The rest of the Midwest

Still in Chatham, Michigan.

My last post was so dull that I figured I had better get another one up quick before I lost my viewership. If you haven't been on the site recently, there is a post from yesterday.


MINNESOTA

Remember North Dakota?  Well Minnesota is kind of like that but not quite as bad.  Lots of fields but a few more trees.  What I did find in Minnesota is more great people.  Read my previous post about my stay with the Ruuds.

I had a wonderful weekend stay at the lake home of Doug and Sue Lamski.  The Lamskis are long time friends of the Thompsons and offered us the use of their beautiful place on Little Pine Lake in Perham. (Actually, they offered the Thompsons the use of their beautiful place on Little Pine Lake.  I just tagged along.)  We (Rhonda, Joe and I) arrived Friday night and stayed through Monday morning.  The Lamskis arrived from their home in Mendota Heights on Saturday and stayed through Sunday afternoon.  Delightful conversation and lots of laughs.  The town of Perham is a nice little resort type town, very nice.  Turns out that the weekend that we were there they were having a barbecue cook off (the town that is, not the Lamskis). We dropped by to sample some wonderful BBQ ribs, chicken and turkey together with corn on the cob.  Boy did the wind blow!  The lake had whitecaps the whole time we were there: whitecaps strong enough to undermine the docks and wash up fish.

Sue and Doug.  Not sure who that is in the middle.  Is that you Rhonda?

The Boys enjoy a cigar and a beer.  Kennedys, eat your hearts out!

Joe and I save the Lamskis' boat from certain disaster.

On Tuesday, the first of July, we arrived at Jay Cooke State Park in the eastern part of the state.  The park is on the upper St. Louis River.  It was nice to be beside the river and among the trees.  Here Joe's sister and brother-in-law Nancy and Rod Smith met up with us for a few days of camping.

Entrance to Jay Cooke State Park (I think).

The upper St.Louis.

Camped among the trees (at last).

Nancy and Rod.

On Wednesday we made a foray into Duluth for the day.  Duluth is a nice little city on the southwest shore of Superior Lake .  Turns out that Superior is even larger than Horseshoe Lake.  Go figure.  I practiced being stupid on Wednesday.  (For a practice run, I did quite well.)  As I got ready to go in to Duluth I noticed that I had an open bag of nuts on the picnic table.  Not wanting the squirrels to eat them I decided to put them in my tent.  Anyone see a problem here?  Yup, the squirrels ate holes in my tent to get to the nuts!

Draw bridge in Duluth.  If you don't want to draw one you can just look at this picture.

WISCONSIN

Upper Wisconsin looks a lot like Maine, small farms, fields, woods and lakes.

Farming here isn't on the grand scale that it is at the Ruuds'.

A road-side garden.

I finally found my way to Easy Street and yes, I did stop.

On Thursday, the third of July, we arrived in Washburn.  Wanting to avoid Fourth of July traffic we decided to make Washburn Memorial Park our home for the next few days.  The park is on the south shore of Superior.  For the Fourth we made our way 13 miles north to the town of Bayfield. Bayfield has the feel of a New England coastal town absent the smell of salt air.

The Bay in Bayfield.  (It would be kind of disappointing if they didn't have one, wouldn't it?)

We took a tour boat to explore the Apostle Islands.  It was a beautiful day, calm, and nice to be out on the water.  The captain of the tour boat was very entertaining.  Avery enjoyable afternoon.

This is the shore line of Devil's Island, one of the Apostle Islands.  This effect is from the wave and ice action on the soft sandstone base.  Pretty cool, huh?

The light house on Devils Island.  A light house on a lake?  We've got to get one of these for our lake!

A boat cruising the Lake in the early evening.

Bayfield put on a great fireworks display.  As an added benefit, we could see the displays of other towns around the Lake in the background.  Surely, a memorable Fourth.  After the fireworks were over I looked out in the bay to see that the barge that was used to light the fireworks was on fire, really on fire.  Few people seemed to be too concerned about this, as it continued to burn with abandon.  No fire boat, no shouts for help.  The next morning when we asked the waitress in the coffee house if she had heard about the disaster she responded "Oh yeah, they always end the show with the bonfire on the barge."  Ah, one more drawback of being a tourist.  On Sunday morning, the seventh, we said goodbye to Nancy and Rod

Hey, is something on fire?

Hope all these pictures make up for the dullness of my last post.