Day in the Life of an Idiot

 Shawn and I have arrived in Connecticut for our son's graduation FROM COLLEGE (I know. I also don't know where the time went.) I will detail the entire trip, but per usual and since it is Wednesday, I will first bore you with my reading.

This week was slower than last, but I finished up what is currently available of Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle: Mammoths at the Gates and The Brides of High Hill. Of the two, I think I enjoyed Brides a little bit more because it flips the classic horror story of the imperiled bride and adds fox spirits. Plus, while Brides has all the magical Chinese-influenced characters and mythos, it has a slightly more Western storyline? The plot is plotty in the ways that Western readers, like myself, are familiar with. I loved all of these novellas, to be clear, but I think the people for whom When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain has been a favorite, this one should also work for them in a similar way.  

Then, because I was unable to download one of the murderbot books I hadn't read yet (Exit Strategy) right away, I started on an audio book from 2016 which kind of fits the vibe of the current crop of Hugo nominees, davidlevine 's Arabella of Mars. It's a Regency SF book in the same way that A Scorceress Comes to Call is a Regency fantasy. It's a shame, in a way. I think that David was ahead of his time. This book (which I'm only 34% of the way into) is to science fiction what romantacy is to fantasy. It's kind of high personal drama, low stakes and I'm super into it. 

Okay, so the rest of my life....

We set off on the road on Sunday. Sunday was our big push across country to Valparasio, Indiana. Shawn still has some remaining relatives in Indiana, namely her stepsiter Karen and her husband Don. I was not looking forward to dinner with them because we had been assaulted by dozens of pro-Trump signs as we drove across country and Don is... at BEST a libertairan of the sort who listens to Rush Limbaugh. But, he was mostly on good behavior, I think due to being exhausted from an extended bout of pneumonia. But, we still managed to have one interaction that was typical of him. Don is from the Chicago area originally and Catholic, so thinking this had to be a safe subject, I asked him what he thought of the new pope. He said, "Fine, except he's a Communist." I gave him my best "??" face and then said, "Uh, isn't that the point of Catholicism? What with the feeding of the poor and sharing of loaves and fishes?" Which, did, at least, give him pause. 

Monday we drove from Valparaiso to Youngstown, OH. On this trip we did a bit of sightseeing as is our wont. Shawn picked up a brochure that suggested that there were some things to be seeing in Amish country, spectifically Middlebury and Shipshewana, IN. We never actually made it to Shipshewana, as it happened, because we found a lot to explore in Middlebury, specifically this lovely little park called the Krinder Gardens



Image: Me (left) and Shawn (right) all smiles in the gardens


This little garden was genuinely charming, and I always love getting off road to see something new and/or interesting. 


Image: Lovely, weird bird sculpture in the garden

This being spring, we also got a chance to see a ton of lovely flowers in bloom.


Image: these one flowers I love (which I also grow in my own garden), but whose name I have blanked on.

So, that was fun. We saw a lot of horse drawn buggies, of course. My favorite thing about those was watching the horses very expertly knowing which stalls belonged to them in various parking lots. We even saw one buggie go into a... gas station??? (Shawn noted that the driver got out to fill a gas can, so probably fueling a generator or something. Not, as I'd hoped, gassing up the horse.)

We ate a rather boring meal at a place that advertised itself as Amish-inspired. Alas, it was only SLIGHTLY inspired. But, still, it was nice to have a sitdown meal before heading out for more hours of driving.

Yesterday, we drove from Youngstown, OH to Milford, PA. The very Milford where Daimon Knight used to hold his famous worskhop, where we spent the night in an actual MOTEL. The lady behind the counter there was a little bit... "Are you sure you don't want an extra bed?" but I refrained from pointing out that we'd hardly be sinning in that bed since we're quite legally married. But, the motel was actually very charming and I think attracts a lot of queer folks? There were some men on motorcycles who were extra friendly to us in a very 'family' way, if you know what I mean. I'm sure that lady behind the counter has a lot of disapproving to do. 

Then, this morning we did the rather short hop between Milford and Middletown, CT, where we will be for the next several days as we pack up Mason's dorm and watch him get his diploma. I shall try to post pictures and such BEFORE next Wednesday, but I guess we'll see how well I manage that.

What about you all? Do anything fun this week? Read anything new, exciting, or good? 

 
Image: Clouds reflecting on the lake

A friend from Michigan was supposed to be staying with us for a few days this weekend, but plans changed due to a funeral. I ended up driving him to Blue Earth, Minnesota, where he was going to meet up with family and then make the rest of the trip to the Dakotas. Since I was already all the way down at the butt-end of the state, I decided to see if there was a state park I could check out. 

The internet suggested Myre-Big Island. 

I didn't have a huge amount of time to explore this park, since I arrived at it around 6 pm (technically the park is open until 10 pm, but I was not equipped for nighttime hiking.) So, I drove out to see the "little island" and then parked at the Big Island for a little tromp in the woods. The first thing I saw was a "fat friend" in the restored prairie near the lot. The muskrat or groundhog was munching on some clover and I paused long enough to try to get a blurry picture of her. (It's on Facebook, but it's really too pixelated to reproduce here.) 

The trail was dark and lovely, full of looming trees.


Image: trail into the woods

I probably only hiked for a half hour, but I got my passport stamped and stretched my legs (which was the real point of this detour.) Plus, I saw some cool, heart-shaped mushrooms.

 
Image: the Kettle River, at a guess

Normally, Mondays are out for State Park driving (unless we stick very close to home) because Shawn goes into work. Shawn has been battling some stomach issues for the past few days and so stayed home sick yesterday. Her bad fortune, however, opened up an opportunity for Mason and me.

I looked down my list of State Parks and decided on St. Croix. Mason and I had been here several years back and greatly enjoyed our hike, though my strongest memory of that particular hike was JUST HOW MANY ticks we shook off out body and then continued to find all the way home. I was reminded of this when I checked the Trip Adviser reviews of St. Croix State Park in the hopes of divining if there was something, in particular, we should set as a quick destination. The consensus (including, if I recall correctly, people here) was to give the fire tower climb a go. As I was reading through the reviews I noticed what seemed to be a funny trend: BUGS. There seemed to be almost a kind f argument raging between the people who posted TOO MANY BUGS and those that replied BUGS ARE PART OF NATURE. Being firmly of that second camp, I packed our extra-strength bug spray, lots of water this time, and we headed north.

I was not prepared for the Biblical proportions of bugs, however.

I am talking A-POC-A-LYP-TIC levels of horse flies and mosquitos. Like, at one point as we were driving towards the Fire Tower, Mason casually says, "Do bees follow cars?" I looked out my passenger side window and, after one landed on our car (which was traveling at least 15-20 miles per hour) we determined these were not nice, fat bumble bees, but HORSE FLIES. Giant-ass horse flies!  And they were, seriously, keeping pace with our car in a way that felt ready-made for a Stephen King horror movie.

We did not let this deter us. however.

We stopped first at the Fire Tower. I will confess to you all that I was fine going partway up, but my fear of heights is strange. I'm okay with climbing things if I can't see open ground through slats. The stairs were open and so I tapped out after only the first platform. Mason made it all the way to the top and took some photos of the spectacular view.

My view was mostly from the ground, looking up.


Image: Fire Tower at St. Croix State Park from the safe, sweet ground.

Other than the end-of-the-world level horseflies, it was a great driving time. I think Mason put in a full hour just going around the various roads. He even agreed to drive out past the ranger station where the posted speed was 50. I don't think he cracked 45, but he gave it a go. AND managed to stop in time for an indecisive deer in the middle of the road. 

However, we didn't make it home until very late. 

Still a good time was had by all.

 
Image: A red backpack with Minnesota State Park badges and pins on it.

Normally, on Fridays I have a Zoom with some of my writer friends. But, with Mason home for the summer, we're really trying to get as much practice driving in as humanly possible... while also making it fun.  As I've said before, my clever plan is to combine the driving with one of our favorite things: State Parks. Today, we're planning on making a longer return trip to yesterday's driving foray, Afton State Park. Afton is one of the closest State Parks to my house (Fort Snelling State Park being the closest, being only just by the airport.) The driving isn't terribly exciting at Afton, although with winding hills, Mason got in a lot of practice regulating his speed through turns and inclinations. We also *ahem* got in some very tiny practice getting one's wheel up out of the ditch when we semi-failed a y-turn on a narrow backroad. All important stuff, mind you!

Today, we're hoping to make more of a day out of it, stopping to do a little hiking and check out the park more thoroughly. 

I also wrote down a list of some of the other nearby (nearby meaning within 2 hours of us) parks:

• Banning State Park, a place we've hiked at least one, but long ago,
• Charles A Lindberg State Park, a place I have never been,
• Crow Wing Sate Park, another new one, and just at the very edge of 2 hours to get there,
• Father Hennepin State Park, a big giant question mark of a park,
• Frontenac State Park, which Shawn and I checked out during fall colors... last year? Year Before? But which might make for good driving practice now,
• Interstate State Park, which, I have, and there isn't--at least on the Minnesota side--much actual driving to be done there
• Lake Maria State Park, which I have never been to,
• Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, another one that is just under 2 hours, but which I've never explored,
• Nerstand Big Woods State Park, another complete unknown,
• Saint Croix State Park, which we've walked, but never driven,
• Wild River State Park, which we recently drove, but could return to to hike, and
• William O'Brien State Park, which I also have never fully explored.

So, this could easily keep us busy if we try to hit a new State Park every Friday. I think it would be especially fun to see just how many of these would CAN see, but, looking at the maps some of them would really not net us a whole lot of actual driving experience. We'll see what Mason thinks. My other thought is that, as he advances in his ability, we could always head to one of these more remote ones and try driving on county highways.  We'll see. He might also get bored of this exercise way faster than I will. Plus, in the next week or so, he's going to have a friend  (Mason's very best friend, actually,) in town, with whom he will then go visit in their hometown. So, maybe I will end up exploring some of these places entirely on my own.

Any of you local folks who spend a lot of time in State Parks who have advice or recommendations about good places either for me or for me and Mason, please drop in a comment!

In addition to continuing to try to fill-in my passport book, I've also started collecting either buttons or patches from the State Parks we visit to add to my hiking backpack. This is the one pictured above. It was Mason's old kindergarten backpack, so it is actually very child-sized small, but it fits a couple of emergency medical kits, sun screen, bug spray, a flashlight, umbrella, State Park guidebook, Kleenex (and a plastic baggies), a bear whistle, and other such sundries. (You might be laughing at the bear whistle, but I wore it religiously up at Bearskin Lodge, so it stays in the pack.)

This weekend Shawn and I are hoping to go to Deutsche Tage at the Germanic American Institute this weekend, here in Saint Paul, because: why NOT? It also looks as though rummage and estate sale season is in full-swing, so perhaps we will also check out some of those. We also have to do some boring mundane things like buy new shoes, but, honestly, I kind of enjoy that kind of shopping with Shawn. 

Anything fun planned for your weekend??

 Today was not a day for putting miles behind us, as it were, but a day to take in some sights. I fell in love with Pennsylvania the first time we drove through it on the way to drop Mason off at college. The stretch we drove along I-80 is full of rolling hills that remind me strongly of the bluffs and coulees of my hometown in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and the surrounding Driftless Zone, as it's called. 

As I mentioned before, growing up, my family used to send out Groundhog's Day cards, and so I've always kind of "celebrated" Groundhog's Day in some fashion. So, it seemed only fitting that since we were passing right past Punxsutawney, we should stop. 

I found this whole town to be rather delightful.

First of all, there were statues of "Phil" all over town, much like there are statues of Snoopy all over St. Paul. The first one we saw was actually outside a Wendy's. 


Image: a statue of a groundhog dressed as Wendy's.... 

If this horrifies you in any way, Punxsutawney is not for you. The whole town has gone ALL IN on the cheesy goodness of their beloved rodent, Punxsutawney Phil. You can see the actual groundhog at the local library, where he has a den he shares with Punxsutawney Phyllis. Here is a picture of me and the statute right outside of his "burrow."


Image: Me and Phil outside his library burrow.


I did not get a great picture of the rodent himself, because the glass he was behind had been scratched and smudged by a thousand faces all pressed in to see him. But, you can view him either from outside or from the inside of the library, in the children's section.

Here is the terrible picture of this world famous rodent:

Image: A smudgy view of the furry butt of the world famous weather predicting rodent.

He looks like he's hiding here, but he was actually busy digging up wood chips. They were both every active and adorable to watch. I can see how they'd be a big hit with the kids. We drove around the town a bit, found the official gift shop on Main Street, and then decided to brave having food at a diner called Punxsy Phil's. All I can say about that experience is that the food was very perfectly greasy spoon and the waitress really wanted these two ladies to want separate checks, even though Shawn very pointedly said she was waiting for her wife, while I was off in the bathroom. Le sigh. This, unfortunately, jives with all of the "Trump 2024" bumper stickers and lawn signs we saw as we drove through some of the backroads.

Le sigh.

We then drove around a bit through the Elk Scenic Highway. We did not see any elk, alas. All of the tourism guides say that if you have any real chance of seeing elk, it's in the fall. So, of course, we're here in the spring. 

Even so, the scenery was amazing, though I swear to god, every semi truck on the planet was careening down these tiny, winding roads right on the back of my bumper. Insane!

The last sight we really wanted to be sure not to miss was the Kinzua Sky Bridge.  This used to be a railway bridge, but a tornado destroyed it and now it's a walk way. 


Image: a very tall bridge. 

The Interpretive Center told us that this bridge is taller than the Statue of Liberty. I would believe it. There were hawk soaring BENEATH us at points. The view is spectacular. They also have a glass panel in the floor of the thing where you can look down (or, you know, if you're INSANE, stand on the one inch thick glass.) Shawn, generally, was uncertain.


Image: Crawling seemed safest, honestly.

Then, after enjoying the sky walk and the amazing giftshop, we hit the road. We had not actually booked a hotel anywhere because we wanted to remain flexible in our plans. Shawn started searching for interesting places and stumbled across the Kane Manor Inn. The inn itself was booked solid, but they have an overflow guest house and so we snapped up a room there. It's actually in a house across the street from the manor, but the room is lovely. The manor itself is amazing and we'll be have having breakfast there in the morning.


Image: The breakfast room.

Anyway, today was a wonderful day. The temperatures never crested 70 F/21 C. I think, actually, it stayed in the mid-60s (around 18 C) all day. 

Tomorrow may be mostly driving? We'll see if we stumble across anything interesting. 

 
Image: cherry blossoms at the MN Arboretum 

My friend naomikritzer and I were talking about things we would appropriate from other cultures the other day (mostly, we discussed how much better Jewish people do funerals,) and I brought up the idea of Hanami. What I like about the idea of Hanami is that people in Japan will often take time off work to just go look at flowers (specifically cherry blossoms, but if you read the Wikipedia article, you can see that it really applies to any flower.) We don't have anything like this in the US, possibly because there is no single flower that blooms everywhere in the US, since we're such a massive country. I feel like the closest we have to this kind of thing in the Midwest is leaf peeping in the fall. 

But, so Naomi and I decided to have a day of intentional flower viewing. We'd hoped that there would be enough flowering trees of some sort blooming at the Minnesota Arboretum, but, the cherry blossoms, had not entirely popped yet, alas. 

However, the tulips were in full bloom.


Image: so many tulips!

Naomi brought a picnic basket and had made us both a lovely chicken salad and so we wandered around the arboretum for a long time, checking out the tulip display and some of the other things that were in bloom. Yesterday was a very gorgeous day, with lots of sun (although it got quite warm, into the 80s F / 27 C.) 

This was my second time out at the MN Arboretum and, if you've never been, I have some advice for how best to appreciate it. My suggestion would be to go into the Welcome/Interpretive Center and get a map from the information desk. However, be warned, the maps and signage are fairly terrible. But, they always have a decent seasonal display very near the welcome center (again, ask for directions, because it's not self-evident how to get there--you need to go through the building, up the stairs/elevator, go to the right to get to the door, and once outside go left.) Near here is also the Japanese garden, which, ironically, had no cherry trees, but does have a koi pond.  I would, had I to do this again, wander these nearby gardens for awhile, and then hop back into the car and drive their "three mile road." The drive, which Naomi and I ended up doing at the end, will give you a good sense of what else there is to see in the arboretum. Then, you can decide where you might like to return to and/or hike to.  You can drive the loop as often as you like, so you could go around once just to see what there is to see and then drive it again and park at one of the official stops along the way and checkout whatever interests you. Had we done this first, Naomi and I probably would have stopped to admire the sculpture garden more, the Chinese garden, and the Rhododendron garden. As it was, we tried to walk the three mile walk (not difficult terrain and paved, but... it doesn't have great vantage points, and so) and ended up not seeing the Chinese garden from where we were.  

Anyway, that's my advice. Take it or leave it. If you are a seasoned hiker/walker the three-mile walk is really quite pleasant. I don't regret walking much of it, but I think if I go back I really want to check out the Bog Walk and some of the other less popular destinations. 


Image: pasqueflowers

 
Image: The perfectly reflective Clam River (Wisconsin.)

Shawn and I went back to the quilt show in Weber, Wisconsin, to see which ones won, and on the way back to our friends' cabin we spotted a sign that said "Clam Dam." HOW DO YOU RESISTS CLAM DAM???  So, we turned down the road and followed the signs to the quirky little public park around the dam that dams the damn clam river.



Image: Shawn crossing the damn clam dam.

The park, as my grandmother might have said, wasn't much "to write home about," but today is just such a lovely day that we spent a good half hour just sitting on the banks of the river, listening to the water flow, and watching the waves leap and pop, sending spray up into the air.


Image: a moss-covered rotting wooden fence in Clam Dam park. 


Image: The damn narrow dam walkway.

 
New, as of yet unnamed kitteh, a stray who looks IDENTICAL to Willow, aka The Void.

This weekend we heard a lot of howling and yowling in our yard. Upon investigation, we found this young lady (guessing no more than 6 months old) entertaining a bevvy of gentlemen callers in our backyard. We were able to coax her onto our porch for safe keeping as we hit the usual Facebook groups for an owner. No hits so far, though there is at least one person who is interested if she will otherwise be homeless. We have a vet appointment scheduled for her to get her emergency tests: feline leukemia and intestinal parasites, etc. If she gets along with our other two, we will get her on the docket for a spay. 

Otherwise, perhaps, some lucky neighborhood Facebooker will get a new cat.

We are trying to resist naming her, but the vet needed something so she is currently, Clover, as in we found you rollin' in the...  Mason pointed out that if we keep that name, all of our current crop of cats have botanical names: Willow, Buttercup and now.... clover? We shall see. We are trying to be responsible here, since our current couple get along famously and we have been loathe to break up their perfect union. 

In other news, there's been a flurry of activity around my place. Monday and Tuesday, naomikritzer and I played tour guide (not to be mistaken for The Tour Guide) for two out-of-town guests, rachelmanija and her friend Lauren, who were here for Bouchercon, the world mystery convention. I started them off at Axman, a local "surplus" store that is far, far more than your average surplus. We're talking about surplus iron lungs, buckets of dolls heads, and so much weird stuff... along with lots of dead-useful electronics, etc. It's kind of a place that needs to be seen to be believed. 

Then we had lunch at Se Salt, with the intention that maybe we might take a look at Minnehaha Falls. Normally, you can hear it roaring from the restaurant. I didn't hear it, but also didn't think of it... until we looked over the edge. There was barely a trickle. I'd forgotten about the summer long drought, despite my constant struggle to keep my garden alive. It didn't seem worth doing a nature hike, so we ended up on Summit Avenue. I gave everybody a walking tour, which was a great deal of fun. We walked a LOT, but it was a lovely day and the buildings are so fascinating. 

Rachel was around a second day so we did some books shopping and hanging out. 

And then on Thursday offcntr and Denise came to town as well. We went out to lunch at Bole, an Ethiopian restaurant. They have an amazing outdoor patio because Bole was one of the places that burned to the ground here in Midway during the George Floyd riots and, thus, they relocated during the pandemic. We had a lovely time just chatting and catching up and eating amazing food.

The rest of the week and weekend were spent finishing painting our bedroom. We'd painted one wall Baskerville Blue, if you recall from an earlier post, and we hadn't gotten around to doing much else even though we wanted to make the other three (we have five walls in that room) a lighter, yet rich yellow. We finally finished that project this weekend, though it took me both days thanks to the kitten dropping herself into our lives.  I would post pictures of the bedroom, but it is actually so dark in that room, I'm not sure if a photo will do it justice. 

Hope you all had a good week. Sorry I was completely absent.

 
Image: The Book Barn in Niantic, CT

The Book Barn in Niantic was pretty much everything I ever wanted from a used bookstore. They even had cats (and goats.) I mean, I will admit that I kind of hate driving in New England because the streets are narrow and if the speed limit is posted at 35, all the drivers read that backwards and drive 53 and THEN also slam on their breaks when they need to make a sudden turn. It's terrifying. However, it was worth the harrowing driving to make our way EAST to Niantic, CT to see the many versions of the Book Barn. We stopped in downtown first because it was where the science fiction was located (as well as the other genre books) and then we headed to the main sight, which is kind of a book wonderland.


Image: yet another barn/outbuilding with books in it


Image: a secret garden at the Book Barn (complete with koi pond.)


Image: "Barn" cat on the pavement. The Book Barn has five (?) cats. We saw three.


Image: book section reads, "Radicals, Anarchists, and Other Troublemakers."

We spent several hours here before driving a little further down the coast to a restaurant called "Skippy's" where Shawn had heard they had good lobster rolls. Lobster rolls are one of those legendary things that Shawn had been reading about forever and really, really wanted to try. In fact, her great regret last time we made it out to Connecticut to drop Mason off in the fall was that we never stopped to have one. So, this time, we came prepare. She'd read up on the places to go and the fact that Connecticut lobster rolls are special. In Connecticut you have lobster rolls hot, slathered in hot butter, on a toasted bun. Apparently, (she says uncertainly, as she is a Midwesterner bred and born,) other places lobster rolls are served cold, with mayo. 

But, we really enjoyed the Connecticut version!.



Image: A lobster roll, sweet potato fries, and coleslaw

MMMMMMM, so good!  I am determined to try the cold version at some point, but I am unsure how anything can compare.

Our last stop was Hammonasset Beach State Park. Shawn and I had been there before, but this was Mason's first time. He's seen the Atlantic before, but I'm not sure he'd dipped his toes into it before. Those of you who have not been following me for very long may not know that my son used to dream of being a marine biologist. He got the ocean bug, I think, by watching Blue Planet as a small, but it is honestly stuff like this that make me believe in past lives. There are so many stories I could tell on this child, but just know this--this is the young person who, at the age of six, came running down to the landing when he was supposed to be asleep wailing so much that I thought he must have injured himself saying, "Mama, Ima, mama, ima!" (I am ima, Shawn is mama,) and when I ran to comfort him, he wept into my arms, "Mama, ima, megalodon is extinct!" 

I was only able to comfort him by saying that while, yes, this was true, there were still a lot of smaller sharks still around. 

So, he LOVES the ocean.

Thus, I was surprised when Mason was initially kind of meh about the beach. I suspect some of it had to do with the fact that it was bit crowded. There were a ton of people at the beach, despite the overcast day and fog. Mason likes his alone time with nature. But, some people started shouting about jellyfish and so I went to look and managed to coax him into the water. After seeing the jellyfish floating in the surf as well as spotting a hermit crab shuffling long on the ocean floor, he got into it.


Image: Mason inspecting the shallows for signs of marine life

I had a lot of encounters with sea life, myself. I am often nibbled on when I go to lakes by sunfish and the like, but I did not expect to also be tasty to whatever small fry hang around near the shorelines of the ocean!  But I got nipped by some small fish that I could see, plus a little ghost shrimp briefly landed on my foot as I was leaving for the shore (I shook the little guy back into the water safely.) 

We ended up having quite a lot of fun despite the weather. 

Then we drove a few miles and checked into out hotel. Time to settle in with a few of the many books we bought at the Book Barn!  'Night all!

 
Image: Marblehead Lighthouse on the shores of Lake Eerie

Given how often I post pictures of virtual tours, I should probably be very clear. I WAS ACTUALLY HERE. Shawn and I decided to take a little side trip while in Ohio, and so we stopped at Marblehead Lighthouse. This is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the US side of the Great Lakes. It is in a town named after it in Ohio, and it is on the shores of Lake Erie.


Lake Erie

My family has a motto for our road trips, which is: "Might be worth a detour!" and so we are always up for stopping at slightly out of the way places to see what might be seen. I have to say, the lighthouse was lovely. Normally, you are able to go inside the lighthouse, but by chance, their open season doesn't begin until after Memorial Day, so it was closed. Even so, the rocks around the peninsula were lovely and seemed to include a number of fossils. They reminded me of the lava flows around Lake Superior. 

Tomorrow, we head into Pennsylvania and I've been tasked with the job of finding out if there is anything along I-80 that might be worth a detour. I think I have found a couple of possibilities. If we stop anywhere nifty, I will post whatever we see tomorrow night. 

My brain is fried from all the hours n the road, so I will keep it short tonight.