WEEK TWO – MN – WI – MI

Gary GruberTravelWEEK TWO – MN – WI – MI
June 29 , 2022 /

WEEK TWO – MN – WI – MI

JUNE 23.   Looking at diesel prices in Canada at $6.36 USD we consider adjusting our route east to stay south of the border where it’s $5.39 gallon and that varies greatly by region.  Considering boondocking, saving campground fees, and putting  $$ toward fuel as a compromise.  We look at the big US map to consider a way forward and then turn to the state map and highlight our intended route.  We’ll be in Oshkosh, WI for the next 3 days near Lake Winnebago and will have time to figure out our desired and best alternatives.

 

The drive along the Mississippi River from the “bluff country” of Winona, MN to La Crosse, WI was exquisitely beautiful at this time of the year in sunny weather.  The broad expanse of the river made us think about its origins in the headwaters in northern MN, the history of traffic and trade along the river, the floods and the rebuilding, and the population along the length of the river, some 2,340 miles.  We also crossed the Missouri River earlier, the Lewis & Clark river, 10 miles longer than the Mississippi.

 

JUNE 24  We pulled into Hickory Oaks campground in Oshkosh, WI last night and are here for three nights, two full days, and this morning attended to errands, laundry, and a new iPhone 13, which I hope will produce some good photos in the near future.  Lake Winnebago and the Fox River here are beautiful natural resources.  If a picture’s worth a thousand words, we can make these blogs shorter to read with brief descriptions for photos.  We’re celebrating a birthday dinner tonight at Roxy’s and then will have a quiet day tomorrow to plan a route forward.

JUNE 25-27. Visited the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) museum in Oshkosh which has an amazing collection of airplanes, vintage going back to the 1920’s, small homebuilt aircraft, early commercial planes for mail and passengers, racing airplanes, military planes, gyrocopters, and an exact replica of the Wright Flyer. Each summer EAA sponsors a fly-in for private pilots and over 10,000 planes show up in late July.  A site worth a visit if you get near.

 

https://www.eaa.org/eaa

 

En route now to Canada, the next day, 6/26,  we head farther north, skirting Green Bay by staying west and on to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, crossing at Menominee.  Our next stop was boondocking in the Hiawatha National Forest, north of Rapid River. Rolling hills forested with northern hardwoods, white pine and hemlock, flat land covered by red pine, jack pine and aspen, and large open and tree covered wetlands form the 879,000 acres of the Hiawatha. Approximately 775 miles of rivers and streams on the Forest empty into the Great Lakes.

 

JUNE 27  –  As we leave Hay Meadow campground, we hear a loud, large crunch.  Uh oh, now what?  Did we hit a low hanging tree limb?  Did I not see something in the road? We stop and discover that we had forgotten to retract the awning and that hit a tree along the side of the road, almost ripping off the entire awning plus jointed support arms.  We surveyed the damage and considered alternatives.  Rip it off completely?  It is a power awning and the power was off.  We turned on the power and in spite of broken arms, it started to retract and I manually held it up and guided it back in as far as it would go, almost all the way save for 4 inches but it seemed tight against the body of the RV.  We started out slowly down the road and kept an eye on the awning and it seemed to be traveling well, even damaged.  We decide to go on to Tahquamenon Falls State Park near Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior, not far from Sault Ste. Marie.

 

https://www.michigan.org/property/tahquamenon-falls-state-park

 

JUNE 28 – We drive to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior to visit the Shipwreck Museum, about 11 miles north of Paradise.  it houses a wonderful collection of photos, stories, artifacts and models of some of the more famous shipwrecks of the 500 total, claiming 30,000 lives of men, women and children.  One notable wreck was the Edmund Fitzgerald.  Some of the early steamships’ boilers caught fire, there were collisions and stories of ships breaking up in violent storms.  One of the buildings on the museum’s campus is devoted to life saving equipment and there has been a lighthouse there since 1849.

 

https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/shipwreck-museum/

 

In the early afternoon we motored along the shore of Whitefish Bay to Brimley and then on to Sault Ste. Marie where camped on the St. Mary’s River, watching the long freighters going by where they pass through the Soo Locks.  According to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, 35.9 million short tons of with iron ore tonnage totaling 21.5 million tons, 60 percent of the total tonnage shipped from the Port of Duluth-Superior. It was a 23-season high in iron ore tonnage. More than 100 freighters transport iron ore across the Great Lakes, a combination of U.S.- and Canadian-flagged, and international carriers.

https://saultstemarie.com/attractions/soo-locks/

 

JUNE 29   The end of our second week on the road again.  Planning to cross the bridge to Canada, Friday, July 1, which happens to be Canada Day, originally called Dominion Day. Three separate colonies, United Canadas, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were united into one Dominion under the British Empire in 1867. It wasn’t until 1982 that Canada became completely independent and sovereign from Britain.  See you later down the road.

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