11/8/15 The 4 M’s (Music, Mountains, Museums, and Maritime - Tennessee and North Carolina)

We completed our side car trip to visit our friends and family to continue on our touring adventure. We picked up our motor home from Kentucky and our first stop was “Music City”, Nashville, TN.  Nashville is always a fun place…good food and music in addition to more friends and family.  We boondocked in a beautiful lake-front State Park just outside of Nashville.   

Nashville Honky Tonk

Of course we spent some time at the usual stops in the music city: the County Music Hall of Fame and the historic Ryman Auditorium where Country music got its start (mostly because of the Grand Ole Opry radio and then TV shows). Broadway is full of honky-tonks, where “up and coming” country music wanabees perform 24/7.  It is a great way to have some bar food, while listening to great music.   We spent a wonderful evening at Tootsie’s on Broadway with our good friends Mike and Poly Fitz, a Navy friend from the 70s.   We also got a chance to have dinner with Linda’s niece, Victoria.  She is now in college at Vanderbuilt University, studying neurology (wants to be a doc).  It is so good to see her mature into the fine young woman she has become since she sailed with us on our sailboat 6 years ago.  

We really got a good history lesson from visiting The Hermitage in Nashville, home of President Andrew Jackson.  The historic home, outer buildings and grounds have been restored and are excellent, but the most interesting part was learning more about President Jackson himself.  He was probably one of the most important presidents between Washington and Lincoln.  His legacy:  trying to end corruption in government (amazingly extensive at that time),  passing political power from established elites to ordinary voters,   brought the country back to the founding fathers legacy advocating Republican values held by the Revolutionary War generation, and paid off the national debt (only President to do so).    



Jack Daniels Spring Water

When we left Nashville, we detoured south to visit the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg TN.  Bob has been a Tennessee Squire since the early 80s and as a squire he “owns” one square inch of land in Moore County. The tour was fun and informative. Like many of the distilleries in KY and TN, the site was selected because of a reliable source of excellent water from a mineral spring.   Many of the buildings were very old (founded 1875), but Jack “owns” the town.  They produce over 11 million cases of Jack a year, and have buildings throughout the area.   It was a short visit, and we declined to taste of the very familiar brew since we had a long drive ahead of us. 

Fall, Great Smokies National Park
 

We continued to head east to the Great Smoky Mountains.  We first camped on the south side of the National Park near Cherokee and then moved to the north side near Gatlinburg.  We dry camped the entire time, and it was cold at that elevation.  We had to use our generator to heat the coach and charge our batteries except at night. In this National Park, there is quiet time which means no generator use allowed between 8pm and 8am.  That meant only battery powered heat (not a lot to conserve power) and no coffee before 8am. No reason to get up early so we ended up staying in bed 

until 8 for heat and coffee   a difficult task for 2 people who usually get up at dawn.  We will be adding solar panels to the coach in December for an additional non-generator power source.   

 



Great Smokies Fall Hike
 

The fall colors were spectacular; much better than either of us remembered from our trips to the Shenandoah and Smoky mountains years ago.  One couple we met who have been coming to the Great Smoky Mountains for 30 years said it was the best they had ever seen.  You can never plan exactly when the color will peak, but we were fortunate to have the colors at their best right at the mid-elevation of the mountains when we arrived. We had the entire range to see, last color at the top, peak color in the middle, and early color in the lower elevations.  We had 2 fabulous bright, warm sunny days during the week with no traffic to drive throughout the park and even on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  

 

Elk Grazing, Great Smokies

 

 The next two days (weekend), the traffic was horrific, so we ended up staying put in the campground and just doing a couple of hikes (still crowded).  We avoided the miles long traffic jams – we heard that the Park Service closed the road between Gatlinburg and Cherokee due to a fatal motorcycle/car accident. The next few days brought winds, rain and cold, and the leaves quickly fell….we just made it in time to see the great fall colors. 

 

 



Brown Bear in Cades Cove, Great Smokies



 

 

We really enjoyed our visit, but we would not recommend Gatlinburg, which is a tacky tourist trap (in our humble opinion).  

 

Linda finally got to see some of the large mammals we had been searching for:  we got to see  about 10 elk grazing in the early morning near our campground and a bear in Cades Cove, in addition to lots of deer.  

 

Biltmore Estate, Ashville

We continued east to camp in Asheville.  We toured the Blue Ridge Parkway north for about 60 miles, but we only saw some late color on the trees.  However, our visit to the Biltmore Estate was fabulous.  Biltmore House, the main house on the 8000 acre estate, is a Châteauesque-styled mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895.  It is the largest privately owned house in the United States; 135,280 square feet of living area. Still owned by Vanderbilt's descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age. In 2007, it was ranked eighth in America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.  Biltmore has a total of 252 rooms in the house including 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and 19th-century novelties such as electric elevators, forced-air heating, centrally controlled clocks, fire alarms and an intercom system. The principal rooms of the house are located on the ground floor.  Some significant items include lots of magnificent 16th century tapestries, a library with 10,000 volumes, banquet hall with a 70-foot ceiling, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, and a bowling alley. Almost all of the priceless objects throughout the house are from George and Edith Vanderbilt’s original collection.  We walked to the observatory through acres of formal and informal gardens designed by America’s foremost landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted. From the beauty of the Italian Garden to the breathtaking trees in America’s first managed forest, Biltmore’s lush landscape is a living tribute to Olmsted’s genius.   As a century-old model for forest conservation (and, more recently, for sustainability, thanks to six acres of solar panels), Biltmore continues to honor Vanderbilt’s environmental legacy.  This is a must see if you have not yet been there.   

The underlying lesion of the Vanderbilt story is it a classic example of how wealth often generated by the first generation, preserved by the second, is most often squandered by the third generation.  George Vanderbilt was the third generation, and he spent a huge part of his inheritance building the estate.  During the depression it was almost lost to foreclosure; George’s wife was only able to keep the estate by opening the home to public tours.    

After a great evening listening to Mars Hill TN’s finest bluegrass with our cruising friends, Hunter and Devi Sharp, and a second evening sharing a great dinner at their Mars Hill home north of Asheville, we headed east along I-40 and Highway 64 to the coast of North Carolina.   

We started at the northern end of the Outer Banks and headed south over the week camping in Kill Devil Hills, Avon and Ocracoke.  Our northernmost stop was in Corolla including seeing the restored Currituck lighthouse. The lighthouse is identical to the lighthouse in St. Augustine…down to the tile on the floors!   Bob once hiked well over a mile thru the woods to camp near the deserted lighthouse in the 70s, long before the wonderful restoration was begun.  The recently built boardwalk in Duck was fun, with a lot of interesting restaurants and shops (mostly closed since the season was finished for the year). We found one restaurant still open with a great Wahoo taco.   

We revisited the Kitty Hawk National Park monument (it was one of our first destinations while we were dating).  The Wright brothers were very entrepreneurial…they were bicycle builders but became self taught engineers in order to learn what they needed to know to develop the first airplane to fly.  They accomplished this in 3 years with $1000 of their own money; The government made several grants of over $50,000 over many years and was not successful.  This is a classic example of private sector success versus government waste.    

Hatteras Seashore is beautiful, but too close to Kitty Hawk and Nags Head to avoid the touristy feeling of the middle island.  We enjoyed taking the ferries to Ocracoke from Hatteras, and then from Ocracoke on to Cedar Island.  We enjoyed visiting Ocracoke the best…a quaint town with cottages along a small section of beach;  most of the island is the National Park.  The Silver Lake Harbor, dredged by the Corps of Engineers for the Navy in WWII, is small, but interesting.    

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, moved inland

We have now visited all the North Carolina lighthouses, mostly different from each other:  Corolla, Currituck, Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke (all on the Outer Banks), in addition to Cape Lookout (we have anchored for several days in Lookout Bight), Bald Head Island, and Oak Island.   We had missed the ocean since we left Maine in August;  it was great to smell the sea again.  Bob really enjoyed revisiting the Outer Banks - his old stomping grounds as a Corps of Engineers coastal engineer including seeing the relocated Cape Hatteras lighthouse and now abandoned Coast Guard Station on the south side of Oregon Inlet where he used to stay while studying Oregon Inlet in the 70s.   

This is our last email message/blog for the 2015 land cruising season.  From the Outer Banks we spent some time with Linda’s sister, Lorraine, in Beaufort.  From Beaufort we will camp in the Falls Lake State Park north of Raleigh and visit Rob, Fay, Skylar and Jaxon in Raleigh for Thanksgiving and attend the NC State vs Carolina football game on Saturday. We will head back south to Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine for Christmas to enjoy family and friends there (and install solar panels and a ham radio antenna).  Linda is taking her niece, Valerie, and her kids, Katlynn and Breanna, to New York City to enjoy 4 days of Christmas in NYC right before Christmas.  

Our next email blog will be after we return from our 2 ½- month winter stay in Panama.  When we return from Panama we plan to depart St Augustine for Arizona and spring desert flowers in early April and will begin our narratives again then.  

We wish you all a delicious Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, and a healthy, blessed New Year to enjoy with your friends and family.      

Linda and Bob

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

For those who may want to know more about our 2015 RV Rambling, here are some Travel Statistics: 

From our departure from St. Augustine on July 2 to our return on December 1 (the 2015 RV Adventure):

·       Miles driven on our motor home: 9500+

·       Miles driven on our Jeep Cherokee: 9700+ (not including miles towed behind RV)

·       We visited every state east of the Mississippi except:  Delaware, New Hampshire, and Vermont (24 in total)

·       We visited 7 national parks: Acadia, Congaree, Cuyahoga Valley, Great Smoky Mountains, Isle Royale, Shenandoah,  and Voyageurs  

·       We visited 2 National Seashores: Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras

·       We visited all 4 National Lakeshores:  Apostle Islands, Indiana Dunes, Pictured Rocks, and Sleeping Bear Dunes

·       We visited 5 Canadian provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia including Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Ontario

·       We visited 5 Canadian National Parks: Cape Breton Island, Bay of Fundy, Kejimkujik, Prince Edward Island, Thousand Islands,  and Niagara Falls

·       And a plethora of national historic monuments, state parks etc, …too many to count. 

 

 

 And loved it all!!!

 

           

9/25/15 The 3 I’s (Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana) and 2 F’s (Family and Friends)

We have completed our exploration of the entire St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.  It’s time to head south into the heartland of the US….fall and colder weather will be soon upon us.  From Voyageurs National Park on the Canadian border we drove directly south all the way through Minnesota into northeastern Iowa, with a 30 mph head wind the whole way.  Although it didn’t slow us down, our mileage was down for this portion of the trip.   For those who are not familiar with sailing, we found that while cruising no matter which direction we wanted to go, it seemed we always had head winds on our nose - we laughingly called them “noserlies”.  This was the first time we experienced such consistent “noserlies” while land cruising.   



Mississippi Rvr (fore) with backwaters from dams

Our first stop was in Iowa, along the Mississippi River near the confluence of the Missouri River, to visit the Effigy Mounds National Monument.  The mounds preserved here are considered sacred by many Americans, especially the Monument's culturally associated American Indian tribes. The varying cultures of Native North America “Moundbuilders”, from about 3500 BCE until the 16^th century, were found mostly in the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippi River valley and its tributary waters. By the time of United States westward expansion two hundred years later, Native Americans were generally not knowledgeable about the civilizations that produced the mounds (their ancestors). Research and study of these cultures and peoples has been based mostly on archaeology and anthropology.     



Aerial View Outlined Mounds (from NPS)

The 200 plus American Indian mounds preserved at Effigy are located in one of the most picturesque sections of the Upper Mississippi River Valley.  The construction of effigy mounds was a regional cultural phenomenon. Mounds of earth in the shapes of birds, bear, deer, bison, lynx, turtle, panther or water spirit are the most common images. These effigy mounds were not used for burial purposes; conical mounds were used for that purpose. Some archeologists believe they were built to mark celestial events or seasonal observances. Others speculate they were constructed as territorial markers or as boundaries between groups.  The animal-shaped mounds remain the symbol of the Effigy Mounds Culture. Along the Mississippi River in northeast Iowa and across the river in southwest Wisconsin, two major animal mound shapes seem to prevail: the bear and the bird.

Conical Mound overlooking Mississippi River

 Mounds were found in the thousands, but most had been inadvertently destroyed by early farmers and settlements before 19^th century archeologists realized what they were in recent years. As we hiked the cliffs, some of the mounds were still in their pre-preservation state (trees and bushes growing in somewhat raised areas); they simply look like the rest of the forest.  We are not sure how the archeologists found them at all.  No wonder they have mostly been destroyed; you simply don’t know they are there.

We finished up our short visit to eastern Iowa with a pontoon boat tour of the Mississippi River at the confluence of the Wisconsin River.  It is surprising how wide the river already is this far north.  It was a raw windy day and the chop on the main river was rough so we motored mostly in the backwaters and marshes that were formed when a lock was built downstream.   We learned about the local history, the local river history and the impact of the lock system on the river and the invasive negative impact on Iowa’s prairie of growing increasingly huge amounts of corn for what?  You guessed it – highly toxic fructose and ethanol. Interestingly to us, we are told it takes more energy to produce ethanol for gas than you save when you use it in gas (our government and the corn lobby at work…where are the environmentalists when you need them?)   We saw bald eagles in action, a juvenile eagle, a blue heron, a deer and other smaller wildlife and birds. The guide stopped to collect several large groups of oyster mushrooms from a log, which we had never even heard of.  He gave us some for dinner. Linda sautéed them in butter and they were great!  If you have the chance to try them, do so.    

We left the rolling hills of eastern Iowa, and headed east to the south shore of Lake Michigan, to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. This completed our goal to see all four National Lakeshore Parks.   This National Park is fairly new. The NPS is continuing to enlarge the park carving out portions of the declining industrial area on the south shore of Lake Michigan.  The Dunes, having so many different environments in such a small area, are an ecological gem…so many varieties of plants and animals.  Several are endangered.  The park is not contiguous, but a series of areas of restored dunes along the shore.  One really interesting place was an area that had been reclaimed from acid ponds from a steel mill; an excellent example of what Hundreds of Millions of $$ can do.  It is now a lush dune environment.    

We headed south to Indianapolis to visit the Indianapolis 500 racetrack, one of Bob’s bucket list places to see from his younger car-oriented years.  The Grounds tour was pretty good; we saw much of the speedway, the cars, the media center, the winners circle etc.  We even “kissed’ the bricks at the start/finish line (a tradition).  The museum was also great – an incredible number of very expensive cars….hundreds of millions of dollars of inventory. Car aficionados will love it.  

We continued south to Patoka Lake State Park, in the Hoosier National Forest, Indiana.  From there we toured Marengo Caves National Monument; the tours included walking about 1.5 miles of cave.  The first part of the tour was longer and covered some interesting formations and two large but very shallow underground lakes with incredible light reflections.  It also included some very large cavernous spaces.  The second part was a lot shorter, but included some of the largest and most incredible formations, including the “crystal palace”.  Not as large as Monmouth Cave National Park, where we and Rob went spelunking many years ago, but just as interesting.   

W Baden Springs Domed Lobby

From our Patoka Lake campground we also toured the French Lick and West Baden Springs Resorts – both owned by the same family – the Cook Family (he became wealthy designing and owning a medical stent company).  The 3,000-acre complex includes two historic resort spa hotels, stables, a casino and three golf courses, all part of a $500 million restoration and development project. The location was originally known as the French Lick Springs Hotel, a grand resort that catered to those who came to partake of the advertised healing properties of the town's sulfur springs. The first hotel was opened in 1845 by William Bowles and was an immediate success. The original hotel burned in 1897, but the resort was rebuilt on an even grander scale by the then new owner Thomas Taggart, mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the Democratic National Committee (now we know where the “smoke filled back rooms” were located).  About 1 mile away is the historic 243-room luxury West Baden Springs Hotel.  This hotel was built in 1902 and claimed the title of the largest free-spanning dome in the world. It claimed to be the largest dome in the United States until the completion of the Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1955. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, became a National Historic Landmark in 1987 and is an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. In 2008 the West Baden Springs Hotel was cited by Condé Nast Traveler readers as one of the best mainland U.S. resorts.  The hotels and French Lick are well worth a look and tour.   

Guests arrived from across the country on seven separate railroads for relaxation and the alleged curative powers of the mineral waters.  Sidewalks led from the hotels to numbered springs, all of which were covered by open wooden shelters. Each arriving guest would meet with a “physician”, to determine their “therapy”.  Apparently the recommended therapy was the same for everyone; take one hot spring water bath a day, drink 2 glasses of spring water before each meal, and take a 2 hour walk each morning before breakfast and each afternoon before dinner.  Some thoughts about the effectiveness of these “health” spas: For those with infectious diseases, the sulfur infused water probably provided antimicrobial action with some relief and cures. For those with consumption (tuberculosis), the fresh air environment and walks would help their symptoms.  For those with aches and pains, the hot mineral water would provide relief (think Epsom salts baths).  For those with intestinal issues, the spring water was a natural laxative (think magnesium)….   The hot mineral laden waters along with the fitness regimen (5-10 miles per day) did everyone good, and they all left feeling in much better health.  No wonder the wealthy flocked to such places, especially when you add the social status for being there.     

Camel Rock, Garden of the Gods IL

We left the luxury of the hotels to go back to our campground reality.  We moved on to Illinois and dry camping (motor home self sufficiency equivalent to anchoring out in cruising) in the Garden of the Gods, in Shawnee National Forest, Illinois.  The incredible rock formations started during the Carboniferous period (circa 300 million years before the present); local geological conditions laid down a thick bed of gray sandstone in what is now southern Illinois. This bed of sandstone was later uplifted, and the Garden of the Gods is part of an uplifted sandstone plateau. Unlike much of Illinois, this plateau was never covered by glaciers; the furthest advance of ice sheets during the Illinoian glaciations stopped just north of Garden of the Gods.  Therefore, the morphology of Garden of the Gods is much steeper and rockier than in much of Illinois. Comparatively dramatic erosion patterns have created hoodoos and other unusual sandstone formations, as well as scenic overlooks from which raptors, scavenger birds, and humans can look out over the expansive Shawnee National Forest.  Several of the hoodoos have evocative names, including Anvil Rock, Camel Rock, and Table Rock.  Shawnee National Forest was created in 1939.  According to a park ranger, the image of Camel Rock will be on the newest US quarter to be released soon.  

We decided to leave our motor home coach in Kentucky at Linda’s sister’s and brother-in-law’s farm and travel only in our Jeep Cherokee while we visited friends and family in KY, MS, AL, FL, and GA.   We had two wonderful visits with Karen and Wayne Scott, Linda’s sister, gracious hosts with wonderful time spent together.  We also had the opportunity to have lunch with Bob’s high school friend, Louis Heath, and his wife, Ann as we drove through Decatur, AL on our way to Red Bay Alabama.    

Red Bay AL is the home to Tiffin Motor Homes, the manufacturer of our own motor home coach.  We took a 2-hour tour and saw how the coaches are made including the assembly lines. They buy the frame and chassis from Freightliner, all with Cummins diesel and Ford gas engines. Then they add all the components on two assembly lines including the fiberglass bodies.  We toured various shops such as the carpenter building and wiring shop.  They cut their own lumber and build all the cabinetry. They fabricate miles of wiring harnesses for each coach.  Incredibly, they are currently producing 10-13 coaches per day off their assembly lines. It was very interesting and informative day.  

We took the opportunity of being in north Alabama to show Linda the former Masterson family farm near the Tennessee River.  In the 1960s when Bob told his father that he did not want to be a farmer, his father sold the 532 acre cotton farm to a nearby farmer.  Over the years he has grown to be a mega farmer with thousands of acres and his own cotton gin.  He is still the owner and even with his mega farm, he refers to the land as “The Masterson Place”.  Bob’s dad is smiling in his grave at that news.  

Bob sailing near Panama City

We had a fabulous dinner with Bob’s aunt Mildred Whitlock in Tuscaloosa, AL.  From there we traveled south to spend several days with our good friends Marina and Marcello Borzatta; friends from our California yacht club days. Our visit included 3 days on their beautifully appointed and equipped 42 ft center cockpit Beneteau sailboat.  We enjoyed a couple nights of calm and one blustery night anchored in St Andrew’s Bay and some light and robust offshore sailing near Panama City Beach, FL.  Bob was reminded (fondly??) of wet and wild dinghy rides when Marcello and Bob took the family dog (theirs, not ours J) to the beach for his nightly business.  After the

 

Sunset over Shell Island while Anchored,  FL

wet return trip to the boat to windward and in a 2 ft chop, they were rewarded with a hot fresh water shower on the swim platform. Ah yes, the good old times on a boat. It was great.    

Our final visit was with Gary and Janice Whitlock, Bob’s cousin, in Winder GA.  We enjoyed BBQ from Gary’s green egg grill and a day at the University of Georgia campus (Janice’s alma mater).  Bob learned a little about Gary’s dog training techniques when we took Otis out for his daily retrieval lesson.   

We were blessed to spend these three fabulous weeks sharing good times and memories with long time friends and family.  It is always wonderful to see and spend time with people you love and don’t get an opportunity to see very often.  As Bob’s mom would remind us: “we are making memories now.”  

We drove back to Frankfort, KY to pick up our motor home and continue our adventure…next stops Tennessee and North Carolina before returning to St Augustine for December and Christmas.

9/15/15 Wisconsin and Minnesota

We have now enjoyed 3430 safe and incident-free miles along the St. Lawrence Seaway rambling west in our motorhome from our easternmost start in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Canada (Thank You Lord!) finishing our St Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes journey at Voyaguers National Park near International Falls, Minnesota.(our northernmost and westernmost points of our 2015 trip).  Additionally, we traveled 1272 miles in our Jeep Cherokee exploring the local areas from each of our campgrounds. This following portion of our voyager’s sojourn includes our stop along Lake Superior in Wisconsin and then northwest into the 10,000 lakes area of Minnesota.   

Our only camping stop in Wisconsin was in Bayfield on the western shore of Lake Superior to visit the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. We camped in an Indian reservation in Red Cliff north of Bayfield (with its Native American casino).  The area is beautiful and the weather could not have been better.  From Bayfield we took a 4-hour boat tour to the outer Apostle Islands since the only way to experience and see the islands is from the water; fortunately, our cruise was on a beautiful sunny day.  Our cruise provided views of most of the islands, as well as close looks at dramatic sandstone cliffs and historic

Devil's Is Lighthouse, Apostle Island Nat Seashore

lighthouses (similar to, but not as dramatic as the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore we saw in Michigan).   The tour of the 21 islands and 12 miles of mainland provided a unique blend of history, culture, and natural resources. Several historic lighthouses shine over Lake Superior and the then-new wilderness areas. All but one of the islands are  not inhabited by people, but are full of bears, deer, and other mammal, which get out to the islands, in the winter, over the frozen ice (as do many ice fishermen).  There are some good hikes on some of the islands, but we just took the boat trip.  We ended up at Devils Island, and the spectacular lighthouse, and came very close to the many sea caves which have eroded into the sandstone cliffs.  

Tourist activities are winding down in northern Wisconsin after Labor Day. We tried to rent kayaks to see up close some of the sea caves on the mainland, but there are very limited tours after Labor Day – the few operating were already booked for the day.  Interestedly, no company would rent kayaks without being on a tour.  So instead of kayaking, we went sailing in Bayfield.  (Bob was quite happy the kayak tours were all full).  We ended up being the only passengers on the 33’ Pearson, made in the 1980s.  Captain Terry was very pleased to have just the two of us aboard.  He said we were “real” sailors (as opposed to the usual tourists) so he just sat back and let Bob do all the sailing;  He enjoyed the ride with us so much, he extended our trip until nearly sunset. Bob was happily at the helm the entire time and had a great time sailing as the winds picked up.  Not a fast sail, but a fun sail nevertheless.   

Split Rock Lighthouse, WI

 

 

Continuing our travel north, we visited Split Rock State Park in Minnesota; it has great scenery overlooking Lake Superior, including Split Rock Lighthouse, billed as the most photographed spot in Wisconsin (we believe it could be).  Constructed and supplied solely from the Lake up a 150+ foot vertical diabase rock cliff in 1910, long before any road to the area and helicopter-supported construction, the lighthouse is one of the prettiest we have seen.    

 

 

Our last stop along the Great Lakes journey was Grand Portage, Minnesota. We camped in another Indian Reservation campground overlooking glorious Grand Portage Bay, Grand Portage Marina (not so glorious but functional for the fisherman who catch walleye, pike and other lake fish), and the Grand Portage Casino which is being remodeled and hugely enlarged – guess those Minnesotans have money to lose.  Grand Portage was so named because it was the landing spot on Lake Superior from which the 8.5 mile portage (trail) allowed canoes, for the first time, to access waters and land west and north of the Great Lakes.  The portage allowed fur traders to get around 22 miles of rapids and waterfalls on the Pigeon River where it flows into Lake Superior.  Once around the falls of the Pigeon River, Voyageurs (French Canadian boatsmen) who worked for the large fur trading companies, could then canoe and portage goods all the way to the Pacific and the Arctic. They linked Montreal and then ultimately Europe with the Canadian northwest.  It was over this route that the Voyageurs first hauled furs (initially beaver furs and pelts and later others as well) east to Montreal to ship to Europe for men’s beaver top hats and women’s hats and high fashion. Goods were returned from Europe to Grand Portage and the Great Northwest of Canada.  These voyageurs and fur trading companies worked closely with the local Indians which helped open up the west to the white man.   



Double Rainbow over RV in Grand Portage

We had planned to visit Isle Royale National Park, accessible only by boat from Grand Portage, but unfortunately, the boat trips had stopped on Sept 5 (before Labor Day).  This was a big disappointment because one of our goals is to visit as many of the 59 US National Parks as possible (since we have been married we have already been to 36 National Parks and all the National Lakeshores and  National Seashores).  We are not confident we will come back up this way just to go to Isle Royal. Instead of Isle Royal, we hiked to three waterfalls; one falls near Thunder Bay Canada (a one-hour drive into Canada from Grand Portage) and the two falls on the Pigeon River that blocked early transit west and north to the thousands of lakes and marshes that form the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. 

Devils's Kettle from Above

We also hiked to Devil’s Kettle, a very interesting falls (see picture).  The falls splits into two, with the left section falling into a “Kettle”, a pot hole scoured out by rocks in the raging waters over eons.  This particular hole is quite big; the left side of the river flows into an underground river system that no one has yet figured out. Logs, ping pong balls, dyes, GPS transmitters,  etc. have been thrown into it in an attempt to find out where the water goes. But still nothing.  It is believed it goes through a series of underwater tubes and eventually comes out in Lake Superior. Rumor has it someone sent a VW down it in the 60s and it too never came out.  

 

Surveyors test Devil's Kettle (shows how big)

 

While traveling the coast of Lake Superior in three states, we learned a lot about it.  When you look out over the water, even on a very clear day, you cannot see the opposite shore. It is like looking out over an ocean. It is generally considered the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and the world's third-largest freshwater lake by volume. The “first nations” (native Indians), called the lake gichi-gami  meaning "great sea.".  Gordon Lightfoot wrote the name as "Gitche Gumee" in his song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".  Its average depth is 483 ft with a maximum depth of 1,333 ft; Lake Erie, by comparison, has a maximum depth of 210 feet and average depth of only 60 feet.

We have seen Lake Superior when there were no waves and flat as a pancake, but also, we have seen it in a very short time period with strong winds develop large, steep waves quickly. Annual storms on Lake Superior regularly feature wave heights of over 20 feet and waves well over 30 feet have been recorded.  (It was such a storm and huge waves that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald.)   The water at Grand Portage is only 40 degrees at the surface, and 10 feet down is only 34 degrees.  During winter, the Lake freezes solid and shipping stops (as in all the Great Lakes). Bottom line, it is COLD.  Many summer kayakers wear wet suits, but if you were to fall in and not be able to get back into your kayak, your time to reach severe hypothermia is only extended to 25 minutes with the wetsuit!   There have been quite a few deaths of healthy, young adult kayakers, which is why the tour outfitters will not rent a kayak without a tour guide (liability issues).   Bob would like to go sailing here, amongst the islands and pretty good anchorages and the daily goods winds, but Linda likes sailing in WARM water, where you can go swimming.

Granite Cliff with Black Shist Inclusions

Bob is loving the geology here; it is quite complex and old.  The rocks of Lake Superior's northern shore date back to the early history of the earth. During the Precambrian (between 4.5 billion and 540 million years ago) magma created the intrusive granites of the Canadian Shield; the heart of the North American continent.  These ancient granites can be seen on the North Shore today. The mountains steadily eroded, depositing layers of sediments that compacted and became sandstone, limestone and shale.  The continent has later risen, creating one of the deepest rifts in the world. Lake Superior lies in this long-extinct rift valley, the Midcontinent Rift. Magma was injected between layers of sedimentary rock, forming diabase sills. This hard diabase protects the layers of sedimentary rock below, forming the flat-topped mesas along the shores, which cause the picturesque  high dramatic cliffs, sea caves and unique columnar formations along much of the coast (Pictured Rocks and Apostle Islands for example).  Lava then erupted from the rift and formed the black basalt rock of several of the Lake Superior islands. Finally, during the Wisconsin ice age glaciation 10,000 years ago, ice covered the region at a thickness of one to two miles.  The land contours familiar today were carved by the advance and retreat of the ice sheet. The retreat left gravel, sand, clay and boulder deposits (glacial drift). Glacial meltwaters gathered in the Superior basin creating a precursor to Lake Superior.  Without the immense weight of the ice, the land rebounded, and a drainage outlet for Lake Superior formed at Sault Ste. Marie, which would become known as St. Mary's River.  Sorry for the long geology discussion, but it really can be seen in its entirety here.

On the way north to the 10,000 lakes area of Minnesota, we stopped at the Three Way Continental Divide.  Most of us American learned of the Continental Divide for the US, the line along the Rocky Mountains where the all the water to the east flows east into the Atlantic and everything to the west flows to the Pacific Ocean.  At this particular Three Way Continental Divide in Northern Minnesota the waters flow into three distinct directions:  South to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, east to Lake Superior and ultimately down the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic (the way we have rambled on this trip), and North to the Boundary Lakes and Lake Kabetogama where the water eventually flows into Rainey Lake and the Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. 

We spent a few days in Voyageurs National Park, near International Falls, Minnesota. (yes, there are falls and a hydroelectric dam at International Falls). It was our most northern and most western points on this years RV adventure.  The park's name commemorates the voyageurs, the French-Canadian fur traders who were the first European settlers to frequently travel through the area as discussed above. Our campground was on the south shore of Lake Kabetogama – a walleye fisherman’s paradise.  We had walleye for lunch and dinner –our first time to eat any. The Kabetogama Peninsula, which lies entirely within the park and makes up most of its land area, is accessible only by boat. To the east of the National Park lies the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  Like several other national parks we visited, this is only accessible by boat. 

Bald Eagle after fight in water with 2nd eagle

This time we were lucky; we were able to enjoy a full day boat tour through the park.  Our tour crossed the USA/Canadian international border a dozen times and included a great lunch at a 90-year old fur trader’s hotel. It was the last week of park operation (definitely time to head south).  The area is almost all wilderness, and the wildlife reflected it.  We saw at least 10 bald eagles, several as a mating pair (they mate for life), and juveniles.  The bald eagle has been a comeback success here.  Although we did not see them, the wolves also range here. Linda is still looking for that beloved elusive moose (she has been looking since Maine!).

We have enjoyed our time in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but the leaves are starting to change and the temps are in the 50 and 60s during the day and 40s at night.  We are thankful and truly blessed to be able to make this trip and to enjoy life this way and this great country. We will be heading south in the Central States…first stop Iowa.