A Full-time Life

(Flashback Friday) BEMEDJI, MINNESOTA

On our current roadtrip timeline, this post actually belongs somewhere between  Duluth Minnesota (click on blue ) and Dickenson,  North Dakota ( here ).

We had a lovely four days in Bemedji, visiting with Sandra and Joe, our sister and brother-in-law. (She's Bill's baby sister, but I've known her since she was three, so it all kind of blends together sometimes.)  We hadn't seen them for almost four years, since they moved there from the Northwest to be closer to their kids and grandkids.   We stayed at the Bemedji KOA, which was within a mile of their house. Couldn't have been a better location for a visit.

One evening, Sandra and Joe had a family barbeque so that we could visit with both of their kids and spouses and grandkids.    We hadn't seen our niece since she was a teenager and now she has teenagers of her own.  Our nephew is proud father to a three-year old son who is a bundle of energy.   Wish I'd gotten more family pictures.  As often at family gatherings, I was too busy listening and talking to even remember I owned a camera. 

Sandra is a birdwatcher, as am I, so one afternoon we just sat and visited and enjoyed watching the activity at her feeders.  (That's one thing I miss that we had at our stick house.)  I didn't expect to see the variety of birds that were there -- orioles and some other species I had only seen in Texas up until then. 

Sandra and Joe took us around to see a few of Minnesota's 10,000 Lakes.  I used to think that the State's slogan was probably an exaggeration, but after looking around Bemedji and Duluth and in between, now I think it's probably either accurate or understated.  There is water everywhere!  There are almost that many Lake resorts in the Bemedji area alone. 

Minnesota is Paul Bunyan country and the Bemedji Chamber of Commerce claims that he was born here.  Would they lie?   This statue of Paul and Babe the Blue Ox is world famous.  Again according to the Chamber, every other statue of the two is a copy.

We ate two of the local delicacies -- grilled Walleye (it's a Lake fish) and Wild Rice soup.  Both delicious.  We saw some of the places where the rice comes from (but it wasn't growing season).  It's a different grain from ordinary rice.

We saw some ice fishing shacks (stored behind buildings for the summer) and thought it would be interesting to see those being used out on the frozen lakes, except BRRR.  In the Winter, Bemedji often tops the list of coldest places in the nation.  So on second thought, ice fishing will probably be one of those things we won't ever see.

We had a lovely few days and were happy that we had decided to take the Northern route back to Oregon, so that we could drop in on family.    Sandra and Joe said they enjoyed it too -- all of the rest of their families live in the Northwest or Arizona, so they don't get a lot of drive-by company.  

But when we were a couple of days down the road after our visit, we got a call that Sandra had been taken to the hospital at Fargo, ND (the nearest big hospital to Bemedji) and was scheduled for heart surgery.  She was a pretty sick lady.  Since we were still within a few hours drive of Fargo (from the other way -- we had driven past it when we left Bemedji), we went back to wait through her surgery.  When we knew she had come through it well, we continued on our trip. 

It was a scary time for everybody.  Thankfully she continues to recover and get back to normal. Life is good. 

 

 

DULUTH, TWO HARBORS, AND LAKE SUPERIOR

I wasn't very happy with Minnesota the afternoon we first arrived.  It was raining HARD and it was cold -- upper  40s.   We'd had that one hard rain in South Carolina, but that was just inconvenient.  This was miserable.  But the weather improved the next day and we both ended up really enjoying our short stay in Duluth. 

On this road trip, every place we stayed up until Duluth had been out in the country.  Here, the travel-planner opted for a city spot and that worked out beautifully.  We were at a marina with RV spots, nearly under the famous Aerial LIft Bridge and within walking distance of the city center. 

So we were right on Lake Superior, which is stunning.   I guess I've always known that it was the biggest Great Lake, but before this visit I really didn't understand what that meant.  It's a fresh-water sea really.    

The second day, when it was a little warmer and much drier, we drove along the Skyline trail to the town of Two Harbors on Agate Bay.  Beautiful views and lovely place to walk.  This 1892 lighthouse is still operating.  

 

 

The huge loading docks at Two Harbors (below) are ready to load taconite (a pelletized iron ore) onto 1000 ft. boats. The other picture is the Lake Shore.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, we did walk across the bridge -- briskly!  (The sun was shining, but it was a little chilly for bones that are still used to Florida spring temperatures.)  We had to wait while the bridge rose for some big boats.  We didn't see any freighter ships pass through it.  Not as many of them are operating these days because of the economy.  But we picked up a copy of the daily "Shipping News."  (I didn't know there really was such a publication.) And it listed 15 transport ships that would be in on this day.

We visited the cargo ship William A Irwin. Built in 1938, the Irwin was the flagship of US Steel's cargo fleet.  It's a floating museum now, replaced in late 1970s by bigger and faster vessels.  We had a private tour (only because there aren't very many tourists here yet).  Our guide was a retired second generation mariner employee of the shipping company. We got a great history lesson about shipping and about the Lake and had time to get all of our questions answered.  

The pilot house is 80 feet above the water, providing a spectacular view of the port city.    Inside, we saw the loading areas and holds, engine and communications rooms, both with equipment still intact, furnished crew and officer quarters, and, suprisingly, guest quarters.  As the flagship, she carried US Steel bigwigs on inspections or just slow and relaxing lake cruises.  The 600+foot vessel traveled at 12 miles per hour. 

Duluth has great canal and lake-front paths, lots of restaurants right on the water and lovely old brick buildings.  Even in this brisk weather, this old part of town was alive and vibrant.  Of course, to the locals -- office workers walking on their lunch hour or after work -- this was spring weather.  We were just about the only wimps in winter coats.

There are many other points of interest here that we didn't have time to see. So we would love to come back to Duluth another time -- maybe later in the summer though.  (Of course everybody is assuring us that Minnesota is much colder for June than usual.  It's kind of like going to a fishing spot, where they always were biting last week!).