Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

 Friday, May 31, 2024

Off to Duluth

Our appointment at the tire shop is at 8:00, so I set the alarm for 6:00 for our 35-minute drive into Duluth and through morning traffic.  Joe woke up 10 minutes before the alarm went off, and when I drug myself out of bed he was already dressed and putting stuff away to get ready to travel.  Neither of us slept well, but that is not the way my mornings usually start.  When I drove the Jeep down to throw away the trash, I did get a nice photo of the lake in the early morning.  We never did get back down there to pick up rocks-- too windy and chilly.  But plenty of other people did.  It was very annoying watching them down there getting MY rocks.

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Joe was going 90 miles an hour getting ready to travel, but I got my chores done, and we were on the road by 6:30,  As soon as we cleared Two Harbors, which isn't very big, we saw 2 deer. In fact, Joe had to stop and honk at one to keep it from crossing the road in front of us.  Shortly after that, we saw 2 more in the medium between the lanes of the highway.  Joe remarked that we probably need to be out earlier to see wildlife.  Duh.

As we drove into Duluth, still along Lake Superior, the houses had huge lilac bushes.  They are just now blooming here, and are beautiful.  The houses along here were also huge and beautiful.

Here's a view of Duluth's sister city, Superior, Wisconsin, just across the bridge.  Duluth is a very hilly town so there are views here.  We have stayed in Superior in the past.

We got to the tire shop 45 minutes early (traffic was no problem) and waited until they all got to work.  Then we left to get breakfast, and drive around a little to kill time. The restaurant had several vases of lilacs on the counters.   We figured out our exit route to get out of Duluth.

We stayed in the area but drove up and down some of the streets.  There were lilac bushes in every block.  Since I only get to see them when we travel, in the spring,  I was soaking up every one.  I still have mine in the RV so I didn't steal any today..

We wound our way back to the tire shop and they had just finished, and were walking the paperwork up to the office.  It only took them about 2 hours to replace all six tires, so we were happy about that.  By 10:40, we were back on the road.  While I was waiting for Joe to come out of the office, I watched this customer explain her needs.  I'm thinking she may have just got off her night job.  And she was no spring chicken.  We fueled here ($3.039) and got on I-35 heading west.

We made our way across Minnesota to the Leech Lake Corp of Engineering (COE) campground.  We are probably just past mid-way through the state east-west.  This is a lovely campground, we haven't been down to the water yet but will check that out today.  Lots of campers towing boats through the campground. We are staying here for $13/night with our American the Beautiful pass.  However, the bugs are bad, everywhere right now.

We traveled 153 miles today and arrived at our campsite at 1:40.  Once Joe hooked up the electricity and I parked the Jeep, we never went outside again.  It was a nice day but we just were exhausted.  It was enough entertainment watching the campers arriving and setting up.  I watched one family with kids, unloading bikes and scooters, balls, hammocks, and remembered those days when our kids were still young.  I'm always happy to see families bring their kids to these kinds of places.  This is the second COE campground we have stayed at, and we have found them to be very nice.  The Brundiges recommended them to us so we are trying to find ones on our route west.  The other one we stayed at was in Missouri last year when we went to the Tom Sawyer stuff in Hannibal.  

We have 3 nights here, then we will continue on toward Montana.  We have decided to make a stop in Medora, ND, to see the Medora Musical, which we missed when we came through here a few years ago.  We were too early in the season then, I it starts June 5 so I think we will make the beginning of the season this time.  It is right outside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which we really enjoyed and would not mind going through again, so now we have at least one destination.  We can't make that in one day from here though, so we will need to figure out mileage and campgrounds for our next stop.

My arm/shoulder is a little better.  I think my range of motion has improved, and the pain is less.  Day by day.  But my right knee continues to be a problem.  Decisions ahead on that issue.