golddog goes for a ride

Went down by the river, and tried another road leading toward it. I think this is more the "first fish" area. Just a little gravel parking area at the end of the road.

There was a young guy there with a couple of lines out, so we chatted about fishing, living up north, whatever. Turns out he was from south-Central Missouri. He didn't offer a story how he got up north, and I didn't pry.

However, the road went between two little cemeteries. This caused me to realize that I hadn't been out to the cemetery in many years.

Now, I'm not one for ceremony or whatever. They're not getting anything out of me visiting--the laws of thermodynamics being what they are--but it was a way to kill some time.

Superior is kind of a triangular town. I'm in the east end, and the cemetery is south of town, with a very industrial area between. That's where the huge oil tanks and natural gas balls are, and the refinery--heavy industry. When Superior gets in the news, it's because of this area.

Not really sure where I'm going, I set out, generally going west and south. Eventually found the main road out of town, and the cemetery's just beyond that. Pulled in, and had this vague notion of where their graves are from my dad's funeral--it's kind of on the left side as you enter. I knew mom was next to him, but had never seen her site (she died in December 2018, and they don't inter bodies in the winter, waiting for the ground to thaw. Probably just started for the year).

Anyway, pulled up just past this puddle so I wouldn't step in it, and in about 10 minutes of wandering, found their sites. I was surprised that dad's headstone (footstone?) had a cross on it, and mom's didn't, as she was very much the church lady and dad was decidedly not. I think it might be that he was a veteran, and that's just how he was registered when he enrolled.

Getting ready to leave, I noticed the stands where they put cremated people's remains. The dad of my best friend from high school is in one, so thought I'd see if I could sett Paul's site.

There's three of these stands. Each spot is faced by about a 1 foot square piece of marble. There's about five of them high, and about 20 around in an almost-cylinder. Couldn't remember which he was at, so looked at each, looking for his name.

Noticed that the names of the parents of my friend who I met the other night where on one of the stands. While it's good that they've planned ahead, it kinda freaked me out; when I asked after his folks the other night, he seemed to say they're not doing great.

Anyway, found Paul's in another stand.

Took off from there, and went across the old Oliver covered bridge, which goes to Minnesota. MN side:

WI:

The St. Louis River there eventually becomes the bay from last night and then the harbor area from earlier, and is the border.

On the Wisconsin side, there's the small (pop 623) town of Oliver. That small, and thy've got three bar & grills. It's hard to explain how much of the culture up here is tied to drinking.

Back into town, drove through, then back to the hotel. I'm on the very east edge, almost out of town. Probably have something like a sandwich for dinner, after that big lunch, then a few beers before getting to bed so I can get out of town tomorrow.

Also it occurred to me today that I forgot to look for Moonlight Graham when I went through Chisholm the other day. Rats.

what an honor to receive the TA 50k prize
guessing Tom won't notice for another ten thousand

Friend texted this evening. Said he was going to his folks, would I like to stop by.

Nice surprise, great to see them again. Probably early 80s, so likely last time.

Then, I got to the bar near the hotel. Bartender mentioned they'd had live music earlier. My friend has been playing gigs like that for many years, so I gave her his name. Hope he gets some work out of it.

I know you've seen the bridge in action, but for those who haven't, here's a picture a couple of tourists from the South took in 2016 with it partway up for that boat. IIRC they blast a horn loud enough so that everyone in the greater Duluth area knows that the bridge is rising.

I can't think of a place I'd rather that post land. I still haven't received my cash award though. Any idea who I'd contact to make sure they know where to send it? $10,000, you say? Wow!

further evidence missppi folk have been historically suppressed from understanding the meaning of dollar signs

And, the boat in particular in Tom's picture appears to be the Vista King (or Queen). Back when I was still there, it was part of your senior year in HS to go on the harbor tour.

I thought I remembered seeing it in the outer harbor in one of my Skyline Drive pictures (don't see it now), and meant to point it out. There's a couple of very similar ships that go on a trip around the harbor, and point out grain elevators and whatever else is there.

Do not recommend. But then again, I don't recommend anyone to come up here, so there's that.

Spun out of town 7:30 ish, so not too bad.

While still the north woods, there is the occasional farm.

Headed east, and saw the Brule River. It is apparently a very famous trout stream.

My late uncle used to go out about every day during the season after he retired. His world was pretty much sports and fishing. When cleaning out his house, found a little notebook he kept of his fishing. Not just catches, but weather conditions, flies he used, date and time, time spent on the river. Just tons of data over the years.

I asked mom to take that up to the DNR (about two miles away),, figuring that they would love such a trove of data, but that never happened. Then, I couldn't find the notebook in mom's house when she died. Guess I should've taken better control of the situation.

Went to the state fish hatchery nearby. Unfortunately not in use currently. The season is August-May, which surprised me. I would've thought this stuff would freeze solid and kill the little fishes in the winter. Nobody around to ask.

I remember us taking the occasional ride to this place for dinner. Used to look different, but the same name.

Turned south, lots of creeks and lakes along the way.

and more farms as I went, though still mostly woods.

Eventually got to Timms Hill, the highest point in Wisconsin. On the trail, it started raining. More a steady shower than anything, but glad I grabbed my raincoat. When you get up the short trail, there's an observation tower, from which you can see all the land of cheese and beer.

Here's the actual marker

Next to the public observation tower, there's another one. Not sure what it does. (The marker is actually underneath the latter).

Here's looking up the non-public tower. There's nothing really stopping anyone.

On the way down, saw this guy

(frog next to the leaves, pretty good camo).

Trundling along, came across the Wisconsin River

and Lady Lake

Moving south again, it started raining like hell. Camping's out for tonight, so got an early night in Antigo's Super 8. Probably an early night and morning.

These pics confirm our impression that if one wanted to "vanish" that the UP of Michigan, much of WI, or damn near anywhere in MN would be prime candidates. My first choice would be MN; my god!

Actually, there was a movement in my childhood to make the 51st state of Superior. As I understood it, some people up north felt they weren't getting values from the various state capitols, and wanted to secede into their own thing. Sort of NE MN, the top of WI, and the UP.

I don't know if it was just a few cranks, or had some action behind it. It was big enough I remember seeing bumper stickers around.

Anyway, woke up to grayness. Some scenery along the way.

Eventually came to this place.

As is my custom, I stopped at a county park on Door Peninsula for sandwich. That's Green Bay (both the aquatic feature and the city) in the background. Not much of a skyline.

For those that don't know, the Door Peninsula is that bit of land sticking up on NE Wisconsin which separates Green Bay from Lake Michigan. I thought the whole thing was Door County, but here we're still in Green Bay (city).

Drove north. It seems to be some farming, lots of orchards (mostly cherry) and wineries. Here's one I stopped at to buy a bottle of wine for my neighbors watching the place. I think they like Chardonnay.

After pulling out the audio wasn't working. At first, no sound. At some point, I got a text, which the car recognized, but didn't do the text-to-speech for me. Tried shutting off the radio and re-powering it.

Hmm, that's a few strange things around the electronics this trip. Going to be a long trip back without tunes.

Kept going to the end of the road. That island (Washington Island) is the actual end of the road, and there's this ferry.

Went up the west side of the peninsula, and back the east. Stopped at a beach on Lake Michigan and met Sasha.

Her mistress would pitch the ball out, and Sasha was off after it. Really good swimmer, it was out there pretty far.

Water a little warmer than Lake Superior (of course, further south and shallower), but still pretty cool.

Saw these cool old cars just north of Sturgeon Bay

You can get the two '58 Edsels for only $22K!

Staying tonight in Sturgeon Bay. Walked up to a bakery/cafe for a burger (meh), may walk into town later.

As always, think of things when out and they drip into the thread as I recall when around a connection.

More about Canadian highways. They don't seem to have billboards like in the US. There were a few of the huge ones, but mostly they were clustered right around the town, and seemed to be about 4x8 sized instead of what we have.

On a related note, I thought I should drop into a HD and check if they have 4x8 sheets of stuff, and if their studs are still called 2x4s. Didn't get to the one I noticed.

The last night in my hometown, I went to the bar across the street from my hotel. Only person in the place besides the bartender. At some point, she mentioned they'd had live music earlier.

Texted my friend, who's been playing gigs around the area for decades as a side hustle. Got the ok to give her his contact. She said she'd pass it on to their music guy.

My friend had no idea this bar has live music. Hope he ends up with a gig out of it.

Set out, went down the Lake Michigan shore a little way. Near Algoma:

And their entry into Lake Michigan and beach

Saw this public art at the turn for Alaska:

Now I can say I've driven to Alaska twice.

Turned east, and went to Green Bay. This was Lombardi's house:

And eventually found my way here

Notice the clock. It was actually about 10:03. The clock is set to "Lombardi time," which meant that 15 minutes early was on time.

First, walked down the other side of Lombardi Avenue. Many of the houses over there have (semi-)public art in the back, facing Lambeau.

Quite a few had what appeared to be viewing decks on top of the garage, or just hanging off the structure, in back. Not quite sure what that does for you. It's not like the rooftops at Wrigley in the old days, where you could still see a little of the game. I guess you hear the roars?

I wandered in and checked with shareholder services that the meeting was at three. Yep, gates at 1:30. Originally, I figured that I'd go to the casino for a few hours, but the guy told me that practice had just started across the street.

That the indoor practice facility, with outdoor fields flanking it. Today, they were on the far side.

The Packers have a pretty fun tradition where some players will ride kids' bikes from Lambeau, where the locker rooms are, to the practice fields. The kid will get to trot along, and often carry gear like a helmet. Didn't see it in action, but there were a ton of kids' bikes, so I assume it's still on.

Access controlled to Ray Nitschke field. Not sure if people bought tickets, or it's first-come-first-served, but the line was down block.

The had some bleacher seating on the end, but it was full. Was able to walk up to the chain link and get one photo real quick.

Went back into the atrium, where they have a giant Lombardi trophy

Some fun art outside. This represents the "Lambeau Leap", and people are encouraged to get in there for a photo.

As well as the iconic statues of Lombardi and Lambeau.

Went to the car and made my sandwich, sat in the shade and had lunch. Now time to kill, but I didn't feel like gambling, so went to the Packers Hall of Fame.

Really nice exhibit; tons of information and stuff, really well done. Here's some highlights.

They have a timeline of Packers history. Here's when I became an owner.

The Packers Hall of Fame contains brass footballs for each inductee. In back is a locker room, with one for each player in Canton. Then beyond that are the trophies.

Here's the one I actually saw them win

Here are the NFC Championship trophies (fore) and the old, old NFL Championship trophies (back).

They had this interesting display of how the uniforms have changed over the years. But, what I found most interesting is that statistic on the far wall.

No, you're not particularly close.

They also kept Lombardi's office furniture.

Then went to the shareholders' meeting.

The president of the team, Mark Murphy, is retiring after this. I stayed for a while. Various people were talking about how their part of the team is going (like the GM hyped up how close they were last year, and how they made some good acquisitions), but the sun and warmth was getting to me. But here's Murphy giving his intro, and thanking the crowd for the ir support and warm welcome for his last official act.

Then I started heading southwest. Got a burger in a little town (~760) called Wild Rose. Some years back, maybe 2003, I went on a tour of Alaska where we flew up to Deadhorse, then took a couple days in a van driving the Haul Road back to Fairbanks. Our tour guide was from Wild Rose. Small-town connections.

Anyway, I struck out again finding camping. In Wisconsin. Hard to imagine; up north, there's signs all over for campgrounds. Drove along til the sun was getting low, and finally found a hotel. It's probably ok, pretty warm and muggy tonight.

I stopped in a HyVee for some reason this morning, and used their wifi Thought to check how far from home I am; most direct was something like 1069 miles.

Since I'm a backroader (and I'm also kinda in BFE), probably a couple more days, maybe two-and-a-half. But I did start feeling today like it's enough.

Some public art near the hotel I stayed in last night.

This was closer to the gas station than the "adult superstore" next door. In either case, no explanation given for its meaning.

Got up and came across what seems to be Culver's HQ in Prairie du Sac, WI.

In unrelated information, I went out with a young woman in college who was from Prairie du Sac, No idea if she had a Culver's background, or indeed, if there even was a Culver's back then.

Plowed along the north bank of the Wisconsin River. Not good light, but some decent scenery.

The land side is changing from woodsy to farmy

Eventually crossed the Mississippi into Iowa.

They have a "riverboat" casino there

Back when I was still in the midwest and Iowa gambling was just getting started, there was a requirement that rivreboat casino must actually leave the dock. I assume this one is a holdover from those days.

There's some bluffs, but pretty soon Iowa turns into what you expect.

It's ~7 feet tall there. I think an elephant's eye is still higher, but there's time in the growing season.

Plowing west across the top of Iowa, found myself in Clear Lake, where the music died.

This interesting-looking place was nearby

Went across the top of Iowa, then dropped down to Council Bluffs. While at the Quaker Steak & Lube for wings, made my hotel reservation down in Lincoln. Then, immediately thought, "I didn't check the casino (just down the street) hotel's rate. Would've been pretty inexpensive for a Saturday. Not sure I'm in the right mindset to play cards, though, so maybe for the best.

Also was able to book the room for points. Went for a walk after getting settled, and noticed this on the way back.

Moon over Lincoln.

I've pretty much covered Nebraska over the years, so I imagine tomorrow is pretty much plowing through. ~500 miles to go.

Wow. Stepped outside about 7:30 to put stuff in the car. It left oppressive in the dust.

82 degrees, must be same or more in humidity.

apparently iowa and surrounding farmland will be experiencing a heat dome when combined with something referred to as kernel sweat may result in high levels of sucrose humidity released into the air ascerbating the feels like temperature situation

meanwhile, in other news from aw shucks i'm growing popcorn counties
'tis a shame federal help is considered some sort of commie action or else the rest of us would be happy to give you a leg up back upon the try again horse

Dude looks like he has some summer sausage in one hand and, in the other, the requisite two rolls of toilet paper that look like the wood pulp type we had at summer camp when I was a kid--or maybe at a gas station of the same vintage.

Are those dumpsters Packer green or just quasi-luminescent so they don't get hit by drunks at night?

Pretty sure it's a sausage and two beers. Because two are better than one.

Not Packers green, but I'm betting on the latter.

Oh the comment on the heat was at 7:30 AM Already 82.

For a second there, I thought it might cloud up for the second half of Nebraska. Indeed, the road looked as if it had showered recently, and the outside temp indicator dropped to 82 from 89.

No such luck. A tiny line of clouds, then back to full-on sun and 100 degrees. Driving west, I got it right on me. The Subie's AC did ok, but then again I like it warm. Others may not have enjoyed it so much.

Ground along to Paxton, where I stopped at Ole's Big Game Lounge for lunch. Pretty sure I have mentioned it before. Here's some pictures.

It was packed, at about 10:40 AM local (Paxton is the first town in the Mountain Time Zone going west, so many of these people--like me--may have felt it was close to a noon lunch),

Back on the road, pretty much plowed through to Denver except a few breaks cuz I'm old. Car indicated 100 or close the entire way. Home about 3:30, dragged stuff in, started laundry. Probably early night tonight, then back into normal lifestyle.

Some stats:

5262.8 miles (shoulda went 17.2 more)
.468 gallons saved by the engine-off-when-stopped thing (though that doesn't work particularly well, it seems).
51 mph average
Nine states, two provinces, two countries.

Other stuff:

I think I forgot to mention the Saskatoon reference. In the all-time classic SlapShot. If you haven't seen it, stop reading this and download it now.

IIRC, in the movie, just the one line is used as background for one of the bus driving along scenes.

Iowa has very good roads. Often four-laners where the traffic doesn't seem to dictate them. One of them I went on was labeled the "Avenue of the Saints".

This idea was first floated back when I was still living there. They said we should have an interstate-type highway between St. Louis and St. Paul, and have been pushing for it ever since, I guess. Not sure what having such a thing is supposed to do for Iowa. I've also never heard of anyone in Minnesota or Missouri promoting it, but then I'm not looking for such things either.

I didn't know they'd built so much of it. Not sure if this is a "build it and they will come" sorta thing,

For roads, I'd have to put Colorado and Manitoba near the bottom. Iowa and Nebraska had much nicer highways.

Overall, a pretty good trip. Didn't camp as much as I should have due mostly to my laziness. Some poor weather and smoke from the Canadian fires made things blah at times, then hot and humid the last couple of days.

I imagine other things I remember that I forgot will dribble into the thread over the next few days, like usual.

Wisconsin is known for 2 things, sausage and cheese. That is a sausage in his right hand , but the left hand is holding a wheel of cheese with a wedge cut out of it.

OK, I can buy that. But I would add a third to the list, beer.

I can almost hear The Killer singing "The Cheese That Made Wisconsin Famous Has Made a Loser Out of Me."

A couple of weird dreams last night.

I was at a party. For some reason, wearing a blazer, dress shirt, and shorts (not me). No idea how I would've been invited.

This party was hosted by or for someone I dated in college. At some point, her husband introduced himself, and asked how I knew her.

When I told him we dated for a while in college, that was a surprise to him. Curious how their evening went after that.

Second, I was in some town which straddled the Canadian border. Walked up, and realized while there I didn't have my passport with me. Woke up before I got back to the border.

I asked one time on the southern border what would happen if someone lost their passport. Thinking more like spring breakers in South Padre stumble over, getting too drunk.

The agent told me they have to show you should be denied entry. However, they can take as long as they want to gather info. It sounded as if, if you had some other ID and a reasonable story, it would probably go pretty well.

Of course, this was ~10 years ago. Not sure if things have changed. My re-entry on this trip was smooth. Showed guy passport and Global Entry card, we talked ~2 minutes, and off I went.

No idea. Nothing on the agenda.

A month or so ago, I was walking by my travel agent's office on the way to whatever, and happened to see her coming in for the day. Chatted a few minutes, then told her we should discuss finding something for "next up". Told her to text/email/call me, as her schedule is way more full than mine.

I haven't heard anything, suppose I should follow up. I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to run through my A, B, and C lists in my life so far. Other things I might be interested in, but could die ok without doing them:

The Masters. Don't care about the golf. Just going on an off day and seeing/photographing the course would be what I'm after.

Round the world. Well, not all at once. The slice of the world between Varanasi, India, and Ipoh, Malaysia are the only longitudes I haven't visited or flown over. It might be nice to overlap just to say I've done a circumnavigation of a sort. Unfortunately, looking at the map, not much in there I want to go to.

East Africa. Maybe cool to see the animals up there. Seems more savannah-like.

Galapogos. Here's the opening of the Ecuador travel advisory at state.gov

Most of the tours I've seen go through Guayaquil, so that doesn't seem great.

A friend moved to Richmond this spring, and my nephew (last I heard) is in Coulmbia, SC. So there's a possible trip, get out there to say hi.

Always willing to take suggestions, if anyone has ideas.

Got an email from Wyndham that I am now upgraded to Platinum. A few benefits like early check-in and accumulating points faster, and car rental upgrades at Avis and Budget. Probably won't use the former and latter, but the middle is nice.

Also, they do a status match with Caesars. Found a page on Wyndham's site which purported to take some info, including my Caesars number. Naturally, it errored, telling me to try again later.

Found the 800 number. They'll surely be able to help me set this up, right? After a couple of times on hold, the person comes back and tells me I have to use Caesars site. "Well, then, why do you have a page, which errors, for exactly that purpose?"

While she puts me on hold to try to get some more assistance, I find the thing on Caesars and submit a status match request. Got an email acknowledging my request.

guayaquil is fine if you're not drunkenly stumbling about on the street at 1 am