Washburn / Bayfield

We wake up to hail, rain & a thunderstorm and realise we are not going to make the car show in lower Michigan as it is too far to travel in two days, so we decide to stay put for the day and have a rest.  There is another show on the 17th so we will plan to catch that one instead...

The day fined up after breakfast and so we caught up on the cleaning, both RV & Coupe, relaxed, read and just hung around the camp - went to supermarket to get fresh bread and ham for lunch etc. 

 Later, we cruised back up to Bayfield and had a drink overlooking the harbor, listen to the band and relaxed some more.  It is very peaceful up here - off the main routes and absolutely beautiful scenery.

Back in Washburn, we stop to take a photo of the old buildings made from the local brown stone.

We take a walk after dinner around the camp and out on to the dock.  Another great sunset, and people out fishing off the dock, so Daryl talks to this guy in the demin jacket who he convinces to move to NZ....

 

Knife River to Washburn, Wisconsin

We wake up early in the morning and stop for breakfast in the restaurant by the lodge - the day is wet and drizzly.  The lodge is full of mounted animal heads and ski gear - the lights are wagon wheels with old fashion lanterns on them - very much the scene up here in the far north.

After talking with a few other couples, we hit the road back to the RV, so we can pack up and move on back to Wisconsin and over towards Michigan.

We stop at Temperance River, where Daryl uncaps the forty for the trip home.

 

 A short walk into the trail I find this, while Daryl is playing on the car......

Next stop was Caribou Falls

And then we were back at camp, backed up and on our way, leaving Duluth and Minnesota.

 

 

Over the river and we are back in Wisconsin and decide to head for Ashland - we have no plans or destination and we are pretty tired from yesterdays big drive, so it feels like a long haul.  We stop at the Visitor Centre just before Ashland and the lady suggests a few camps and that we visit Bayfield a sort of English town up the coast.

We find the camp and it is on the Lake front and quite nice but more like a state camp - not full hook up just the power.  We are here now and set up camp as don't want to look for another place and good ones are hard to find up here.  The place is very nice and has huge spaces so we end up pretty happy once we have set up and relaxed.

 

Daryl unloads the coupe and we head up the bay, fortunately this trip is only about 20 miles and Bayfield turned out to be lovely - more like what we thought Thunder Bay would be...

 

 

Back at camp and the day fines up - we make Butter Chicken on the BBQ for dinner tonight - nice.

 

Lake Superior - Knife River to Thunder Bay, Canada

We are in two minds as to which way to go around Lake Superior but we decide to drive the coupe up the north edge to see what it is like.  We try to get away early but Daryl gets caught up talking to the locals about cars etc and we finally get away around 10.30am.   Daryl was told to go to Two Harbors to see the Iron Ore Docks & Gooseberry Falls by one of the guys there,  so the Iron Docks is our first stop.

Barge coming in to full up at the docks - again good timing.

 

Next stop is Gooseberry Falls which Neil & Abbey have also told us about and this turned out to be a local gem - beautiful area, very peaceful but also very popular.

 

Upper Falls 

And the Lower Falls.....

 

 

Gooseberry Falls was such a beautiful place, I could have stayed there all day but as usual there is just too much to see.  Soon enough we are on the road again to the next stop, Split Rock Lighthouse which is the most visited spot on the shore and was placed on the National Registrar of Historic Places in 1969.





Continuing on, the view is lovely as we travel up the coastline towards the top of Lake Superior.

We stop at Grand Marais & walk around town, then Grand Portage & check out the National Monument which is a Heritage Center.

And then we were in Canada again.......we seem to have a habit of skipping the border for a day.

 

And then I spot this little guy... and pull a u-turn for another look.

So cute and right on the edge of the road, the photos were straight out my window.

 

We both had this image of Thunder Bay in our heads and Daryl wanted to take me there as somewhere special that we would remember, but when we get there - there is nothing special about Thunder Bay - it appears to be an old Port town and not much more even though it has over 109,000 people there.

After driving around for about 3/4 of an hour we ask at a hotel who suggest a lodge in the mountains, can't get them on the phone so drive out that way as it is back towards the border anyway.

Unfortunately they were booked solid - such a beautiful spot too & we were so low on petrol by that time that we had to ask if she had any spare.  Luckily she found about a 1/4 of a small tank in the shed, so we bought this for $10US and headed back out - by the time we get to the border we are running out again but luckily there is a gas station just over the border.  We also got the nice guy going back for the first time, who suggested that we head back to Grand Marais for accommodation.

We looked and looked for Moose on our trip but they were all hiding, even in Canada.

 A pretty trip back down again but getting late and we needed find somewhere to stay.  The first couple of places we tried were all booked out or they didn't look great, so we kept going.

Finally, at 9pm we find a lodge at Cascade Falls & get a room for the night.

 





Crow Wing - Duluth (Knife River)

The sun has come out again although still a little chilly, it is very nice and after going for a run, having breakfast and loading the car, we finally leave Crow Wing camp at 11.30am..... and go to Costco just up the road to stock up on food and things.  Costco is much cheaper but everything is in bulk so only suitable for some items given our set up.

12.30pm we get petrol and then finally hit the road for Knife River, 14 miles above Duluth and about 3 hours away.

We arrive at the camp which does not look like the web site.... however is not too bad and a bit cheaper than the last few, so we stay and attract the locals with the car.   The owner had mentioned the Tall Ships are in Duluth and it is the last day today of the four day event, so we jump in the car and head back to downtown Duluth for a look around the Tall Ships. 

































The event was just finishing so they were no longer charging admission, so it was a cheap event for us. 

Later we watched some of them go under the draw bridge and leave the harbor - our timing was perfect.

 Tall Ships Duluth 2013 hosted on Lake Superior is a four day event featuring many ships and challenges.  Unfortunately they are not sure if it will return but it does create a huge income for the area and even we had trouble getting accommodation the following week as people had extended their holidays etc to attend this event.

Sailing away

I found a Moose!