Superior to Ironwood
Last night, Superior/Duluth experienced more severe storms: the loudest thunder I think I've ever heard, and lightning flashes that were impressive even through our motel room curtains. It was still a little cloudy when we set off this morning, but the worst of it was over.
We left Route 2 for Route 13, around the edge of a peninsula in the lake. Most of the way, we were going through forest, and the lake wasn't to be seen. Other times you got a good view of the lake. I don't want to seem cynical, but this is what a lake view looks like:
Another thing about lakes and seas is that they really show up a photogropher's non-horizontal horizons. You can get prettier lakeside views.
We stopped for brunch in a bar in a little town called Cornucopia. As we ate, some locals played dice over unidentified spirits (over ice).
Further round the peninsula, Bayfield had a pretty harbour, but little else to detain us.
Back on US-2, we stopped briefly in Ashland where we rested for a while, watching kids play in the filthy water around a jetty. I think the filth was just silty river water. Apparently Superior is very clean; almost sterile. They had a posh word for it at Duluth aquarium.
Shortly after crossing the border into Michigan, in the town of Ironwood, we stopped at a tourist information centre. Some people were in there booking a motel in Marquette, some 145 miles away. The tourist information man reckoned that Marquette was filling up, and that motels on the way would be too. We decided that since we're well ahead of schedule anyway, we should find a motel in Ironwood, then do some sightseeing around that area. The timezone line is between here and Marquette as well, so the three hours or so it would have taken to get there would have been four in the cutthroat world of motel room acquisition.
It didn't take long to find a good, cheap motel -- the Sandpiper Motel -- and before long we were off sightseeing: first to some more cascades (via another walk in the woods) ...
... and then to Black River Harbor, a delightful little harbour, picturesque is the only word for it. If the little footbridge across the river mouth wasn't enough, the wild flower meadow on the other side finished off the effect.
We'd been told there was a beach, and we were hoping to try out the Beetle stunt kite. The beach turned out to be too narrow and too sheltered to be any good for kiting, but the meadow by the harbour mouth turned out to be ideal. We took it in turns and were both delighted with the kite.
A little tired out, we returned to the motel. There's a deluxe air-conditioned laundromat across the road, and Debbie's there right now enjoying the facilities, while I sit here typing my fingers to the bone. Debbie wore the trapper's hat we bought at the Mystery Vortex while sorting out the dirty laundry.
One of the frivolous items we bought in the mall in Duluth was a commemorative quarter album. It was only 99c...Since 1999 the US Mint have been releasing 5 commemorative quarters a year, each one representing a state, in the order they joined the Union. This will continue until 2008. We had about four. Debbie came back from her first trip to the laundrette having put $20 in the change machine. We now have 14 out of the 20 that will have been minted by the end of 2002 (we're unclear as to when in the year they're released).
We plan to eat at the "family restaurant" across the road just as soon as the washing is dry.