Still Doing Well

Greetings from up north! The trip continues to go well. I spent the 4th in Duluth, MN. My grandma grew up there so it was neat to see a little of that town. Before that I stayed at a few state parks working my way across Wisconson, lots of waterfalls. One big one and a few smaller. I took lots of pictures and can actually upload them this time. I also put in my pictures for the last update. There are some good ones.

I got pulled over about 10 minutes after my last update, I had missed a speed limit sign, but after checking out my info he let me off. Today was a beautiful drive up Lake Superior before cutting inland to Ely. Gorgeous country and am glad that I’m getting see it. Don’t know how long I’d want to stay in January though. On Friday I’m going on a 5 day canoe trip in the Boundary Waters. They are called that because they are on the border with Canada.

It will be just me and my canoe and whatever critters I come across, some will even be bigger than me. The day after I finish that I will be drastically put back into civilization and fly to Boston for a baseball weekend with friends and family there and in New York City. If it weren’t for that I’d probably be trying to spend another week up here.

I’ve driven about 2,300 miles so far. Gas has been the biggest part of the budget. Only paid over $3/gal once so far. I put that in just to make the California readers upset. This canoe trip is one of the first things added to my to do list on this trip and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since then. I’ll be sure to empty my memory card and probably fill it back up as long as my batteries hold out.

A few travel notes, the two items I haven’t figured out how to cook at camp are pizza and mexican food. I took care of the pizza at lunch/dinner today. Whatever my 3:00 meal was. I was unconsciously stocking up on Mexican the last week of work so I’ll put that craving off a little longer. I really haven’t missed sleeping in a bed as much as I thought I would. Although there were a few 6am rain showers in Wisconsin which sent me scrambling to put the fly on the tent. I’ve been leaving it off so I could see the stars through the top of the tent. It has been in the low to mid 80s during the day and 55-60 at night, plenty warm enough with my sleeping bag. Thanks for all the notes, can’t wait to share my boundary waters experience.

Cheers,
Brian

Slowing Down

I just finished a tour Lambeau Field and am at the library in Green Bay. They redid the stadium a few years ago and it is very cool. The tour went up to one of the luxury boxes and down onto the field. Well worth the stop. Definitely a place to add to the list for my yearly sporting events. I also stopped by the pub their for a beer and to make a few, I’m not working phone calls. Sure there will be many more of those. I will be making my way west across Wisconsin for a few days hoping that the camp sites aren’t full with the 4th of July coming up.

I spent a couple of days in Door County Wisconsin which is the peninsula northeast of Green Bay. It is a touristy area with lots of antique shops, orchards, and knick knacks. I was in the younger portion of visitors, but only spent one day doing a little of that. They also have 5 state parks, of which I hit 4 of them. Very cool forest areas, sand dunes and Lake Michigan on one side and Green Bay on the other side. The mosquitoes took over my camp one night so I was locked away inside my tent to get away from them.  One of the big things they advertise to do is something called a fish boil. I called one place and was told they have them every night before 8, no reservations needed. I showed up at 7:15 and was told they were already cleaning up because it was so slow. It is supposed to be a fish platter cooked over an open fire with onions and potatoes until it boils over onto the fire, I think. Normally I wouldn’t even have bothered to call so it is funny that the one time I did that it didn’t work out.

It has been nice waking up and listening to the waves and birds without having to rush around. Lots of wildlife here, I got some good pictures of some baby raccoons, but can’t upload them at this library. I’ll try to get them up next time. Forgot to mention that some raccoons had emptied out my cooler in Missouri, that was my mistake not theirs though. They made a mess and helped themselves to my oatmeal cream pies, a turkey sandwich, and some breakfast bars. Score one for them. The cooler has been spending the nights inside the truck now. Hope all is well with all of you.

Brian