Our hundred day trek through the US of A, part 2

 
look: 42 miles of steel wire
our boat to Mackinaw
went twice under it
There she was, the mighty Mackinac Bridge, touted as the longest (5 miles) suspension bridge when built. She lost that title years ago under the simplest of definitions: who is the longest?. The little write up in local publications reveals all kind of statistics, but driving over it and for that matter boating under it as we did 2 days ago, shows its mighty best. She may never beat San Francisco's Golden Gate, but crossing it was an experience nevertheless.
the wonders of the road less travelled
UP where you can drive 45 minutes and see no one
And thus we entered the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) country, wild and almost devoid of people and cars. Leaving one morning on our way to the next location we traveled 45 minutes without meeting a car or seeing a person, chipmunks and deer yes, but no signs of civilization.
 
As you the reader by now must have noticed, we don't travel vast distances each day, and we see what for many after awhile may become monotonous: country roads, logger roads and park roads. The trip from Mackinaw to Soo could be done in less than 75 minutes, but we took a three and a half hour detour.
the small Canadian locks
Sault Ste Marie (Soo) Michigan was the States first officially registered settlement, situated on a portage site between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, now she is sporting the largest lake locks in the world, five of them to be precise (one Canadian and four American, of which two are in disuse, awaiting refurbishment). We took a boat tour and went through two of them. (How am I doing for you 50 percent of the vote to continue writing the travel blog on a day by day reporting basis?)
1/4 mile long power generating
 building in Soo
 
For you, the other half: don't eat the pasties and what is up with the fudge thing? The UPpers, they speak a kind of American/Canadian slang here, are advertising leaches and fudge and pasties (a sort of calzone meat pie popular here) and bait all in one breath on their store signs.
 
Sandee enjoying one of Erik"s
clean Roach Motels
 
We moved into one of those classic U shaped road motels, right on Portage Avenue (you know as of those early days when donkeys pulled the ships over the rocks) across from the locks, so that we could walk over any time a ship  arrived. The water level difference between Lake Superior and Lake Huron is 21 foot, and porting ships before the construction of the locks, took weeks.
1000 ft behemoth screeching
 into the Soo locks
 
But the discovery of ore and copper made the building of the locks imperative. And there you now see 1000 ft long and over a 100 ft wide "lakers", as they are called, since they can never leave the lake system. (The Welland locks at Erie bypassing the Niagara Falls are too narrow and too short.)

water rushing in or out
that's the question
It was fascinating to see these behemoths enter and leave the 1200 ft long Poe locks.
look at the guy mooring the ship
and be in awe of size
 
Beyond this phenomena, there is nothing else in Soo as they call Sault Ste Marie here, and the culinary aspects of the city are not worth mentioning.
Quite different from the prime rib we ingested in the little town of Suttons Bay LP (lower peninsula - actually I just made that LP part up).
 
beautiful flea invested quarters
The next day we moved into the USCG quarters at White Fish point on the grounds of the Shipwreck museum and Lighthouse right at the point, and there we learned all about the raging waters of Lake Superior that swallowed many a ship in the 300 years of recorded history, of which the best known one is the Edmund Fitzgerald. Remember the song written about it? By the way, per year, less than one sailor was lost in the storms. It was here that Sandee's heroic battle with the Mosquitos commenced. Our room was infested with them, so with a spray bottle of wilderness DEET and a wet washcloth she went to war, but for every 50 she killed, greater numbers seemed to appear. After 45 minutes to an hour or so she was ready to move into any fleabag motel in the neighborhood. So money conscious Erik came to the rescue. Where was the source of the invasion did he ponder. Well it took him a few minutes and voila a wet cloth covering the shower drain solved the problem. A sagging mattress brought us the next morning at six down for breakfast, where we met two elderly ladies, who had tried to sleep through the mosquito laden night unsuccessfully, ready to move out.
morning sun at 6am
 leaving flea country
rescued bell of Edmund Fitzgerald
interesting ? thing in
shipwreck museum
 
To me the most astonishing fact was that many a ship broke in half as it bounced on the 30 to 40 foot waves that Lake Superior can churn up. We have been so far 9 days in Michigan and thus we decided to relocate in one day on a 9 plus hour driving day, only to find out in Duluth Minnesota during happy hour that we crossed a time line and had to fall back on our watches (do not take this literally).
Windowless room with large
support column
For all of you who cherish all the dirty details: we did laundry that night and slept for the first time in our life in a windowless hotel room situated in the middle of a converted warehouse in downtown Duluth.
We do not recall ever having been exposed to so much shore line as we left the lake system. What we found however was that all this shore line was replaced by the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, hence their State motto.
 
Minnesota lakes on car gps
Our next destination was the Otter Trail in Otter Tail County in Western Minnesota, where we found many of those 10,000 lakes. The 150 mile loop is full of surprises, from lakes to State forests, and specifically a surprising collection of large statues in a township called Vining where a sculptor Ken Nyberg lives with his Astronaut wife Karen Nyberg.

 
Does Minnesota have water melons?
Did Karen ever go up there?
must be strong coffee
 
We return after a sunny day full of sights we hope to remember to our B&B in New York Mills that afternoon.
our room for the night
view from the bed room
We have found ourselves a 1906 converted railroad car at the whistle stop B&B. Our car has a jetted tub, sauna and lots of ambiance. It has to have all that, it is just about the only thing in New York Mills despite the glamorous name. This morning, awaiting breakfast, we are ready to start heading out for  Pierre SD, the last way station before we reach the first of hopefully many National Parks to come: the Badlands, and of course since we are then in the sacred Black Hills, where according to the Indians the spirits resided, but where the white man reigned since General Custer relocated the Indians away from there, because gold was found, we will also visit Deadwood (Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane) and Keystone (Mt Rushmore), Crazy Horse, Wind Caves and maybe even for kicks pass across the geographical center of the US. All about that on our next blog.
 
Oddities I picked up along the way that stay with you for some reason:
The 5 mile long Mackinac bridge has an astonishing 42,000 miles of braided steel wires built into it to suspend it.
Michigan produces 80% of all tart cherries in the US
The Soo locks are the largest waterway lock system in the world
The five lakes have 5241 miles of US shoreline, but Michigan has 3288 of it.
All I saw in South Dakota was Lutheran churches (I am sure there are other ones, but that is all I saw)
where is the other one
Three kids on a bridge we crossed were not fishing they were spear shooting fish
pest control
try that at home
not enough land to grow on
Snow mobile stop sign
 somewhere in afield
Throughout this drive from Wisconsin to South Dakota we found that all gas stations listed their Plus brand 10 cents cheaper than their Regular gas. What is up with that?
the railway stops in Pierre SD
18000 population
and the beer at the American Legion is
cheap on the deck at the Missouri river
 
Lewis and Clark peddled here
 
 
 
 

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