On the Road Again

15-17 June 2008 – On the Road Again

After our time at the Dunes we had 3 days of driving. Our final destination was Winnipeg.

On the Sunday we passed through Traverse City, a picturesque place on the water, and after a full day’s driving we arrived at the Michigamee Shores Campground in northern Michigan.
A couple of highlights were the crossing of the Mackinac Bridge and the putting of the fingers into Lake Superior. The Mackinac Bridge crosses a narrow section of water at the confluence of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. An impressive engineering feat, this suspension bridge is several km’s long. What particularly appealed to me was the fact that its huge cables were painted a beautiful soft limey green and the 2 massive piers were a rich cream. On a clear sunny day it was, to my eyes, a beautiful sight.
From there the landscape changed and we gradually moved north west away from hills and lush forests and into the precambrian shield towards the south shore of Lake Superior. It was near Marquette that we stopped at a view point and I had my first encounter ever with Lake S.

Monday’s drive took us towards Wisconsin which we crossed into at Ironwood and then into Minnesota at Duluth. Along the way, I was struck by the numerous patches of wild lupins of various colours growing along the verges. The crows in this part of the world are big and the “caws” are very loud so they’re apparently known as Nipissin vultures. It became flatter around Grand Rapids Minn., and we began to get the early signs of the prairies. We camped that night near a little place called Cass Lake. It’s in this area that the great Mississipi River rises and where we first crossed the Red River of “Red River Valley” fame. This river flows through Winnipeg and then north to Hudson Bay.

On Tuesday we did our final leg through Grand Forks, North Dakota (4 states in 3 days), and then north to the Manitoba border. The road we traveled was straight towards a flat horizon. Trees became more sparse, and at one point I could see the whole length of a train traveling parallel to us. There were great expanses of green farm fields interspersed periodically with enormous silver grain silos. At about 2 in the afternoon we arrived at a little hamlet called Aubigny about 40 mins. South of Winnipeg. It was here that we were to left our trailer for a couple of days at property belonging to a friend Joan of my friend Iris, friend too to the Femmes Kickass of London. Joan is in the process of converting a large garage that used to house 7 cars into a living space for herself. Amazing woman. It was here that Iris met us and guided us to her home in Winnipeg.