August 24th - 29th, Duluth and Cass Lake, MN

Saturday - Monday August 24-26 Duluth MN

Saturday - As we head to Duluth this morning there are still a few items to see heading back south on the scenic North Shore drive along the "Arrowhead" of Minnesota.  The sun in sparkling off of Lake Superior's waters with gentle crashing waves and the gulls are lazily circling in the sky.  This is certainly a "Scenic" drive.  We are used to seeing golf courses as we traverse the country but today is the first time I have seen a sign saying "Lakeview National Golf Course and Curling Club".  Also in many of the tourist brochures I noticed that Winter sports and activities get top billing with beautiful pictures of snowmobiles, ice festivals and such.  But they all look COLD to me!

Next stop the Nanaboujou Lodge.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places and in the 1920's was a vacation hot spot for the likes of Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey.  It's cottage like exterior has Minnesota's largest native rock fireplace and a great art deco interior.  It was a quick stop at a popular place on a Saturday that almost did not go well.  Sure they had a circular drive but two vehicles with boats in tow had left a rather narrow path at the exit.  Tony had to step it off to make sure he could get through and I was sure I was going to have to go into the dining room and ask that people pulling boats come move their vehicles.  But Tony navigated the 9-ft space and we took advantage of the facilities as we marveled at the interior enjoying the heavenly aromas wafting around us including bacon and homemade rolls.

Tettegouche State Park merited another stop today, plus the visitor centers also have great rest stop facilities.  Tettegouche State Park on the Baptism River is largest state park on the North Shore, with the largest waterfall entirely in MN.  Since Tony and I had skipped this one on the way north we stopped today heading southbound.  Rather than hike to another waterfall we opted for the casual (or so we thought) Shovel Point trail, a 3/4 mile

hike to get some more close up looks at the rocky cliffs along Lake Superior's shoreline.  What started out as a nice walk along a boardwalk trail turned into an aerobic stair-stepping workout.  At first there were just a few steps, then they just kept coming!  At the top we were rewarded with stunning views of the cliffs and sparkling water and a few rock climbers.  That is definitely not a sport I am interested in trying.  The cliffs were nearly vertical and we could not get far enough around the bends to get any pictures of climbers on the rock face.  On the way back down Karen counted and said there were over 400 stairs we had climbed, one way! No wonder my calf muscles were twitching later that day!

Sunday - Holy Family Catholic Church in the West Duluth area had a 9 am mass.  What a great experience!  Within the last year, three churches merged into one, as the St. Lawrence Parish Family.  Father Ryan was the celebrant and "WOW" pretty much sums up his sermon.  He was engaging, humorous, well spoken and down to earth.  He told a personal story about being in seminary school in Rome and watching the Minnesota Twins on his lap top and getting caught by the cardinal (professor) when the mute got turned off.  We laughed and nodded our heads in agreement as we could relate to various points he made.  In the end we had a good understanding of his main point which was "It's not enough just to show up at class".  In this case "class" was church and he used his experience to highlight how you have to be engaged, and actively participate and listen if you want to learn what is being taught.  Near the end of his sermon someone's cell phone went off and we all laughed. Father Ryan pretty much giggled as he said something to the effect of "how timely" and that really made his point more pronounced.

We stayed for coffee and treats, met several of the long time parishioners and one couple church shopping like we had five years ago when we moved to AZ.  The fruit and homemade goodies, especially the zucchini bread, were delicious.  We learned that Fr. Ryan is pretty much a local being from Ely, MN and he has a brother who is also a priest.  Being from Northern MN he drops an occasional "EY" at the end of his sentences like Canadians do.  We thanked him and told him we thought he deserved an "A" grade on his sermon and he was really appreciative. I am sure being the dynamic speaker he is, he gets that kind of feed back regularly and the people all commented on how blessed they have been to have him the last three years.

Back at camp we changed clothes for a bike ride.  One of the trail-heads for the Willard Munger State Trail is about half a mile from camp.  It is a multi use trail including snowmobiles in the winter.  It was one of the most pleasant rides we have had in a long time.  There was a slight breeze, the sun was shining and the temps were hanging around the low 70's.  The trail was paved and relatively flat with just a few frost heaves but they were well marked.  After about six miles we headed back to camp.  The trail goes on for quite a while but not having ridden much this summer we wanted to make sure we had enough butt stamina for the return trip.  The grade had been just slightly uphill heading

west, but going east you could tell the grade was downhill and we appreciated that very much.  A Walmart and Aldi run (Superior, Wisconsin is the closest) later in the afternoon completed our adventures.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we packed away most of the outdoor non-necessities.  Indian Point Campground here is pretty nice - lots of trees with pretty good-sized sites.  The St. Louis River opens up into Mud Lake and Spirit Lake then narrows into the St. Louis Bay before heading out into Lake Superior.  Since the St. Louis River is the one of the largest fresh water estuaries in the world there is also a fishing dock where you can hook walleyes, muskies and more right in the camp but we are not anglers.  The campground being in the protected bay has a canoe launch dock and being near the bike trail is quite popular with families and for weekend camping.  As we looked out Sunday evening and all day Monday the campground was virtually empty compared to Friday and Saturday.

Monday - Rain overnight and again this morning with more predicted later this afternoon.  Not much fun sightseeing in the rain so we have been hanging at camp most of the day drinking coffee and getting caught up on the blog.  Did a load of laundry early last night since the camp was so empty (we can see uninterrupted the whole length of the camp) and the wash and dry prices were cheap, $1.50 each.  Should be good enough to get us for another 10 days or so.  Mixed up some tuna salad for lunch later, vacuumed and cleaned up a bit also.  Tony drilled a few wine corks for me yesterday so I could work on one of my projects in the coming days.  Tony had a hankering for pizza and we need to fuel up for tomorrow’s departure.

No Costco around but there is a Sam's close by so off we went.  Fueled up the truck at a Quick Trip for $2.88,  and ourselves with pizza and pop at Sam's.  Still dreary and in no hurry we browsed and bought some clearance shirts for Tony and some socks for me.  I have to confess that I was the ultimate senior citizen today taking a couple of packets of sauerkraut and grated Parmesan cheese to use in the trailer too.  I did not feel like slopping around the Duluth waterfront and the Canal Street Landing in the rain so back to camp we went.  Noel and Karen are visiting friends this afternoon but we may play games if they are back early enough later this evening.  Chatted with our daughter Ami who celebrated her 30th birthday with a Cubs game yesterday in Chicago.  Today she and Brian are in MI at my dad's house picking up some family seasonal ceramic decorations that my grandmother made to take back to NC with them.  My dad doesn't decorate as much since my mom died 6 years ago.  Yes, it was slim pickings for blog info today!! 

Tuesday August 27 - Thursday Aug 29 Cass Lake Minnesota

Tuesday - Driving today we were testing a new GPS software (Co-Pilot) because our RV GPS no longer gets map updates and we have run into a couple of issues this summer.  Unfortunately it seems like we will have to keep searching because currently Co-pilot will not link to our truck to project on the screen and the phone screen is too small for Tony to see at a glance while driving.  They say an update is coming!  AND what would a summer of travels be without a flat tire.  The tire pressure sensor monitors indicated a fast leak so Tony pulled over quickly.  We had left early this morning even though the drive was only three hours, because rain is heading in, and it is no fun setting up in the rain, so some of our headway was lost on the side of the road.  On the bright side our new emergency triangles set up easily and stayed up even with the wind and passing traffic.  This is the first time we have had to change a flat (screw in the tire and delaminated tread) on the traffic side of the road.  We realized that it was almost a year to the day that those new tires were put on in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Wednesday - Stony Point campground is right on Cass Lake, which is a lake formed as the Mississippi River flows south.  Somehow OUR campsite is situated between two permanent mobile homes and our only view is of the neighbors' shed and the platform decking has rotting stairs.  I complained to no avail, even though we made reservations in February, they said this is the best we could get given our RV length and popularity of the campground with lake access.  Most people make reservations a year in advance we were told.  The winds across the lake were pretty fierce most of the days so we placated ourselves saying that we were at least shielded from the winds!  We walked the grounds

and enjoyed the sunshine despite the winds.  The town is quite small but a local bar, The Big Tap Bar, had a walleye special on Wednesday so that was our plan.  Thankfully we had the foresight to call and inquire because you needed reservations to secure a table and they had only two left.  For a small, nondescript, local dive bar the food was excellent and the place was packed.  Karen, Noel and I ordered walleye, while Tony ordered pizza.  The guy looked at him and said in 21 years no one has ever ordered pizza on steak and walleye night!  We laughed so hard it was so comical.  Finally after being cajoled and told that the pizza was frozen (this is not a pizza joint!),
Tony changed his order to a burger.  Beer was only $5.50 a pitcher since it was happy hour so that was an additional bonus.  The pool table was only $1.00 per game so we played a few games and Noel and Karen came out ahead.  It was a very fun evening.  The guys have been hankering for DQ for a while so we indulged in small sundaes on the way back.  With little else to do in the town (the casino was not calling our name), we settled in to binge stream a TV show that we loved (Designated Survivor), that had been cancelled and moved to Netflix for the last season.  By the way, the Cedar Lakes Casino-Hotel did make the Guinness Book of World Records recently.  They made the world's largest Fry Bread and topped it like a taco for their grand opening August 10th.  It was 8ft in diameter and weighed just over 150 pounds without toppings.  WOW!!

Thursday - Closest big town to us is Bimidji and it is there we headed today.  Aside from being a college town with a Walmart and grocery stores the big draw here was Babe.  That's right Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox!  According to legend they are life size in these replicas!  HA, HA, HA.  Anyway Bemidji seems like a cool, neat town, and its other claim to fame is as the first city on the Mississippi.  Since the headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi is not far from here that's logical.

So that is our next stop - the Mississippi Headwaters in Itasca State Park, Minnesota's oldest state park.  Created specifically to protect the old growth red and white pine forest and the waters surrounding the Mississippi Headwaters at Lake Itasca.  The rock barrier from the lake to the river begins the 2,552-mile trek to the gulf of Mexico.  Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes and 100 of those are here in Itasca State Park.  In Minnesota water covers 1 mile for every 15 miles of land.  We spent the better part of an hour in the visitor center looking at displays, watching slides, learning more about the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) work in

the park, the path of the Mississippi etc.  Then we were off to see the headwaters for ourselves.  On the main park drive we passed Preachers Grove, a stand of 300-year-old red pine.  25% of Minnesota's remaining old growth pine forests are in Itasca State Park.  At Peace Pipe Vista we walked the few stairs to overlook the beauty of Lake Itasca.  Farther into the park we left the discovery center, followed a short walk with signs about

the headwaters discovery flowing out of Lake Itasca and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and ended up at a beautiful, pristine setting.  The Park Service has installed a platform to walk across and several people including myself waded into the waters, which by the way are not muddy up this far north.  Tony and Noel and Karen sauntered across the platform.  From this little 12 ft wide stream the Mississippi gathers waters from many other rivers including the Missouri in North Dakota and is about two miles across by the time it reaches the Gulf of Mexico.  What a cool thing to see.  We enjoyed coffee in the cafe before driving back to camp.  The park is quite large and has a 6 mile long paved multi use trail that would be great for biking, but I guess that will have to wait for another visit.

Everywhere in Minnesota we have seen signs advertising Wild Rice for Sale.  Enticed by a sign that advertised it for $3.99/lb we stopped.  Boy did I get an education!  Wild rice is graded #1, #2, #3 with #3 being the broken up stuff that is also called soup rice.  #1 is the beautiful long unbroken grains also, the most expensive averaging about $14/lb.  There is paddy-grown wild rice and real wild rice, kind of like the difference between farmed salmon and wild salmon.  The traditional method of drying the rice is over wood fires, and is the most flavorful, as well as the priciest way, while the gas dried wild rice actually looks black instead of brown.  I got a soup grade wood fired and a #2 grade gas fired to try both. (Since then I have cooked the soup grade, needs 3-1 ratio of rice to water, and made a pretty good chicken stir fried rice.)  We finished up watching the season of Designated Survivor and got to bed pretty late but we do not have a long drive tomorrow.