No Niagara Falls

What we saw

This was our longest day—we drove into Lizzie’s at about 5 p.m.  We stopped only for coffee and to air the pets.  We did not do any sightseeing except out the window of the Tiger.   I looked up Seneca Falls on the I-phone and learned about the first convention to support the rights of women in 1848.  The declaration of the rights of women included such items as equal rights to the pulpit and to vote, radical ideas at that time.  Sadly, only one signer of this declaration lived to vote after the franchise was extended to women in 1920.  Although we missed a lot, it was great to see Lizzie (who is doing very well), and we were rewarded with a take-out dinner from Punjab—my favorite Indian restaurant.   

* miles; Arlington, Mass. 

On the road again

We hit the road again on September 16.  It was tough to say good-bye to Rose, Don’s mom, who had given us a wonderful break.  And immediately we had trouble with the storage unit on the roof.  Don stopped four times to climb up on the roof to try to identify and fix the problem—which turned out to be a couple of things.  We drove longer than usual but did take the opportunity to stop at Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, which must be the best deli on the continent.  It was quite a treat.

Sated, we drove until mid-evening, and stopped at a rest area in Vermilion, Ohio.   A number of roadside rests in Ohio are equipped for motorhomes.  They have electricity and a dumping station and the state charges $15 for one night, which is the permitted length of a stay.  It suited our needs perfectly and we stayed until 4:30 a.m., when we were able to start our day and drive with a Starbuck’s coffee.

376 miles; Vermilion roadside rest, N 41° 22.599’ W 82° 13.548

Interlochen

September 11-15  

In Interlochen and Traverse City, we visited with friends and family.  This is “DeYoung” country.  Dutch immigrants settled in northwest Michigan and you can see this ancestry in the garden sculpture—kissing figures with wooden shoes and miniature windmills are everywhere.  We also took the circle tour around the Leelanau Peninsula—a beautiful drive through small farms and vineyards and Lakes Michigan and Leelenau and Sleeping Bear Dunes.

The local produce is celebrated and the area attracts many visitors. There are many very good restaurants in this area.  We really enjoyed Patisserie Amie with a dear friend from my childhood.   


This charming restaurant’s motto is in French, which if I am correct means “tell me what you eat and I will tell you what will kill you.”  


Can this possibly be right?  [Emily, help me out here!]  

Don’s mom lives on a grass airstrip.   It no longer provides very many opportunities to view small planes (the residents are elderly and no longer do much flying).  

Don’s brother flew his RC 40% lifesize airplane for us on the airstrip. 

It is in the country and you can walk for miles along the airstrip and into the woods.
  

Boomer amid the dew dappled spider webs

Normally completely invisible, 

the sun on the dew drops shows them

We took the dogs and found a small turnip patch, which was obviously being enjoyed by the local wildlife, and a Lincoln Continental graveyard.  This wooded area is fairly remote and local residents have, apparently, taken advantage by abandoning old automobiles.  There must have been a dozen, all old land yachts from the 60’s.  And four of them—lined up nicely together—were identical Lincoln Continentals.

Appendectomy

I could comment on the beautiful drive along the northern and western shores of Lake Michigan to Interlochen, but all we thought about was daughter Lizzie, who had an emergency appendectomy at around 3 a.m. this morning at Mount Auburn hospital in Cambridge, Mass.  Luckily, she has wonderful neighbors and friends—who took her to the hospital and waited for the post-surgery report and called me during the wee hours of the morning.  She is home already, only about 12 hours post surgery and the prognosis is excellent.  The weather fit our mood—dark, overcast, and rainy.  But it is good to be here with Rose, Don’s mom, and looking forward to seeing friends and family and cleaning the Tiger (or flying on short notice to Boston, if Lizzie needs a caregiver).  And the first leg of our journey has ended.

227 miles;  Maple City Highway, Interlochen, MI.

Michigan!

It was a gorgeous drive (of conifers, rivers, and lakes) from Duluth through Wisconson and the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan.  And what a gorgeous day—sunny and warm. 

We did not make particularly good time.  We went to the Great Lakes Visitor Center and stopped at a number of rest area parks.  We stopped in Ironwood and had pasties for lunch.  This is a specialty of the area and a favorite of the Yoopers (U.P. dwellers)—from the Cornish immigrants who worked the iron mines in the 1800’s.  A pastry with potato and chopped meat filling.  Tasty pasty but it rhymes with nasty not tasty.  

We stopped in Indian Lake near Manistique, in the U.P.   A beautiful lake and campground.

We enjoyed dinner next to the lake and watched the sunset.  We haven’t gotten many chances to see the sunset this year.  It was very welcome.

352 miles; Indian Lake State Park (near Manistique, MI); N 45° 56.889’ W 86°19.573’

Not exactly Wal’mart

Today we left North Dakota and entered Minnesota at Great Fork—and Don drove straight to Cabela’s (which is a huge hunters’ emporium resembling a Bass Pro shop), and we shopped.  And shopped, among the stuffed heads, ducks and fish.  This is the only shopping I’ve seen Don do voluntarily outside of a Best Buy or a book store.  Then we continued on Highway 2, which proceeded through prairie, a hardwood forest, and , finally, a conifer forest—the land of Paul Bunyan.  We ran into some new old friends at a rest stop—the couple who were stopped at the border with us.  Our third meet-up.  We also saw a giant bass statue and a huge  adirondack chair.  There is great road art on highway 2.

We drove to Duluth, which is a great little city.  We drove to the port and stopped at the visitors’ center, run by the Corps of Engineers.  It had great displays giving the history of shipping in Duluth.

Bridge up

We also saw the ascension bridge raised for a tug.

um... down.

We discovered that DECC (the performing arts center) right next to the port allows motorhomes to park all night (Wal-mart style), so we are here in a parking lot next to a class A motorhome fit for a country music star.   The squid and the whale.  

We walked the dogs around the marina, parked them in the Tiger, and ate dinner at “Grandma’s,”  which narrowed the options down to four or five restaurants on the water front.  We ate at the saloon. 

Grandma's Hotdog Stand

Grandma's Market

Grandma's Garden Bar & Grill

Grandma's Saloon

I'd rather be eating Thai

 I wanted to eat at a nice looking Thai restaurant, but Don didn’t think a Thai dinner was much of a reward for a hard day of driving.  So beef, cheese and beer for us.

Bonus—there is TV reception here.   Oops, minus.  We just got asked for the fee—instead of the $8 the visitor center said this would cost, they want $25.  Ouch.  This for a spot in a parking lot.  But in the am we had access to the restrooms in the entertainment and convention center, so at least we had this perk. 

Don's favorite Duluth photo

296 miles; Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, Duluth; N 36° 46.897’ W 92° 06.043’

Keeping America safe from . . . the DeYoungs?

We began this beautiful day with a walk around the regional park, which is really nice.  The lake is beautiful and there were many birds—mostly ducks and gulls but we also saw a hawk and, possibly, a pelican or something that closely resembles one.  It doesn’t seem possible that we saw a pelican on the prairie but we have not consulted our bird guide to see what else it might have been.  We were only a couple of hours from the border and we were excited to be returning to the U.S.—not only is it home but we can use our cell phones and the distance is marked in mileage and the temperatures are in fahrenheit so we can actually understand our place in the universe.  The scenery was interesting—coal mining, oil, and agriculture and there were lots of lakes and rivers.  However, my favorite site was a sign on a restaurant in Estevan, a smallish Canadian town, “Sushi Thursdays—no really, chef knows.”  But crossing the border was a bit of a drag.  It took an hour.  We were pulled over for a thorough review, as were some nice middle-aged Canadians whom we had met at the campground.  They asked us lots of questions (separately) and gave the camper a cursory interior search.  The agents completely unpacked the Canadians, on the other hand, and they searched the inside of their bags.  Why us?  Why not those young glowering truckers?  Who knows.  They were courteous and gave us a friendly wave good-bye when they were finished.  And, they kindly let Don keep the dogs on leash rather than impound them in a kennel during their search . . . BUT sheesh.  We were honest, smiled, and tried to look like who we are—law abiding retirees.  There are no photos of the border crossing--strictly forbidden.

We stopped in North Dakota to take a photo of the marker of the middle of the north American continent.  Our stop is our first in the U.S.—a state park that is open all year and has water until October—Turtle River.  It is very pleasant and we were able to take our lawn chairs out and enjoy a few minutes of sunshine before the sun dropped below the horizen. 

366 miles; Turtle River State Park, North Dakota (near Grand Forks) N 47° 56.678’ W 97° 30.133’