Sunday, May 27. We left Aberdeen early, heading east with a slight southerly dip. In sharp contrast with SD, as we cross Minnesota the towns become quite frequent - every 10 miles or so, even less - so it's pretty slow going. It's nice to see all the flags out along Main Street America, though. Got behind some slow pick-ups that I thought were probably being driven by some of those Norwegian bachelor farmers who figure in so many of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegone stories.
Seeing the flags, we recalled that five years earlier, on an early Tuzigoot trip, what we called our 40daysand40nights tour, we were driving across northern Wisconsin on Memorial weekend Sunday and spotted a hand-written sign advertising a holiday lunch. It was lunch time, we stopped, and had a nice lunch and visit with the church folks putting on the lunch.
Anyhow, we eventually plunged into the Minneapolis freeway tangle and got through the Twin Cities via I-94 in early afternoon with pretty good ease - light traffic, the keep-lefts and keep-rights directions all timely and accurate from Magellan and from the MN DOT.
(I updated the Magellan software before we left home and it's doing strange things the original didn't. Most disconcerting, just after executing a turn as directed, Magellan will occasionally erroneously and immediately say, "When possible, make a legal U-turn." In a panic I check the map display and confirm I did right so I ignore the voice and continue. Magellan doesn't persist in her mistake or apologize (Susie says that just because "it" has a female voice, I shouldn't say "she" goofed). If I switched to the male voice, though, "he" wouldn't ask for directions from the big satellite in the sky and we would get hopelessly lost.)
After about a 400-mile day we stopped at a nice little campground near Chippewa Falls, WI for the night. Turned out to be free popcorn night! Picked this campground out of a guide we picked up at the WI welcome center, called and found out we could park in their overflow area - electricity only. This is fine and about all we could expect this holiday evening - manager helps us add water to the tank.
The next day we continue east on WI state hwy. 29 - a really beautiful four-lane road that goes right across the heart of Wisconsin with hardly a stoplight. (Only question: Why didn't they follow convention and assign an even number to an east-west highway? The campground manager called it a "new" highway, but that sort of new can be 20 years old or more.)
More majestic farm land. Not only barns but lots of silos, presumably for storing silage for feeding all those milk cows. Susie likes silos; I like barns. Hmm. I imagine the farmers bragging at the local coffee shop: Mine's taller than yours. Mine's bigger, volume-wise. I got more of them. If you stack all of mine on top of each other, I've got the most (volume). Etc. This sort of profound thinking helps pass the miles.
(Incidentally, I've about had it up to here with this magnificent Midwest farmland, barns, silos, churches, creeks and rivers, ... . How about you? I'm ready for mountains and mesas and bone-dry arroyos. Just kidding, sort of. Actually, we pledge that the next time we make this Aberdeen to Grand Rapids trek we'll take our time and devote a week or two to enjoying Wisconsin.)
Our goal today is a KOA campground on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, near the Straits of Mackinac and the Mackinac Bridge. This will leave us with only a 250-mile day on Tuesday to get to Grand Rapids in time for dinner.
(The UP is another place we've vowed to spend some quality time in. This will be our third trip across it. Maybe more time next time.)
Magellan and Hwy 29 take us to the outskirts of Green Bay (I apologize to any Packer fans; thought about driving in to see hallowed Lambeau Field and maybe some cheeseheads, but skipped it). From there it's north and east toward the UP, land of Yoopers and pasties. In Oconto, WI, we're stopped to allow a Memorial Day parade to go by: a HS band, a Mid-school band, a trailer with veterans and flags, and a Cub Scout troup. That was it. Marvelous! Memorial Day parade with McDonald's in the background. America the Beauiful! Found some Memorial Day music on local radio and on XM, so it was a good day for remembrance and celebration.
Faithful readers may recall that we were in the UP in the fall of 05, in search of Grandma's pasties. Natives of the UP call themselves Yoopers. They regard themselves as partially frozen analogs of rednecks, but smarter. Yooper humor is pretty entertaining. Here's an example for you trolls down below:
YOOPER CREATION STORY
YOOPER CREATION STORY
In the beginning dere was nuttin.
Den on da first day God created da Upper Peninsula.
On da second day He created da partridge, da deer, da bear, da fish, and da ducks.
On da third day He said let dere be Yoopers to roam da Upper Peninsula.
On da fourth day He created da udder world down below.
On da fifth day He said "Let dere be trolls to live in da world down below."
On da sixth day he created da bridge so da trolls would have a way to get to heaven.
God saw it was good and on da seventh day He went huntin.
In turn, Yoopers created pasties - meat and potatoes in a pastry shell. In '05 we came across this pasty shop - a special place, left-side picture. You can look our report up here: http://rgeasterling.com/05NewEngland/report5web.htm. Well, we found it again on this trip. So, if you're ever on the UP, on US-2 about 20 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge, stop here for home-made pasties.
And ice cream. I got an ice cream cone - Mackinac Island Fudge, which I'd been looking for and thinking of all afternoon. That was my favorite flavor when we were in Ann Arbor.
We picked up a couple of pasties for dinner. Susie fixed gravy. Great meal! ! I think, though, that pasties would benefit by adding chopped Hatch green chile to the contents. There's an idea. This morning, 5/30, I had left-over pasty with an egg and salsa on top. Call it Pasty Ranchero. Somebody should start a Youper-Mexican restaurant: We've got you covered, border to border.
Got checked in to the KOA, this one a disappointment - high in price and low on convenience, readiness, and staff helpfulness - then went to St. Ignace for provisions (that's a town not a local holy man), and took a picture of the Bridge.
Here's a night view off of the internet:
Saw another pasty sign we couldn't pass up. I wanted Susie to pose in front of it. She said it wasn't spelled right for her, but it surely referred to daughter-in-law Suzy whom we will soon see in Grand Rapids.
Cheers,
Rob and Susie
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