Moving right along… (09-09-12)

Not that I am an expert, but I would have to say that I really thought the “Suites” rally in MI was quite good.  There were 17 Suites 5th wheels in attendance. 

Some people have fancier set ups than others. 

The schedule was loosely planned, leaving plenty of time for simple visiting or other activities.  Paul and I played our version of tennis for the first time in a year.  Our version consists of trying to see how many times in a row we can hit the ball to each other.  Our record volley is 23 times and we didn’t come close the other day.  More practice required.


 
  We had one pot luck dinner, and one group dinner at a restaurant while attending the rally.  We also had breakfast cooked for us on two of the mornings. 

For the most part the weather was great, but the night of the pot luck it was chilly and rainy, so we used one of the barn type buildings. 

  We had several campfires and lots of “tours” of rigs. Its always great to get ideas from other people about what customizations can be done to the rig to make life easier, or more fun.

We lit up several “Chinese Lanterns”- miniature hot air balloons that you light, then let go.  They float way up into the air and we could watch them for a few minutes before they burned out.

 

Once we left the rally, we headed to Indiana to get some warranty work done on the trailer.  There weren’t too many issues but we wanted to get them fixed, since our full warranty is up now. DRV is great to work with and helped us get things fixed up to our (Paul’s) satisfaction. While there, we met up with some of our new friends from the rally, who were also getting their rigs worked on, and we all went out to dinner at Maria’s Mexican Restaurant, which has some of the best Margaritas and Mexican food we’ve had in a long time (or, did the great Margaritas make us think the food was good??) 

In any case, we had a great time, but getting work done on the trailer is always stressful. First of all, they start work at 6 am, which means getting up at 5:00, eating, and pulling the slides in by 6 am. Then you get to sit around all day, and in my case, worry about the cat, who is sitting on the kitchen table, in his carrier, all day.  When they are done working, we set up for the night, just to do it all over again the next day.  We thought (hahaha) we only had one day’s work to be done, but its been 3 already, and we have one last thing to do- check the alignment on the trailer axles.  Hopefully it’s ok and we can make our run up to Michigan tonight.
    The alignment is done at a different shop, and the trip getting to it was a lovely (that’s sarcasm, Sheldon) adventure.  Indiana doesn’t do detours.  They just close roads.  So we get to an intersection that has a sign that says “road closed”.  Fine.  We take a left, so we can loop back around and find another way there. Nope.  “NO OUTLET”.  Lovely.  We tried 5 roads before we found one that took us around the road construction.  Since the project is long term ( there is no asphalt at all) you would think they could take two minutes to post some detour signs. It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t dragging a 38ft trailer behind us.  With the trailer attached, there are many roads we can’t use, either because they aren’t wide enough, can’t handle our weight, or don’t have the trees trimmed high enough to clear the top of our trailer.

MN and MI (09-05-12)

We are now on our way to a Mobile Suites Rally in Michigan. It’s quite a drive from where we are to where we’re going, so some of our days are spent in the truck for hours at a time, trying to put some serious miles behind us. Of course, everything is relative- we don’t like traveling more than 200 miles in a day, so 275 miles sure seems like a lot!  Just ask the cat! We did stop in Duluth for two nights, partly because we couldn't fathom when we would ever come back this way again, so we figured we'd better check it out now!  We actually thought the town was really nice and had a lot to offer, and we packed a lot of adventure into the one day we had there. We started by driving down to the waterfront. Situated on Lake Superior, Duluth is the most inland seaport in the U.S.   Many freighters still come through this way, picking up raw materials.
 

We enjoyed watching the lift bridge open for the sailboats and freighters to go underneath, and were impressed that as the freighter cruised through, someone over a PA system explained to the watching crowds how the lift bridge works and gave the history of the ship that was currently coming through. 

The crew of each vessel gives one long and two short blasts of their massive horn,  as a courtesy salute to the bridge tender.  The bridge tender then blasts his horn in response,  tooting the same message.  Paul grinned as he said that as impressive as they were, he didn't have horn envy (well, actually, we both thought the freighter horn sounded really cool!).

Along the waterfront there are the usual shops, hotels, boat excursions, and a museum of the Army Corp of Engineers.  We headed to that (free) museum to read about the local history of the COE.  This is where I love modern technology.  After the first 20 minutes, I started playing on my cell phone while Paul took his time exploring the exhibits.  


a walking boardwalk right next to the bike path!



Duluth also has several bike trails so we got out the bikes and realized it had been almost a year since we'd ridden them!  That will have to change, although to be fair, it was partly  because of my broken wrist.   After riding the 12 mile round trip trail that follows along Lake Superior for a while we decided that was enough for our first day back at it.

               

On the way back to the trailer, we drove up the local scenic drive, Skyline Drive which gave us a great view of the seaport, then stopped at Walmart to pick up some diesel oil.  Paul chatted with someone the other day who changes his own oil on his F350, so Paul has decided to change ours from now on too.  We'll save about $150-250 a year by doing it ourselves, plus he'll change  the fuel filter too, which will save us even more.

Boreal/Borealis (Minnesota, 09-01-12)

Sometimes I'm a little slow to connect the dots.  Several times in our travels we've heard the term Boreal forest.  I just figured it referred to the types of trees that grew in that particular kind of woods, but then we came to northern Minnesota, and I began checking daily to see if we had any chance of fulfilling a long time ambition of mine- to see the Northern lights. Northern MN is one of the better places in the lower 48 to actually catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis or Northern lights.  It finally clicked with me that a Boreal Forest is" a forest located in a Northern region".  Much to my disappointment, solar activity is very low right now, which means I probably won't see them, but I found a great website for  checking the activity level  (http://www.softservenews.com/Aurora.htm) , so I will continue to check it every day while we are here in the “Boreal states”.

We've spent the last few days in the awesome little town of Grand Marais MN.  It's right on Lake Superior, and has a small harbor and a cool little waterfront area with shops and restaurants, all within walking distance our RV park. We were extremely tempted to put the boat in the water, but didn’t.

The other night we went to one of the seafood restaurants right on the water, although our plan of eating outside on the deck was foiled by the wind and the sudden temperature drop.

We spent one afternoon hiking to two waterfalls in nearby Grand Portage state park.  The falls were ok, but nothing spectacular.  The hike, although not too long- 4 miles- was difficult due to the heat  and high humidity.

While exploring the area,  we stopped at the Grand Portage Heritage Center, even though I thought I had learned enough about the Voyageurs at Voyageurs National Park.  I was so glad we stopped though- turns out there was a lot more interesting information to be had about that time in history.

In the 1700s, Grand Portage, MN was at the center of the fur trade. This is the spot where the Voyageurs left the water and had to carry their goods along a 9 mile stretch of land. It was here that the Montreal Voyageurs would rendezvous with the western Voyageurs and swap goods. At the Living History exhibit several of the North West Company buildings have been reconstructed. 

We chatted with a fellow making a birch bark canoe in the same manner they were made hundreds of years ago.  While showing us how they were put together, he taught us about how amazing the birch tree is and why it is uniquely perfect for building a canoe.

So, here are some interesting facts:
Birch bark can be peeled from the tree without causing damage to the tree, if done correctly (and he explained how to do that).
Birch bark will rot in the sun but will not rot in water, in fact, water makes it stronger. If a canoe is stored in the dark or used in the water regularly, it will last for hundreds of years.
The bark is used "inside out" for the canoe because the outside, white bark is dead, rotted by the sun, and the orange bark is fresh and waterproof.  A birch bark canoe can carry much heavier loads than it’s aluminum counterpart. The wood of a birch tree is digestible by humans, and is non-toxic.  It is used to make popsicle sticks and tooth picks.