On the Road: St. Louis to Duluth

We left Missouri on Sunday, heading east through Illinois, stopping somewhere north of Springfield. We don't remember the name of the town or park, but it was nice enough and we met a couple walking their dog. They had just left Wisconsin headed to St. Louis as we were doing the opposite. We told them we were headed to Duluth, what should we do along the way? He said he didn't have any idea, however, "if you're going to Duluth, you have to go to Two Harbors just up the road!" He had spent summers there growing up and remembered it fondly.

We drove through miles of corn fields, through Rockford, IL, Madison, WI and the Wisconsin Dells. It is all beautiful country, lush and rolling farms with amazing rivers. It is one picture post card after another. We stopped Monday at Osseo, WI at Stone Creek RV Resort, an amazing place. The sites are huge with large concrete picnic pads and picnic tables, beautiful trees that don't interfere with your ability to park and function. It really was a gem to discover. The Wisconsin chapter of Escapees was having a rally there starting today, but the early birds were there yesterday afternoon. That was a nice coincidence and we met some of those folks.

Today we continued north to see the state become more wooded and roughed. We crossed into Minnesota and Duluth in time for lunch. Our location is absolutely perfect. We are at a marina on an island, connected by a short bridge, that is within walking distance of the harbor and an area called Historic Canal Park. It is an old warehouse district that has become shopping and restaurants to the tourists. We got lucky arriving and setting up between cloud bursts and began looking at what to do in the rain in an area well suited to walking. We'll drive to TWO HARBORS!

We headed north on I-35 which emptied onto MN-61. Now this is a major thing to a girl who has spent a large amount of time traveling the state of Texas on I-35. I have been on that road through original construction, and various re-construction projects. I've been to Laredo and Gainesville and all points in between. I've driven 80 and hopelessly mired in standstill traffic. The worst is driving near 80 just trying not to be run down on the stretch between Austin and Dallas after a UT game. And now I have been to its most northern point in Duluth, MN. I have been to the headwaters of I-35! Amazing!

MN-61 is one of  "THE AMERICAN HIGHWAYS" you read about in Life Magazine and the tour books. It hugs the north shore of Lake Superior all the way to Canada. The portion in Duluth is in a neighborhood and therefore 30mph. But with the houses on that strip(called London Rd), 30 is too fast to take it all in. I really want to go back to the Congdon Estate, Glensheen. I saw a program about it in a series, America's Castles. All the houses are beautiful, several are mansions, and this one is open to the public.

We drove on out of the city through hamlets but mostly just lush vegetation that breaks out to show glimpses of the lake. At one point, we could see the lake with a fog layer just on top that grew and climbed over the trees to completely engulf the road ahead of us. It was really eerie, like this cloud bringing water out of the lake onto the shore.

Our first stop at Two Harbors was a visitor center. A very vivacious lady gave us the full scoop on MN-61. We have to go back for a full day to take in all of the cliffs, waterfalls and towns that are further north of today's destination.

We did go to the Two Harbors lighthouse and enjoyed the only continuously working lighthouse on the North Coast. We watched a ship pull up to the docks for off loading. It was just across a small channel and we could see it in full detail just before it completely disappeared into a fog. One second, it was gone! It takes more time to tell about it than it did to happen. It was time to head back.
The drive south was complete with rain, lightening, fog and hail.

The afternoon ended with fish and chips in Canal Park and a walk through the Corps of Engineer museum next door. We are back home for basketball finals and more rain. It is suppose to clear by the morning. We certainly hope so.