Michigan/Minnesota - 7/3/2015

The Indian Lake Travel Resort was our favorite campground to date, mostly because we were parked right along the water. When we woke up, we spent the morning giving our RV a deep clean (sweeping/cleaning the kitchen area/re-organizing everything).

Once Bruce was presentable, we set off to Palms Brook State Park to see Big Spring (Kitch-iti-kipi). The spring was beautiful - it had the clearest water I have ever seen. Looking at the floor of the spring (which was about 60-80 ft down) was basically like looking through glass - it was incredible.

Only an hour away was the Pictured Rocks boat tour in Munising. Every hour, they have a ferry that goes along the 15 miles of the Pictured Rocks National Shoreline (there and back) and it takes about two and a half hours. The shoreline gets it’s name from the colorful sandstone cliffs that stand about 200 feet above lake level. They have been naturally sculpted into shallow caves, arches, and formations that resemble castle turrets, human profiles, and others. It was the first officially designated National Lakeshore (now there are four throughout the country). The cliffs were really unlike anything we had ever seen - it almost seemed like we had been transported out of the US!



After we stepped off the boat, we made some sandwiches in the RV and continued on our way across the Upper Peninsula towards Wisconsin. We happened to pass through Christmas, Michigan. Christmas is a town that does not pass up the many tourist trap opportunities deriving from it’s name - they managed to get us to stop to take a few pictures!

We really loved Michigan - there was so much to see and do that we ended up staying there for over a week! Since we were a bit behind schedule, we sat down to figure out our plan for the next four states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois). After mapping out the stops we wanted to make, it made the most sense to cross over into Minnesota through the very top of Wisconsin since the Upper Peninsula is so far north. We did spend the night in Ashland, Wisconsin to minimize lengthy drives, but we didn’t make any other Wisconsin stops (we will later!).

From there, we crossed into Minnesota!

We started out in Duluth where we saw the famous Aerial Lift Bridge. When ships come through, the bottom portion raises straight up to allow them to pass. Apparently, it’s a huge staple for tourists and Duluth residents alike, although we were not lucky enough to see it lift! After some more driving around the downtown area of Duluth, we made our way to the house that Bob Dylan was born in.

One surprising thing about Duluth was that it had some roads that rival San Francisco’s hills. This doesn’t seem super convenient given the amount of snow they must get in the winter, but they must figure it out somehow! Below you will see a picture of the bridge and Bob Dylan’s house!

We heard from many people that it is well worth it to drive up the shoreline north of Duluth along Lake Superior, so we did just that! The shoreline was beautiful and was home to many elaborate homes. We even stopped at Tom’s Logging Cabin which recreates what life was like for loggers back in the day in Minnesota, it was a great break from the drive. We weren’t able to go too far north because of a time strain, but it was definitely worth it to see.



Next, it was time to head to the Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing. On our way, we saw a whole bunch of signs for the Sawmill Saloon so we decided to make a quick stop for lunch there. It was a great bar where we got to socialize with some locals! After a delicious burger, we got back into the car to drive towards Hibbing. Felipe had looked online at the museum hours and noted that it closed at 5. We were scheduled to get there just after 4:00, so we were definitely trying to get there quickly. When we arrived, it turned out the hours on the website were wrong and it actually closed at 4:00! We were so disappointed - BUT, we were lucky enough to run into one of the employees, Pat. We told Pat how far we had come and she very graciously let us go through the museum quickly free of charge! Thank you, Pat! The museum was a lot cooler than expected - you can get into buses from every decade and see how they evolved over the years.

After leaving the museum, we saw lots of signs for a “mine-view” - we were obviously intrigued and followed them. We ended up at the largest open pit iron ore mine in the world. It was really a sight to see, as it was 15 miles wide and 100 miles long. It went on as far as we could see! We even ran into someone who used to work at the mine and he gave us a great detailed history of it. Recently, a lot of people have been losing their jobs at this particular mine (they have gone from 3,000 workers to about 800 in the past 20 years). Our first thought was that it was because the mining area was becoming less productive. However, the real reason was that the machines they use are becoming more sophisticated and require less man power to operate at the same efficiencies.

One thing that I thought was pretty cool was a replica they had of how underground mines used to work. There were about six levels underground with people on each one. Mike (the man who used to work at the mine) told us that the only light they had down there were headlamps. These headlamps weren’t the ones you are probably thinking of that many people use for camping - they were simple flames that did not provide much light other than a few feet in front of you. A shift would consist of literally standing in one place for eight hours with a drill - the most movement a worker would have in those eight hours would have been a simple readjustment of a foot. Additionally, at the lowest level of the mine, there were donkeys who were bred, born and raised totally below the ground. They never saw the light of day in their entire lifetime. Below are some pictures of the open pit mine as well as the replica of how the mine was set up below ground back in the day.

After finishing up with Mike, we made our way to the downtown area of Hibbing and stopped at a bar called Palmer’s. They had an awesome outdoor area with horseshoes and corn hole. We ended up chatting with two gentleman from Hibbing that were part of the local corn hole league and challenged them to a game! We pretty much got destroyed, but made some new friends in the process! We played with them for a few hours while hearing all about life in Hibbing.

After that, we drove about an hour south to Grand Rapids, MN where we spent the night.

Until next time!