Fairview, IL to Duluth, MN                                                                                        August 2015

We continue to use Fairview, IL, as our home base and have a great spot to park Abe.  Being here has given us a wonderful summer seeing family and friends, visiting places we remember from growing up here, and discovering all the wonderful new changes that have come about over the last 50 years.  I won’t bore you with all those details and will get on to the travelling adventures we have had.  I’ll have to do this in installments, though!  We’re just having too much fun to keep up with my blog…and that’s a good thing.

Jerry’s brother Don and sister-in-law Sally live east of St. Louis (about 4 hours away) and, along with Jerry, are big Cardinals fans.  (I, of course, continue to root for the Cubbies!)  We drove to St. Louis to see a ballgame on August 17, taking us on a route through the wilds of historical Illinois.

During our childhoods the Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge, on the western bank of the Illinois River at Havana, IL, was “Norris Farms”, a several-thousand-acre feedlot.  Coming down over the Illinois River bluff we once saw thousands and thousand of cattle standing on concrete, being readied for Chicago slaughter houses.  Since 2000, the concrete has been removed, the dikes torn down and the land has once again flooded.  The land has returned to its natural state and is quite a sight to see.

Crossing the Illinois River at Havana (soon after driving through the little town of Cuba!) gave us views of all the barge traffic.  Havana has quite a reputation as a gambling river town and supposedly characters like Al Capone would gamble at the local clubs.

Don and Sally were old hands at getting in to St. Louis to see a baseball game and we were delighted to use their expertise!  We took a shuttle bus from Fairview Heights, on the the east side of St. Louis and were deposited right outside the stadium.  The stadium was in downtown St. Louis and driving there, although certainly possible, would have been a chore.  It was much nicer to let an experienced driver to the “heavy lifting”!

What a place!!  Obviously baseball is a big-time operation.  We saw a huge meeting center attached to the ball field, and of course the stadium itself would seat the population of an average-sized city! 

Don, Sally, and Jerry were certainly dressed appropriate in their “Cardinal Red!”

It was a hot and humid afternoon and evening, but in spite of that the stadium was almost full for the game.  About 70,000 people were there to watch!

We arrived about 2 hours before the game and were able to wander through this vast complex.  I thought it was good planning on someone’s part to be sure that the famous St. Louis arch was visible from the stands.  It was mind-boggling to consider how many gallons of soft drinks and beer, hot dogs and buns..toilet paper!!...it took to support the fans at this ballgame.

The Cards played the San Francisco Giants and won 2-1!  We even got to see a home run, with the attendant fireworks.

August 20, we fired up Abe and hit the road for a 3-week tour of the upper Midwest.  Even though we had lived in the Midwest the first 18 years of our lives, neither of us had seen much of the northern tier of states and we were ready to explore.  Our first destination was Door County, Wisconsin.  After an overnight stop in Stoughton, WI, we arrived at the Egg Harbor Campground on August 21.  The weather was nice and cool – a great relief after several hot and humid weeks in Fairview.  The campground was busy but so well designed that we hardly saw anyone!  Imagine having a campfire in August!

We did shake our heads a little bit over the campgound’s unique water delivery system, but it all seemed to work.  We decided that because of the potential for severe winters, the campground folks keep the water lines above ground and pull them in about the end of October.

We did all the tourist stuff, including a fish boil at the Old Post Office Restaurant in Sisters Bay.  It was quite a unique process.  The Lake Michigan whitefish was caught by local fishermen and prepared outside over a roaring open fire.  Small potatoes and onions were boiled first and the fish chunks were then dropped into the steaming kettle.  When the oils from the whitefish rose to the top of the kettle, kerosene was added to the flames creating the "boil over," spilling the fish oils over the side and signaling that the catch was ready to serve.  Quite a spectacle!  This particular fish boil restaurant had just been filmed for a Food Network show and the fish boiler guy made sure we had the info to catch him on TV.

The Door Peninsula is a long, thin finger of land which juts north into Lake Michigan.  Early French voyageurs experiencing violent seas in the passage between the peninsula and Washington Island named the passage Porte des Mort" which translates as "Door of the Dead." When deciding on a name for a new county to include the entire peninsula in 1851, the Wisconsin Legislature decided to drop the latter part of the name, and settled on Door County.  Lighthouses to keep the heavy shipping traffic out of harm’s way were a necessity and many of those historic lighthouses are still in operation.  We found them fascinating to visit.

In the photo above, I was standing on the boardwalk leading to the lower rangelight at Baileys Harbor.

The only lighthouse we climbed was at Cana Island.  To access this light, we walked across a causeway to Cana Island and then up the 97 steps to the top.  This was still an operating lighthouse, safely bringing ships into the harbor.  The day we were there it was partly cloudy and windy, providing dramatic views of scudding clouds and choppy water.  Not a day we would want to be cruising.  In the “olden days”, the light burned lard, brought from the mainland in ships.  Today, of course it was all electric and very efficient.  Can you imagine carrying warm lard up 97 steps?

The lighthouse at Sturgeon Bay protected the entry into Ship Canal, connecting the bay with Lake Michigan.  We couldn’t visit the lighthouse, since it was on an active Coast Guard station, but saw a Coast Guard ship, out for a run on Ship Canal.

Cave Island Point, a county park inside a state park, was on the east side of the peninsula, on the shore of Lake Michigan.  This eroded rock wall overhanging the water provided a glimpse of the backbone of Door County:  the Niagara Escarpment.  Jerry and I enjoyed learning a little bit about the geology of the area:   that this dolomite limestone “ridge” continues on to terminate at Niagara Falls.  Cool

As was our custom to find a church to attend, Sunday, August 23, found us at Bayside Lutheran Church in Sturgeon Bay.  We met Joan and Jef (yes, 1 “f”), who were ushers that day and who invited us to brunch with them after church.  The service itself was very traditional “high church” with beautiful music, including a very talented cellist.  Another great experience at a warm and welcoming local church. 

Sunday afternoon we toured the Sturgeon Bay Maritime Museum, another and filled in some of the gaps in our understanding of the area.  A great museum and well worth the visit!

I don’t want you to think we were shirking our mission to seek out local microbreweries.  We found this quaint little spot in the middle of the peninsula and enjoyed their creations.

Tuesday, August 25, we left Door County and headed for Green Bay, with some trepidation.  As long time Chicago Bears fans, it did feel as though we were entering the lion’s den, but we persevered.  We found a great camp ground…the Brown County Fairgrounds.  The fair had ended the day before and, except for the clean up crews, we had the place to ourselves.  Was it beautiful…no, but we had plenty of power, which was all we needed.  Since the fairgrounds was not busy, we were able to park on the asphalt and not on the grass, where I am quite sure we would have sunk.

We had two objectives in Green Bay…visit Lambeau Field and see my nephew’s family in Appleton, south of Green Bay.  We successfully did both.

We took a guided tour of Lambeau Field and even purchased tickets to the Hall of Fame…not easy when one’s heart belongs to Da’ Bears!  Of course the stadium was quite impressive, seating 80,000.  Even more impressive was the support the city of Green Bay has given the Packers to keep this a viable operation.  Big time pro football in a city of 15,000…they were doing it right!  I’m sure you have heard the stories about the difficulty of acquiring season tickets to Packers Games.  The wait time is about 115 years, given the current rate of turn over!  One’s position in line on the wait list can be willed one’s children!  These people are serious about football.

Jerry practiced his Lambeau Leap after the tour was over.  I suspected he wasn’t the first one to do this.

Did you know that the tradition during the Packers Training Camp is for the local kids to bring their bikes to the stadium for the players to ride back and forth to the practice field?  This practice started in the 1950’s and continues today.  The story was told that sometimes the bike a player picks to ride is entirely too small, so the player tucks the bike under one arm and the child to whom the bike belongs under the other arm.  That would be a picture!

My nephew Mark Rask, his wife Danielle, and their sons Levi, Micah and Gabe met us at Buffalo Wild Wings in Appleton.  We had a busy, chatty evening with them.  We will see them again in October when they come to Illinois for a little family reunion.  Mark and Danielle’s oldest son, Levi, said he thought it was really fun “meeting Daddy’s aunt and uncle.”  So sweet.

It was no surprise to us that Wisconsin was full of interesting, tasty microbreweries.  We enjoyed “Titletown Brewing” in Green Bay very much.  It was situated in an older part of the city, near the Fox River, in any area undergoing renewal.  Many towns and cities we explored during this trip were making a huge effort to bring back the older parts of their downtowns, often with spectacular results.

Thursday, August 27, we were on the road again and made our way to northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan.  We spent the night at “Hiawatha Trailer Resort” in Woodruff, WI, just north of Menocqua, WI.  We explored Minocqua…very touristy but still an interesting little town.  During our stop at Menocqua Brewing Company we had a delightful conversation with Chris and Michelle from San Antonio.  It was just one of those random conversations over beer on an outdoor deck above the lake that made our travels so memorable.

We took a roundabout route from Woodruff, WI, to Duluth, MN, so we could see some of the country in Michigan’s UP where Don and Sally ride their snowmobiles.  We stopped for lunch at the highly recommended J&W’s BBQ and walked by the famous Bergland Bay Bar.  Apparently these places were crazy busy in the winter but were pretty quiet in August!  The owner of the Bay Bar had a web cam, available for viewing from his Facebook page, to give the winter tourists a weather heads up.

Our campground in Duluth (or as Judee Gladen Berg’s father used to say, “Do-Loot”) was one of our more unique.  We parked on the asphalt at Lakehead Boat Basin, where boat are stored “on the hard” during the winter.  We had heard about this spot from Jon and Norma Owens, RVing friends from Renton, WA.  What a great place!  The marina is just east of the lift bridge, bringing ships into the Duluth Harbor from Lake Superior.  We were an easy walk from the waterfront area full of shops, restaurants and museums. 

We wandered all over downtwon Duluth – and explored the waterfront park and museum.  The museum published a daily shipping report to describe ships in the harbor or due in that day.  Really interesting.  

The lift bridge raised every 30 minutes to allow ships into the harbor.  We watched this sightseeing boat come and go many times, but only saw 2 large tankers come into the harbor.  The Port of Duluth was a busy commercial port, having 15.5 million tons of total waterborne commerce as of 7-31-15, which was even greater than the same time last year.  Only 7% of the ships were from overseas, the rest coming from the US and Canada.  The route distance from Montreal to Duluth is 2,038 nautical miles.  At 12 nautical miles an hour, it would take a ship about 7 days of continuous travel to reach the Port of Duluth.  Interested in more data?  Go here:  http://www.duluthport.com/uploads/July_2015.pdf

Sunday, August 30, we were off to find another Lutheran Church, which wasn’t hard to do in Minnesota!  The closest one was 2.5 miles up the bluff…Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.  The view from the bluff was spectacular and this old church was lovely.  Once again we found ourselves in a warm and welcoming congregation that readily greeted us and invited us to coffee after the service.

Founded in 1870 by Swedish immigrants, Gloria Dei was one of the oldest Lutheran churches in Duluth.  This was an RIC (Reconciling in Christ) Church, meaning that they welcomed and strove to incorporate all persons, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, into full participation in the church.  Nice!  Not all churches we have visited were so intentionally inclusive.

Monday, August 31, (Jerry’s birthday!) we decided to take a road trip in the pickup.  Our first destination was Skyline Parkway and Enger Park on the bluff above Duluth.  We wanted to see the views of Duluth and the harbor from Enger Tower.   Built in 1939, Enger Tower, a 5 story structure constructed of national Blue Stone taken from this region, overlooked the Duluth skyline.  The tower was named in honor of Bert Enger, a native of Norway who came to this country in the 20s and became a successful furniture dealer.  At the time of his death Mr. Enger donated two thirds of his estate to the city of Duluth.  These grounds have become a golf course and a park.

We drove along the west shore of Lake Superior was awhile but gradually turned west to proceed inland to the Mesabi Iron Range and the town of Hibbing, MN.  This little town was the home of one of the world’s largest open pit iron ore mine, Hull-Rust-Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine.  The “hole” had a 1.5 by 3.5 mile footprint and depths up to 600 feet.  Taconite, a lower-grade ore requiring extensive processing was mined here. The mined ore was then transported, primarily by the Duluth, Mesabe and Iron Range Railway, to the ports of Two Harbors and Duluth. At Duluth, trains of up to eighty 100-ton open cars were moved out on massive ore docks to be dumped into "lakers" of up to 60,000 tons weight for movement to steel mills in Indiana and Ohio.  Jerry, the engineer, really enjoyed talking to the docent, a retired mining employee at the visitors’ center.

The little town of Hibbing had an interesting history.  The vein of iron ore ran right under the town, so, of course, in the early 1900’s the town had to be moved.  Most of the town’s residents were employed by the iron mine, and after the move, were no longer able to walk to work.  Carl Wickman and Andrew "Bus Andy" Anderson started a bus service in 1914 transporting fellow miners in a 1914 Hupmobile.  This enterprise soon became known as Greyhound Bus Lines and Hibbing had a delightful museum, containing the history of Greyhound.  Jerry particularly connected with this museum since his great uncle Roy Oakley drove a Greyhound Bus from the Midwest to Los Angeles for years.

In a few days I will regale you with our adventures to Bemidje and Blackduck, MN, the headwaters of the Mississippi, and a tour of Phil Olson’s Wisconsin…SE Wisconsin.

Stay tuned…