On Scenic Hwy 61, the north shore of Lake Superior

Well, finally safe from myself..........these vintage insulators are still in use all over this area, so I was not tempted to acquire them at antique stores.  Leslie is still breathing sighs of relief.  Aren't they beautiful, though!

Around every turn of the highway, we saw breath-taking highway vistas.  It was hard to concentrate on Angry Birds with territory like this.                     

At a highway truckstop...........................

And another cause for a conference, eh?

Rainbow Falls, and a lovely hike into the woods together.

We looked for Auntie Em and Uncle Henry but to no avail.

For my east coast family, who regularly frequent the convenience stores called WAWA......

Here's a town named Wawa, and the actual origin of the word.

So are those stores in NJ actually named after the Ojibway word for Wild Goose?

That's your trivia question for today.

And the wawa that overlooks Lake Superior from the visitor center above the 49th parallel................

This picture speaks for itself.  The phone booth is intact, the phone works.

Sadly, the store was already closed for the evening.

Full on fall colors.  We're spoiled even before we get to New England.

Our dinner spot, by  our camper, on rabbit Blanket Lake.

And the lovely Leslie knitting by the fire at sunset.  Another day of gratitude, fun, good food, breath-taking scenery and friendly folks.

Stay tuned for sunrise..................

RJ

(We'll catch up, we promise.  this is written in Chillicothe, Ohio, at the Best Western.  Long miles to get here today, and an early start ahead for genealogy research and cemetery searches.)

Up the North Shore..................

Off we went, once our lights were operative, up Hwy 61, the scenic north shore of Lake Superior.  Lake Superior is the largest lake in the world.  The WORLD!  There are so many superlatives about it.....the amount of water in it, the diversity of wildlife, the fall colors already brilliant.  Every corner we drove around would bring another WOW!

 Up and  beyond Thunder Bay, Ontario.

  As exciting as it was to see the “Danger Moose Crossing” signs, we never did see a moose!  Night or day. 

Just as well.  

When I was in Alaska, I learned from a subsistence hunter named Jack: “When you know you’re going to hit a moose, DUCK!”     For those who are moose ignorant, moose are so tall, with such long legs, and such mammoth bodies, that if you hit one, well, the body comes through your windshield after you break its legs.  Sorry, but it’s true. And you die.

It has been a metaphor for life for me since.......think about it...”when you know that you’re going to hit a moose, (or any other life disaster), duck”.  Get out of the way. Prepare. Let go. Let it go over you.

Enough philosophy.  Over one sign.  Sheeeeeeshhhhhh..............

We camped for the night in the municipal campground in a little town called Red Rock, Ontario.  On the shore of Nipigon Bay.  Met Wayne and Barbara, natives of the little town, who told me nearly the whole history of the town, the Catholic church, the closing of the mill that everyone thought would run forever, their trip to Italy coming up in four days...everything!  A story way better than any guide books could have provided.

Ducks were busy having dinner.

Great Blue herons were busy looking for dinner.

At the marina the police were apparently already at dinner.

My Canon’s 10 sec self-timer produced this lovely lady’s photo.....

Fall reflections, colors, flowers, ripples......

Good night for now..................         RJ

How many Scandinavians does it take to..........

9AM Friday morning, Grand Marais Municipal Campground, on the north shore of

Lake Superior.  Ready to drive north still further, to Thunder Bay, in Canada, our next

adventure.  So proud we were ready to leave so early!

Hook up the trailer.

Check the brake and turn lights on the trailer, Honey.

No lights.

Unplug and replug.

Check again. No lights.

Check connections, check the ground.

No lights.

Ben appears from his motor home (motor bus, if you must know).

Havin’ trouble with yer lights, girls?

Yep says Leslie

Thus began one hour and two minutes of trouble-shootin’, conferencin’,and conversin’

with Ben, Frank, and Wayne,our RV neighbors, who happen to be electrician, plumber, and electronics specialist by trade.

Well, looks like this plugs corroded, eh?  If I had some WD40 I’d spray it in there, but I don’t have any.

We do.

You do?

Yep.

Well, looks like that didn’t fix it, eh?

Wayne got his circuit tester.

Must be a fuse. Have the tool to take this fuse out?

Nope.

It oughta be here....

Nope no tool.  What about a Kelly clamp?

That’ll work,eh.

Nope, not the fuse, looks good.

Must be the ground.

Look, there’s too much goop on the ball for the ground to work.

You need to wipe some of this off.

Nope, still no lights.

It’s the ground that’s bad.  We’ll wire it up for you, but you girls will need to have this looked at.  No, can’t say where there’s an RV place around here.  Maybe down

in Duluth.  You’re not goin’ that way,eh? Well, there’ll be someplace.....you’ll find it.

Ok, we’ll say so long for now............

Say, did you girls know this tail light is half full of water?

Wow, we had no idea, look at that, will ya, Leslie?

We better get that water out of there for you.  I don’t have a phillips head though.

Here, we do, this Craftsman tool set has three different heads.

Well, that didn’t work, it’s all sealed shut.  But how’d the water get in there?

Let’s take this panel off.  Doesn’t come off.

Well, if we had a little drill we could just drill a little hole and let the water out and

you’d never have a problem again.

Well, we didn’t bring the Dremmel drill along.

Well then, I guess we can’t use that then, can we, eh?

You know, you’ve spent so much of your time this morning with us, your wives are going to get upset.

No, no, it’s ok.  The women used to get upset when we would stop to help people, because we were such babe magnets, but now we’re older and the women don’t worry about us anymore.

15 min later, the solution was to stick Wayne’s jack knife under the light and all the water drained out.

10 more minutes of saying goodbyes.  We learned that the three women, Mary Lee, Peggy, Betty Lou are sisters,and Norwegian.  Two “married up”  ie  they married Swedes.  The third married a Norwegian.  The three couples travel regularly together in their three motor homes.  Here they all are.

One hour and two minutes later, the men sadly and the women gratefully waved goodbyes   Or we could still be there talkin’, eh?

PS  Found an RV center in Thunder Bay, and a kind and competent mechanic, who

diagnosed and reconnected the grounding of the electrical system, only charged us

22$, and we had free coffee to boot.  Pretty good, eh?

Written in Appleton, Wisconsin, to be written in another story later..........   Off to Chicago this AM......

    RJ

We regress for a moment........

Here we are again, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone N.P. with our cranky bull elk visitor to the downtown tourist area.

He's cranky because, #1, he's been separated from his does and calves, and more importantly, #2, there's a new guy in town, a younger elk buck, who's wandering around looking interested and generally causing significant tension.  It's rutting season in Yellowstone.  Old boys get cranky around young upstarts.

Lots of running around took place, as the bull elk and his doe and calf found their way back past the goofy humans.  Cousin Michele's theory that people are stupid (I think stupid was my word, not hers) around wild animals that can kill them easily, is that we're all used to zoos, enclosures, staring at wild things in safety, and then here you go on a street, with a bull elk with really big antlers, and people standing around with their point-and-shoots.  Not smart.  

Anyway, family's unified.

But don't anthropomorphize them.  He has many does!

Many!  It's a lot of work keeping order in town.

And here's the young intruder, on his way back out of town.

He'll try another year.

And at last there's a bit of rest for our hard working old guy!

We didn't have internet or cell phone coverage for much of the last week.  We'll catch up with stories now that we're back in Wisconsin.

                                    RJ

Bound by the beauty (and the wacky)

I

First the wacky: On the north shore of Lake Superior there seems to be a trend for multi-pupose wash emporiums. there is the Lil Dog here, the Laundromat and Dairy Store and the Laundromat and Car Wash. Could be that as the tourist season wanes, the  pet wash and rv dump side of the businesses get a bit slow and they need dairy and car washes to keep body and soul together until next summer? Though, it is hard to imagine a functioning car wash in the sub zero weather this area gets.

Now for the beauty: Gooseberry Falls is one of many that tumbles into Lake Superior. It has been dry here (not during our 4 days but earlier) and so the many rivers and falls are subdued by northwoods standards.

The trees at the base of the falls have grown against many odds. Rocks, wind, and the constant ebb and flow of the river are but a few.

The further north we go, the colors begin to intensify. Ana and I really like the fall, can you tell?

More wacky: Anna also likes pie. But Renee and I have heard that rhubarb is really bad for dogs. ;-) 

There is so much beauty in the north woods, I have little to say. Renee's pictures say it all.

Oh I took this one! And some of the following as well. The story of the rainbow and sunset  is that Renee went off in the car and the wind came up to about 40 mph. Having been rescued from Katrina, Ana is not overly fond of high winds. And the winds last night really had our little trailer rocking. So we took off for a walk ony to see this rainbow over the harbor. As we reached the beach (where Ana was still not happy) the sky began to glow and the clouds showed the wind in a spectacular way!

  And then there are rocks. Lots to do with rocks. .

.

first i'm going to find a forest

and stand there in the trees
and kiss the fragrant forest floor
and lie down in the leaves
and listen to the birds sing
the sweetest sound you'll ever hear

and everything the dappled
everthing the birds
everything the earthness
everything the verdant
the verdant green
                Jane Siberry Bound by the Beauty