying the wide-open spaces and huge sky - the black flies I could definitely live without! We are going to continue exploring North Dakota tomorrow, but head even further north and venture into Scandinavian territory. Ya, you betcha! (For the record, yes everyone really does talk like that here!)

The Joys of GlenDIVE, Montana 9/17/2009

We enjoyed a beautiful morning at Cooney Reservoir and had a nice chat with the State Park Employee, Sharon. (There were only 3 campers at the campground last night. The joys of traveling in September.) Turns out she’s a Bay Area transplant albeit 40 years ago. At Yellowstone Park we discovered that our furnace was only blowing cold air. Not a problem for the next couple of days, but anticipating very cold weather ahead we thought it prudent to get it checked out. Sharon recommended a shop and we headed for Billings. There was a couple hour wait before they could check it out, but good ol’ handyman Ned was futzing with it and found the problem! Turns out the heater is perfecto, we just had too much “stuff” packed around the cold air intake. Dodged that bullet! Since we were in the neighborhood we decided to check out “historic downtown Billings” and ended up having a picnic lunch at the Visitor’s Center. We then ventured onto the Pictograph Cave State Park. It was hotter than hell (above 90 degrees) today, so taking a walk through the arid, baking hot loop trail to the caves took a bit out of me. Needless to say, I was expecting a good return on that investment of energy and expected to see some kick-ass pictographs. Unfortunately, the Crow Indians that painted the walls sometime within the last 11,000 years failed to use water-resistant pigments and the drawings were a bit faded – to say the least. I appreciated the historical significance nevertheless. (See the pic with the faint red drawings in the upper right side of cave). Further on down the road we decided to visit Pompey Pillar’s National Monument. This is the only remaining evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition passing through this area. Here William Clark carved his name and date (July 25, 1806) in the rock. Ned and I had read the book “From Sea to Shining Sea”, which documents the expedition. Therefore, it was really fun to see this piece of history. The new visitor’s center is quite exceptional – great architecture and landscaping, cool movie and nice exhibits. We kept moseying thru Eastern Montana and were lured by another roadway sign extolling the virtues of Rosebud historical courthouse in down Forsythe. We couldn’t resist. Turns out it’s famous for the drama that ensued when it was built in 1914. The project cost more than the bond, the local newspaper was outraged, and the foreman decided to hide out between the ceiling and roof with the key to the courthouse until they were paid for the job! Pretty much a hoot. The courthouse with the neoclassic design, including the copper dome, still remains a beauty today. Our final destination was Glendive, Montana and the last hour or so was proving to be a bit of a long drive. We decided to break up the monotony by listening to French tapes in preparation for Quebec. (Note to self: never-ever listen to French tapes with Ned while driving!! I almost ran the car off the road in hysterics over Ned’s gestures and silly French impersonations. I can hardly wait til we are in Quebec and Ned is using his new command of the French language). We finally arrived in Glendive at the Green Valley Family RV “Resort”. (No State Parks with facilities were available in this part of Montana). The resort is located in a cornfield between the freeway and the railroad tracks. Yes, there are hot showers, flush toilets, electrical hook-ups and laundry facilities. The laundry is in a fiberglass shed up on a hillside, the shower is a nozzle head only with a dribble of water, and there are tractors, backhoes and misc. machinery scattered about. (Sorry Craig, Pilot Rock products are not featured here!) At least we have a quaint (ahem) place to sleep, clean clothes and hope the Burlington Northern Railroad won’t keep us up! Tomorrow onto Teddy Roosevelt National Park