Four More States

    Since last writing we have entered four more states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. All four states were first time for Rob, but I had been to Minnesota and Wisconsin 23 years ago when Ruth, our youngest daughter, and I went to see the western shore of Lake Michigan. 15 year old Ruth wanted to see a lake bigger than Lake Tahoe so she and I took off on a two week cross country adventure crossing through several states and camping along the way, including in some national parks. On this leg of our trip today was the first time we were in a National Park: Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. We did briefly visit a National Lake Shore and have seen some beautiful country, especially in some National Forest Campgrounds.

    After leaving the Bismarck KOA on Thursday, August 13 we made a stop in Jamestown North Dakota to see the world's largest buffalo, a sculpture created in 1959, that had many billboards announcing that we were approaching it. The town of Jamestown has capitalized on it by building an historic western town there which we also walked through. In Fargo, North Dakota we got gas at the local Costco for $1.79 a gallon! It's been a very long time since we've seen gas prices under $2 a gallon in California.

Rob standing under the chin of the buffalo to give the perspective.

 

    We have made very few reservations ahead of time for camping on this trip, and except for the anxious moments near Mt. Rainier National Park, we have always managed to find something free or very reasonably priced by using the Campendium app and Harvest Host, but leaving North Dakota and entering Minnesota I wasn't having any luck locating something, so we ended up in the American Legion RV Campground in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. It was nicely situated on the shore of the lake, not too expensive as far as RV campgrounds go, and we were happy to have a spot for the night. The manager said that in a normal summer when the border between the U.S. and Canada is open their campground would not have had a space open for a last minute call like ours. During the night we were treated to some pretty loud thunder and a good rain shower. Before the thunder storm we had a nice, blustery walk along the lake.

Walking along the lake shore in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

    Friday, August 14 we continued east through Minnesota. I kept checking the weather and could see that we were being "chased" by a pretty powerful looking thunder cloud system. I kidded Rob that we'd better not take too long at rest stops or for lunch. One time when the route temporarily turned north we could see lightening ahead of us, but the storm didn't catch us until we were safely in camp again. Rob did have to fight a lot of wind while driving, but I was happy to have cooler weather when ever we stopped for a break.

We stopped here at Leech Lake, Minnesota where a family asked if we would be willing to take their picture and then they took ours.

    As we were driving through Minnesota and into Wisconsin I was looking for a likely spot to camp that night. I found a National Forest camp ground on Wanoka Lake that sounded promising from the reviews, but it was small and this was late Friday afternoon about 4:00 when we arrived. We were delighted to find lots of sites to choose from and picked the first one that looked good, right on the lake. I think the thunderstorms may have kept people away, but in the RV they weren't a problem for us. During the night we were once again treated to lightening, thunder and rain.

Our campsite at Wanoka Lake near Iron River Wisconsin.

The short trail right out of our campsite to the lake.

Wanoka Lake campground was first a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp as this sign attests. We have seen many of the camps and infrastructure built by the CCC along our way. While we have seen some things in good repair we have also seen lots of deferred maintenance needs as well.

There wasn't a real hiking trail at Wanoka Lake, but the little used Forest Service Road provided a good place to walk in the beautiful north woods of Wisconsin.

        We were not in Wisconsin for very long before entering the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. One thing we came to appreciate about Michigan were its beautiful "Roadside Parks" that gave us interesting places to stop for a break. Some of them had short trails or other features of interest like the "water fall" below with its "root beer" colored water. The water in many of the lakes and streams of Michigan are colored brown from the tannins leached from the plants the water flows through.

  For a couple of days we had been noticing some sounds while traveling that we didn't like. We were pretty certain it wasn't coming from the engine or transmission and wondered if it might just be different road surfaces. We checked the tire pressure on the dual tires on the back of LesThora a few times with a hammer, but they all seemed to be holding air fine. About 3:30 as we were passing through Ishpeming, Michigan, about a half an hour before our intended Harvest Host destination for the night, another driver signaled us that he thought we had a low tire. After pulling over we determined that one of the inside tires' tread was uneven. We were unwilling to travel further on the bad tire and tried to find a local tire store, but none were open late on Saturday afternoon so we called AAA, and began a long "deja vu" experience of waiting for road side assistance to change a tire. Two years ago on Father's Day while traveling south on 101 near Richardson Grove in Humboldt County we had a flat tire on one of the inside tires and we ended up waiting for 22 hours in front of the Legend of Big Foot Souvenir Store before we were on our way again. At that time we had Good Sam Roadside assistance, but after they sent the wrong equipment and then kept stringing us along about how long before help would arrive, we canceled with Good Sam and upgraded our AAA to premium because they assured us they could and would handle any road side emergencies we might have with our motor home. So, at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon in Ishpeming, Michigan we were feeling pretty confident we'd be on the road soon. Wrong! A tow truck responded within a half an hour without a tire pressure gauge, nor a jack big enough to lift our RV. Arghhh... I had been very clear when I called about the size of our rig, but somehow in translation from me to the dispatcher to the tow company all they thought we needed was air. The driver did have an air compressor, but how was he to know if he'd put the right amount of air in the tire, and besides we had determined that we needed to change out a bad tire. We had unloaded our chairs, golf clubs and miscellaneous camping equipment from the "basement" of LesThora to get to the spare tire, but we had to wait for AAA to find a company with the proper equipment. We weren't on the side of the road for 22 hours like 2 years ago, but we were there for over 20 hours before a nice young man from Dynamite Tow Company finally arrived about 11:30 Sunday morning. We were safely parked in a Dollar General parking lot, but we had to load everything back in the basement while we waited overnight and then unload it again Sunday morning. Shortly after noon we were on our way again, knowing we needed to buy at least one new tire, but that would have to wait until Monday when the tire stores would be open. We determined to take it easy and not drive too far, now that we had no spare.

Sunday night's "camping" spot as we waited for a tow company.

This souvenir shop was just a mile or so down the road from Dollar General. We stopped here on Sunday afternoon looking for a road atlas that Google told me they carried. They didn't, but we had fun looking at the odd collection of things that Yoopers have created and used, including the 57 Chevy modified into a  snow plow below. We also learned what a Yooper is.

    Sunday afternoon we went north to the shore of Lake Superior and stopped for lunch at a little roadside park and then went on to Picture Rock National Lake Shore before heading south to find a national forest campground. Somewhere along the way we stopped at Deer Lake Road Side Park and learned that there were miners from Cornwall, England that had settled there in the 19th century and brought their mining expertise and culture, like pasties. I grew up in Grass Valley, California where the Cornish miners also brought their mining experience and the meat and potato pies called pasties. Since it was Sunday afternoon we felt pretty confident we would find a place in a first come first serve campground, and we did! We liked it so much we stayed two nights. We have not stayed in any state parks on this journey so far. In Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan the State Parks all require a pre-purchased annual state park permit, plus advance reservations for a campground. In Minnesota the annual pass is $35 and in Michigan it is $17, and then you also have the cost of a campsite for the night - pretty pricey if you only camp one night. The national forest campground in Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan on Colwell Lake was beautiful and even had electricity for an extra $4 a night. With our senior pass the campground only cost us $14 a night.

I named this little squirrel (or chipmunk?) on the shore of Lake Superior lizard squirrel because when I first saw it, it was laying flat on the ground and its markings made it look like a big fat lizard.

Lake Superior was a beautiful deep blue color when we saw it.

Munising Falls at Picture Rock National Lake Shore

Our Camp site at Colwell Lake, right on the lake

A view of the beautiful Colwell Lake from right next to our campsite. The water and weather were so warm Sunday afternoon that Rob even went swimming!

We enjoyed a campfire while watching the sun set over the lake.

Sunset over Colwell Lake

There was a beautiful 2.2 mile trail around Colwell Lake that we hiked in both directions on Monday.

A view of Lake Michigan just before leaving the Upper Peninsula

Crossing the Mackinac Bridge between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. This is the third longest  suspension bridge in the world and the longest in North America.

    After leaving Colwell Lake where we had a nice rest, but no cell phone coverage, I started calling tire stores on our eastward route to try to locate some new tires. Because of the unbalanced inside tire that had failed, but not yet lost air, the outside tire had been worn smooth so we figured we needed two new tires. But as we talked about it we decided if the price was right we would buy 6 new tires. We have had LesThora 5 years. She was already a year old when we got her and the six tires that came with her included one replacement that was a different brand, and of course two years ago we had bought another new tire. If we bought just two new tires now we would end up probably with 4 different brands and several of them would be several years old. After several calls we finally found a shop in Cheboygan, Michigan with six tires to fit our rig. After receiving excellent service at Manning's Northern Tire, and a good price we were on the road again with a much smoother ride.

    While heading south into the lower part of Michigan I located a Harvest Host in the middle of farm country called Mid-Michigan Lavender Farm. After driving miles of good country roads we arrived at Jim and Rita's lovely lavender farm. We enjoyed visiting with our hosts on their front porch, had a very restful night, bought some lavender and were on our way Wednesday morning, August 19, headed to Ohio and another Harvest Host location at Snook's Dream Car Museum in Bowling Green where we spent last night.

You can see LesThora tucked away in a shady spot at Mid-Michigan Lavender Farm. the lavender field is to the left near the white arch way.

An absolutely gorgeous maple tree in the back of the lavender farm house. This tree reminded me of the Majestic Oak in the botanical gardens adjacent to Claremont School of Theology, 

so I call it the "Majestic" Maple tree.

A beautiful garden landscape at a rest stop on I-75 in  Michigan.

Entering Ohio - somehow I missed the signs greeting us in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The front of Snook's Dream Car Museum

It was fun checking out the perfectly restored collection at Snook's. I asked Rob which car he would choose first if he could have one. He said the Jaguar XKE because that was the car he coveted when he was a kid. Personally I liked the WWII Jeep. It reminded be of the Willys 50s era Jeep pickup that my father had and taught me to drive a clutch on.

    Today we made it to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This park is rather unique in the National Park System as it is situated in an urban area between Cleveland and Akron. The Park was established as part of the Parks to People program of the 1970s and includes very interesting history about bringing different groups and communities together to restore, reclaim and preserve the natural and cultural history of this area. We took a short  hike  this afternoon before coming to a KOA campground just 10 miles away. WE plan to return tomorrow for more hiking and a bicycle ride on the Erie Canal Tow Path.

 

The beginning of the trail to Blue Hen Falls

Blue Hen Falls - not a lot of water right now, but very pretty.

Can you see Rob at the top of the 87 stairs we climbed up on the way back from Blue Hen Falls?