Menominee to Eqoufette

From Menominee Michigan to Eqoufette Michigan
Today I left the lovely little park in Menominee and headed to the north end of Lake Michigan. It is hard to comprehend for anyone coming from SC just how large these lakes are but I will try to give some concept of it. Lake Michigan is about 70 miles wide at any point so if you drove from Redlands to LAX that would be about how far you would have to go to cross the lake, and it is about 300 miles long so if again you left Redlands you could drive to just about San Francisco until you would drive the length of the lake.
That fact and there are five of these Great Lakes and Lake Michigan is not the largest but Lake Superior is makes this truly astounding.
The park I am in tonight is on the lake again and I now have a tree shaded space with a wonderful view. I had stopped at the top of a small cliff to look over this campground and just knew I had found a home for the night. The campground is not crowded as I suspect we are far away from any populated areas. Sault Ste. Marie is another 85 miles away and it is not considered a large city by any means.
Tomorrow is Labor Day but I think I will still try to go to Sault Ste. Marie to see the locks there and the museum. I was told by a local that they were probably open so I will take the chance even though the prudent thing would be to wait another day.
The terrain today was flat in driving although I hugged the western side of the lake and then the northern end. I am now in what they refer to as Upper Michigan. The farms grew smaller and then disappeared into forests with timber and logging and fishing being the main commercial interests here. The forests are of white birch, ash, some cedar, oak and evergreen. The trees are not the giants that we see on the western side of the country and the largest diameter seems to be about 24”. But it is nice to see the forests again.
Todays travel was only about 170 miles and I am getting spoiled with lounging around too much. Tomorrow will be wit hthe Jeep only as there is no reason to drag the RV all the way to the locks just to have a look see.
Well tonight is ravioli night and then take Scruffy for his nighttime stroll.
1 Typical terain
2 Northern part of Lake Michigan
3 Lake Michigan beach
4 Campground
5 Campsite

Menominee Campsite

I have stayed here in the Menominee area longer than I think anywhere. It’s very nice right on the water with a great view of Green Bay on Lake Michigan. I got into the water yesterday and today and it felt quite warm. This is not the glacial water of previous places where we have stayed and when spring comes the water warms up quite quickly.
The other thing about these lakes is the shoreline is quite shallow. I could walk out for probably 200 feet and only be in water up to my knees.
The bottom is quite sandy with a few very small clam shells. The sand is a very fine white sand that feels good under your feet. The weather is warm I think in the low 80’s but there is a nice breeze and today I put out the awning on the RV for some shade. I should have picked a campsite with more shade trees in it and that would not have been necessary.
Last night it was barbeque chicken so today for lunch it was chicken sandwiches and tonight it is tamales I think. Tomorrow I will move on as the campground is not full and I think that even with the holiday weekend I will not have a problem farther north finding a campsite. That and travelling on the Friday of a long weekend kept me here today.
I hope that everyone out there has a joyous and relaxing Labor Day weekend and that all are safe and sound when it is over.
1 Michigan Border
2 Lake Michigan
3 Campsite
4 One of the lake businesses

Modes of Transportation

Modes of Transportation:
It has surprised me the various modes of travel seen here on our trip. I shouldn’t be because people will use what means they have to travel and one way is not better or worse than another just different.
1. The backpacker: We have seen many of these on our trip even in the most remote of areas and terrains. They do not seem to hitchhike but just walk along with their huge packs on their backs.
2. The Bicyclist: There are many of these and even on the Dempster Hwy. Mostly they have packs attached to their bikes both front and rear and this carries their camping gear (tent and small stove and sleeping bag). Some of the bikes pull small trailers with them so they can carry extra gear.
3. Motorcycles: These come in lots of varieties. Some pull trailers or have outcars for carrying extra gear for camping. The most popular one for the touring motorcyclist seems to be the large BMW because of the gear drive I think that it gives it gives a smoother more trouble free ride. Next of course the Harleys have a sort of cult following that endures them to a whole generation of motorcycle riders. Lastly are the larger street and off road combination bikes.
4. Cars and vans with lots of tenting gear inside: You always see lots of this in every shape and form.
5. Rental RV’s ; There seems to be an endless stream of CruiseCanada (CruiseAmerica) and various other RV camping rental units on the road. These seem most popular with the eastern Europeans.
6. Bus Tours: These are very popular with the Asians and they tend to be in the more popular tourist areas. I have even seen European buses with sleeping quarters and full pull out kitchens in Alaska. The beds pull out from the side of the bus and you hop in for the night and get closed up.

No need for captions on these photos

Ode to the Workers of the World

Ode to the Farmer and Miner and all the Others
Passing thru Sioux Falls I came upon the bronze statue of The Farmer. In my travels I have seen other bronze works dedicated to miners, cowboys etc. I think that it is a fitting work of art showing the farmer sitting down with his head resting on his hand and he looks to me both tired and contemplative. Tired I suppose because his day is long and his work never really ends. He must just say that this is all I can do today and tomorrow I will start again. The farmer in this statue is not young but middle aged and the long hours of work show on his face and body.
The miner likewise says at the end of his day when he calls to his fellow workers “It’s deep enough”. The miner knows that he must blast and pull out so many tons or ore in a day to earn his keep.
The farmer hopes that the weather will be kind and the crops will grow tall and the harvest enough for him to make a living. He is the ultimate gambler who hopes that his efforts will pay a dividend at the end of the season.
The lumberjack and the woodworker and the fisherman all labor to bring us the goods and food that we consume every day with little thought to those whose labor and lives went into giving us the lifestyle that we are so comfortable with.
We owe a great deal to all of the unsung workers who toil every day without glory but without whose efforts we would not enjoy what we have today. And so I say thank you to them ALL and I hope that you do also.
1 The miners
2 The farmer
3 The hog farmer
4 The fisherman
5 Sorry no photos for the lumberjack and the many others

Oshkosh to Menominee Michigan

From Oshkosh to Menominee County Park
I left Oshkosh in the morning and headed north on Hwy 41 passing thru Green Bay. This is the home of the Green Bay Packers and for such a small city to have captured the NFL football title so many times is a great tribute to them and their past coach Lombardi. The town is rife with tributes to him and the team.
It was then on to Marinette where I was all set in the local library to post my blogs. I started to download some grandchildren photos when all of a sudden my internet went out. I looked around and others were still on the library computers but no one else was using wifi. So I tried in vain for about 30 minutes when I spotted some workers and asked if they were working on the internet system. “Why yes we’re installing a new server and wifi network” How long do you think it will be down? “Probably for the afternoon”.
So dejected I went to the information center for the city next door and asked about other wifi sites. Well it turns out Applebees Restaurant has one and they were only about a mile or two away. So, informed that is where I spent some time with coffee and used their free site.
Oshkosh to Menominee
Now I am in Menominee (sounds like a small minnow) County Park right on Lake Michigan. This is after crossing over to Hwy 35 to come up the west side of the lake. I have seen ducks and geese and even a golden eagle on the way and tons of Harley motorcycles headed to Milwaukee.
This is a great site right on the lake and all you can see is water out my side window. It is hard to imagine but I can only see on the horizon the outline of Green Bay which is just a small portion (about 1/4th the way across the width of the lake.
The Great Lakes formed a wonderful transportation system for the Northwest of the country. Lake freighters could carry iron ore from the iron range in Minnesota to the steel plants of Pittsburg and Detroit to make automobiles. Chicago became the commodities capital of the nation because grain could be sent up Lake Michigan from the Midwest and from Lake Superior. Other goods going south from Chicago could go down the Mississippi River. Cargo could be transported around the world from here and the west side of Lake Michigan all the way to Lake Ontario became huge industrial centers.
Now, that the St Lawrence Seaway is completed the bulk carriers do not have to unload their cargo from lake freighters to ocean going vessels but the ocean going ships come right to the Great Lakes.
Well I digress again from the trip. I will spend two nights here because it is so beautiful watching the lake and then it is on northward again to the top of Lake Michigan. I may take a side trip to Sault St. Marie to see that before going south across the Maukinaw Bridge. Now that should be a real heightening experience. One of the tallest and longest bridges I will have encountered.
1 A typical dairy farm
2 A tribute to the woodworkers of Oshkosh
3 Geese or ducks on the river
4 Campsite in Oshkosh

Caitlyn

Well for all of those of you who were anxious to see her (and I just know that you all were) here is little Caitlyn.
1 Mom (Vera), Caitlyn, Christopher (brother), Gabe (dad)
2 Caitlyn
3 Mom and Caitlyn

Perrot to Oshkosh

From Perrot State Park to Oshkosh Wisconsin
I left the small town of Tempealeau and its really nice state park on the Mississippi River and headed east once more for Lake Michigan. The plan is to follow the west side of the lake northward and then swing across the northern part of Lake Michigan and then south to Detroit. Well that is the plan anyway.
The topography again changed today to one of hills. Not real steep hills but the valleys are not what you would find say in SD where the hills are low and very gradual with long valleys that were very wide. These are the eastern type of hills where they are quite frequent and not the long grades that are in the Midwest. The foliage also hca changed to a mixture of birch and elm and ash trees mixed now with evergreen. Now you no longer see trees just around the farmhouses and cities but sections of trees that are grown commercially for their wood.
Also I am now in Amish country and cheese country so that you see signs to watch out for buggies and signs everywhere to stop and taste and buy cheese.
I stopped in Omra before proceeding just down the road to Oshgosh because there was a sign for internet. Hopefully I will be able to post this here before mooooovin on.
I left the interstate today for those of you following on a map. I had been on Hwy 90 but left it to take a more leisurely route eastward on Hwy 21 from Tomah, Wisconsin.
This weekend for those of you who are uninformed is the 105 th anniversary of the Harley motorcycle and they are planning the big celebration in Milwaukee. They expect to have 1 million riders there and I see some of them on the road heading that way. I think I will pass the celebration and head north.
I should also be passing thru Winnebago, Wisconsin soon, the home where the RV in America truly was made known. This may be worth a stop just to see what is there.
1 The park
2 Ducks on the river
3 Geese in Marinette

Mississippi River

Mississippi River
The great rivers of the North American Continent are what made the land so much easier to explore than other continents. Imagine the Mississippi River bisecting the continent in half north to south. The Ohio River and the St Lawrence River going east to west in the eastern half of the country. The Columbia, Fraser, and Yukon Rivers flowing in the Northwest. The Missouri River made the travels of Lewis and Clark possible. All of this country criss crossed with rivers that provided transport to early explorers, and later for commerce.
The Miss. Is also considered by many to be the bisecting mark of the country between the east and the west.
Look at Africa often times referred to as the “Dark Continent” because it did not have navigatable rivers that flowed to the ocean.
Here at Trempeauleau there is a dam and lock that allow barges and ships to go upriver and downriver more easily. You can see one of the tugboats pushing its cargo of barges going out of the lock.
The lock is 600 feet long and I do not know how long it takes to allow for the water to equalize in the lock.
There are I believe 26 locks on the upper Miss. and there is a total of some 400 feet in height difference between the lowest and the highest water mark.
1 The Mississippi
2 Tug boat in the locks
3 Leaving the locks

Austin to Tempealeau

Austin Minnesota to Tempealeau Wisconsin
I left Austin after seeing the Spam Museum and headed East again along Hwy 90. For a side adventure though I took Hwy 14 and then Hwy 61 when I reached Winona Minnesota. This was so that I could come down the Mississippi River on the West side by the River Bluffs State Park. The land was flat and then all of a sudden I was going down at a 6% grade. Well why do you think that they call them bluffs. So I finally reached the great Mississippi River. Majestic and wide here in Minnesota it is hard to imagine what the early travelers in wagons thought when they reached it and looked at those bluffs which was just the start of their journey westward.
I did not stay at the Great River Bluffs State Park but instead crossed the Miss. at La Crosse ( a fitting French name don’t you think) and traveled slightly north to Perrot State Park (named after the French Trapper and explorer of this area). I am closer to the river here and this is just a lovely tree shaded park.
The foliage has changed here by the river to large deciduous trees. These are not the pines we were used to in the western forests but the large oak, elm, walnut and maples that abound in the northeast.
Well this and the other blogs are all for now. Time to barbeque that steak for my dinner
1 The Bluffs from above
2 Camp Perrot Rd to the campground
3 Minnesota geology
4
5 Campsite

The dark side of Spam

Ransom “Cy” Tompson
Another rough story just popped up. You can read it by clicking on the photo of this nefarious villain. You see the west was just full of them. I hardly have to search them out they just pop up. Does it not make you little hearts go pitter patter that I search out the mundane, the trivial and the little known of history.
Oh well you could stop reading this! But what would you miss?

Spam and History

Austin and Spam
Well you just never know what you are going to find as you pass thru America. Remember, I told you all about the corn fields that I have been seeing. Yes just endless fields of corn, and what do you get when you have lots of corn, well you get pigs. Yes, those little porkers just love corn and so if you have a lot of corn you grow pigs and that’s what they do around here.
When you have pigs they grow up and eventually become bacon and ham and what else SPAM. Yes sirrrreeee Austin Minnesota is where Hormel is located with their large packing plant. Also in Austin is the Spam Museum. So you see all of those WWII kids and families that had spam for lunch and breakfast can take heart that someone has preserved for posterity the history of Spam. The kind in the can that is.
Who knows maybe someone will preserve for future generations the history of electronic spam.
Did you know the following:
1. Spam was first made in 1937
2. Hawaii is the number 1 Spam per capita state
3. Every 3.5 seconds someone opens a can of Spam
4. There is a Spammobile
5. There are the Spamettes ( a singing group)
6. They have an annual Spam Celebration week in Austin

Photos
1 The Hog Farmer
2 Spam Museum
3 Spam History
4 Making a ham

Mitchell SD to Austin Minnesota

Mitchell SD to Austin Minnesota
What a change in terrain and in agriculture just two days drive make.
I left the Badlands of SD and out there it is just grasslands and the mountains of the Badlands that are really sedimentary rock formations. Very beautiful but very desolate and not much farming, really ranching with few ranches to be seen because the livestock require so much land to graze on. There are few if any trees in this area because as you know the prairies centuries ago did not have trees because it was felt that fires in this area did not stop until they reached the mountainous areas to the west.
Next I came to the area around Sioux Falls, SD. Now we are getting into the hills and in this area the hills are not real steep but steeper than Minnesota. As I mentioned earlier I stopped to view the Falls Park and the stockyards. Now the farms are getting more into the farming of corn.
After you reach Minnesota the trend is clear with low rolling hills and vast farms of corn and I believe soybeans. There are scattered clumps of trees and this is where you know you will find the farmhouses. Because there was no a/c when these early farms were started the farmers knew that if they planted trees around there homes it would add natural air conditioning in the hot summer months, a wind break form the dust and in winter provide a break from the cold arctic winds and snow coming out of Canada. Not a bad idea even today.
As I went further east you could see the vibrant green of the corn stalks which are now high as a man stands and with their golden yellow tassels make a patchwork over the landscape. Interspersed with this is the emerald green of the soybean fields and then to top it off are the green deciduous trees surrounding the farmhouses. Makes for a great place to drive and relax.
Tonight I feel at peace with the world and where I am at. I stopped here and had a strong hankerin for Chinese food. Why that was so I do not know but after asking around found a Chinese buffet. Really good and now the tummy is full and Scruffy needs to take a walk.
1 A little laugh for you all
2 Corn Fields
3 More corn fields
4 Campsite in Austin

Sioux Falls SD

Sioux Falls, SD
This is a really neat little town with a large park called Falls Park (because that’s where the Sioux Falls are on what else but the Sioux River). Aptly named don’t you think. Well the park is really nice and has walkways and a bridge over the falls with lots of shade trees. As you can imagine the terrain since leaving Mitchell SD has changed from being very flat to hilly. Not real mountainous but large hills. The city of Sioux Falls has what appears to be a red granite or quartz which is very nice.
They also have a stockyard which I visited and took a picture of. As you can see this must have been and still is a large cattle producing area and meat packing center.
The park also contains the remains of a large flour mill. The largest of its kind when it was built apparently but no longer used.
Well time to get to the internet café overlooking the park.

1 The corn fields
2 The Stockyards and packing plant
3 The old power house
4 Sioux Falls
5 Sioux Falls