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.         After our one day in Duluth, we drove all the way to Munising MI, which is in the Upper peninsula of Michigan, one of our favorite places.  We managed to get a site that backs up to Lake Superior, so the view out our back window was amazing.  We were actually hoping it would get even more amazing at night, since we had heard from our favorite Space Weather Engineer (a good friend of Jess's) that the Northern lights would in fact be active, and we had a great chance of seeing them. Armed with that information, I kept myself awake until 2 AM and promised my husband, who bit the dust at about midnight, that I would wake him if I saw anything.  Before he went to bed, we both swear the horizon over the lake was glowing green, but it was so foggy and cloudy that we didn't see anything else.  Well, rats.  

  Moving on the next morning, we made it as far as Mackinaw City,  MI, a place we have fond memories of, since we came here with Kirk and Karen years ago and had a great time. Mackinaw City is a gateway city from the lower peninsula to the upper peninsula-one end of the mighty Macinac Bridge is here, as well as the confluence of Lakes Huron and Michigan.

We spent two nights here as well-walking around downtown was fun and we found a great shop where we finally had a sign made to hang on the front of our 5th wheel.  We both liked the design, so we didn't want to pass it up.

We are staying in a small campground that doesn't advertise, and has no amenities other than water and electric hook-up, but at $15 a night, it was an awesome deal for a tourist town!
We got the bikes out again and drove to the nearby town of Cheboygan to ride the bike trail there. We made it 18 miles this time.   It looked like the trail would follow the shore of Lake Huron, but we only saw the lake when we stopped at the local park along the way.