Sept 25 - Oct 2
Sept 25-Oct 2
We are really happy we decided to travel home through the US. We have been blessed with perfect autumn weather - sunny bright days and cool nights. We’ve watched the trees changing colour as we travel through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. We have not been this way before. The roads are great, they’re not busy and the towns are interesting to drive through.
Our first stop was in Baudette Michigan. So Baudette claims to be the walleye capital of the world and to prove that they have the biggest fish I’ve ever seen in the centre of town. Wally Walleye is their mascot. In Canada, a walleye is a pickerel.
We stayed at the Timber Mill Campground run by the municipality. It’s just a small place but it was quite nice and quiet. We had a good time there and even had a campfire one night.
When we pack up to go and when we get to a place and need to set up we have a certain routine that we follow. Sometimes we can get out of the routine and then things can happen. We had one of those incidents in Baudette.
Jerry often leaves the storage door open for a bit while he’s working on setting up. Misty will use her cat door to the storage area and try to sneak out. We usually catch her and get her back inside the RV within minutes. This time however, she snuck out and we didn’t see her. After dinner we were relaxing getting ready to watch TV and I said to Jerry, “Where is Misty?” We couldn’t find her. Eventually, we noticed she was sitting on the steps outside the door. Obviously she had gone for a walkabout. For how long and how far we’ll never know but she made her way back. Smart kitty. Jerry figures she probably walked the length of the trailer, she’s a timid cat.
Right outside the campground there was a town park and a paved bicycle trail. There was no indication of where the path went or how long it was. We just started riding and decided if necessary we could turn around when we’d gone far enough. It wound through the town and outside of town through fields and finally ended up at a huge complex. It was the high school, the elementary school, a daycare center and an arena. All in one place! Quite efficient.
Along the way we passed one of the biggest signs I have ever seen, a billboard but at ground level beside the sidewalk. What do you think of this?
What can we say about Baudette - fishing and Trump supporters - nuff said.
Our next stop was in Cloquette not far from Duluth. Another delightful campground all decked out by nature in wonderful fall colors. The campground was planning a huge Hallween celebration the following weekend and they were busy decorating the place.
Darth Jerry
Just outside the campground there is the Willard Munger State Trail, a collection of multiple use trails between Hinckley and Duluth. The Munger trail is a 75-mile paved bike trail - Wow. Although there’s no way we were going to be able to do the 75 miles while we were there, we did decide to go for a ride on this unique path. It was a super ride. We’ve found great biking in Western Canada and the USA. Ontario could do better in this regard.
We decided to go out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant called Pedros. It got rave reviews on TripAdvisor. It was so busy. We finally got a table and ordered one of the chef’s specialties, it was some kind of fajita.
Jerry enjoyed it. I was not a big fan. I suppose I’ve been spoiled by the wonderful fajitas that we used to be able to get at Libbys restaurant, Latinos. Our Guelph friends know what I’m talking about.
On the road again I was surprised to find we were in Wisconsin. We usually prepare a little better for our travels than we did for this part of our trip. So for this leg, we will be discovering things as we go – maybe that’s better, we’ll see.
We stopped in Brule at a café called Twin Gables. It was a delightful little place run by a group of women and had the most delicious pie I’ve had in a very long time. I stopped in the washroom because you always take advantage of a washroom when you’re travelling of course. It was then I realized we must have been in a Bible Belt. It is the only place I’ve seen that had a Bible on a table in the ladies room. It was opened at Galatians I believe.
The café advertised a walleye dinner after 3 p.m. for a very reasonable price and we were tempted to return for dinner. No not really.
The next place we stayed was in Upper Michigan, Ontonagon. This town is right on Lake Superior and it’s a delightful place.
On a beautiful warm and sunny day we drove to the Porcupine Wilderness State Park to visit the Lake of the Clouds. The locals call the park – The Porkies. It was another lovely drive along the south shore of Lake Superior. We chatted with some very nice people from Idaho who told us about a gem and stone store in Ontonagon, and another couple from Detroit, Michigan, who fondly remembered as youths crossing the border to Canada for “strong” beer.
At Lake of the Clouds
The next day we biked into town. On the way there, we visited the Ontonagon Historic Lighthouse. The guide let us play with a fog horn – you’ll have to click on the link to hear it.
In town we wanted to check out a coffee roaster called the Swinging Bridge Coffee Roaster for Jerry’s collection. Unfortunately, they were closed for the month of October. Rats! I guess they needed a vacation.
We had to bike across this bridge to get into town. (No we didn’t, this is a railroad
bridge but we took the pic from the bridge we did bike across…confused yet?)
We packed a lunch and had planned to eat it on the lovely beach watching Lake Superior. However, we were in need of a CoffTea break and made our way down to a place called The Squeeze. An unusual establishment selling fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen meats, with a smoothie bar, flat breads and a regular bar all in the same place. I decided on a smoothie, Jerry went for coffee and we shared a delicious Italiano flatbread. We decided to put our lunch in the fridge for the next day.
We biked to the beach as far as we could and then walked over the sand dunes. A gorgeous sand beach but this day was much cooler and much windier than the previous ones have been. We managed to stay on the shore of Lake Superior for about five minutes and then we were too cold and had to leave.
It was a brisk day with whitecaps on the lake. As they would say in Newfoundland, there’s a good lop on the water. I was amazed with the colours of the water. The lake was a navy blue or an indigo ink-like blue - Prussian blue maybe; but closer to shore it lightened to a blue green perhaps a light Phthalo green.
On the way back to the campground, we stopped at the gem store and bought some natural copper. The tree is beautiful copper art. The stone is natural and is typical of the natural copper is found in the area.
In the past there has been a lot of mining along the south shore of Lake Superior, copper and iron mainly. In fact we learned at Ontonagon that the very first rush in the United States was the copper rush. A very large chunk of natural copper was discovered near Ontonagon. It weighed more than 3000 pounds pounds and was shipped to the Smithsonian Museum before the actual copper rush took place. But it was the instigation of everyone travelling to the south shore of Lake Superior to mine copper.
With the mining history in the area, they have traditional pasties. And we’ve seen signs for them everywhere. That’s pasty rhyming with nasty - not pasties - those are not food. A pasty is a complete meal in pastry – meat, potatoes, rutabaga, onion etc. Coal miners in Britain used to take them underground. Traditionally a knob was created on the end of the pastry so they could hold their meal without getting their dirty hands on their food.
Dinner for us was hot dogs and marshmallows cooked at the fire. Even though we’ve started our 8th decade, we’re still kids at heart.
On Sunday, we packed up and headed down the road to Munising, Michigan. It was another beautiful day and a lovely drive. We were tempted by all the Pasties advertised and stopped in Irontown, Michigan to pick up a couple for dinner. I must say they are a heavy duty meal!
I was talking on the phone with my niece, Debbie when we passed a building called The Church of the Valley Bar. The “Bar” was a neon sign. I laughed and had to tell her why. She told me about a place near them in Honeoye, NY that is a bar but they hold services on Sunday and everyone stays afterwards for a meal and beer!
Before dinner, we had a Zoom call with my friends from high school. I was delighted to see them again although it’s not the same as seeing everyone in-person as we did at the reunion.
For many years, Jerry has baked a brownie cake for my birthday. We are usually away from home and he has baked this cake for me using the Outback Oven while we we’ve been canoe camping in Algonquin, at a roadside park, at a Yurt in MacGregor PP and of course in our RV oven in various places like Louisberg. One year, we weren’t quite level and one side was burnt and crunchy while the other was underdone – no matter, I love the brownie and that he makes this for me every year. Because we were travelling this day, I suggested he try a Mug Cake to make things easier – these are cooked in the microwave.
I’m pretty spoiled, eh!
(Happy Birthday!)
That’s all for now. There is more to come about Munising. We took a “3-hour cruise” on Monday to see the Pictured Rocks!
So long for now.
Love from,
Jerry, Elizabeth, Misty, FJ (Flat Jesus), the Guys, Miss Adventure Too, and Clifford the Big Red Truck.
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