How do we get out of Wisconsin???

July 18-19 

The road to Duluth from Grand Forks was unremarkable; not bad, not good. We decided to stay at the Buffalo Valley RV Park outside of Duluth. It’s a pretty park and has a restaurant, horseshoe pits, volleyball courts, and several baseball fields. Looks pretty popular with the locals. 

They even had a table with Bruce's initials at our site!

We couldn’t see Lake Superior from the park so driving into the city was quite surprising and beautiful. The road enters from a high hill so you overlook the St. Louis River, canal, harbor, bridges, and the lake.  

The RV Park manager gave us directions to Canal Park which has shops and the Lakewalk which we were interested in. Parking was pretty cheap and we didn’t plan on staying a long time. We missed our exit the first time so just decided to drive on up the north shore of the lake. Lots of grand estates line the shore with great views of the lake, of course. Not much for the road traveler to see, so we turned around and made our way back to Canal Park. 

Took the dogs for a stroll out onto a jetty with a lighthouse at the end, then back to a bridge that raises for large boats. Just as we approached the bridge, an announcement was made that the bridge was going to be lifting. A sailboat and a ferry came under the bridge before it was lowered again.

We walked out on the Lakewalk boardwalk and stopped at a few historical markers and talked to some folks doing the same thing we were. 

Looking at the city of Duluth reminded me a little of San Francisco as the streets go pretty steeply uphill from the lake level. After our walk we drove up one of the hills and found Skyline Parkway, which, as its name implies, wanders across the top of town with magnificent views of the lake and harbor.  It’s a great way to see everything and the drive was fun. Some of the homes had great views when they were first built but the trees in front of them had grown too big and blocked them. Reminds me of Lake Wildwood issues J Some people found a work-around and added stories and decks to get more height.

We drove around for about an hour and then headed back to the campground. Our impression of Duluth is that it’s a very nice place in the summer, but we probably wouldn’t like the winters too much. Don’t think we’ll consider moving here any time soon.

At the campground we ate at the restaurant deck overlooking the horseshoe pits where a mini-tournament was taking place. The weather was very pleasant and we could have stayed there quite a while.

Did You Know...

“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'”

Was written about Lake Superior? Who can name that tune and who sang it???

HEADING FOR MARQUETTE, MI

The manager of the campground told Bruce that someone had just traveled from Marquette and had a four hour detour because of flooding. He wasn’t specific about where the flooding occurred so we decided to just head out on our way. It wasn’t too many miles until we found a detour sign that took us on a southern route about 2 hours and then northeast again. Then came another detour sign where that road was closed, then another missed detour and fun turn-around requiring unhooking the jeep. 

Getting back on the detour, we came to a sign that said the road ahead was closed to semis 8 miles past the next sizable town. We were almost back to the highway we originally started on when we saw a Great Lakes Visitor Center and decided to stop and see what the road conditions were. Good thing we stopped. It turned out that we would be included in the ‘semi’ category so we had to backtrack nearly 60 miles and pick up another road that would eventually lead us to our destination in Michigan. So we added about 120 miles to the trip just with detours!

Actually our destination was Marquette, MI, but with all the back tracking and detours we only made it to Ironwood, MI on the border with Minnesota. The closest RV park was 17 miles west, but we found a city park in Ironwood with just enough space for the rig and jeep for $25 a night, full hookups. Can’t beat that with a stick! I had planned on doing some laundry, but there is only 1 washer and no dryers. Bummer. Will have to find a laundromat before Canada, which will probably be in a couple of days.

Again no wifi and the phones are only showing a few bars so may have to use roaming minutes if I have any left.

BTW, I can’t see who’s reading the blog so if you would be so kind as to add a comment sometime I’d appreciate it. Just a ‘hello’, or ‘I’m reading the blog’, will suffice. Thanks.