I Went East

Location: Island Resort Casino and RV Park; Harris, Michigan (el 750 ft)

Thru Stop #8

I went east. Yeah, it surprised me too. I know that sounds strange but when traveling freely, there are many things that can change your direction of travel. This change was a combination of things, but the number one reason was "a feeling". I just felt that going east was the right thing to do and going west meant problems. I learned a long time ago to trust these feelings/vibs. So, as I've said before, I set a destination point then head in that general direction with stops along the way. Going to a destination by way of some journeys. My destination is Louisiana and the time of arrival will be sometime in the first week of September to welcome a new grandson into this world. It will be number four, 3 boys and one girl. Olivia is going to be a big sister. 

So, I have about eight weeks before arrival back in Louisiana. My plan is to spend about four of five of those in Michigan. I've been here twice in the past and it is one of my top five states since I've been RV'ing. I've refreshed my memory by re-reading my old posts from here as well as some old posts from fellow blogger and RV'er, Malia Lane. I was reading her blog "Malia's Miles" for a couple of years before I hit the road. Her Michigan blog posts from 2011 are still relevant today and full of useful information. Unfortunately, she is currently in Oregon dealing with a terminal illness but for well over a decade she traveled the highways of America with the smell of Freedom filling her motorhome. May you have safe and peaceful travels. Take care of yourself Malia.  

I stumbled onto this Michigan welcome center. It surprised me since it was along a U.S. Highway instead of Interstate. There was a nice lady working there that helped me gather information. There was also, what I took as a sign, that I made the right decision to head east. There was another traveling in the welcome center who had come from the west and specifically mentioned Fargo, North Dakota. Strangely, that would have been my first stop if I headed west. I told him I had planned to go that direction, but changed my mind. He mentioned the lack of trees for days and there were more around here. Yeah, that was a reinforcing sign of my decision. Thanks to whomever sent him in there. 

I made quite a haul of information. After I culled through it some more, I threw away about 1/4 of it. 

I left the Duluth area with 260 miles of mostly two lane highway ahead of me. Most of it had decent shoulders in case something happened like the blow out in Oklahoma. It was good travel weather as I fell in behind a low pressure front that was headed in the same direction. It is the one that brought heavy rains all the way from the Dakotas to Duluth. It was about 20 hours ahead of me and as usual after the passing of such a front, the sky was a bright blue with wispy clouds. I've seen this many times over the years as the low pressure fronts will clean the air after first causing some bad storms. The temperature was in the upper 60's, humidity low, smooth road that I had never driven and a pretty sky. It doesn't get much better than that on a Moving Day.

Perfect traveling weather

Even a short stop at a construction site, no problem. By the way, the work looked good. 

The clouds are beginning to disperse.

When I hear the word, "wisp" or "wispy", this is what I think of.

The blue color was getting deeper as the day wore on. It was a very good travel day.

Since most of my planning was for going west, I'm playing catch up with campgrounds and places to see in the east. I quickly found an Indian Casino Campground that didn't accept reservations. That meant I needed to get here before 2 or 3 o'clock in case they filled up quickly in the evening. There isn't anything special about this casino or this area except that it was in the eastern direction. It is about 15 miles from Escanaba, Michigan which sits on one of the bays of Lake Michigan. I signed up for five days which in hindsight may be a couple of days too long. But the campground is nice with paved sites, electric/water and 24 hour security. I will use these days to explore the area and do some travel planning. One of the things I have discovered during this trip is that most of the state parks are full up on weekends. Apparently, there has been an RV boom and locals have started reserving Fridays and Saturdays 90 days in advance. This makes it hard for travelers to do planning. But the good news is that I have found the Indian casinos are pretty good, mostly available and not expensive. Where I used to look first for state parks near the places I wanted to see, now I look for an Indian Casino.

Kind of unusual curves to the sites but still overall, OK.

There isn't anything here in Harris, Michigan except this casino and a BP gas station. Escanaba is the nearest big city. A sign along the road near the casino advertised Pasties and Yooper bars at a place in Escanaba. I remembered from my last visit to Michigan that the Pasties (pronounced past-t) were just meat pies with different fillings. The one I got was the classic which is meat and potatoes. In Louisiana we have the Natchitoches meat pies which are sold just about everywhere in the state. Well, the meat filling is better in the Natchitoches pie but the crust is better on the pastie. I probably won't get another classic, but may try another flavor. The Yooper bar is nothing more than a chocolate bar. The name is a play on words from, Upper Peninsula, UP, Yoo Pee, Yooper. Apparently, the people who live in the UP call themselves Yoopers while calling the people who live in the "mitten" (the rest of the state) "trolls". They call them trolls because they live below the bridge, The Mackinaw Bridge. I guess you have to be familiar with the layout of the state to follow all of this, but the important thing is the chocolate bar was pretty danged good and made in Michigan.

Pastie and Yooper bar. The pastie, so-so, the chocolate bar, very good. 

I saw a few billboards and read TripAdvisor about a restaurant in Escanaba that I figured would be worth a visit. The name of the place was the Swedish Pantry. I thought well maybe, just maybe, the official Swedish ski team may be working there during the off season. No such luck. There were plenty of things on the menu that I had no idea about. The swedish pancakes looked good and the Swedish, maybe Finnish, waitress said they were similar to crepes or what I call 'thin pancakes'. I ordered them with potato sausage and imported lingonberries. The berries were tasty, the potato sausage I could take or leave. Overall, it was worth the visit, even without the ski team.

Wouldn't a normal person thing the Swedish Ski Team worked in there during the off-season?

Swedish pancakes, lingonberries, syrup, butter and potato sausage. All good except the sausage was only so-so. 

I also found time to visit the Historical Society Museum, climbed an old lighthouse and drive around the town. Not bad for only two days. 

The Historical Society Museum on the right and the old lighthouse in the background.

Interesting skates from a hundred plus years ago for skating when the lake froze over.

This is the most interesting thing I've seen in a long time. At first I thought it was a bronze casting, but it is a wood carving. The entire piece is carved from a single piece of wood. It was a privilege to see it. The next picture tells the story of it.

Story of the dog carving. The museum guide was an older fella and he remember the carving being in the window of the insurance office when he was younger.

Typical narrow spiral staircase in the lighthouse. The size and shape of the stairs sometimes makes it hard for heavyset, chunky, overweight, hefty, husky,,,tall people like me to get up and down them. 

The view from the top of the lighthouse

I found a bench looking out towards the lake. I guess in Minnesota this bench would be turned backwards??

I figure the passing low pressure front was causing some of this wave action. That structure in the middle is what replaced the lighthouse.

I caught this picture as I was driving away. 

I need to do some boring stuff like laundry too. Maybe I'll get lucky and find one with a tanning salon attached again. Oh well, west is best and east is least. Wait a minute, scratch that, I went east didn't I??? 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 
    

Last Day in Duluth; Which Direction to Travel??

Location: Northland Camping and RV Park; Superior, Wisconsin (el. 680 ft)

Route so far.

Tomorrow is moving day. I've been here for nine days and it's time to move on. I thought I had made up my mind to head west through North Dakota, but now have started having second thoughts. I need a long distance destination in mind so I can head in that general direction. The western destination was Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho. I had seen some pictures from Barb and Walt's blog, The Gypsy and the Navigator, and it looked like an interesting place. After doing some preliminary planning, my interest in that direction seems to have cooled off. I don't know why, but that hesitation made me look to the east. That means Wisconsin, Michigan and points along the other Great Lakes. I've been to most of those places and really liked Michigan but I'm not sure I want to backtrack through places I've already been. Oh well, I have until tomorrow morning when I have to decide whether to use the right blinker or left blinker.  

The Duluth area has been a very nice stop. There are only a handful of places in the country where I get immediate and long lasting "good vibs" about the place. The Duluth area is now added to that list. The area covers about a 50 mile radius around Duluth. I've gotten to the point where I don't try to figure out those "vibs" and just go with the flow. I trust my feelings about a place and have left some places early because of "bad vibs". I guess I should write that list of places down to see if they all have something in common. That sounds like work for a rainy day. 

I traveled up the coast towards Two Harbors, Minnesota. It is a nice scenic drive. There were a couple of things I wanted to see up in that area. There was a lighthouse to visit, a railroad museum and the building where 3M started. Besides scenic view stops, there was also a stop at a smoked fish market that I had heard great things about. I bought some smoked fish, cheese and smoked turkey. The turkey and cheese was good, most of the fish was thrown away. That is the second time I've gotten smoked fish in my travels, I don't think there will be a third.

This view reminded me of the Oregon coast, not the coastline of one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world.

Another view with a "backward" bench. When you sit on it you're looking towards the road instead of the lake. Bad design.

Another one of the scenic pull-offs.

This is in the yard of the Two Harbors Lighthouse. The benches were nice with a firepit for those cool evenings. I also like the fountain with the kids and the umbrella. 

An overall view of the lighthouse. Not much inside compared to others I've visited but still nice. I meant to get a picture of those two chairs from behind, but got distracted. 

View of the lake from the lighthouse

View of the harbor from the lighthouse. That's Freedom, to the left of the red truck. 

The place where 3M began. 3M equals Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. From this beginning to over $30 billion in assets today. Only in America!!!

I started not to post this picture of the smoked fish but put it here as a reminder not to buy any more. The ones on the right are Whitefish and on the left, Salmon. Of the two, the whitefish was better, but not by much. Give me good old fried fish or even baked/sauteed,,, but never smoked. 

Two Harbors is a busy port that mainly ships iron ore (taconite). It was created a hundred plus years ago when high grade iron ore was discovered in the area just to the west of Lake Superior. Remember, the basic recipe for steel is Iron Ore and Carbon. There are other things that are added to it to improve the strength and quality but iron ore and carbon are the main ingredients. The next time you cross a bridge made of steel, think about it being made up of melted rocks. Almost all of that high grade ore was used during the two World Wars. Luckily, a professor and his staff at the University of Minnesota, developed a way to extract iron ore from Taconite. Taconite had been considered the waste rock when mining for the high grade iron ore. The percentage of iron ore in it was small and no one knew how to get it out of the rock. The process sounds simple now, but was revolutionary when it was first developed. To oversimplify: Crush the taconite to mostly dust, add water, pass the mixture beneath strong magnets so they attract the iron ore, form the iron ore goo it into marble sized balls and bingo, you have a high grade iron ore in the shape of pellets that makes for easy shipping and melting at the steel mills. It saved the iron ore industry in this area.

The Two Harbors railroad depot. The bench was pointed in the right direction this time. If you sit, you see the harbor.

I liked this picture a lot. It shows a ship loading up with taconite while two older men sit in a nice bench waiting for it to get underway. I wondered if the two men used to work in the harbor and they were reminiscing about days gone by. I started to walk over and ask them that question, but thought twice and knew that some things are best left as "wondering" instead of "knowing". 

This is the breakwater that creates the harbor at Two Harbors. The people are waiting for ships to depart and arrive. The fog was rolling in and it would hide the ship that was at anchor in the distance. It was a low fog but dropped the temperature into the 60's. Directly behind me, on the hill, was the lighthouse. 

One ship loading and the other waiting to take it place.

For those interested, this is the taconite process. 

Nearer the campground is a place called Wisconsin Point. It is a little peninsula that sticks out into the lake and forms the eastern side of the entrance to Superior Harbor. This entrance is the only natural entrance to the harbor since the Duluth entrance was man-made by the Corps of Engineers. I didn't find out about his place in my planning and only discovered it by following signs to something that sounded interesting. Come to find out, this is the port where the Edmund Fitzgerald loaded up with iron ore before her fateful trip. The Arthur Anderson, who sailed with her on that trip, loaded out of Two Harbors. Everything sort of ties together, sometimes by accident. Serendipity sure is a good word. The Wisconsin Point has several miles of lake beach that the locals seem to be keeping quiet, probably to keep the tourists in Duluth.

Standing on the concrete walkway that borders the channel at Superior Harbor. This is looking out to the lake. The structure on the left is the other side of the channel. 

Standing at the end of the channel looking out to the lake. The two structures in view are the breakwaters with lighthouse on one and a navigation aid on the other.  

Looking back along the channel at the loading structures. All but one looks to be "out of service". The one that is active is conveyor operated instead of the older ones that were railroad controlled. 

Driftwood beach next to the channel. Yep, that is Freedom, all alone in the parking area.

Freedom looking out towards the open waters of Lake Superior.

Yesterday I paid a visit to the Bank of Walmart and Walmart Drugstore. They sure make traveling around the country easy. I can get my prescriptions filled and cash money at the same time as buying groceries and other stuff. Convenience. And best of all, the Plutots are ripe and available at Walmart. They are my favorite fruit. 

Pluots. Cross between Plum and Apricot. These are sweet and juicy, with plum being the major part. They also grow a cross with the Apricot being the major part called an Aprium (sp). Both are good, but the Pluots is 10 times better. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.

  

Another Boat Tour and a Special Ship

Location: Northland Camping and RV Park; Superior, Wisconsin (el. 680 ft)

Pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon Cell Phone and a Canon Point and Shoot

Current Route

First, notice the two cameras. My Nokia cell phone is beginning to let me down after almost five years of flawless service. The battery has started draining quickly so I took a back-up camera with me yesterday. On the Apostle Islands tour, it wanted to shut down due to low battery before the tour was over. It makes me sad since the phone has done a great job of being my camera, phone, texting, internet and hot spot for so long. Of course, I thought I would just replace it in kind and get another one. Nope, they don't make them anymore. It seems Windows phones are being eliminated from the market. My guess is since they were so good and I had one, the market said lets mess with Goza and eliminate them. Anyway, I may be able to get a refurbished one or a completely different kind of phone. I really don't want an iphone, so I guess I'll look at one of those that is run by robot, android something or other. Some people have falsely accused me of not liking change. If Windows 95 was still around, well, you know. 

My exploration plan yesterday was to drive up the lake front toward the town of Two Harbors. I thought since it was a Saturday, any formal touring, like the harbor boat tour would be super busy. As I approached Duluth, I checked the weather and storms were predicted for the early afternoon. That was fine with me since I would be driving and could simply pull over until they passed. But then I had another thought, maybe the storms would chase away all the people from the boat tour. Uhmm. The timing was right for the boat tour so I took that as a sign and headed there instead of up the coast. After five dollars to park Freedom and a $23.00 dollar boarding ticket away we went. The tour takes you under the vertical lift bridge and out into Lake Superior for a couple of miles before turning around and going back into the harbor. It takes you around the harbor and explains several of the things going on, such as loading operations. Duluth is still a busy port and routinely ships grain, iron ore/taconite and coal. These things are brought in by rail then shipped out or shipped in and railed out. It's a continuous process. I wished the narrator on the tour would have been a little more informative but she did OK. This tour was only 1 hour, 45 minutes. Comparing the two boat tours, this one was twice as good and half the price.

I had to park across the canal and use the pedestrian bridge.

The pedestrian bridge is a draw bridge. That is the bridge tender house on the right.

The pedestrian bridge is lifted to let them boats come and go. The big one is moored there permanently and is used for tours. 

Going under the bridge on the way out to the Lake

The view going into the harbor from the Lake. Many ships have passed through this point over the years. The lighthouse on each side help guide the ships at night and in bad weather.

Just a couple of the many loading/unloading facilities in the harbor. Generally, a ship will moor alongside and cargo will be loaded or unloaded by conveyor.

One of the ship being loaded. This one was being loaded with coal, probably railed in from Wyoming. Notice the white conveyor. It is part of the ship so it can load and unload by itself. Older ships that lack that ability are being scrapped because it limits where they can load/unload. 

The bigger bridge is the I-535, bridge. The smaller one on the lower right is a peice of the old bridge.

The workhorses of any harbor, The Tug Fleet. Duluth has four working tugs. These three are waiting while the fourth was working somewhere. The harbor is useless without these babies.

One of the interesting things in the harbor is an old boat that is tied up permanently while awaiting decisions from its owner as to what to do with it. The ships name is the Arthur M. Anderson. That name probably doesn't mean a lot to most people until it is tied with the Edmond Fitzgerald. You see, it was the Anderson that was sailing with the Fitzgerald when she sank within miles of the protection of Whitefish Bay. They both had been fighting the weather during the trip as immortalized in Gordon Lightfoots' lyrics, "when the gales of November come early". There were steady winds of near 60 mph with 30 foot average wave heights. The Anderson reported two rogue waves that hit her from astern and swept over the entire length of the ship. If they had hit her broadside they may have broken her in two or simply capsized her. After the Anderson lost sight of the Fitzgerald, visually and on radar, she continued into the protection of Whitefish Bay. As the Captain and crew of the Anderson were wiping their brows and saying, 'whew, we made it', the Coast Guard called and requested they go back out to search for the Fitzgerald. To go back into a storm that had already sank one ship and nearly their own?? As any other ship and crew would do, they didn't think twice. They went back and only found pieces of wreckage but not survivors of the Fitzgerald. This ship, the S.S. Arthur M. Anderson, is patiently waiting in Duluth harbor for a decision from its owner as to it's fate. If I was the owner, I would sail her or tow her to the place where the Fitzgerald went down and sink her there. The two were tied together on that fateful night, perhaps they should rest together as well.

The S.S. Arthur M. Anderson waiting to find out her fate. It's sad in a way, knowing her history, but silly in another way since it is just a ship. Maybe that silliness comes from the many years I served on board my Navy ship. Strange.  

The following link is to my blog post when I visited the museum at Whitefish Point and saw the bell from the Edmond Fitzgerald. It is worth the trip.

http://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2014/08/new-campground-and-great-lakes.html



The weather around Duluth is strange. The temperature is always about 5 degrees cooler than the campground which is only about 10 miles away. I'm guess the high bluffs and lake cause that effect. Thunderstorms have been popping up regularly with the threat of hail thrown in for good measure. If you're outside, you can tell about 10 minutes or so before the storm hits because the temperature will drop very quickly. I've seen this in the Rockies and elsewhere, but it seems different around here. So far, none of the storms have bothered me. Hoping for calm and cool weather when I pull out of here on the morning of the 5th. 

After I post this, I think I'll make the trip up the coast that I planned yesterday before getting sidetracked with the harbor tour. Of course it just started raining without warning, so we will see.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.