Odometer: 147168
Distance So Far: 2450
Days On the Road: 9
Final Stop: Ironwood, MI
Another day on the road, another taxidermied animal to smooch.
Mom started off the day today by pulling our leg with uncharacteristic flair.
Given the history of car-related curses and road trips, this was a cruel and believable joke, though short-lived.
That’s all Mom gets to say today, she’s in time-out.
From Dad:
We got an early start this morning so we could get to scheduled places today. We travelled south, skirting Duluth into Wisconsin and went to Pattison State Park, home of Big Manitou falls, the highest falls in Wisconsin—about 165 feet. It was only possible to view the falls from above. Not a lot of water, just a pretty good drop. The water was brownish—root beer color.
Then we headed for Bayfield and the Apostle Islands National Seashore, where we had a 2 ½ hour lake tour reserved. We got there just before the boat was about to leave. The tour wound through the islands, where we were able to see, if only from a distance on six of them, 21 of the 22 islands. The one we couldn’t see is a small outlier that is only about 3 acres. They pretty much all looked similar, except the Devil’s Island which has a lot of sea caves eroded
back under the rock shelf. The lake was so smooth, and it made the trip very enjoyable.
The boat captain narrated the trip. He told the story that around 1978, someone decided to move a house from the mainland to Madeline Island (the one not part of the National Park system). Since Lake Superior freezes over in this area in the wintertime, and the ice gets so thick it can support the weight of vehicles, the person loaded the house on a flatbed trailer and pulled it toward Madeline Island. However, in an area the ice was a little thinner, the truck got stuck. Even though they tried to get it unstuck, they could not, and when the weather warmed sufficiently, the truck, trailer, and house went to the bottom of the lake. An enterprising real estate agent in Bayfield ran an ad for the house: “360 degree view of Lake Superior; sunken living room, sunken dining room, sunken kitchen; rock bottom pricing.” There were no takers. An attempt was made to salvage the house, but when they tried to lift it, it collapsed, and had to be pulled out in pieces. The truck and trailer, however, were recovered; and after changing the fluids, the truck ran fine.
Bayfield is the town the cruise takes off from. We decided its inhabitants are kind of uppity. After all, they look down on Superior.
Afterward, we drove a few miles along the shoreline, but didn’t see much water—mostly trees. So we gave up on that and drove to Ashland and ate at Culver’s. Culver’s headquarters is in Wisconsin, so we had to try it in its “natural habitat.” Yummy, as always, but Linda thought it tasted just a little better than it does in Utah [Editor’s note: Said Culver’s had jellyfish decor]. From there we drove to Ironwood, MI and our hotel for the evening.
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