A few days ago, we hinted at a flashback tale. We couldn’t possibly go any other way. Since learning about Hodags on our return to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to catch a seaplane, we’ve traveled nearly 2,000 miles, through eight states, in seven days. Needless to say, there’s a great deal to catch up on, a-n-n-d we won’t be able to do so in one post, so bear with us. Here goes.

---

Now let’s get to that seaplane adventure, shall we? Seemingly ages ago, on the morning of August 28, we boarded a seaplane with four other passengers for a 45-minute flight from Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior.

Our cabin wouldn’t be ready until mid-afternoon, so after leaving the small overnight tote bags with the lodge staff and consulting with the park rangers, we made our selection of doable trails and struck out to find…

---

After joyfully taking selfies among the mosquitoes at what we thought was the cave entrance, we continued on, following the trail around the rocks, only to discover we’d celebrated the backdoor exit. Ha!

---

The longer hike after the cave was more challenging, with changes in terrain, a bit of rock scrambling, and gorgeous views of Lake Superior.

---

After a well-earned bite of lunch, we enjoyed the view of the harbor while waiting for check-in. Once informed the cabin was ready, we happily walked the 0.6 miles UPHILL to the cabin and opened the door to find…someone else’s luggage. Uh-oh. Is this the wrong cabin or just the wrong stuff?

Matters not, since there’s no phone service on the island. No choice but to walk the 0.6 miles back to the lodge office to report the situation, which they offered to rectify straightaway. And they did. They jetted off on their golfcart. Ah, thanks? Oh well, we trekked back up the 0.6-mile path to the cabin.

With the luggage bit straightened out, we were finally able to remove our boots and rest before dinner. Good thing, because the restaurant is located 0.6 miles back down the hill. To their credit, with a captive audience of ravenous hikers, dinner was delicious. After which, we trudged the 0.6 miles back UP the hill for the night.

If you’ve been keeping track, that’s 0.6 x5, which added up to an additional THREE miles on top of the five-mile hike. Our watches were tossing virtual confetti at our accomplishing more than 20,000 steps!

“Royal treatment?” Honey, I’ve got blisters on my calluses. Ouch.

Yes, but listen. What do you hear? That’s right. Nothing but the gentle, soul-restoring sounds of nature. Ahhh.

---

After a good night’s sleep, we awoke to another beautiful day for the seaplane transport back to the mainland.

And with that, we returned to Hubbell, Mi, changed out of our hiking boots and hit the road. 270 miles to Duluth, Minnesota!

---

And because no flashback movie or book worth its salt would miss the opportunity to confuse the audience with the occasional brief return to the present, h-e-e-r-e’s Mochi!

At approximately zero dark thirty on Friday, September 6, we checked Todd into the ER in the small town of Sidney, Nebraska. (How we got to Nebraska we will cover later.)

After many hours of diagnostic testing, it was determined that his system was totally out of whack due to a nasty gallbladder that needed to be removed ASAP. Determining the problem was the good news. The bad news was there’s no surgeon in Sidney, Nebraska, so they needed to transport him two and a half hours west to Fort Collins, Colorado.

---

Susie packed up the rental, topped off Pearl with gas, and followed her man into the sunset.

It wasn’t long until…

---

Todd was checked into the Surgical Unit at UC Health Poudre (pronounced “pooter” – Todd giggled every time they said it [could have been the drugs]) Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and dosed up with even more medications and antibiotics to prep for surgery in the a.m.

And for the best news? Surgery went well; the nastiness is gone; and Todd feels “a thousand times better.” (No, you don’t need photos for this part, although we do have some, thanks to the surgeon. Eeeuuuu.)

---

After an additional night in the hospital for observation, Todd was discharged and we headed to Colorado Springs, where we will be house/pet sitting for a few weeks for Kim, the cousin of our dear friend and fellow-cruiser, Lynn.

---

The surgical speedbump in our path delayed our arrival to the point that we missed meeting Kim before she headed to the airport Sunday. As a Plan B, she left Mochi with a kind-hearted friend, who delivered her to us after we could make it to the house.

---

Now that we’re staying in one place for a few weeks, the patient can finish healing, Mochi can get used to us, and our photographer can get through the backlog of 300+ photos to prepare our catch-up posts. Consider this like a Flashback style show. Wonder how they ended up here…

That’s life. Gotta watch out for the curveballs, especially when Todd is pitching! Enough is enough! 🙂

Realizing what dairy country was doing to our waistlines, we had to get moving. Literally. There’s just too much yumminess amongst all those cows.

---

---

Our destination for the first few nights was the Milkhouse Cottage and Gardens near Maiden Rock, where we were joined by a dragon keeping a watchful eye on the patio.

---

Next up, the historic Dam Keepers Cottage on Elk Creek Lake in Eau Claire, where we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the water rushing over the dam…umm, and thankfully NOT joined by a ghost. (Didn’t learn until we got there that the cottage was featured in Haunted Wisconsin.)

---

Heading from Eau Claire to northeastern Wisconsin, the terrain slowly went from longish hills and lots of beautiful farmland to trees and lakes.

Our “guide” of course found a fun place to check out on the way and in fact about smack dab in the middle of all of Wisconsin. Marshfield, home to the world’s largest Round Barn! Nah. Ain’t lying – it’s there, but there was actually a state fair going crazy there. So, we grooved over to Jurustic Park, buried down a nothing road and well, it’s hard to explain. Just an amazing myriad of incredible thoughtful creative stunning goofiness!

---

After chuckling our way through Jurustic Park, we checked into a rental on Loon Lake in Pearson, where Pearl spent a week parked right there by the cabin.

The car may have been parked; we, however, in an endeavor to shed some of those dairy-product pounds, walked several miles daily on the wooded roads surrounding the lake – Susie doused in deet and both of us flailing away at gnats. Didn’t realize your arms could get sore taking a walk!

---

It is difficult to briefly introduce the Hodag. Tales of these prehistoric, black or green, fur-bearing, lizard-like creatures that inhabit pine forests, primarily in the Rhinelander area, began with Native American people across the Great Lakes region. The Hodag was then “discovered” by Gene Shepard in 1893 – a long story that began as a practical joke. Now, for more than 130 years, Rhinelander has totally embraced the legend of the Hodag.

When we say the Hodag is everywhere in Rhinelander, we mean everywhere, from high school mascot to:

---

Tonight, we are back in Michigan on a peninsula on Lake Superior. In the morning, we’ll briefly be going off-grid, i.e. no Wi-Fi or cell service until Thursday afternoon.

For now, gotta scoot. Need to pack the appropriate survival gear for our visit to Isle Royale National Park and set the alarm for O dark thirty to catch a plane. A seaplane!

Oh, should you not hear from us later in the week, please check the Locate Us link to see if we made it back to the mainland or if someone should send out the troops lest we need to be rescued from stowaway creatures…

After looking around upon arrival, however, we declared it all good and settled in to watch the world go by.

---

While watching the world, we also frequently trotted to the front door to watch the buggies clip-clop by.

---

And as always, we did a bit of exploring.

The Norskedalen Nature & Heritage Center – Coon Valley, Wisconsin

Here’s a test:

---

The Discovery Cranberries Museum – Warrens, Wisconsin

Susie tried harvesting “in the bog” but in the end decided it was the waders that were fun.

---

One of the most interesting things for Todd was learning about farming.

---

With farms, there are of course animals.

---

Finally, after a month of watching corn grow, literally…

…it was time to leave our peaceful spot in Cashton.

---

500 miles in 5 days? You must have stopped somewhere other than “scenic over-kills?”

You’re right! Let’s take it from the starting point in Wisconsin.

---

Iowa

Fenelon Place Elevator Company – Dubuque

Installed in 1882, by the former mayor and State Senator, J.K. Graves. Why? Seems this prominent businessman simply wanted a lunchtime nap (funny story – link above). Hence, he built “the world’s shortest and steepest railroad,” a *funicular railway now known as the Fourth Street Elevator. Our kind of dude!

*A funicular is a cable railway system connecting points on a steep slope, characterized by two counterbalanced carriages permanently attached to opposite ends of a cable looped over a pulley at the top. The carriages move synchronously: as one ascends, the other descends at an equal speed. You’re basically sitting on a staircase. (No aching thighs! 🙂 )

---

Soaking up national history

First up, the Mines of Spain to learn about French-Canadian fur trader, Julien Dubuque, the first European to settle in what is now Iowa to work the lead mines and trade with the Native Americans. Lead of all things. Plenty of it got shot!

Next stop, Pikes Peak. No, not that Pikes Peak. Like its larger, famous counterpart in Colorado, this bluff in McGregor, Iowa (that few have heard of), was also named in honor of General Zebulon Pike, who mapped the site as a good spot for a fort.

For our final stop in Iowa, we squealed into the Effigy Mounds National Monument parking lot on two wheels – 8 minutes before closing – to [quickly] read about the 200+ ancient Native American burial/ceremonial mounds built more than 1000 years ago, most shaped like animals. See, we were stopping a lot! 🙂

---

---

Minnesota

National Eagle Center – Wabasha

This was one place we had targeted for the whole trip. After attending the fascinating educational session led by Conor and Eagle Ambassador Latsch, we met other rescued eagles, Angel and Was’aka, in the visitor center. With one look from an eagle, it’s easy to see why it won out over Ben Franklin’s idea of a turkey as our national bird and symbol. Up close, they’re breathtaking!

---

Lark Toys – Kellogg

Ahem. Back to the toy store.

Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we’d stumbled on Lark Toys, recipient of numerous awards, including “Top 10 Best Toy Stores in the World,” by USA Today! In addition to the huge store (obviously), there’s a bookstore, a workshop where they craft old-fashioned wooden toys, a cafe, miniature llamas, mini-golf, and even a toy museum.

The BEST part? Well, besides Todd playing with stuff… we really liked the carousel of unique creatures! The vision of one of the founders, who wanted to create the biggest toy he could imagine, each artistically detailed animal is hand-carved from Minnesota basswood and designed to relay a message.

Susie chose the Seahorse, right? Wrong. She flew around on the Pelican, who teaches us to rise above life’s trials, free ourselves from what weighs us down, work together, spit out the bad stuff, and enjoy the good in life!

---

Red Wing Shoe Company Museum – Red Wing

In 1861, Silas B. Foot (snicker) opened the Foot Sterling Shoe Factory to manufacture footwear for use around the farm. He later opened the S.B. Foot Tannery to control the quality of leather used in the factory and assisted a young immigrant, Charles Beckman, in opening C. Beckman & Company, Vendor of Boots & Shoes, which later became Red Wing Shoe Company (whew). The same tannery, now owned by Red Wing Shoe Company, still serves as the primary source of their signature leather.

---

Wisconsin

Closing the loop

After purchasing a trinket from the Red Wing Pottery Museum, we traveled slightly further north to Hastings, MN on one side of the river before crossing over to Prescott, WI on the other side.

The final leg of our Great River Road journey was 125 miles south to our starting point, thus completing the circle.

During that pretty drive on a beautiful Saturday, we saw at least a couple hundred, as Todd’s daughter used to call them, “mikerlators!”

To cap things off, on one of the many “scenic over-kills,” we finally managed to catch…

In the world of the traveling Olsens, check off two more states!