I'm Dreaming of a White Columbus Day...

Apologies to Bing Crosby for the title, but here it is Columbus Day and we’ve ALREADY encountered our first snow! One of the PRIMARY objectives of this trip was to escape the cold and the snow of the northeast and head somewhere warmer for the winter months. Perhaps my biggest concern for the beginning leg of this trip was whether or not we would be able to see most of the Great Lakes states and head south before encountering the first snow. It seemed achievable from the progress we’d been making and the low probability of snow this early in the season, but an unexpected blast of cold Canadian air rained, er, snowed on our parade yesterday. Although only flurries, when combined with frigid temperatures in the 20’s and a frozen water hookup hose, it was truly a rude awakening for us. At first we were going to cut and run for the southern climes, but after talking to some experienced RV types, we decided to ride it out and attempt to finish Minnesota and Wisconsin as planned. Hopefully, we’ll get some warmer weather in a few days and have no more freeze-ups. If it only gets worse, we can always re-evaluate.

One thing pretty cool about RV technology is how things are engineered to be so flexible and versatile. Electricity is the primary source for most of the systems, but when you’re not plugged in at a campground or in case of a failure; either your built-in generator or propane tank can power the heat, cooking and refrigeration, sometimes even automatically. It’s pretty amazing to be able to have your morning coffee ready for you no matter where you are, whether you’re plugged into the grid or near a Starbucks.

We really enjoyed the western part of the Michigan U.P. and had some beautiful lake views, learned some fascinating history of iron ore mining in the Great Lakes region and found some cheap gasoline on one of the Indian reservations (no state or federal taxes!). Fifteen cents a gallon makes a big difference when you’re filling a 75 gallon tank. The cold weather prompted us to hurry through northern Wisconsin to Duluth MN, where we stayed at a lakeside marina RV park. Duluth is a huge shipping port for Great Lakes commerce, where coal, iron, grain and other commodities are loaded into thousand-foot freighters to make their way east. And there are some seaman’s tales to rival anything Maine can offer up about ships lost in storms on the lakes (like the Edmund Fitzgerald of Gordon Lightfoot song fame). We also visited a Frank Lloyd Wright designed gas station in the neighboring town of Cloquet, an unusual find, and stopped in at the US Hockey Hall of Fame.

Weather permitting, we’re on track for more of the Great Lakes states. Three weeks out and we're having a ball... Have a Happy Columbus Day! Bob