Delaware Mine and Copper Harbor

Another cold, rainy day.

Since the Keweenaw peninsula was mostly settled because of the copper mining, Tony thought it would be interesting to go to a defunct mine. We headed north on the peninsula to the Delaware Mine in the now ghost town of Delaware. It was a self guided tour, cost $11 to get in but it was dog friendly meaning that we could take Miko down into the mine with us. I was a little concerned that she wouldn't be able to handle it because she is not too crazy about closed in spaces. She did great. Me not so much. First you have to descend about 100 steps. About halfway down there was a gigantic iceberg which the guy at the top said came in this past winter with the cold and they had to chainsaw it to get the mine opened in the spring. Then you walk along a long corridor, I think it was about 1450 feet. They kept it lit as as it was when the mine was being worked which meant it was pretty darn dark. It was just the three of us, Tony, Miko and me. Damp and cold. There were signs along the way explaining various parts of the mine, but mostly it was just a dark dark corridor. I got a little spooked. Not liking it too much.

After we got done with the Delaware mine, we traveled further north on the peninsula to the town of Copper Harbor. We stopped and had lunch at a place called the Pines. I think it was the first time that I remember having a pasty which is a meat/potato/carrot pie that the miners used to take down into the mines. The waitress said that most people ate a pasty with ketchup, me – I asked for Ranch dressing. How upscale am I? We also stopped at Studio 41 which had 75 different Michigan artists. Nice to see art again. There were lots of copper articles. There was also a Pug puppy there who had a cleft palate. Black dog with a tongue hanging out even though his mouth was closed

We then drove up the Brockton scenic highway that goes along the west coast of Keweenaw. And I mean up – extremely steep. I had to laugh, after the first steep, steep hill, somebody had painted on the road like Burma Shave ads “You    Are    Not      Done     Yet”. They were right, it just kept going up and up and up.  I am so glad that we were in the car instead of the RV.  When you got to the top, you had a really great view of Copper Harbor. Continuing on, we got to another scenic site which overlooked Lake Superior and a few inland lakes. Breathtaking, although we almost got blown off the mountain, it was so windy.

Home for dinner and to finish off the fourth episode of Orange is the New Black – loving it.