Door County, Wisconsin

We're having a wonderful time here in Door County, the finger of Wisconsin that points northward between Lake Michigan on the east and Green Bay on the west. We're staying in the quaint, Nantucket-style town of Fish Creek in a boutique hotel called The Whistling Swan.


After breakfast on the veranda yesterday, we rented bikes and took a leisurely 10-mile tour of Peninsula State Park. The ride was so leisurely, John had time to sit and read a book (schoolwork, probably!)

The ride took us along the coast of Green Bay and on beautiful wooded trails. As you can see, it was a sunny day, but the air was cool. The highlights of the ride included a stop and tour of Eagle Bluff Lighthouse...

And a nap and a swim at Nicolet Beach. The water was so refreshing in the middle of the day.


Lauren pitched her play, "Heartland," to every Wisconsin theatre she could find, including the American Folklore Theatre in Peninsula State Park.


In the evening, we patronized the Peninsula Players theatre, attending the opening night performance of "Is He Dead?" a gender-bending comedy by Mark Twain. It was very well done by Equity actors from top theatres in the midwest. Plus, the theatre itself is gorgeous, and although you can't see it in this photo, it's right on Green Bay.


Today (Thursday) was rainy, but we made the best of it -- strawberry-rhubarb, cherry-peach and mixed berry pies for lunch at Sweetie Pies down the road!

Lake Superior

The Lake Superior Circle Tour is a 1,300-mile trip that takes you around the world's largest freshwater lake, through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario. We spent the last two days driving 298 miles of the route around the lake's southwestern perimeter in the three U.S. states from Lutsen, Minnesota, to the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where we camped overnight and took a dip in the chilly waters after breakfast. Here are a few Lake Superior pix and facts:

Average water temp: 40 degrees

Volume of water: 3 quadrillion gallons

Surface area: 31,700 square miles

Water turnover: 191 - 199 years

First Circle Tour: 1960, by a Thunder Bay bus,
in celebration of the completed road around the lake.

We left Superior from Ontonagon, Michigan, and drove south into Wisconsin on Monday. Stops along the way included Eagle River, the winery at Three Lakes, and De Pere, southwest of Green Bay.

No Fish Tale

We've been having a great time on North Shore -- hiking Carleton Peak, lake fishing, kayaking, eating good food (lots of that), playing games (pool, ping-pong), avoiding garter snakes at White Pine Lake, soaking in the hot tub, driving around looking at trees and waterfalls and shore birds, walking on the beach, and talking to locals. And because Henry doesn't believe any fish tales, here's a close-up of John's catch:

Lutsen Lodge

We're spending the week at Lutsen Lodge on the North Shore of Lake Superior, and the weather has conspired to sock us in with white fog. It's mysterious and romantic and sort of cold (about 65 degrees at its warmest) -- a very different experience than it would have been in hot, sunny weather.


The Lodge has a special spirit all its own, having opened more than 100 years ago and having hosted such infamous guests as Al Capone, who oversaw the importation of alcohol from this spot during Prohibition. The Swedish-style main building was built in 1952 and has stone fireplaces and heavy hewn pine timbers, reminiscent of a ski lodge. The food is excellent (walleye and lake trout with wild rice being the local favorites), and is served in a dining room that overlooks the beach and lake (the bottom windows in the above photo). Our room is situated in a modern condo on a hill above the main lodge. It's very spacious with a great view of the treetops, and nice amenities, like a mini-kitchen, hot tub and internet access. You can see the rooftops of the condos in the bottom photo below.

What have we been up to in all this fog? Reading and writing, of course. Plus, the weather didn't stop us from taking a guided shore tour by sea kayak. We also hiked the Temperance River and visited Grand Marais harbor, where we had a lovely lakeside dinner at the Angry Trout. Who says you have to be married to have a honeymoon?

Wisconsin and Points North

Like the weekend in Minneapolis, Monday and Tuesday were days to visit John's old friends and favorite places. Here are some highlights.We ate lunch with former paramedics Chuck Larsen and Steve Koch. Steve owns Bunny's and generously treated us to lunch and Bunny's sweatshirts, which we needed right away as the weather grew stormy once we left the city for points north.

Here are more of the old paramedic gang in Webster, Wisconsin. From L to R: John, Brookshaw, Funk, Joe, Joe's wife Mary, Judy and Emily Brookshaw. The Brookshaws were our hosts for the night.

Tuesday was rainy, but we enjoyed Duluth nonetheless. When the cargo ships come into the harbor from Lake Superior, the lower part of this bridge rises to let them them in. We walked across to get a view of the city and its lighthouses.

Gooseberry Falls was spectacular with all the rain. This is the middle set of falls that flow into Lake Superior. Next stop: Lutsen Lodge.

Minneapolis

Spent the weekend in Minneapolis seeing Justin, Jackie and Josh. Met Josh's cat, Vladamir, did a little used bookstore shopping, went for a walk; but mostly, we just ate a lot.


Chris (on violin) and his band, The Poor Nobodys, entertained us on Saturday night. Check them out online. They're terrific!

Justin and Jackie hosted Sunday brunch for the whole family. Look at Jackie's homemade gooseberry turnovers. They were as delicious as they were beautiful.

Eastern South Dakota

When driving from Rapid City to Minneapolis, there's nowhere to go but the Mitchell, South Dakota, Corn Palace.

By the Numbers

Number of states visited so far: 9
Number of states where Lauren had never been before: 3
Number of atomic fireballs eaten by John to stay awake while driving: 17
Number of miles driven: 2,838
Average miles per gallon: 26.5
Most expensive gas: $3.18/gallon (Baker, CA)
Cheapest gas: $2.24/gallon (Rapid City, SD)
Number of goth girls observed in downtown Rapid City: 1
Number of times John ignored Lauren's navigation: 2
Number of times John had to pull over and backtrack: 2
Highest elevation: 12,000, Medicine Bow Peak, Wyoming
Only road with 1,000-foot dropoffs on either side: Utah Route 24
Number of days without cell phone service: 6
Hottest day so far: July 6, 107 degrees, Route 24 east of Capitol Reef, Utah
Coolest day so far: July 6, 43 degrees, Boulder Mountain, Route 12, Utah
Number of amputees encountered: 4
Number of bison petted: 1
Number of scary thunderstorms: 1
Percentage of trip completed to date: 39

Crazy Horse

Here we are along the Mickelson Bike Trail in South Dakota. It's a 114-mile trail that runs north-south between Deadwood and Edgemont. We rode about 10 miles in the middle of the trail from Hill City to the Crazy Horse Memorial. We're standing on one of the trestle bridges on the trail, which is built on an old railroad bed.

Crazy Horse Memorial was begun in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski at the invitation of Lakota Chief Standing Bear. Below is Ziolkowski's bronze model showing what the completed momument will look like.

Although only the face is done today, one can imagine the vision for this huge memorial. What is hard to imagine without being here is the scale of the project. For example, the entire Mount Rushmore carving would easily fit into Crazy Horse's head. The carving is done by carefully transferring the measurements from the scale model to the mountain, and then blasting away chunks of rock to gradually carve this massive mountain man.

Hisega, South Dakota

Just a brief note after a relaxing day at Hisega Lodge in the Black Hills. It's a 100-year old, 10-bedroom lodge nestled in a deep rock and pine ravine. We can hear the nearby Rapid Creek waters rush by from our tiny bedroom. We relaxed most of the day, read books, cleaned out the car, spoke with some of the other guests, took long walks, saw some deer and mostly, just enjoyed being in one place for a while. Our only outing was a brief visit to Rapid City in the late afternoon to make some calls (no cell service here), do a little shopping and get some dinner. Everyone should be as lucky as we are to enjoy such a great vacation!

Looking Back in Time

As we left the Snowy Range, we found a group of cows looking back and us as we headed off to look back in time.
Our first stop was historic Fort Laramie, where we took a tour, spoke with the docents and enjoyed bottles of root beer and birch beer in an old-time saloon. As you can see, the Midwest sky was threatening.



Driving away from Fort Laramie on a desolate, two-lane highway, we suddenly came upon on a bison bull near the road - reminding us of some of the original inhabitants of the great plains. After driving for a couple of hours, we arrived in the middle of nowhere -- Manville, Wyoming (population 97), the first home where John remembers living.



Little had changed with the house where John lived next door to the church.

John's dad was the pastor of this little church that seemed to be experiencing a special visitation as we looked on.

After an overnight stay in nearby Lusk, Wyoming, we drove to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, where Lauren's great grandfather, Jacob Simon, had been stationed in 1876.

Lauren met with the curator of the Fort Robinson Museum and author of this book and was able to learn more about her great grandfather's service there.


While Fort Robinson was a fascinating place, we could not help but look back and feel the absence of the original inhabitants who had been driven from this beautiful landscape.

Snowy Range, Wyoming

We left Colorado on Friday and headed up an empty two-lane road into the wide open country of Wyoming, where we planned to meet up with two of John's EMS clients in Saratoga.

Along the highway, we encountered a unique species of Wyoming wildlife, the jackalope. We were fortunate to capture this rare photo.


Saratoga, Wyoming, is named after Saratoga, New York, because it is one of two natural hot springs in Wyoming. It is also the home of the Hotel Wolf, which originally opened in 1883. What's for dinner in Saratoga? Beef!



Below is a photo of John and Bill Dahlke of West Central Wyoming EMS, the new local EMS service that John helped set up.

John's meeting took place at an ice cream parlor called the Lollipop. Lauren entertained herself by taking photos. Doesn't this look like a Norman Rockwell painting?


After spending the night in Saratoga, it was time for a hike and some fishing in the Snowy Range. These mountains definately live up to their name, as we encountered lots of snow on the trails.

Medicine Bow Peak, approx. 11,000 feet
(check out John's new hat!)

Lauren finally found her alpine heaven.

Lauren heads for a distant fishing lake. Can you believe it's July?

South Gap Lake

We each caught a rainbow trout (and returned them to their habitat). Finished the day soaking our tired bones in a shallow waters of the North Platte River that was heated by the Saratoga Hot Springs. Lauren says this was one of the best days of her life.

Higher Elevations

We hit the highway out of Grand Junction and headed east on I-70 to Rifle, where we stopped for groceries. Then we took route 13 and then 40 east following the Yampa River.

Camping along the river engaged us in constant battle with mosquitos, but we survived the night and awoke to a cool mountain morning. We continued east to Steamboat Springs and higher elevations.

We ate a picnic lunch on the Continental Divide. It's all downhill now to Chicago!