Ludington, MI

Almost sunset on at the Ludington Lighthouse

Badger heads to Wisconsin

Made it to Ludington, MI & waitin' for friends to make it up here.  Had a nice, scenic trip via Michigan's UP and extremely good luck missing all the rain showers.  I was predicting that we'd spend a couple of nights in mud holes, but we didn't.  

While we wait, we've visited Ludington State Park, House of Flavors, Walmart, lots of time on the phone & online chat with DishTV, and long walks around the waterfront here in Ludington.  Also washed the trailer's roof and since all that stuff runs down the side of the trailer, washed the trailer.  Oh and washed & waxed the truck, as well.

Vacation Station is a friendly RV park, so all that washing took way longer than normal.  But we're now ready for next week's rain!

Back to Ludington, the pictures here are from around the waterfront area.  The ship is the ferry "Badger".  Lots of neat sculptures around the marina area.  It's summer and prime vacation time here, so I couldn't get really good pictures of all the sculptures here with all the kids playing in & around the sculptures, but they're all impressive works of art.  Hopefully, it gives you a good feel for the place.

So we're enjoying our stay.  Weather here's a little cooler than normal and way less bugs than at International Falls.  Yep, we're enjoying our short sabbatical from Voyageurs.  Almost forgot what a vacation was like!

Later, David

Condos at the marina

On the road to Ludington, MI

Back on the road, again.  We're on our three-week sabbatical from Voyageurs NP.  Today, we've stopped back at Ogston's Ponds RV Park for the night.  All goes well, we'll be in Michigamme, MI tomorrow; St Ignace, MI Saturday; and in Ludington, MI on Sunday for a couple of weeks.  At least that's the plan.  We're back on the schedule for the visitor center on August 15th.

All the ice is gone from Ogston's ponds.  Haven't noticed any loons.  Park's a lot fuller with RVs.  Made the run to Walmart (not well stocked), Donna got her latte (now a tradition when passing through the area), put more diesel in the truck, etc.  And every once in a while we get an air show from the local F-16 squadron.  Also nice to be back in a park with real 50 amp power & not worry about the electrical power to run anything.  Run the microwave anytime we want!  Ah, the convenience.  Unfortunately, that nice 15.4 mpg we've been getting while running around at International Falls dropped to 8.4 with the trailer in tow.  Oh, well...

Anyway, that's it from here.  Later, David

A visit to Two Harbors, MN

Two Harbors Lighthouse and B&B

We stayed in the Skiff (#4) 

After two years of wanting to come and stay in the Two Harbors Lighthouse B&B, we finally made it.  The idea was to take one of our three-day off "weekends" and go to Grand Marais, MN, but doing that drive in one day was too long.  So Donna chose to go to Two Harbors and make the trip to Grand Marais a day trip while we stayed in Two Harbors.

Tellegouche State Park

At the B&B we stayed in the Skiff (#4) - a boat storage building.  We had our own bath with soaking tub - first tub in three years!  We enjoyed it immensely as we did the whole B&B.

The day trip up to Grand Marais reminded us of the Oregon coast.  Lake Superior's north shoreline is

The "caves"

mostly rugged and state parks are all along MN 61.   MN 61 was experiencing some road work putting us in a few narrow, single-lane, unpaved portions, but apparently it's all doable with a big rig.  We met a DRV Elite Suites headed northbound while we were returning to Two Harbors, so it's doable.  We saw big rig sites in Two Harbors & Grand Marais. However, Grand Marais's municipal campground was full.  We'll go back and since we seem to really enjoy Two Harbors, we'll probably base there when we go with the trailer.

This time we bypassed Gooseberry Falls and spend some time at Tellegouche State Park.  The park's visitor center was brand new - opened 3 weeks ago.  One thing that Minnesota does real well with their state parks is that they make them combination visitor centers/rest areas.  So Tellegouche (Indian for "Place of Retreat") was an excellent stop.  Pictures here of Tellegouche are just a sample.  This park looks to be a destination state park with numerous hiking trails and at least one water fall.  We'll be back.

Grand Marais is a neat little place and reminded me of Pismo Beach, CA.  One of Grand Marais's calling cards is the "World's Best Donuts".  Well, I haven't met a donut I didn't like.  So you'll have to go there and check it out for yourself.  We ate too many and still got lunch.  Weight Watchers needs to add more points for days like these!  I mean, it's only points, but you can't just ignore this stuff when you get here.

Anyway, we've only scratched the surface of Lake Superior's north shoreline.  So we plan to be back...sometime...

In other news, Rainy Lake's water level is dropping.  Looks like it's down about half-a-foot since last week.  Boat ramp parking lot is now free of water. The back country sites will open soon (per Facebook).  Lots of work on the front country sites will probably be needed.  Maintenance crews have got their work cut out for them.   I have no idea how far behind this flooding has put them, but it's a bunch.

Anyway, that's our week.  Later, David

Weekly Update

A North Canoe program starts out on an adventure from Ash River Visitor Center

The rain has subsided, and Rainy Lake crested last last week.   The water is almost out of the boat ramp parking lot.  Just a lot of water still to drain.  Hopefully, the interior lakes campsites and canoes will reopen soon.

Last week was a typical week for us.  One of us is on the road at least two days over a weekend to help provide some relief for the Kabetogama & Ash River Visitor Centers.  We've got another two weekends (Friday through Monday) to work, and then we'll take a 3-week break before returning to finish the season.

Rainy Lake Visitor Center seems a little busier than the previous time we were here two years ago.
One other difference is the biting flies.  Last time we were here the biting flies started about two weeks after our arrival.  And "yes", they "bugged" us the remaining time we were here.  This year they finally kicked in the second week of July.  We now wear a hat net anytime we're working outside.  Otherwise, we're fine and having fun.

Oh, and two new fawns now visit the visitor center regularly.

Anyway, that's it for us.  Later, David

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

We've finally had a couple of sunny days here in the north woods.  It appears that Rainy Lake may have crested this week.  At least we can see where high water debris stopped in the boat ramp parking area.  It's gonna take some time for all that water to drain past Rainer.   Everyone hopes it's down by the end of July, but that seems optimistic right now.

We're doing well and have gotten into the swing of things.  This season there's activities at all three visitor centers, and all three visitor centers are open seven days a week.  This has a put a slight strain on the staff and to help relieve that, they've decided either Donna or I can be a "road warrior" and travel between the visitor centers for some relief work.  That's working well - I think - but scuttlebutt has it that one of us has to run Kabetogama Visitor Center by ourselves one day during the next few weeks. If that turns out to be true, it could get very, very interesting!

As you can tell by the lack of photos, we had a quiet week.  We did our normal stuff, but did take a trip down to Ely, MN.  Goal was to eat at The Chocolate Mouse (which we did), but a pair of new hiking shoes, and get some yarn at the local yarn shop.  We came back with no new shoes and no yarn.  Turned into a pretty expensive lunch!  But we were able to get ice cream at "Bait 'n Bite", so all was not lost.

Well, that's our week.  Have a great 4th of July weekend!  Later, David