2013_08_03 (Sat) Across The Northern Tier

Today was a travel day, and an uneventful one at that (the best kind).  Linda spent some time last evening and again this morning researching places for us to stay tonight somewhere between Ashland, Wisconsin and Iron Mountain, Michigan.  The choices appeared thin; the Walmart in Ashland didn’t allow RVers to overnight due to a city ordinance, and there did not appear to be a Walmart anywhere in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  (I know, I know, that doesn’t seem possible.  It turns out there is one in Ironwood, and probably others we haven’t discovered yet.)  As our route eventually put us on US-2 we settled on a city RV park in Ironwood, Michigan, just over the border with Wisconsin on the north side of the highway.  Based on available online information, this park appeared to have a variety of sites from “full hookup pull-thru” to “no hookup tent site.”  (Note: Full hookup in this case meant 20A electric power, barely sufficient to recharge our house batteries, and run the refrigerator, and run the air compressor.)  The sites were first-come-first-served; no way to make a reservation.  And being a city park, there was no one to call for information on a Saturday, the city offices being closed.  So we did something very unusual for us, we started driving with no guarantee that we would be able to get a site, much less one that our coach would fit in, or if the park was even still open.

We left the Forestedge Winery (very reluctantly) at 9:19 AM CDT and headed south down MN-64 towards Akeley where we picked up MN-34 heading northeast to Walker.  MN-34 ends at MN-200 in Walker and we headed east on MN-200 from there.  MN-200 appears on the map to run straight east-west, but in actuality it bends to the left and right, and goes up and down, through lovely forests and past bodies of water, large and small.  The forests eventually gave way to shorter, scruffier growth and marshy areas that reminded us a great deal of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  MN-200 ended at US-2 and we merged on headed southeast to Duluth, Minnesota 52 miles away.

The roads were generally very good, with smooth, quiet surfaces, and we rolled along at 55 MPH except for the occasional idiot who seems unconcerned about pulling out in front of a 41,000 pound vehicle traveling fast enough to turn their sub-compact into a splotch on the highway.  No, we didn’t hit anyone, but one of the things I do not like is having to suddenly get on the brakes.  Buses do not stop quickly (in a short distance) when traveling at highway speeds.  I know that–and I generally try to drive very, very defensively–but I have no control over what other motorists do, and I find in particular that it is not always possible to anticipate what a stupid/oblivious person might do next.  One or my other pet bus peeves?; drivers who wait until the passing lane is about to run out and then decide to try to get around you.  One &%$*(#! did that to me today and he ended up facing oncoming traffic.  I am not going on the shoulder and risking putting a 41,000 pound bus in the ditch for someone that stupid.  I did not encounter the most common peeve situation today, however, as it involves entrance ramps on limited access highways; people who don’t get up to speed and pay not attention to the traffic that is already on the highway and into which they are required to merge, i.e., get up to speed and blend in.

BTW:  The weather today was almost perfect; blue skies with lots of white puffy clouds (enough to create plenty of shaded areas on the highway) and afternoon temperatures in the low 70’s.

Paul had told us to just stick with US-2 east and we would soon find ourselves in Wisconsin, and so it was.  As you approach the northwest corner of Duluth MN-194 splits off to the left and US-2 goes to the right.  Signs make it very, very clear that trucks are to use US-2 to get into, around, or through Duluth; they are NOT to get on MN-194.  One of the interesting things about driving an motorhome that’s really a commercial bus, is there are times when you are not a truck (such as highway weigh scales), and other times when you are, such as any road situation that involves height, width, length, or weight restrictions.  Toll roads are a toss up; some go only by axles, thus treating you like a commercial semi, while others have special fares for RVs and the things they tow.  Also, if you have a Jake Brake (we don’t) local noise ordinances prohibiting their use apply to you the same as they do to commercial vehicles.  If you don’t believe it, try using yours.

US-2 takes you to I-35 south of Duluth.  From I-35 you travel a couple of miles north and onto the Bong bridge which takes you into Wisconsin, or 10th state.  It’s a fairly high bridge, but an easy one to drive over (sorry Nick).

The drive on US-2 across northern Wisconsin was a bit tedious.  The road is rough and noisy in a lot a places, and each town you go through seems to stretch out along the highway for miles and requires you to drive 30 or even 25 MPH.  It will be nice to be back in Michigan where speed limits are almost universally ignored.

We arrived at the Wisconsin/Michigan border around 3:15 PM CDT, returning to our state of origin.  As advertised, we found Curry Park right where it was supposed to be, and it was open for business and mostly empty.  We spotted a pull-through site with good ingress and egress and made pulled in.  It appeared to be an electric only site, so Linda filled out the form and put the required $15 in the envelope.  Turned out that it was full-hookup site, which is $20 per night and the camp host came around later to collect the extra $5.  Even though we only needed the electrical hookup, we were not about to move.

Our neighbors on either side appeared to be off doing whatever it is RVers do in the late afternoon, so we ran our generator for a while to at least bulk charge the house batteries before switching to shore power.  Linda went for a walk around the park and I put the finishing touches on the blog posting for yesterday while keeping an eye on our batteries.

We have to be very thoughtful about how we use the coach and its various (electrical) systems when we only have a 20A electrical connection.  Not cooking dinner avoids having to use power, so Linda (the smartphone/Google queen) found a well-reviewed restaurant in town that was a four block walk from the park on the same side of US-2, and had pizza on the menu; Federico’s MIKES.  Winner.  Well, maybe.  Since we don’t eat dairy products we order our pizza withOUT cheese.  That is guaranteed to get some strange looks and even questions, and the outcome is always a bit of a gamble.  (We had a fabulous vegan pizza in the Black Hills of South Dakota back in June but we have had others that just were not very good.)  The waitress took our order—16” thin crust, no cheese, with onions, mushrooms, olives (black and green), and pineapple—and a young man in the kitchen who obviously loved making pizza threw himself into the task.  He even came out part way through our meal to see if we liked it.  We did, and we told him so.  We saved a few pieces for lunch on the road tomorrow as it will be another travel day for us, boxed it up, and walked back to the park.

Tomorrow we have another travel day, and then plan to stay put for a couple of nights before our final leg back to the house.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.