Friends, Blueberries, & Whales? Around Iron River, WI & Duluth, MN

Travel Day: Munising, Michigan to Iron River, Wisconsin. Top O’ The Morn Campground has a small lake behind it. I saw a pontoon boat and asked if they rent them. Yes, but the two they have are rented out all week. We are in a heat index warning and we felt it setting up. Our friends, Richard & Bridget, are camping here with us and that is fun. This stop is just to get us farther west. But we found neat things to see and do, as always. 🙂

The next day, while Kevin worked, the three of us hopped in their jeep and Bridget drove us to Amnicon Falls State Park. It is between our campground and Duluth, MN. This waterfall is probably my favorite one in this mid-west north area. There are a lot of little waterfalls as the river runs. Being from the West, we call it “ minor (small) rapids” but here they call it waterfalls. Then there are a few places where the waterfall drops about 10 ft or so. I asked Bridget what it sounded like, whether a deep thump or a shhhing sound. She said shhhing sound. I miss hearing water; I lost all my hearing a few years ago. We walked alongside of the river for a little ways and found Horton Covered Bridge. It is a walking bridge and is 55 ft long. It is named after Charles M Horton who has the bowstring bridge patent. It is not known when this bridge was built, according to the sign, and I find that very puzzling. Only 5 bowstring bridges exist now. In the 1850s, copper miners arrived in this area. There were a few places that had a little success but most failed.

The next morning Bridget, Richard and I were off on another adventure. This time to Duluth, MN, about an hour away. Duluth is right on Lake Superior and is quite hilly. Across the river is Superior, WI, which is mostly flat. Two very distinct topographical areas. Bridget surprised me with our first stop at Creations Quilt Shop. As we pulled up, they looked across the street and there was the motorcycle shop, called Aero Design & Manufacturing Company that Richard had wanted to go to. We laughed because even though both face Superior St, one had the address as the side street. So off he went to the motorcycle place and in we went for fabric. This store has several extremely large rooms. With the lighting and space the colors of the fabric really popped. I found fabric with trees, water, canoe, etc for my Places Quilt. We then walked across the street to the store where we saw a lot of motorcycle riding clothes. Bridget turned around to me and said she wanted to buy the same fabric I bought so she could have some curtains made for the class C RV. So back across the street we went. I browsed…and found some more fabric that I purchased. Ha ha. The lady was very helpful to Bridget in getting the amount of fabric needed. Also fabric was purchased for pillows and placemats. I told her I like helping people spend their money! LOL

The next stop was Duluth Trading Company for clothes for Bridget’s son who really likes the brand. I saw on a sign that this company started out making tool bags. I bought a lime green and white shirt for Kevin. When I got home (footnote 1) and gave it to him, he was so thrilled. He says it is his favorite shirt. As we had walked to this place, we passed Duluth’s Best Bread bakery that was piping out their delicious bread smells. Walking back Bridget said she wanted a snack/lunch and we stopped in. I had a ham/cheese croissant which was delicious. I also bought a loaf of cheese curd bread. Rated: Stop By This Bakery Anytime We Are In Duluth! 

The smoke from fires in Canada is really bad and we have unhealthy air alert. It was sad that we could hardly see the bridges over the river from all the smoke. 

After dinner, the four of us headed to Iron River City Cemetery. I wanted to do some Find A Grave (footnote 2) volunteer work and Bridget was very interested. She got excited about Find A Grave and later she went to sign up to volunteer. Turns out she set up an account a year or so ago.

Kevin and Richard were entertained while we were at the cemetery. They watched YouTube videos in the truck. HA

Highland Valley Berry Farm in Bayfield, WI. Kevin wanted to see a blueberry farm. Bridget asked her friend who lives in the area for her suggestion and this is the place. The berry farm was beautiful. The bushes are very tall. You can pick your own or buy already picked. We decided to pick our own. The place was very organized and told you where to pick. You pick the entire bush before moving down the row to the next one and you move a flag as you go.  

Next we continued our circle and went to Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center. We learned that on canoe journeys, the Ojibwe and voyageurs would stop at regular intervals to smoke a tobacco pipe. They would measure the distance of a trip by the number of breaks or “pipes” between the two points. HAHA We walked up several flights of stairs to the inside and outside viewing area. We were both very disappointed in that we thought we would see Lake Superior. Nope. Now, maybe, over the trees, on a smokeless day you can see the lake way off in the distance, I don’t know. Looking next to the building we saw several little ponds. Kevin and I laughed and said, “Oh look, there is Lake Superior. Oh there is Lake Michigan. That smaller one is Lake Erie and over there is Lake Huron.” Oh, we are so easily entertained by ourselves! 🙂

Another day all of us went to Duluth. When I was making my Exploring Cards, I had written down the SS Meteor. I was very excited to see this old ship because it is a whaleback boat. I remembered on the east coast, New Bedford, where we learned about whaling and the boats. I wanted to tour one. The warnings talked a lot about steep climbs and Kevin and I decided it might be hard on my dizziness. I was happy to skip the tour and just look at the museum inside the boat. After Kevin got his ticket, he realized I was thinking this was a whaling boat. Nope. He lovingly, trying to hid his laughter, told me a whaleback boat is just named that because the shape looks like a whale. What? Oh I laughed so hard. And then he continued that whales aren’t found in the Great Lakes. I looked it up and they like salt water, however, sometimes they are in fresh water. Anyway, what a funny! 

This is Duluth River Train and is very unique in that it is all totally run and funded by volunteers. The engine was an old yard / switch train. Used to go back and forth in a train yard moving trains cars. There were two train cars and then an open air car. We sat in the open air one. The train moves slow and headed south along the river. It was through an area that used to be filled with companies that dealt with coal, steel, etc. The narrator said that small hill over there is not natural. It is the tailings, or wood chips, etc and covered. The area has been cleaned up and there are now condos and fishing spots along the way. Even an area where they are getting wild rice to grow again. It was fun. It started at 1:30 p.m. and was a 2 hour round trip ride. Nice and relaxing ride.

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.

2. Find A Grave – https://www.findagrave.com/about