We found Highway 59 south of Winnipeg to be in much better condition than the 75, the main road to Winnipeg from the south that we had taken coming up.
We had seen a small dot on the map near the Manitoba/Minnesota border labeled “Ukranian Museum” and had been watching for signs. We were about to give up when we saw a sign for an historic Orthodox Church and made the turn. The road was sign posted for a town 10 kilometers away but we almost immediately spotted the church, which was obviously not the museum and the road under us had turned to gravel. On the corned there was a dilapidated old building that somehow still had retained some appeal.
Here we had to give up our recently purchased oranges, lemons and tomatoes. You think we would learn?
The weather had warmed up nicely, hot enough to warm the honey which was beginning to crystallise. We left it on the dash in the car for a few hours, now it's nice and runny again.
The scenery was much similar to what we have seen over past day or two but also reminiscent of the North. By North, we mean the Yukon and Alaska. Here in the lower 48 anywhere close to the 49th parallel is referred to as “The North”!
By 6 O'clock we had had enough of driving and stopped for our overnight at the Pine Creek RV Resort in Walker, Minnesota so got yet another sticker on the map.
This was a very nice park with wifi, nice level spacious sites and a pond and stream for Trekker—in which he got very muddy before being rinsed off in the pond.
With the wireless we got a bit done on the blog then suddenly recalled that a couple that we had met only once before lived somewhere in Wisconsin. We had met them in Oaxaca when we were on our way to Cuernavaca and then Argentina, 5 years ago. We met on a bus, we on our way back to our hotel and they to their vanagon at a nearby RV park where we visited them the next day. We had maintained occasional e-mail contact over the years so sent them a note before going to bed after midnight—after watching the 10 o'clock CHEK TV news from home. (2 hour time difference)
22nd
We got up quite early as we still had few things to take care of while we had internet and the cell phone rang just as Art poured his morning cup of tea. It was Dave and Linda. They invited us for dinner, assured us that they had room in the driveway, so off we went.
As usual, by the time we got the dogs walked and fed, things sorted out and put away we were on the road at the crack of mid morning—wheels turning at 10:45.
We pushed on for 3 hours, running into detours and road construction in Duluth before crossing the bridge at the bottom end of Lake Superior then stopping for lunch at Boule River where we took an hour long break.
A little further down the road we pulled off the road at the entrance to the City of Ashland for an AbqL photo.
One slight mis-turn—the GPS suddenly jumped from “turn in 1.2 Kilometres” to “turn in 20 meters” and we had missed the turn! About this time they phoned to see how we were doing, gave us new directions and in a few minutes we spotted them standing in the road.
Their driveway proved to be not as narrow or windy as Linda and Paul's in Grande Marais so we pulled straight in, parked and began to catch up on each others adventures.
Dinner was out on the lake on their pontoon boat. Dave being a veterinarian and dog loved the dogs were invited into the house and also along for the cruise. They unfortunately were not invited to eat with us! The long faces were ignored and they soon realised that Dave and Linda could not be persuaded to break the rules so they settled on the bow watching the water, birds and anything else that moved.
Jambalaya, cornbread, home made pickled beets and cucumber, red wine, white wine, beer . . . . . !!!
Back at the house, ice cream with fresh peaches, accompanied by Mexican brandy topped off the evening beautifully and we returned for the rig for the night.
Unfortunately neither of us thought to bring the camera so we will have to leave that wonderful evening to your imaginations.
Aug 23rd
Roughly 8:00AM the cell phone rang—Dave was inviting us for breakfast. Gillian led off with the dogs and Art followed with the dog food and dishes. While we ate our breakfast the dogs were entertained by the chipmunks just outside the screen door.
After breakfast Dave set out in the boat to do some water testing on the lake—his volunteer job. Gillian took Trekker down to the lake for another swim while Art made good use of their secure wireless to get the finances up to date. Art found that while a couple of our investments we up by 20 and even 30 percent from a couple of years ago, most of the others were down, so we are running about even. Could be worse! “Le plus change, le plus le meme chose” or words to that effect!
The time flew by and at noon we sat down for lunch—more of yesterday's wonderful jambalaya, salads, pickles etc. We finally tore ourselves away, took a last minute group photo and were rolling down the road to wherever at 1:30 in the afternoon.
We travelled east then north heading to Northern Michigan—another state sticker! For some reason Art was tired today—good thing we weren't going too far. By 4:00 PM we had arrived at the Summer Breeze RV Park just over the State Line in Iron Mountain, Michigan and called it a day.
This is a nice park; walking trails, wifi at the site, fire pits,. . . very pleasant. Even the Satellite dish was able to find the signal, we had by good luck parked just barely clear of the trees.
So while Gillian and the dogs went for a walk Art had a snooze then plugged in the laptop and caught up on the e-mails and read a bit of some of the online RV sites that we follow.
The evening progressed with a bit of time on the lap top while sipping a 16 year old single malt and watching the news from home and “Midsummer Murders” and cooking and enjoying a halibut dinner; almost the last of the Alaska halibut, one piece left.
Re-reading the previous paragraph we realised that it didn't quite portray the reality; while we were both watching the TV programs, Art was sipping the whisky and Gillian was cooking the halibut. We both enjoyed it and Art did the washing up. There. That's better.
24th
We hit the road again at 1010 in the morning and as we had to retrace our path a few miles , at arriving at highway 95, Art turned right, remembering turning left to enter the road on the way in. Gillian, always the navigator, said “Aren't we going the wrong way?”. Art was sure he remembered correctly, but then remembered an instance many years ago, upon turning onto the Trans Canada Highway in Maple Creek Saskatchewan, enroute to Ottawa, Gillian had said “We're going the wrong way!” to which Art responded “No, I turned left off the highway” and we went on “ No you didn't”, “Yes I did” for a while, then Gillian asked, OK. If we are travelling east, why is the sun behind us at 9 O'clock in the morning?” Oh. Oops. Eventually we turned around and we eventually arrived in Ottawa.
Since then Art has realised that his sense of direction is second (at best) to Gillian's so, deciding that he was as usual mistaken he turned around. Nothing looked familiar and very soon Gillian said, “wait a minute, maybe you're right!” We decided to turn around and were soon in familiar territory, arriving back at highway two and this time we both agreed which way to turn!
An hour later we lost an hour as we crossed into the Eastern Time Zone. We took a lunch break at a rest area overlooking Lake Michigan to the south. We were surprised by the number of small places advertising and selling Pasties. There must have been an influx of Cornish miners or something in the past! At one place with parking available for the rig Art suddenly slowed and pulled in, his curiosity getting the better of him. We bought a couple of pasties and 2 pieces of pie to go for our supper tonight, Art adding a coffee for the road and we carried on.
Crossing the bridge over the Strait of Makcinac we had Lake Michigan to our right and Lake Huron to our left. Not surprisingly, the bridge was under repair. We have come across a lot of highway and bridge repair this trip.
Continuing directly south on highway 75 we made good time, a couple of driver changes and rests later we stopped for the night at a travel info/rest area on highway 127, a short day's drive to Indiana. Here we realised that the battery on the tow car had gone dead! Too much towing and not enough engine running to keep it charged. Art fired up the generator for a few hours and connected the battery charger.
Since the gen set was running anyway we extended the dish and watched some TV! Calls to mind the sign Art spotted on a high end 40' class A a while ago: “Roughing it Smoothly”
This was a beautiful rest area—the gardens are maintained by the local Master Gardener association. There is also an array of wonderful metal sculptures, a monument to DOT workers killed in work related accidents.
For some reason Art woke up in the dark and lay semi awake for some time. Waking again at 7:30, it was 8:30 before we woke up enough to actually get out of bed! Art decided to not look at his watch until we were actually moving so he wouldn't fret about a late start!
We were out of bread and milk so breakfast depended on a packet of frozen pancakes heated on the toaster, plus of course tea/ coffee and orange juice. At we rolled out towards the highway Art sneaked a peak at his watch—10:20. Not bad and we weren't going far today.
After one stop for fuel at a flying J and another further down the road in a Walmart Parking lot for lunch and a bit of shopping and we were in Indiana, in a grassy, primitive but clean RV Park. Another state, another sticker! Much of the campground is a large grassy field where Gillian thew the ball for Trekker to his delight. We have no water or sewer but there is electricity for the satellite!
I will comment on the Walmart shopping: Though they are not our favourite company for a variety of reasons, we do patronise them on occasion; they are always easy find, you always know what they will have (and will not have!), there is always room for the motorhome and the car without the need to un-hook and unless there is a local ordinance, RV's are welcome to park for the night.
The 5 O'Clock news from home in received here at 8:00 PM of course so Art started the dinner a bit before news time. Pretty easy stuff; bison burgers (from frozen patties) with fried onion, garlic, tomato, lettuce, on ciabatta buns. Turned out OK and Gillian did the dishes while Art pounded out a bit more on the laptop.
He has decided that he better do at least an outline of the day's events and hopefully catch up a bit on missing days—sort of working from both ends to the missing middle. When we get wireless again he will be able to post to the blog with only the photos to be entered. At least that's the plan! If all the posts from Dawson Creek to Ohio get posted all at once you will know he made his goal, at least to that point!
Later note--well he made it to Indiana! Close enough? Now just to get caught up to Ontario!
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