Monday, July 30, 2007
Duluth and the North Shore
Thursday was our “free day” in Hinkley. Carol and I drove to the North West Fur Trading Post, the southern-most of the fur trading posts in Minnesota. Our tour of the stockade-like post was with a group of 8-12 year olds. The tour itself was interesting, as was watching the reactions of the kids.
Tonight was steak night at the casino buffet – following the lead of Bill Morrison, one of our group members, I devoured two steaks, along with the usual side dishes and, of course, dessert.
I played a little more video poker, and won back what we lost last night – for two days at the casino I believe we finished dead even.
On Friday, we left for Spirit Mountain Campground, just south of Duluth, Minnesota and (across a short bridge) Superior, Wisconsin. In the afternoon, Carol and I drove along Skyline Drive for some good views of the city below.
Our group had dinner at Grandma’s, a restaurant housed in what was formerly a bordello operated by Grandma in the late 1800s. The dinner was excellent and generous – we left with enough food for a left-over’s dinner later in the week.
Saturday morning our group toured Glensheen Mansion, a 27,000 square foot, 15 bedroom, 10 bath house built between 1905-1908 by William Congdon, a local lawyer who made his money dealing in mining property.
The house was built at a cost of $850,000 (about $30 million in today’s dollars). When Congdon learned how much it would cost to furnish the house, he bought a furniture company and had all of the furnishings custom made. The bedposts in the guest rooms were topped with removable, carved wooden pineapples, a symbol of hospitality. If a guest returned in the evening to find the pineapples removed, it was a not-so-subtle hint that they had overstayed their welcome.
On Sunday, we had another “free day”. Carol and I started the day with a tour of an iron ore lake freighter, the William A. Irvin. The 610’ ship is 32’ wide and 60’ deep. Until it was retired, it made week-long trips on Lake Superior, carrying 14,000 tons of iron ore. Its coal-fired steam turbine engine burned a little over a ton of coal and hour and propelled the vessel at about 11 knots, fully loaded. It was efficient but slow by Great Lakes standards. Below the pilot house there were 4 large guest rooms, each with a full bath. These luxurious quarters included a fine dining room with one of the first fan light combinations, and an elegant lounge. Both guests and crew were well fed – the cook had a budget of $10,000 per month for the 32 crew.
Duluth has nice lakefront walk. Carol and I walked part of it, then rented a two person bike surrey and rode for about 45 minutes up and down the waterfront. One of the waterfront features is a lift bridge with an unusual superstructure. In our later tour of the Maritime Museum, we learned that the bridge originally did not have the lift level, but instead a tram car was suspended from the superstructure by cables and carried passengers back and forth across the river.
Today (Monday) was a trip along the north shore of Lake Superior to Grand Marais, about 50 miles south of the US/Canada border. En route we stopped at two state parks. At the first, Gooseberry Falls, we walked mostly paved trails to see the Upper, Middle and Lower falls. The second stop was Tettegouche State Park. At this park we packed a picnic lunch and walked about ¾ mile (1-1/2 mile roundtrip) to Shovel Point. The trail offered great views of the Lake Superior shoreline, which at this point features some high cliffs that are very reminiscent of parts of the Oregon coast. There were even two groups of people scaling down the face of the cliffs. With a modest breeze from the lake, it was at least 10 degrees cooler along the trail than in the rest of the park. Although our entire group stopped at the park, I believe we were the only ones to walk the trail.
Tonight we will have a wine and appetizer get-together with the other members of our group – we had such get-togethers each of the three evenings in Duluth.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
The Twin Cities
After picking up our Winnebago from the factory service department on Friday afternoon, Carol and I drove to Minneapolis, parked the RV, and headed for the Mall of America (MOA). The MOA is the world’s largest mall and the largest indoor amusement park. The mall has three main levels (the fourth partial level is a multi-screen theater and Hooters), each with an inside perimeter of about 6/10 of a mile. We spent about 2-1/2 hours touring the mall before having dinner in the mall at Tony Roma’s. Except for one other reasonably priced restaurant, all of the eating places in the mall were either fast food or a little on the pricy side.
The amusement park features a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, flume ride, a couple of roller coasters, several other adult rides, and a handful of kiddie rides. The most unusual (pictured below) is a roller coaster with cars that spin much like the teacups at Disneyworld.
Unusual roller coaster
Usual Ferris Wheel
Rick and Castle of Spam Cans
The new Harry Potter novel was to be released at midnight on Friday, and by 9:00 p.m. people were already beginning to gather for the festivities at Barnes and Noble. We learned the next day that over 6,000 presold books were delivered Friday night.
The mall is air conditioned in the summer, but has no heating system for the winter – it is warmed by body heat, lights, cash registers, and other electrical equipment.
We returned to MOA on Saturday morning and met up about noon with the rest of our Minnesota group, who had departed Forest City earlier that morning. We ate lunch as a group in a nice, reasonably priced café in IKEA, then spent a couple of hours touring that large store. It looks like a great place for young married couples to shop to furnish their homes and apartments.
Our campground for the next four nights is Bunker Hill RV Park, located in a nice county park in a north Minneapolis suburb. The county park also includes a golf course, equestrian center, and water park. We had dinner as a group Saturday evening in the golf club restaurant.
On Sunday our “host” from Minneapolis gave us a tour of the Mississippi River waterfront. We then took a backstage tour of the Guthrie Theater. This is a large, modern theater that anchors a theater community (over 100 theaters) that is second only to New York and Chicago. The building is an architectural showplace and features a “bridge to infinity,” an enclosed cantilevered walkway that offers good views of the Mississippi River. After lunch, we toured the Mill Ruins Museum, housed in an old mill building that in the mid-1850s was the largest flour mill in the world for three months, until a larger Pillsbury mill (which held the world record for about 50 years) was completed just across the river. The mill, which was owned by one of the four companies that later combined to become General Mills, burned twice, once in the 1920s and again in 1991 (after it had been vacant for some 25 years).
Part of our Group
View of Part of Mill Ruin
On Monday, we returned to the riverfront to eat at Kranarczak’s, an ethnic European restaurant, and to take a cruise on the Mississippi on a small riverboat. The cruise gave us a good view of the city skyline, and took us through the northernmost (and deepest) of the 29 locks on the upper Mississippi River – a 50 foot drop in a lock that discharges 8 million gallons of water in about 10 minutes. The lock is adjacent to St. Anthony Falls, the largest waterfall on the Mississippi. The falls formerly powered the riverside flour mills and today runs a hydroelectric power plant. Along this stretch of the river there are a couple of unusually shaped transmission towers (pictured below), which have been designed to provide a softer look than the normal towers.
Paddleboat
Tower Style 1
Tower Style 2
St. Anthony Falls
Monday evening was a pot luck dinner at the home of Joe Lapinski – the fellow who has organized our Minnesota trek. He invited a friend of his who is a history buff to give us a brief talk on the Minnesota Indian uprising of 1862.
On Tuesday, about half of our group toured the Science Museum in St. Paul. In addition to three levels of hands-on exhibits, we saw an Omnivision movie on ancient Greece and a special exhibit on Pompeii. It is amazing how well preserved the Pompeian artifacts are, including pottery, jewelry, carbonized food, and walls with fresco paintings. Later in the day, Carol and I visited Ft. Snelling, a fort which dates from the early 1800s and lies where the Minnesota River joins the Mississippi. Dred Scott, of U.S. Supreme Court opinion fame, lived at the fort for a period of time.
Science Museum
Ft. Snelling
Ft. Snelling
On Wednesday, we moved the RVs north about 60 miles to the Grand Casino RV Resort adjacent to the Grand Casino in Hinkley, Minnesota. En route we stopped at a small local winery and sampled red, white and fruit wines – and, of course, bought a couple of bottles. This was followed by a quick stop at an outlet mall before reaching our final destination. In the early evening we played the slots and enjoyed a buffet dinner in one of the casino’s eateries. Tomorrow is a “free day” in Hinkley, Carol and I will probably shop, sight-see and revisit the casino.
Assuming good internet access, the next update will be in 4-5 days, after we have visited Duluth.
Winnebago Grand National Rally
On Saturday (July 14) we made a fairly short drive from Branson to Forest City, Iowa, the home of Winnebago Industries and the site of the Winnebago owners club’s annual Grand National Rally (GNR). Although the GNR does not officially start until Sunday, we were probably among the last tenth to arrive of the 1400 plus coaches attending the rally, since some people arrived as early as the 5th of July.
The official rally opening ceremony was not held until late Sunday afternoon, so we spent most of the afternoon Saturday and most of the day on Sunday reading and visiting with a couple of our neighbors and a couple of folks we met on last year’s Atlantic Canada caravan.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we participated in a number of rally activities. I attended several hour-long seminars held by Winnebago, Freightliner (the chassis manufacturer), Caterpillar (the engine manufacturer), Allison Transmission, and others. Carol and I went on a one-hour tour of the motorhome plant, where 40 motorhomes a day roll off the assembly line. Each one takes about a day and a half to build. We also visited a number of vendor booths, looked at the new model year motor homes on display by local dealers, visited the craft competition, and watched some entertainment. There is continuous entertainment every day from 10 to 4 in an entertainment tent, in addition to three major shows scheduled for evenings in an outdoor amphitheater.
Monday afternoon we attended a “first timers” social hour sponsored by the Florida Winnie-Gator club and Tuesday afternoon we attended a Florida state dinner followed by a kick-off meeting our group (10 couples from last year’s Canada caravan) that is going to travel together through Minnesota for two weeks after the rally.
Monday night’s scheduled entertainment was cancelled due to severe thunderstorms and Wednesday night’s entertainment was rescheduled to Thursday morning for the same reason.
On Thursday morning we had a 9:30 appointment for service at the Winnebago service center across from the rally grounds. We ended up an hour and half late due to mud at the rally grounds. We got stuck. We called Good Sam Emergency Road Service which dispatched a truck from Mason City, about an hour away. It then took about 20 minutes for our rescuer to winch the motorhome about 50 yards until we reached solid ground.
The Winnebago service center worked on our coach on both Thursday and Friday. We had two service technicians – one who has been on the job for about 2 months and one who, at 44 years with Winnebago, is the most senior employee in the company. They fixed three of the four service issues, and diagnosed the fourth problem, but did not have the part to fix it. Rather than return to Forest City for the fix, we will have the work completed at a Winnebago dealer somewhere en route.
Although we did not hear about it until later, on Thursday the service center totaled a 40 foot motorhome when it fell off of a lift and landed on its side. Rumor has it that the fall did about half the damage, the other half being done when they used a forklift to right the coach.
On Thursday night we saw the highlight show of the rally – the “Lost in the 50s” troupe from Branson, Missouri.
After our service work was finished on Friday, we headed for Minneapolis, where we are scheduled to rendezvous with the rest of our informal tour group at the Mall of America at about noon on Saturday.
Despite my earlier promise, there are no photos from the GNR. We will definitely have photos on the next post after the first week or so of our Minnesota trip.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The First Week
The first couple of days were designed to get us to Branson, Missouri as quickly as possible via Alabama, Mississippi (we spent the first night in Hattiesburg), Arkansas (the second night in North Little Rock) and southern Missouri.
The only notable sight en route was a series of signs in Mobile which said "Emergency Traffic Information -- Tune to 1620 AM When Flashing." Only problem, the signs had no lights, flashing or otherwise -- hopefully they are still under construction.
We arrived in Branson -- the old folks show capitol of the world -- early Saturday afternoon. Over the next three and a half days we saw six shows.
* Shoji Tabuchi -- Japanese violinist trained in classical violin who came to America to play country music after seeing a Roy Acuff concert as a teenager in Japan
* Yakov Smirnoff -- native Russian who came to America as a child speaking no English and has become a wildly successful comedian
* Acrobats of China -- an amazing troupe of acrobats from ages 8 up who perform a variety of feats of strength and balance -- it's a show you have to see to believe
* Mickey Gilley -- country singer and entertainer who started in Texas many years ago -- his Texas club, Gilley's, was the location for the Travolta movie "Urban Cowboy"
* 12 Irish Tenors -- a group of Irish tenors (7 native / 5 by ancestry) who sing a variety of music
* Grand Jubilee -- a variety show with an execllent quartet, a couple of soloists, an awesome band, and some silly comedy -- it's a high energy show that was a good way to finish this year's Branson experience
Although we saw six shows in four days we did not get bored -- each one of them was so unique that they kept our interest.
In addition to shows, Branson features three outlet malls. We only went to two of them. We also spent a half day driving our car for sightseeing in the nearby Ozark foothills and around several of the Branson-area lakes.
On Wednesday we has a short day of driving to Harry S. Truman State Park near Warsaw, MO. En route we stopped for a couple of hours at a collection of antique malls. We also had an interesting lunch at Lambert's -- Home of Throwed Rolls. Whenever fresh rolls come out of the kitchen, a waiter stands at one end of the room and throws rolls to diners who raise their hands. That was fun and the food was good.
Today we drove a final leg to Des Moines, Iowa, where we are spending two nights at an RV park adjacent to the Adventureland theme park. Tomorrow we plan to spend the day in the park. Then it's on to Forest City, Iowa for Winnebago's week-long Grand National Rally. I will report on that segment of our trip in about another week.
We have no pictures from this first leg of the trip -- hopefully we will have some by the next time we post.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Getting Ready To Go
Carol and I are in the final stages of loading the motorhome for our long-awaited summer trip. We begin with a couple of days in Branson, Missouri, then attend our first Winnebago Grand National Rally (GNR) at the Winnebago factory in Forest City Iowa. This will be a week-long event with about 1600 RVs in attendance. Activities will include meals, shows, factory tours, visiting vendors, etc.
After the GNR, we will travel up the Minnesota coast with about 10 other couples that we met on last summer's Atlantic Canada caravan. One of the couples is from Minnesota and has mapped out an ambitious agenda for a two-week trip.
Leaving Minnesota, we will have a month to get to Moab, Utah, where we will travel with the WIT club's Grand Circle Caravan visiting many national parks in Utah, Arizona and Colorado. On our way to Moab to join the caravan, we plan see as much as we can of North and South Dakota.
When the caravan ends, we will return home via Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico, Carlsbad Caverns, Big Bend National Park, San Antonio, and the Gulf Coast.
Assuming we have good internet connections, I expect to update this blog about once a week. Keep watching for news (and a few pictures) of our 2007 journey.
