Sunday August 4

We found an 8 o’clock Mass this morning, then started the drive down the Michigan Peninsula.  Route 23 runs along the eastern shore through many small towns and lakefront communities.  It’s a pleasant attractive drive.  Again the primary goal today was to make progress toward home, so there was no sightseeing except from the car seat.  In the first hour we reached the Mackinac Bridge over the strait between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  The bridge ends at Mackinaw City on the northern tip of the Michigan peninsula, and that’s were we picked up Rt. 23.  The only stop was for smoked fish, whitefish and trout.  We’re camped in the Bay City State Park near Bay City, MI.  The sites are huge, there is electricity, it’s great.

 Mackinac Bridge

Bay City State Park, MI

Friday August 2

Travelling up Route 61 we were parallel to and often very close to the shore of Lake Superior, catching glimpses of the lake from time to time.  Part of the trip is mostly flat wilderness.  This gave way to hillier terrain and, in the middle of nowhere, a spa and resort.  Apparently there is skiing nearby.  Shortly before the border is the Grand Portage National Monument, close to the town of …..Portage on …..Grand Portage Bay, Lake Superior.  Of course we stopped.  The monument marks the spot where the Grand Portage – an 8 ½ mile long trail to the Pigeon River – began.  This is the route people have used for thousands of years to connect the interior of Canada to the lake.  The Pigeon River connects to the many lakes in interior Canada.  The British North West Company established a summer fort and trading post at the site, and the National Park Service in conjunction with the Ojibwe Indians has also constructed a summer Indian village at the site.  Voyageurs and Indians would traverse the portage to bring their pelts and other goods to the fort to trade for manufactured goods.

Shortly after the monument we cleared customs and were in Canada!  The first hour or so we travelled through fields of corn and other crops.  This relatively flat land gave way to rocky hills and pine forest.  We’ve gotten used to finding a town every 30 miles or so, and this didn’t change except that the towns were 45 kilometers apart and we’re in the Eastern time zone (at the Canadian border).   Eventually we arrived at Neys Provincial Park, our camping spot for the evening.  I had reserved a spot online, back in, 50 feet long.  What the computer and the person that checked us in didn’t tell us was that the site was down a winding logging road through the forest (ideal for a tent!).  We wound our way along a muddy track with branches brushing both sides of the camper.  We missed the main parts of the trees, anyway.  When we found the site there was no way I could get in, so we continued around the “loop” back to the booth.  They had another site available in another loop, but I couldn’t get into that either.  By this time Mom was convinced we were going to get trapped in THE DEEP VOODS, so I got a refund.  Across the main road was a general store/campground that wasn’t in Woodall’s directory, but it looked good to us.  We’re in their overflow area (a field) with 15 amp electricity (fine with me) camped next to a couple from Mystic, Connecticut.  By the way, we were checked in to this camp by a friend of the owner – the owner was out baiting bears.  The Neys Lunch and Campground is also a Black Bear outfitter.

 Lake Superior north shore in Minnesota

 AAAHHHHH!

Indian summer camp at Grand Portage NM

 Grand Portage trading post

 The road we entered Minnesota on was too small to have a sign

 Cool rocks

 The Lake again

 Lots of forest, not many towns or houses or anything

The road in Neys Provincial Park campground.  This part is good, Mom spent most of the experience with her head out the window watching for branches and trees.

Saturday August 3

The trip from Neys to Sault Ste. Marie was a get from here to there drive.  Sometimes we were on the shore of Lake Superior, sometimes inland, a lot of up and down over pine tree covered rocky hills.  One of the rock cuts was fascinating – the “rock” had smooth river rock boulders included in it.  The only interesting stop was an Ojibwe Indian trading post/tourist stop.  There were some genuine handmade items among the commercial items.  Crossing into the U.S. took about an hour in traffic, but our individual interview was quick and easy.  No camper search, no probing questions.  The crossing at Vancouver was more difficult.

Once in Sault Ste. Marie we found our campground, right on the St. Mary river below the Soo locks.  All of the Lake freighter traffic passes right by the campground,  less than 100 yards off shore.  The boats themselves are up to 1000 feet long, so they look really big when they are that close.  We went to the locks to watch ships lock through.  We saw two that were about 750 feet long, later in the evening a 1000 footer passed the campground after dark.  The city itself has a nice tourist area along the St. Mary river and locks.  We ate at a seafood place by the lock and watched a ship being raised during dinner.  Definitely a water oriented city.

 At Neys Lunch, Campground, and Bear Outfitters

 Lake Superior

 Eastern shore of Lake Superior

 Lake Superior

 Bridge from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, USA.  Don't let the speed sign fool you, we stopped dead in another 100 yards (oops, still in Canada - 90 meters)

 St. Mary River rapids in foreground, Soo Locks in background

 Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, USA

 Lake Freighter coming past our campsite on the St. Mary River

 Me and bow of the boat by the camper.

 Freighter leaving the Soo Locks

 Another freighter appearing in another one of the locks

 Sault Ste. Marie wisdom

View of the St. Mary River through the camper window

Thursday August 1

We crossed the Red River into Minnesota shortly after leaving Hillsboro ND this morning.  Staying with Rt 200 meant tricking the GPS as it’s not the preferred route, but a secondary (or tertiary?) choice.  The western part of Minnesota is the flattest area we’ve been in, all other areas had some hills or rises.  Corn, potatoes, sunflowers, and soybeans (?) stretch for miles on either side of the road.  Corn for ethanol is again the new cash crop.  Lots of new elevators and new farming equipment.

We were happily cruising along 200 (at 65 mph) when another of those pesky detour signs appeared.  “County Rt 9 closed, follow detour).  Rt 200 often shares other routes, and the GPS said we were going to use Rt 9, so I started down the detour.  Mom checked the map and we decided we didn’t need Rt 9, so we started to backtrack to 200.  To save a little time we took another county route that would meet up with 200.  Three miles down that road the ROAD CLOSED appeared.  In North Dakota they took away the pavement when repairing roads, apparently in rural Minnesota they just close the whole road.  We backtracked again to 200 and passed the closed road without incident.  After a while the road got narrow and rough, so we decided to go to Route 2 to Duluth.  This gave us the opportunity to get close to the source of the Mississippi River, Lake Itasca.  We didn’t go there, but Rt 2 crossed the Mississippi shortly after Bemidji, MN, so we officially returned to the East.  

Being smarter than the GPS we found what appeared to be a shortcut on the map and followed it for a while, then couldn’t find one of the county routes.  It turns out the road doesn’t go through, but the atlas map doesn’t show that little missing piece.  Backtracking again we went through Duluth without incident and are now camped at Burlington Bay CG, the Village of Two Harbors municipal campground, right on the north shore of Lake Superior.  We took a ride around town, visited the local lighthouse, and saw the coal and ore loading facility for the lakes ships.  Tomorrow night we’ll be in Canada at a Provincial campground near Thunder Bay, and then back to the US at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

 Western Minnesota - flat for miles and miles, crops, not grass

 Sunflowers

  Ada, Minnesota

 Across from the Cenex fuel stop on closed Rt 9, Ada, Minnesota

 Coming down the hill into Duluth, Minnesota.  Lake Superior on the left

 Two Harbors, Minnesota 

 Lighthouse and 1939 Great Lake fishing boat, Two Harbors, Minnesota

 Lakes freighter loading dock, Two Harbors, Minnesota

 Tugboat Edna G, built 1896 

View from Burlington campground, Two Rivers, Minnesota

Wednesday July 31

We’re in central North Dakota now, we just went through McClusky, ND.  It’s claim to fame is as the geographic center of North Dakota.  This area has many small lakes or ponds.  We’re very surprised by the number of them and that they exist at all.  We crossed Garrison Dam at the end of Lake Sakakawea, the way Sacagawea’s name is spelled and pronounced in the Midwest. We drove through many changes in topography as we headed east, now rolling fields as far as the eye can see. While Montana is known as the Big Sky state. ND could certainly share the title, especially in the eastern part, which is very flat. Working farms quickly replaced the oil fields and prairie as we moved east. We saw wheat, hay, corn, soybeans and fields of beautiful blue flowers (don’t know what they are).  Each town has a grain elevator, the old ones made of wood, the new ones metal, and there are many new ones.  I think ethanol production has stimulated corn production. Many towns are celebrating their centennial, which reminds us how recently the west was developed.   We stopped for coffee at a gas station and chatted with the attendant who had travelled east several times.  He contributed to our decision to travel along the northern shore of Lake Superior into Canada, which he said was a beautiful area.   Yesterday we met a couple from Minnesota at Roosevelt Park who also suggested we take that route.  If two different people suggest something, it has to be done!  We’re spending the night in Hillsboro, ND, just a short distance from the Minnesota border.  By the way, we just learned on the news that it is now legal to carry a gun in church in ND.  We were entertained by the sign for the Bang Church for one reason, this new law provides a whole new interpretation!

 Lewis and Clark Campground, a county campground in Hazen, ND

 Almost like the Overseas Highway in the Keys

 Mom must be driving again!

 Crops waving in the ever-present wind.  It's blowing us east

 Grain (corn?) elevators near Finley, ND

 Centennial celebration

 Big sky, little horizon

 ?

Downtown Portland, ND

Tuesday July 30

We left our oil country dusty field campground just before the rain began, a good thing, because the campground “road” will be a quagmire when wet.  The North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park was more or less on our route, so we stopped in for a few hours.  The park road winds through North Dakota badlands and overlooks the Yellowstone River.  Seeing it in the rain was a contrast to seeing other badlands formations on clear occasions.  It looks much like the badlands in the Southern Unit except more rugged.  The park was developed by the CCC in the 30’s and not much has changed.  Another off the beaten path park.

We picked up Rt 200 again to our camp for the night, Hazen, ND.  This is not oil country, so it was a nice change.  Hazen has two gas stations, two grocery stores, two bars, several businesses, and a school.  That’s about as big as it gets.  We’re camped in the county park, full hookups $20.  We picked this area because there is another Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Fort Mandan, and The Knife River Indian Village National Monument.  We of course went to all.  The Interpretive Center has a museum with many artifacts from the period as well as many Indian artifacts.  We didn’t have much time, I wish we could have stayed longer.  At Fort Mandan, where the Corps of Discovery spent the winter, we were fortunate to have an interpreter give us a tour.  The fort is quite nice by frontier standards, with quite a few rooms.  From there we went to the Indian Village.  Here there is a recreation of a Mandan mound house and evidence of where the village stood.  The Mandan were farmers, so returned to the same winter dwellings every year.  The houses are round with a wooden frame, walls, and roof and the whole thing is covered with dirt for insulation.  The interpretive trail to the Knife River goes past the village site and down to the shore where the Indians grew their crops.

 Oil boom traffic

 Drilling a well

 Bison out the truck window up close and personal at TR Park

 Badlands of Theodore Roosevelt NP North Unit

 Looking into the Yellowstone River valley at TR Park

 Fort Mandan, Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery winter home with Mandan Indians

 Mandan winter lodge