Hurley, WI - Wolf Point, MT 552 miles, 3 1/2 days (by RV, of course!)

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                             Makinac bridge

Sleeping Bear sand dune along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan

 My, how you can cover the miles when you have motorized transportation! This stretch would have taken us two weeks on the bikes. As Bill said in his email, we no longer got in Margit's RV when the weather cooled off dramatically, so it would have been great biking weather. I don't know what we've done to upset the weather gods, but they certainly don't like us.

Monday morning we said goodbye to our friends in Hurley, and set off on Highway 2 to continue our westward trek across the country. We stopped and got more pasties for lunch later before leaving town. Bill and I really were pigging out on pasties. Margit liked them, but I don't think she liked them as much as Bill and I. We didn't get further than about 30 miles before we stopped. A casino right beside the highway beckoned to Margit and me,so since Bill was outnumbered, we spent 30 minutes playing slot machines - penny and nickel ones. We're not big time gamblers! I walked out $47 richer, and Margit lost $2. We entered Minnesota at Duluth, and continued on highway 2 through Minnesota, stopping at Cass Lake for the night at a very nice campground by, guess what, Cass Lake. It's both a lake and a town. We saw a couple blue herons the next morning, and I observed one of them catch a fish and gulp it down. The infamous Minnesota mosquitoes weren't too bad, but we all have collected a few mosquito bites. Actually all the mosquitoes that got in the RV before we went to bed apparently gathered over Margit's bed in the back and proceeded to munch on her during the night. She said she fought them all night, and it was a bloody battle, too - the evidence being blood streaks on her sheets.

On Tuesday we stopped in Bemidji to look at Paul Bunyan and Babe, and then made a little side trip south to Lake Itasca, which is the source of the MIssissippi River. Took a short walk to the outlet of the lake where the Mississippi begins, and it was an awesome feeling to think that this small beginning ends as such a long, large river. It was interesting to read that as time went on, people didn't think that the headwaters were impressive enough for such a mighty and important river, so they made a few "improvements". Of course, now they have a visitor center, walking trails, signs explaining the discovery of the river and other facts about it, etc. It's very nicely done however, and the trail just ends at the outflow from the lake without any big fanfare. It's about ten feet wide and two feet deep. A "dam" of rocks crosses the start of the outlet from the lake. One of the "improvements". I of course had to walk across the river, but not on the rocks. I get on something like that and I immediately psychologically lose all sense of balance. Anyway, we all enjoyed seeing the source of the Mississippi, and thought it was definitely worth the extra time and miles. Tuesday night we spent in the Larimore Dam Recreation Area campground about twenty miles west of Grand Forks, ND. It rained  just about all night, so we didn't get out much. Bill and I did get a walk in down to the lake formed by the dam, and saw 15 to 20 white pelicans. It was a very pretty area.

Yesterday we drove as far as Williston, ND which is about15 miles from the Montana border. The campground here, called Buffalo Trails, was the least attractive we had been in so far. Our other campgrounds have been very nice, in fact, but this one felt a little like a refugee camp. Lots of long term people essentially living there, hardly any trees, and some muddy roads due to all the rain. Williston itself isn't very attracrive either. It's an oil boom town. I didn't realize there was so much oil in North Dakota. There is such a demand for housing in Williston that one of the workers told Bill that he was paying $1000 a month to rent space in someone's front yard to park his camper!!

It is now Thursday, June 16th, and we are in a motel in Wolf Point, Montana, getting both psychologically and phsyically ready to resume our biking across the U.S. Since we have so far ridden in vehicles more miles than we have biked, we're eager to start pedalling again. I'm thinking about our restart on the biking tomorrow with a little trepidation because we've had a ten-day layoff, and I'm recovering from a bug that has given me some lung congestion along with body aches and coughing, so I don't know what my energy level will be, but am hoping I'll make the 47 miles tomorrow to Glasgow. There are no motels or camping spots between here and there, so we'll have to make the 47 miles or camp beside the road! We're also hoping for no big rainstorms or strong headwinds. We've had some of both the last two days going through North Dakota and Montana. This morning we left our refugee camp and got here to Wolf Point at about 12:30 mountain time. We left the Central time zone when we crossed the Montana border. Walked to the Old Town Grill and had lunch with Margit, and then back to our motel where we unloaded our bikes and other baggage from her RV and said a fond farewell. We had mixed feelings about leaving Margit. Although we are eager to start cycling again, we also were somewhat sad to say goodbye.
So, tomorrow, if we have internet service,I'll be reporting on our first day of cycling again after 10 days of riding in an RV , visiting my friend, and sightseeing.

The largest weather vane in the world in Montague, Michigan

Riding on.......again,
Carol & Bill

P.S.  Again, I apologize for the out of sync photos, but I can't seem to get this done right, so I guess you'll just have to bear with me.