I was awake at 4am. I’ve just adjusted nicely to Pacific Time and now I have to adjust again. I finally got out of bed at 5am. Maybe it was the light. In addition to the parking lot lights, daylight was flooding the RV, even through the drawn blinds. The sun rose just before 5:30. Right about the time that the first flight of the day thundered overhead.
When taking stock, everything survived except the milk. It was quite curdled. Unfortunately, the partial jug of chocolate milk I had also went bad. I was disappointed. That was really good stuff.
We stopped at a nearby Walmart to pick up supplies. Another stop to fuel up and clean the windshield. Five days of sitting at the airport was unkind to the RV. It was quite dusty. That and about a zillion mosquitoes plastered on the windshield made for difficult vision.
Leaving Duluth, we headed north along the Lake Superior coastline. This is supposed to be a bucket-list drive, so rather than heading straight for Voyageurs, we added a few hours onto the drive time to do the coast.
By the time we got back to the RV, we were really feeling the results of the emotional stress of the last several days and the lack of sleep due to yesterday’s travel. So we took a nap after eating lunch. And felt much better after that.
Next stop was Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Feeling the pressure of time we opted to forgo the lighthouse tour and just concentrate on the State Park. The shoreline of Lake Superior did not disappoint. There are no beaches like we are used to, rather, the shoreline is rocky and jagged. There was a mist rolling on shore in several areas which added to the dramatic shoreline.
The park has a picnic area with tables right along the water, offering a commanding view of the shoreline. A great place to have a picnic and enjoy this very beautiful section of Lake Superior.
And we still got a great view of the lighthouse.
Leaving here, and feeling the pressure of time, we pressed on to Silver Bay, where we took advantage of the municipal RV dump to freshen the water situation. Above the RV dump is an overlook, sponsored largely by Cliffs Mining which has a bird’s eye view of a large taconite processing facility here in Silver Bay. And, oh, by the way, here is another view of Lake Superior and one of the town of Silver Bay. All sponsored by... It was a nice view.
We took Minnesota Highway 1, the Voyageur Highway, west for a couple hours. The first hour of this is listed in the atlas as ‘scenic’, and it was a lovely drive. Lots of 30mph curves as it wound through the Superior National Forest.
It seems like they would have saved quite a bit of material and made the road shorter if they had just made it straight. Since it goes through vast expanses of forest, they didn’t have to go around any private land. But I digress...
Our location for tonight was a Boondockers Welcome site, and it turned to to be a defunct airport, formerly owned by someone who flew a plane to work. The runways are still there, a bit overgrown, and the big wind sock and the runway markers are still in place, but no one flies in here anymore. One runway is flooded right now due to two inches of rain in the last couple of days.
We talked to the owners for a while. Really nice people. Pat gave us a plate of cookies and gave us a run-down of the history of this place. 200 acres in a very remote area and they love being out here by themselves. They see wolves and bear and deer on the runways and have seen the Northern Lights often.
There’s supposed to be a strawberry moon rising right now, but it is a bit too cloudy here to see it.
To add to our Worlds Largest collection, the town of Ely has the world’s largest number of dog sled outfitters per capita. Betcha didn’t know that one.
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