Labor, No Labor Day

Recepe for a perfect evening:

Start a fire

Stir gently

Add more wood

Achieve coal stage

Add hot dogs

Dinner is served!

Then,

Drink too much

later,

watch the sun rise

Motel Hell III - Bemidji and Beyond!

Hey, guys, I started work again, so this is a bit delayed. But, I continue and hope to get this travel log done!

August 2, Minnesota Rt 2 heading west

We traveled through the level, yet wooded area I remembered from coming up here with my family to go fishing. We came to Cass Lake, and OMG, it had really changed from a small town to a tourist area. There were Indian-run casinos, of course. Even a nice rest area, where we could get maps etc., which wasn't there at all back when.

After lunch we walked around Bemidji--and finding a parking spot was a challenge. In fact the small town was grid-lock with bumper-to-bumper traffic. I do not recommend it for a destination. We did find a motel, and for the life of me, it wasn't memorable.
We walked through some of the shops, some I remember, and others I don't. This has been built up too. At least certain things were memorable, like the statue of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox.

August 3rd

I was happy today, because I'd found my earrings--my favorite ones that we bought years ago in Eagle River, NM. And my husband joked that I'd pretended to lose them in order to buy more. Hey, $6 for earrings is cheap!

Anyway, we continued west, into North Dakota. Here the speed limit was 80! Yeah, Dennis said 75 mph, was plenty fast, and yet you'd think it was but we saw a state trouper had pulled over some dummy who felt he could go even faster. Idiot.

It's odd how each state has its own particular look. In North Dakota with its wheat fields and sunflowers with the distinctive tree line to separate the very flat acreage between fields. In Minnesota, flat with some forest, interrupted by lakes. Lots of lakes.

We were going on new roads we hadn't driven before--the whole point of this trip "Going places where we've never gone before". But it becomes boring at time, for sure. I think that's why most people fly. Good for them, stay off the roads and out of our way!

We had to find a rest stop in order to use the bathroom. There were few, if any, and weren't where you needed them. We were hungry as well. But the place we stopped at was a gas/restaurant/casino. Bad timing, the men's room was being cleaned, so he had to go over into the smoky casino and he said he ran all the way out. We found a Subway down the road.

NOON:
We came down into South Dakota (80 mph!, but we stay 75), trying to make decision if we should head home. We had packed enough for an extra day, so decided why not go to Mitchel and see the Corn Palace. Which is what we decided to do.

Brookens
We stopped and stayed here once before. The street is being torn up, so we were happy to not have to go far. We got gas and went right across the way to the Days Inn, which is where we stayed the last time we were here. There's a restaurant here, so you don't have to leave and go somewhere for dinner. It's all part of the problem of traveling on the road. The restaurant changed to Ground Round. We've never eaten here before.

There is a college here and so, naturally the room was not up to par. In fact the toilet seat wasn't bolted down right, and there was a large hole in the wall, hidden by a waste basket. The door to the bath was also, at some point, busted, but they'd painted over that. And the floor looked as though it may have seen a mop about five years ago.

Before I go on I have to talk about one of my pet peeves--toilet paper dispensers. Why is it that hotels think you are double jointed, or have the arms of a gorilla? You either have to reach far back, or way in front or something that has you wondering who decided this was a good spot for the TP dispenser?

The one below was at a Hampton Inn, which we paid way too much for. Learned quickly they are now owned by Hilton. So, if you want to pay through the nose, fine. We had no choice. At least their breakfast was very good--and I don't  care what it says, you DO pay for the damned breakfast!

The worst place we had both room-wise and breakfast-wise would be here at the Day's Inn. More on that in a bit.

That night, we went to the Ground Round. Now, we've never eaten here, and I really don't know why I didn't take a picture or two. We had a male waiter, and as far as we're concerned, they tend to be better at serving. He asked what he could start us off with (drinks), and we both wanted beer. I'd already downed two of those little bottles of wine before we came down, because, hey, I'm on vacation! So we went with our usual, and he asked "Short or tall?"
Shrugging we said "Tall". Well, it was TALL. The glass was a mug and it was as tall as my forearm! Okay then.
We then decided on the smallest stake and it was covered in Bearnaise sauce and asparagus. Thought we'd go with mashed potatoes too. Had the salad, and that was good, but we wanted to have room for the meal.

When it came Dennis was impressed. He said it looked exactly like the picture in the menus, and it was excellent. When it comes to food, presentation, and taste, Dennis is the perfectionist and he will tell you when you've screwed it up. He gave it and "8". And possibly because he made glowing comments about the meal, we got a free ice cream. There you go. I gave it a "10"!

Returning to our room we settled down for a movie--this was "The Lone Ranger" with Johnny Depp. I'd seen it before, but Dennis hadn't. I told him this will be good, so we watched it--until the 20 commercials in a break got to us and sleep was in order.

The Day's Inn was supposed to have "speedy check-out" where they actually slip your bill (which has been paid), under your door by morning.

Didn't happen. Dennis went down to find out where his bill was. He said the guy who was doing morning shift actually didn't apologize but said "I had a rough night", which is no excuse at all, and very unprofessional.

Again the breakfast area looked as though it hadn't been clean since Obama was in office, and although the coffee was good--there was actually a "medium roast"--the price of our stay at $92, gave us the worse so-called "continental breakfast" over all. I would like to tell them where they can put their continental breakfast, and it wouldn't be on this continent.

In the news: Governor of  S. D. announced he was changing parties from Democratic to Republican saying "I can no longer [help or serve] you as a democrat", and now his vote will be one more in Trump's corner.

And someone on this news station spoke about Chicago being the "most dangerous city in the world", but I'd have to say he's overblown that statement. However, I don't have any plans on going to that city (or any city), any time soon.

If we'd had more time and money, we'd have headed for the Bad Lands. But we are only going as far as Mitchel. After a rest area stop, we saw dozens of egrets resting in trees along a waterway.

By the time we reached Mitchel S.D., we were starving. And, of course, more construction sort of hampered our trying to get around. We at least made it to the Corn Palace.

The theme was "Rock of Ages" all the designs are made with some part of the corn plant. I've never seen it in my life, but Dennis had when a boy. It was interesting to see all the pictures of the palace down the years, inside.

Dennis was not going to eat something from a sandwich shop, we accepted some free water, and nasty hard pretzels. We went to a local gas station which didn't have any food at all in it, but said "Our other one {blocks away], has food. As our go-to for something to put in our stomachs, we've gone to gas stations, where there is some sort of food. In fact we would use such places to get our coffee and some muffin or such just to get down the road.

The theme of the rest of our trip, it would seem was STARVATION.

We head back east on I-90. At this time bikers--and I mean hundreds of them--were going west to the Stergis Rally. A lot of them ride, but a few choose to haul them. All for the bragging rights, I suppose.

1:00pm: Finally we found a place to eat lunch--a very late lunch. This town was called Luvern, and the place was Papa-something or other. I didn't care, as long as the food was eatable. It was a tight little diner, where they packed people at small tables. We actually found a booth. We chose the "hot plate" with a salad--buffet style. Today was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans, for less than $10 @! Now a deal is a deal, and when you think about it, if it's good, who cares? I pigged out. I was so damned hungry. The meatloaf was 4" square, and I ate every bite, because when we got there I was ready to eat my own arm!

We found a Super 8 at Fairmont. Nothing fancy, and we knew that bikers were still coming through, because there was a sign in front, with a bin with pieces of wood saying "use kick-stand blocks". The room was okay, but we had to move a damned folded up bunk out into the hall. It worked to keep people from going by our room at the head of the stairs--they went around the other way. Hahah. Had to put towels down along the floor at the door to keep the smoke from seeping in. Gak, I hate smokers!

We went and got a pizza across the way in the Holiday Inn--some sort of restaurant there. We talked to a pleasant college student. I even managed to give her my name and titles of my books.
Our room cost us $125. We may as well have stayed in the Holiday Inn!

We ate breakfast at a Perkins. Now, I don't know why I insisted on eating there. The bacon was thin and too crispy, Dennis had tried to get his eggs over medium and somehow they screwed that up. He ordered a fruit cup--got a couple of pieces of melon, 5 grapes and he was not impressed. I had a waffle, which was just right, and had more bacon than Dennis got, for some reason. We should have gone across the way for the price we paid for this breakfast! Never again.

We headed back then, and since the trip back home is always boring and depressing.

Well, that's it for this trip. Thanks for coming along!

Motel Hell Part II

On our second day driving north, we hit Michigan before 8 AM--leaving around 7:30.
It's very wooded with pines and birch trees and looks like ferns. They seem to be branched, and tall. Beautiful, in any case. We take 45, past Route 2, into Michigan, going beyond where we'd gone before. A new adventure for us. We like that about traveling. We never know what we'll see.

This road is perfectly smooth and hardly any traffic. We've decided against going or staying in Duluth. We want the quiet, open roads and wilderness around us.

At some point my phone switched over to Eastern Time. Never been on that before, sort of strange. You get hungry earlier than they serve lunch, and that's not to our liking. (There were times on this trip we had trouble finding a place to eat, and were eating way later than we'd like--and I mean once it was 1:30 before we ate lunch, and we like to eat around 11:30, normally).

We did the "rabbit ears" of Michigan, as Dennis wanted. The first part was all woods, passing little or no traffic, and a few camp sites (something we note because we may do an RV in a few years down the road). It was cool, dry 70's up here, exactly what we were hoping to enjoy, instead of the humid 80's of Illinois.

At the end was a small town called Copper Harbor. This is where they used to mine copper from the waters. We ate at a cute little diner. Again, our tummies were hungry, but we were eating later than we wanted. I don't recall the name of the restaurant, but there were few choices. We both had sandwiches, and ice tea. Enough to keep us going, and we were now on the Lake Superior side, which was a goal. We continued on Rt 2 and got the scenery we'd hoped for.

While Dennis made a video, I collected a lot of rocks. I'm a rock hound, by the way. The flat rocks were interesting. Some had holes in them, and you could see the blue, which would be copper, spotted throughout some.

We stopped in Cornucopia, where we'd stopped the last time, seven years (I think) ago. There, you could access a beach.

I took off my shoes and stuck my feet in.

That was fun.

Also took picture of this boat.

I've done a watercolor of this boat, and I'll share it at some point.

Our plan was not to go so far today, and walk around in and out of shops and do some shopping. And here I am in front of one of the shops, note the boat above is behind me in this shop.

The homes build along the lake were, let's just say, high-end.

We continued on Hwy 2, and got to Ashland, following a state trouper the whole way. Funny how no one passed him, even though it was a 4-lane road.

We took a break at a pull-off park where I found red raspberries and ate a few. I remember hearing at some place men discussing that the raspberries were at the end of production and blueberries were just getting ripe.

Next up--Bayfield, and lunch choices.

Motel Hell Part I

It's the luck of the dice when you go from one motel to the next, not knowing what you'll pay. Sure. We could have made advanced  reservations, but my husband doesn't like to be tied to some schedule when he travels. So, we just get to a town and hope for the best.

If you've never stayed in a motel/hotel, I've gotta say one thing, you get what you get no matter what you pay. You get a bathroom, bed, TV, and maybe you'll get a refrigerator/microwave, and a window over the parking lot. Some motels include the usual "continental" breakfast. As if the word "continental" is something special. You get bad coffee and stale donuts at the very least. Other places will give you a hot breakfast, actually prepared by someone. Usually this is some sort of fried meat, maybe potatoes, scrambled eggs that look like something from a M.A.S.H. unit, and lumpy oatmeal. There could be waffles, there might be pancakes, it all depends on what the motel is willing to fork out (it's not "free", you've paid for it).

My experience is, you sometimes get lucky. Luck in finding a place to eat nearby (dinner and breakfast), that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Our first stay was in Eagle River, Wisconsin. We try and find the "Ma & Pop" style motels, because, usually they don't cost much--around $60-$70, tops. Plus, you can usually park right in front of your door. This is good for when you have a lot of heavy stuff to haul in, as they are usually only one-story deals.

We found a place called "Edge Water Inn", it was right off the river, next to a restaurant that we went to the last time we stayed in this town years ago. When we got out, there was only an old Golden Retriever laying under the patio table in front of the office. She was friendly, and came right up to us. When we saw the note on the door saying the person in charge was "relaxing" on the dock out back, we wondered how to get there. No fear, the dog, being as smart as most Goldens, walked to a narrow opening through to the back of the motel.She waited for us to follow. And we found the middle-aged, rotund woman down a flight of steep steps in a lounge chair on a deck off the water, blowing up some sort of individual rafts.

We asked if she had any rooms available. She had two double queens--"maybe". Well we wanted to get that confirmed. She finally got up, saying she had a family reunion and there weren't many rooms left, said something about apartments too. We noted that there were rooms down below the main rooms facing the river, and those must have been the apartments (or suites). Eventually we got a room, near the end, away from the office and all the "family reunion" stuff, and got settled. We realized we had a door to the back deck, and this is where we spent some time relaxing that evening, watching the boats go by.

We paid $94.00 after tax, and for that money, I'd give the room itself a 3, since it needed dusting, but otherwise clean. But the view was a 5. However, the place really needed some up-keep. We didn't lean on the railing, as it was a bit wobbly, and could have used a coat of paint. The decks were rather worn, and should have been stained, and a few boards should have been replaced. Up-keeping on such a place should really be #1 in priority, especially where railings could fail. But this was an older couple, neither of which looked energetic enough to make beds, let alone some of the up-keep needed.

Their reunion commenced as promised, and even though she said we could join them, we aren't that interested in other people's relatives. Thank you. It was a good thing they pretty much contained their partying on the outer-most deck, shown below.

The restaurant next door is called White Spruce, and can be pulled up to via boat, much like this motel. They have a beer garden on their deck. I remember it from last time, but since it began raining, and there was thunder, they didn't seat anyone outside. Bummer. As usual, more than enough food was served. Salad is always first, and it was very good. I had eggplant Parmesan, and Dennis had something called "smoked meatloaf", which he didn't care for. I think my husband could have been a food critic. He really missed his calling.

Getting back to our room, we had difficulty navigating through the stations on the TV. This was Direct TV, with a thousand and one stations, and I do believe you need a PhD in order to understand how to use it. We wound up watching a Harry Potter movie, and could not find any news stations anywhere, not even in the morning.

Even though motels say they have coffee in the morning, they don't have coffee until they've rolled out of bed and made it. We resorted to our old standby by getting into the truck, and finding a gas station store, which always have coffee and some sort of sweet rolls. Plus, we needed ice. 'Nuff said. We got down the road heading for Land O' Lakes, and wherever the road takes us next.

It's beautiful country up this way, and I like it because it doesn't get boring (like 200 miles of Illinois and more than 300 miles of Iowa). I'll be back with rest of trip and Motel Hell Part II.

The Get Away

Hi, all. My husband and I went on a 6-day road trip. We traveled up through Wisconsin, stayed in Eagle River, and on the river, which I'll post pictures of. Went on up into Upper Peninsula of Michigan to what they call "rabbit ears" to see Lake Superior and get away from heat and humidity of Illinois. And we did, although a number of the natives were saying it was hotter than normal, even more humid. To us it was a wonderful reprieve from our 60%-70% humidity down here.

I'm just going to post some pictures, and throw in some descriptions below.

Trip through Wisconsin is always more enjoyable than going west through Illinois and Iowa.

Me relaxing with a drink at Bridgewater Inn on Eagle River. I felt for the price of the view it was almost reasonable, but the upkeep could have been better. 

Boats on the river, they had a posted speed requirement, we watched them all slow down at this point.

The next day we headed into Michigan, the Upper Peninsula to reach our goal destination.

Lake Superior is the larges fresh water lake IN THE WORLD! Thus the name.

Above this trail beckoned us to go to the sandy beach, where I put my feet in and acted like a kid. I think acting like a kid keeps me young.

Thanks for joining me.

I'll post rest of trip pics later this week as time permits.