Lakers? Salties? Who Cares - I Just Want A Rumble

There are two Sault Ste. Maries – one in Ontario Canada and one in Michigan. They are right across from each other separated by the International Bridge. The one in Canada has about 75,000 people, the one in Michigan only has 15,000. The big draw here are the Soo Locks. I have splurged and gotten a camping spot about 5 minutes away from the Locks called the Soo Locks Campground, funny enough. It is basically an asphalt parking lock with the campers all squeezed in next to each other. There is no room to even put out an awning but make no nevermind – it is amazing – we are right on the river and we can see the big – no make that giant – ships coming through the Locks going from Lake Huron to Lake Superior and vice versa.

These ships are really something. I toured one of these big ships that was docked in Toledo last year but seeing these ships in the wild, where they are free roaming is something totally different. You hear a deep rumbling as they come toward you on the river that resonates at the cellular level. It is rather thrilling and anytime I felt one coming I had to get my binoculars out and run to the shoreline to watch them go by.  I now have an app on my phone where I can look up any ship in the world and see where it is, where it is going and all the little details about that ship.  For the last few days, I've been following some of the ships I watched pass by.  

View out my front window - you can't even take a picture of the whole ship because they are so large

I've come here to make believe I'm one of those big Lakers (ships that work the Great Lakes) or Salties (the ocean going variety). I am going to ride thru the locks on my very own ship. Well, maybe the Nokomis is actually a smaller boat that hauls tourists thru the locks – but who cares.

Before we get to the pictures – perhaps I should confess – for a short amount of time, I was an illegal alien. The boat goes up through the American locks and then crosses into Canadian waters and comes down through their lock. I did not have a passport, I did not have a visa. Immigration on either side did not even notice. Whew!!!!

Entering the Lock

Water is rising

Almost to the top

Just waiting for the gates to open, we have been raised 21 feet

One of my tires on the Cooper started flashing a low air message so I stopped at U.P. Tire. They took off the tire monitors on the stems and checked the air. The tire monitors are external ones that signal back to the RV when I'm towing the car what my tire status is. Otherwise, if the car were to have a tire problem, I would never know it. They determined that there were no leaks and made sure all of the tires were properly inflated. All tires that is except one. One of the monitors was cemented onto the stem and would not come off. They tried different solvents to try to loosen it up and nothing worked. Finally they had to saw it off. These guys were tire specialists and they really struggled trying to get it off. I figured that I could get another monitor, but what if I was on the road, in the middle of nowhere and I needed to do some maintenance or put air in that tire. Your local gas station guy wouldn't have a clue on how to get it off. They spent about 45 minutes working on it and did not charge me a cent. U.P. Tires rocks!!!!

Tahquamenon Falls

In the last couple of weeks, I have visited the biggest waterfalls in Wisconsin and Minnesota. How could I not visit the biggest waterfalls that Michigan has to offer. This would be Tahquamenon Falls – way up in the most north eastern part of the U.P. I had studied up on where to stay – I wanted to stay at the Rivermouth Campground in Tahquamenon Falls State Park. I did not take into account that it is the weekend – all the working people like to go camping leaving no room for those of us who do not plan ahead. Rivermouth was full – no room at the inn – so I went to the 'other' campground in the park which had room for us. I have to say – the camping gods were looking out for me – I got a beautiful site, within walking distance of some great trails. Quiet neighbors, there were people who shared their campfire with me. It is funny how things work out for the best.

Sunday was a cold and rainy day, not really conducive to hiking or waterfalls. There was a museum up the road which looked interesting, so I headed out. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum was fascinating. There have been more than 6000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes so they had plenty of subject matter. The place was set up like a small village with different buildings hosting different aspects of shipwrecks – museum, coast guard rescue, lighthouse keeper quarters, movie theater(film about recovering the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald) and the ever present gift shop. There was also a boardwalk where you could walk out on the point overlooking where many ships had gone down.

A Civil War era lighthouse

I have read several blogs from other RV travelers where the writer is all gaga over lighthouses. I don't see the pull but in the museum they had several Frelsun lenses. These lenses are the lights that go up in the top of the lighthouse. These lenses are absolute works of art. I think I'm beginning to understand the charm. There are seven orders of lenses, with the largest being a First Order.

A Second Order Frelsun lens - it is nine feet across

A Fourth Order Lens

A little story about a shipwreck: There were two ships passing each other, going opposite ways. Turns out that both of these ships were ships from the same company. They got excited at seeing their fellow employees and they both decided to sail closer to wave at each other. All of a sudden, one of the ships veered a little too far and ended up ramming the other ship and sending it to the bottom of the lake. I guess it doesn't pay to be too friendly.

Tahquamenon State Park has two sets of falls – the Lower Falls and then of course, the Upper Falls. We were camped about a mile away from the Lower Falls so we ended up hiking down to them several times while we were here. It was nicely set up so that you could get close enough to the falls to actually feel the their spray.

Lower Falls

The Upper Falls were a little more intimidating. The Upper Falls is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River, with a height of 50 feet, length of 200 feet ad the maximum recorded flow of 52,228 gallons per second. Think about that flow factor for a second.

I guess the lake effect is strong up here

Moving into Yooper Land

Another long drive today of about three hours. I love it when Google Maps tells me as I cross a state line - “Welcome to Michigan” - it makes me feel so welcome in whatever state I've landed in.

I'm heading of a campground called Little Bay de Noc. This is notable because a) it is my first National Forest campsite that I've stayed in and b) because of my advanced age I get to camp at half price - $9.50 a night for those who care. No electric or water hookups and very very quiet. There are three loops here and based on my research, I am looking for a campsite with a bay view. Alas, all the good ones are taken and I end up with one that you have to sort of squint to see the bay. Actually, the bay view ones were the only ones populated. The other campsites were totally empty, all alone in the dark deep woods. It was sort of spooky walking thru those campsites – sort of like a ghost town. The trails were nice – there was a history trail – evidently in the early 1900's – this was quite the resort destination for city folk. All the buildings are gone now, but there were a lot of old-timey pictures of people lounging in the woods.

Why am I here? Two words: Factory Tour!!!! I'm a sucker for factory tours – especially if they have conveyor belts and lots of fancy glittery machinery. This factory tour had none of that but it sort of turned my head around anyway. I went to the Hoegh Pet Casket Company in Gladstone, Michigan sort of as a joke. The idea of pet caskets is rather funny in itself and I expected to scoff at the whole enterprise. I was in for a surprise.

I was greeted very warmly by Tom who was my tour guide. I was the only one on the tour – can't imagine why there was not more demand, but that's ok, their loss. This is a small company which has been in the pet casket business for over fifty years. There must be a demand for the product. Caskets start off with a sheet of plastic. They put it into a heater which does not melt it, but makes it soft. They then put the sheets over a mold and wham, bam – a vacuum force sucks it into the mold. It is like magic. The whole process took about two minutes. I won't go into anymore detail, but there were several more steps to the process. Local women sew the fabric that lines the caskets and drop the fabric off in batches. There is so much demand that sometimes FedEx has to send two trucks daily just to keep up with the shipments. The tour ended in the showroom where you could see the finished products. They also ran a cremation service and they had urns for sale also.

You have your choice of cream, pink, blue and the ever popular camo

The showroom

The Finished Product

Miko and I hiked the Haymeadow Creek Falls Trail to see the waterfall. It was a loop trail but a bridge was out so we had to backtrack. Falls were pleasant but underwhelming.

The last item on my to-do list was to go to the Peninsula Lighthouse which had been decommissioned in 1936. We had to drive down a single lane tiny curvy dirt road to get there. There was nobody there when we got there. The wind had picked up, the waves were crashing on the shores – one of those wild and crazy times. Loved it, but it was starting to get dark and I didn't want to have to drive that tiny dirt road in the dark.

Sort of a lonely little lighthouse, out in the middle of nowhere

What's A Viking Fan Doing In Packer Country? Keeping A Low Profile, Of Course

Wisconsin – land of Packer Fans, suicidal bugs and more roundabouts than you could ever imagine. I guess we can explain the bugs – it is early fall and these bugs are probably thinking I would rather go out in a blaze of glory on her windshield than slowly freeze to death in the coming winter. I suppose I can maybe even understand the Packer Fans (I'm just a little bit south of Green Bay) but Roundabouts? Why in the world would you put three roundabouts in the middle of a tiny little road going thru corn fields? This is not an isolated situation – they are all over the place. Why? Why? Why?

Ok, enough of that. I drove a couple of hours and ended up in the town of Wausau. They have a lovely urban county park there called Marathon County Park. It is nestled in a pine/oak grove and has a walking path around and through the trees. It is also across the street from a grocery store and a Shopko where I could pick up all the things that I forgot to pack for my fall trip.

After resting up overnight after that strenuous drive, I drove another couple of hours to High Cliff State Park. It is in the Appleton, Neenah area on the northeast shore of Lake Winnabago. Lake Winnebago is the largest lake in Wisconsin. It is bigger than Mille Lacs lake for all you Minnesotans following along. The campground is lovely – all of the sites are good sized and in the trees. The campground is on the cliffs overlooking the lake – can't see the lake, but that is what they tell me.

I decided to do an evening hike on the Lime Kiln trail leaving from the campground. There were several signs which said that this was a primitive trail – only people in good shape should attempt it. Well, that is definitely not me, but I'm going anyways. It was a fun trail – going from the top of the cliffs, down to the lake, along the lake which was flat and easy and then back up the cliff. Sweated a bit, got lost a bit but I had a nice glow of accomplishment.

On the way down

I also did the Butterfly Trail which was a paved trail around a butterfly shaped pond. Pleasant, but I realized that I enjoy much more the wilderness trails. Tripping over roots and rocks adds a certain challenge and I find that there is much more of a sense of peace that you don't get walking on pavement. Must be that direct physical connection to Mother Earth or something.

I love this memorial  RIP Jean

I visited an exquisite museum in Neenah. It is the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass. This museum has the world's largest, most representative collection of glass paperweights in the world. Holy cow – I spent hours here looking at the different paperweights. There were also a few other exhibits of different types of contemporary glass sculptures which were enjoyable. I think I liked this glass museum better than the Corning Museum of Glass that I saw in New York last year. Outstanding exhibits and yes, I did buy a couple of paperweights. It's art, right?

The following are all made of glass:

This was called Scorpio

Up in Appleton, there is the Trout Museum of Art. They had an interesting origami exhibit – in fact the bottom two floors were Origami by Robert Lang. For part of the exhibit, a photographer took a picture of a flower and then Lang recreated the image using just one uncut sheet of paper. All of his work is done with just one uncut sheet of paper. That is the amazing thing.

More of a traditional sort of Origami

I also walked a few more trails in High Cliff – Red Bird and Indian Mound – it just feels good to be out walking again.

Grand Portage - Land of the Anishinaabe**

It finally happened – I had a Black Tank Catastrophe!!!! I had my RV in to Hilltop Trailers (where I have always had excellent service) to fix my leaky black tank and gray tank valves. For those not in the know – Black Tank contains everything that goes down the toilet drain – Gray Tank contains everything that goes down the sinks and shower drains. My Black Tank valve had been leaking so I had put on a secondary valve as a second line of defense. Evidently – when I got my Black Tank valve serviced, the technicians failed to secure the secondary valve. I pulled the Black Tank valve and the secondary valve fell off causing sewage to run all over the ground. With my lightening reflexes, I closed the valve, but the damage had already been done. I won't go into the sensory details but let's just say that the air was ripe. After cleaning up the mess and checking to make sure all connections were in place and secure, I finished dumping. From what I hear, something like this will eventually happen to everybody in the RV world – I'm glad that I finally got this out of the way. Should be clear sailing from this point forward. Right?.......Right?

But onward to more genteel subjects. We traveled up the North Shore to the Grand Portage Lodge and Marina. The campground had full hookups which meant long slow showers. Always nice when that happens. We were in the middle of a field, but you could see Lake Superior off in the distance. It was one of those wild, windy, crazy weather weeks which always makes you feel like you are totally alive, battling the elements. I love weather like this.

On our way up the North Shore, we stopped at Naniboujou Club Lodge.  This lodge building was begun in the late twenties but the depression caused their grand schemes to be aborted.  They serve high tea here in the afternoon, but we just weren't up for cucumber sandwiches at the time, so we passed.  The main dining room has a ceiling which has been called a "psychedelic marriage of Art Deco and traditional Cree Indian patterns"

Besides Naniboujou, we came up here for two reasons. The first was to visit the Grand Portage National Monument. From Wiki:

The Grand Portage trail is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) trail connecting Grand Portage with Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River. Voyageurs from the interior of Canada would carry their furs by canoe to Fort Charlotte, and portage the bundles of fur to Grand Portage. There they met traders from Montreal, and exchanged the furs for trade goods and supplies. Each canoe "brigade" then returned to its starting place. The fur traders built Fort Charlotte as a trading fort at Grand Portage. There they built the Grand Hall in the French colonial style, which housed their meetings, a general store, and other facilities.[2]

What was rather unique about this National Monument is that they had Voyageurs enactors that would demonstrate or tell you about the Voyageurs lifestyle. I spent a lot of time speaking with a woman who was getting ready to bake bread in a old stone oven in the middle of the yard. Evidently bread was a luxury back in the day. It took four hours just to get the oven warm enough to bake bread. There was also an Ojibwa village where you could learn finger weaving or canoe building. Miko also got to play in Lake Superior and practice her wave catching skills.

The Grand Hall is on the right

They had a display of animal pelts in there - everything from a giant moose pelt to little tiny ermine pelts

Looking over Lake Superior

We also journeyed as far up the North Shore as you can go in the United States to the Grand Portage State Park. Actually, when you turn into the state park entrance, you can see the US border crossing into Canada. We had to come to this particular state park because it is the home of Minnesota's tallest waterfall at a height of about 120 feet. There is a nice gentle path and boardwalk that leads to the top of the falls. As you walk along, you can hear the falls, but then all of a sudden, you come upon them. It was almost as if they just leapt out and surprised you. I found that I liked these falls much more than the Wisconsin Tallest Waterfall that we had visited a few days earlier. It was probably because it seemed like there was so much more water or something.  Being the rather obsessive person that I am, I think that I may just have to visit the tallest/largest waterfall in every state now. 

High Falls on the Pigeon River

We could have made it home in one day's drive but why? We stopped in Cloquet Minnesota at the Spafford City Park Campground. This is a nice little campground located on an island in the middle of the St. Louis River. There were only a couple of campsites that had a river view which we did not get. Also on the island is the USG Corporation which is a 24/7 manufacturing plant. There was a constant hum from the factory but after a while it became sort of like white noise. More troubling was the fact that about 100 feet behind our campsite (hidden by trees and brush) was a train yard where they were constantly moving cars around. Once I fell asleep, I didn't hear anything but occasionally during the day, you would have thought that you were hanging out on the tracks about ready to get smooshed. On the positive side, there was a walking trail that crossed a bridge off of the island and was a wonderful place to walk Miko.  There was also a Frank Lloyd Wright designed gas station.  That man sure did get around.

Look - they have one of those cords that ding inside the building when you drive over it.

 I wonder if they actually come out and pump your gas for you.  Wouldn't that be a novel idea?

It's been awhile since you've seen Miko not look at the camera

**Anishinaabe - means the First People.  Anishinaabe are also called Ojibwa or the more current term is Chippewa.

Waterfalls and Me

Waterfall Alert: Proceed with caution - I just can't help it.

We drove about 2 ½ hours up to Pattison State Park  which is just a couple of miles south of Superior Wisconsin. It was a nice easy drive. When we got there and because I really hate making reservations,  all of the electric sites were taken so we had to go to one of the sites with no electricity. I had half of a tank of water, my batteries were charged, so that was not a problem. Besides the length of the drive, the main reason to come here was that Pattison is the home of Wisconsin's tallest waterfall.

Manitou Falls stands at an impressive 165 feet. What was interesting was that these falls were not the crystal white gushing water falls that I normally think of. There was an awful lot of red water coming off the edge. Iron ore? Who knows – it was just different.

Big Manitou Falls - all 165 feet of her

Little Manitou Falls

We moseyed up the North Shore with a stop at Gooseberry Falls. I think I had pulled over once and done a quick look-see way back when, but this time I actually stopped to really look at the falls. You can't really live in Minnesota without seeing Gooseberry Falls – it is sort of like going to the State Fair and not getting cheese curds. It used to be that you had to just pull over to the side of the road and look, but they now have a very fancy, well-done Visitor's Center and paved paths down to the Falls

Lovely Gooseberry Falls - so scenic, so pristine, so private

NOT - there were tons of people here

Whitewater

Whitewater State Park – southeastern Minnesota – No mosquitoes, no cell service and no wifi. But I have Tony so all is good. We came down here for a short little getaway.

Even though I am reluctant to make reservations, if you wish to stay in a Minnesota state park in the summer, you had better make one. I suppose it is because the summer camping season is so short and people are so anxious to get out and about. I lucked out in that I found probably one of the better sites available from Tuesday thru Thursday. Unaccustomed as I am to making reservations, I actually made the reservation thru Friday and then proceeded to set up a whole bunch of Friday appointments back home. Focus is perhaps a little weak at times. Luckily, the campground folk were understanding and refunded my money for Thursday night.

Tuesday, when we arrived was lovely. We set up our lawn chairs and just zoned out staring at all the mosquito free greenery. It is a real treat to be someplace in Minnesota in the summer without mosquitoes. They say it is because there is no standing water in the area, it is all moving streams and rivers.

Wednesday, it was supposed to rain but after a good soaking in the morning, it stopped raining. We decided that we would do the Chimney Rock hike. It was over 100 steps to reach the top of the bluffs. It was pretty steep but really lovely. When we get to the top of all of these steps, there is a map. I look at it and figure out which way I am supposed to go to get to Chimney Rock. Tony, knowing how map challenged I am chooses to sit on the conveniently placed bench and wait for my return. Clever man as I, of course, picked the wrong way. If I had gone left, Chimney Rock was maybe a five minute walk. I went right and walked for about a half hour before I decided that I was perhaps going the wrong way. It was really a pretty walk, there were several outstanding views over the river valley, but because of the rain, there was also a lot of slick mud. I'm really grateful that I had my walking stick. I never did get to see Chimney Rock, only the most popular sight to see at Whitewater. Oh well.

When we get back to the campsite, it starts to rain. My phone goes off with severe thunderstorm warnings. Ok, fine – but then the phone tells me we have a tornado warning also. It is pouring down rain. We decide we should maybe head for shelter in the campground shower house. As we are heading over there, a ranger drives up and tells us we need to evacuate. When we get to the shower house, I decide that we should go into the Women's side, the reasoning that it would probably be cleaner. I guess I was basing that on past experiences. Later on, we talked to some people who were in the Men's side of the shower house. His reasoning was that the southwest corner of a building is supposed to be the safest place to be in a tornado. Guess who had a more valid reason for which side to choose. Fun Fact: Southwest corner safety is a myth – no part of a building is safer than another during a tornado – staying away from windows is the key. We were in the shower house for about an hour and a half and eventually walked back to the campsite all safe and sound.

Miko, of course, chose the safest place to be

Later that night, we found that we were parked in the middle of a lake. Seriously, the water around the RV was above my ankles. My door mat was floating several feet away. By the next morning, most of the water had drained away but it was muddy. Since we were leaving that day, we decided to do a short hike around a meadow. Pleasant enough except for the parts where there was still standing water and we had to trail blaze around the little lakes on the trail.

Yes, the mat is floating

Since I had no cell service, when we left the park, I could not use my stand by travel assistant – Google Maps. We ended up going along some of the smaller highways, which I thoroughly enjoyed. These roads are always much more entertaining than the big interstates.

I would love to go back to Whitewater – maybe actually see Chimney Rock and do some more hiking. There were some new experiences and I got to share them with Tony. I'm not sure being evacuated to the shower house because of a tornado is something that will make him want to continue this camping adventure, but I guess it was a unique way to spend the night.