On to the Northland!

July 26 Red Cliff, WI

This morning I got up with the sun, as usual, and headed out around 8am. I knew I had to get gas fairly soon, and also that I wanted to stop at a WalMart or similar store to stock up on provisions. I headed north on I-35 and stopped in Faribault (which is also where my homeward path crossed the outward one--the great circle tour has become a figure eight!). It was early enough that even though the sun was out in force I felt OK about leaving the cats in the RV (with various vents open), and headed in. I bought lots of stuff, much of which I actually needed, as well as a huge half-sandwich for breakfast. After loading everything into the RV (which was fun, given that I couldn't use the side door (since Puck's kennel was there!) and had to load everything through the driver's side door and back through the narrow passage around the slide), I filled up with diesel and headed out. Into more construction.

Minnesota likes to crowd both directions of interstate into one side of the road, so there are two lanes of traffic whizzing past each other. Which direction crosses over seems to alternate. Luckily the traffic wasn't too bad. There wasn't any construction around St. Paul, although I took the truck route alternate anyway, but I don't like driving on interstates. Since I'm not going fast, it seems like everyone is driving like an idiot and the road surface is usually rutted and there's nothing to see. So, once past the Twin Cities, I headed out onto a secondary road. The road surface continued to be bad until (I'm not kidding here) I crossed into Wisconsin. Then it got better pretty much immediately, which was good because I was tired of ka-THUMP ka-THUMP ka-THUMP ka-BANGBANGBANG CLATTER THUMP. And I feel good only going 55 or so on the secondary roads, and the scenery is much better.

So I meandered up toward Superior (both the town and the lake). Lots of trees and hills, and places called "Moose Junction". Superior (the town) was having a county fair, and I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to find a place to stay. The town itself really looks like what it is: a down-at-the-heels steeltown/port that isn't really rebounding yet. Lots of old buildings, roads all chopped up, with no way to get near the water since that's where the industry is.

I headed east out of town on Rt. 2, turned off at the campground I was going to stay at, and decided to keep going. I know that trees in a campground are a nuisance, since the roots get into everything and the branches/leaves/limbs are annoying, but I didn't drive up to the Northwoods to stay at a campground with dust billowing through it. I found myself on the road through a peninsula headed toward the Apostle islands, and kept going. A really lovely area, it looks something like Prince Edward Island without the red soil: lots of farms and trees and hills, with glimpses of blue Lake Superior in the distance. I didn't stop at any of the rest areas along the lake, because it was getting late and I don't like to keep the cats imprisoned any longer than I have to.

I drove past the Buffalo Bay campground and had to turn around. It's on an Indian reservation, and is both a bustling marina and a campground on a hill just above the lake. Let me emphasize "hill". The bad thing about having a small RV is that it's very difficult to make level (which you need to do for the refrigerator and such to work correctly). I tried four different campsites before I found one that I could handle, since it only required blocks under the front wheels. It had a bit of a view, and was backing up to the hill, but I was really tired and was glad to have it.

Across the street was the requisite Indian casino. It looked a bit rough, but I headed over anyway since I heard there was a restaurant and that the casino gave anyone staying at the campground $10 in free dollar tokens. Well, once I walked in and smelled the ingrained cigarette smoke I knew I wasn't going to eat there, but I did get my free $10. I then futzed around the casino a bit, since I didn't want to just get the coins and then trade them in immediately for cash, and I actually won another dollar on a 2-cent machine (don't ask me how; it looked like the thing had a grand-mal seizure, asked me to resuscitate it, and then gave me a dollar), so I was $11 ahead.

Then back to the campground, a shower, a bit of sudoku, and sleep.


July 27 Copper Harbor, MI

I slept really, really well last night. I think I woke up once and that was it. Puck of course woke me up at the crack of dawn, though I did take a nap after I had fed them and dressed and everything (have I mentioned how much I love having a couch and a dinette and a bed all separate from one another? I love my couch!). I still managed to set off at 8am CT (which tells you how early Puck got me up).

I drove through some lovely little towns on the way back to route 2. They looked a lot like New England/Maritimes towns, built on a hill around a harbor, lots of lovely architecture and such. Route 2, on the other hand, was pretty much like an interstate, with nothing to see. Once into Michigan I turned off on the road to the Keewanau Peninsula, and then took a side road to look at the lake and oh--construction! I wanted to stop in Houghton to get lunch and gas, but I didn't turn off right away when I saw a gas station and then ran into construction, so I kept going. Over the Keewanau canal, back up into the hills (the town across from Houghton has a SWITCH-BACKED main road--damn, I haven't run into a switchback since Montana!), still looking for gas (or lunch) but not finding any. The road was quite scenic, particularly the part right before Copper Harbor: the trees were right next to the road, the road was windy and up hill/down dale, and if I hadn't been driving a beheamoth and watching out for deer (a doe with fawn crossed right in front of me) I would have enjoyed it more. At least the weather was cooperating: sunny and around 72.

I finally drove into Copper Harbor, which is tiny. Really tiny. I went to the state park (easy to find, since the highway dead-ends there) and checked in. Turns out that not only do I have to pay $8 for an entry permit for the park, I have to pay $8 A DAY, even if I don't move the RV. Which made me grumpy; suddenly a fairly reasonable campground is damn expensive. Then I find my site. I had picked it out on the internet because it was the only one that didn't say anything about being on a hill. Which, as it turns out, it was. When I had the rig parked in the appropriate spot, it was tilted rather dramatically--more dramatically than my few levelling blocks could fix. If I parked it sideways across the site, it fit, but then I couldn't use the electric and I suspect the park ranger would get grumpy about me parking all over the grass. I tried and tried to make it fit and then, realizing there was a better deal, called the local RV resort to see if they had room. They did. So I packed back up (including dumping BOTH cats into the small hard-sided carrier, since it would be a short trip and I couldn't be bothered to get Puck's kennel set up) and went back to the park office and asked for a refund--which they nicely gave me, except for the nonrefundable deposit. I even got tonight's money back! Then I trooped over to the Lake Fanny Hooe (yes, that's its real name) RV resort, and got a spot. Again, it took me four tries to find one that fit, but now we're in a nice sunny spot (which shouldn't be a problem, if the weather does what they say it will) which is pretty level. And even after losing the deposit, I'll be paying less to stay here than at the state park--and here I have WiFi!

The cats are VERY glad to be here, as am I; I'm ready to stay put for a while. We're here four nights, which should be a good time, and I'm already almost halfway through a book I started at dinner. Which I ate at the Harbor Haus, which is supposed to be THE place to eat here. I didn't realize quite how bad I looked when I went in (it had been a long day, and I sweated a lot while finding a spot and walking), but the waitress seated me anyway with a lovely view of the lake. I had whitefish wrapped in bacon which had been cooked on a plank (which was really damn tasty) with mushroom risotto, mixed veggies and a huge salad, and someday I may be hungry again. The sun is just setting, the odor of wood fires is wafting everywhere (come on breeze!), I have WiFi, and a fluffy cat is curled up next to me--life is good.