Whew, Isle Royale National Park was beautiful and fun all at once. But now we needed to head to Colorado Springs for our pet-sitting date with Kim and Mochi.
First step, back down Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula to pick up U.S. 2 in Wisconsin, adding a side trip along the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, heading to Duluth, Minnesota. Yup, Todd wanted to travel US 2!
Along the way, we swung by to see what’s left of the Old Globe Grain Elevator in Superior, Wisconsin. Why? Todd. He read it used to be one of the largest fully wooden grain elevators ever built and after 130 years and several fires, it finally succumbed to one. Hopefully, what’s left will continue to be recycled into flooring and all other things wood.
Speaking of wood, also along the road, Todd found a wooden boat he declared to be a viable “fixer upper.” 🙂
Just around the corner from this historic area, we stopped for the night at The Inn on Lake Superior, tag lined, “If you were any closer to the lake, you’d be in it.” From our third-floor balcony, we watched the downtown carriages return to the barn before a storm came in across the lake. In the morning, we had a great view of cruisers getting underway at sunrise.
Duluth/Superior is the westernmost point of the biggest Great Lake that was the central point of moving zillions of tons of stuff (highly technical stat there) from the MidWest to the rest of the country and the world! And we could only stay one night, bummer.
In the morning, we visited the interesting Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum for a quick look around before making the 500-mile drive from Duluth to Minot, North Dakota. Say what? But, on the way…
We did have a planned stop at Itasca State Park in Minnesota to see the actual headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River! On the way, Susie kept trying to get a good shot of one of the Great River Road signs through the bug-splattered windshield. In one instance, she checked the tiny screen afterwards to see she’d captured… teeth?
Time for a U-turn
Established in 1891, Itasca State Park is Minnesota’s oldest state park and, more importantly to us, features the headwaters of the Mississippi River. You know we had to check that out.
The 3,000-mile Great River Road National Scenic Byway begins within the park.
And if you turn your head when passing the “Begin” sign, the sign for the “End” of the circle is in the other lane.
We, however, side tripped to Itasca not for the scenic drive through the park but to wet our feet in the actual start of the Mississippi! Here 1475 feet above the ocean, the mighty Mississippi begins to flow north on its winding way to the Gulf of Mexico. Wait. North? Yes, north; not a misprint. The small (at this point) river first flows north from Lake Itasca, makes a bend to the east, and then begins flowing south, essentially making a U-turn, gaining size all the way along its 2552 miles to the Gulf.
After splashing in the Mississippi, it was back on the road, rolling, rolling, rolling through the rest of northern Minnesota on to North Dakota for a quick stop for the night on the edge of ND in Grand Forks.
In the morning, we quickly moved on to Minot, North Dakota, along the north and about midway across the state.
The directions were certainly clear enough… rolling, rolling, rolling…
But why Minot (pronounced mynot)?
Apparently, there’s a joke among Air Force members about Minot, which isn’t generally high on the list of dream assignments. The joke goes, “Why not Minot?” “Freezin’s the reason.”
Being Olsens, we traveled to Minot specifically to visit the Scandinavian Heritage Park.
Established in 1988, the park celebrates and preserves Nordic architecture and represents the five Scandinavian and Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. The first three are important to Todd’s heritage.
Along with the gorgeous Gol Stave Church, our other favorite areas proved to be larger than life.
After our afternoon in the park, it was time to find the hotel we’d booked for the night, an hour due south in Garrison, which turned out to be a bust when they played a bit of shuck and jive with the rate during check-in, doubling it from what we’d reserved months before. We firmly but politely declined… with no Plan B. Lesson learned – if you walk away, you have to be very flexible when searching for alternative lodging in the middle of farm country!
We ended up 35 miles south in Washburn, where we found a small but clean mom and pop motel just a block off the main road. No free breakfast like the chain hotels, but there was a fairly priced diner conveniently located across the parking lot. Score for the weary travelers!
Now for our flashback to the present and taking care of the precious Mochi, here you go, Kim. Mochi says hello.
Our Travels 