The trip begins

We are in Bemidgi until tomorrow morning. When the sun finally came out two days ago we went out exploring. Here is the visitor's center sign.

See how tall Paul Bunyan is compared to your dad.

It even makes me look little.

We saw these two dogs at the headwaters parking lot. Can you imagine living with that huge and tiny dog?

This is most of our group listening to our tour guide at Lake Itasca State Park. She has a beaver pelt in her hand.

The trees are starting to change colors up here. This is a young Sugar Maple in all it's splender.

We walked about 900 feet total to the headwaters.

There were loads of people there to look at where the Mississippi starts the parking lot was full. I put my hand in the water; it was pretty cold. My cells will be in the Gulf of Mexico in 90 days.

Some friends crossing the river on the rocks after our tour guide asked us not to. Didn't listen huh?

This is the lounge of the dining room where we ate lunch. It's a real log cabin hotel. It's called Douglas Lodge in the park.

We had a really nice trip today. We saw a bunch of eagles in the tree tops on the way back from the park. When we got back to Bemidgi we went to a woolen mill and toured it. We toured it yesterday and we still learned more today. I also found a box of yarn for sale real cheap, and I got it. I got about two lbs. Now I can make more baby blankets. Well, it's almost dinner time. So I close for now

On the way to our trip

One day when Fern had an appointment we wandered around the UP. We stopped into this place just to see what it was. Fun.

They have all kinds of silly displays out in the yard.

This is a "hunting camp."

The other side of the camp.

I took this picture this morning in Cedar, Wisconsin. They are harvesting the corn for silage. I didn't know how they did it until this morning. The corn field was right next to our campsite.

We didn't have any WiFi the last two days. It was strange being out of touch for 48 hours. I can't believe how attached I am to this computer. Go figure!

We are in Cloquet, MN. That's just south of Duluth. The weather has been really cool the last few days. When we left Michigan is was rainy and in the fifties. In Cedar, WI it got down to 36 one night and last night it was 37. Now here in Minn. it's 6:00 pm and in the 60's. We'll see what happens tonight. We are going to go exploring tomorrow. More later

Visit with Fern and Roy

While we were waiting for Fern to wake up from her nap Sunday, we drove up to Lake Michigan to walk the dog. We couldn't see very far.

Where we were we could only see the eastern part of the UP.

Here is a photo of us all in front of the rest home. The lady in pink is their daughter, Rene. She came to visit her mother today.

I took this picture of my grandmother's parents from a photo on Aunt Fern's dresser. They are Ory and Emanuel Ramsey.They had five or six kids. I only knew about two sibs of Granny.

Fern isn't doing all that well. She is in a great deal of pain from the broken neck and ribs from her fall. She is glad to see us every day but it is tiring for her. We try to leave and she thinks of something else to tell us. Except yesterday, she told us she was going to bed and would see us tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last time we'll see her because we head out Wednesday morning.
Will write more next time

Ishpeming, Michigan

We stayed in Iron Mountain for three nights. It was cool and we got to drive around and explore. This photo is from Monominee right on Lake Michigan. The park is next to the restaurant where we ate lunch. You could even see the peninsula we were on in Wisconsin from here.

This is Bays de Noc from a park in Escanaba on Lake Michigan as well.

The light house is now a museum.

The wind was blowing so cold and hard that even the sea gulls are hunkered down.

The weather here is delightful compared to home. Helena tells me it was 100 there yesterday, while here it is in the 70's. At night it gets down in the forties. Maybe cooler here in Ishpeming. The lady at this RV park said it got down into the 20's a few nights ago.

We will be for the next week. My aunt fell again and has been in a rest home for rehab for the last six weeks. I'll call my uncle later to see when we can visit.

That's all for now.

Sturgeon Bay

Thursday we drove up the spit from Green Bay. It was a short drive of about 25 miles. The little village of
Sturgeon Bay lies on Green Bay side.
This is a draw bridge
across Sturgeon Bay.

We watched it go up for a tall sailboat and a yacht.

It took about 10 minutes start to finish.

The scenery is rustic but peaceful. I'm just glad we aren't there this weekend. I'll bet it is crowded with last minute tourists.

We hung out here at the rig yesterday because it was raining cats and dogs. The wind came up and blew over a bunch of trees in the area. We watched the reports on TV. Boy it doesn't mess around here when it rains. It was coming down in sheets.

Today we drove down to Green Bay to look around. We couldn't get near Lambeau Field because they've closed everything off because of the Thursday game and a concert down there. Green Bay is just a little bigger than Santee and ten times older. The biggest thing in the city is Lambeau. And of course everything has a "tie" to the Packers. At this campground where we are staying we saw the Packer Mania last Thursday night, and it was just for a preseason game. The people up here live for the Packers.

We leave in the morning for Michigan. We'll be on the UP for about ten days.