A Long Day Of Driving

At 8:30 this morning we pulled out of our campground and headed out for a 970 mile stretch. I was hoping to do this in two days but........

Casey grabbed her pillow from her toy box and settled in for the ride.

 This stretch is going to take us from Michigan to Wisconsin, then through Minnesota and end at Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota. The day started out nice but the speed limits of the route we took limited us to 55 MPH.

I enjoy seeing the local art painted on the sides of the buildings in these small towns.

 Our route took us around the Lake Superior Loop

The roads were smooth as silk as we pulled into the town of Christmas, Mi.

Santa was even there to greet us

If you click on this picture, you'll notice that the building on the left, is the Christmas Mall. I wounder if all the local kids hang out there.

We stopped along the loop so Casey could stretch her legs and burn off some energy.

The lake water is crystal clear and very cold.

Looks like a Divi Divi

Joyce taking water samples and cooling her toes.

Bake on the road, Casey hides under her pillow and naps till we stop again.

These kids just got dropped off along the road and were looking for another ride. Two girls, one guy, and a dog. Wow!

Again, the sides of the road was lined with flowers.

Nice

Then we came upon an area where the log trucks were running. I couldn't believe has fast there guys blew past us. So much weight!

Look at all the wheels. I wonder how long it takes to stop.

Then we started to hit the areas of road repair, some stretches as long as 14 miles.

We enjoy the little towns, this one had a totem.

You'll have to click on this pic to make it out. It's a big guy on skies.

And as we cross into Wisconsin.....

Casey is still napping.

We passed a Casino but it's too early to call it a day.

So we continue on only to run into a detour....oh no! This sucks!

But as we detour through the town, more murals. Isn't it cool.

This is an old hotel right on the lake.

Then a funky looking place.

On no....the sky opened up and it rained so hard the traffic had to slow to 40 MPH. The up side was it cleaned all the dead bugs off the windshield.

Getting to the end of Wisconsin.

Welcome to Minnesota

At the border, there is a huge industrial area. Those are coal shuttles running over the highway.

So after over 9 hours of driving with road repair delays, detours, and heavy rain, we only made it about only 420 miles. I am beat and I spotted this Casino right at our exit so here we are. I know that I will not make it to our destination tomorrow so I think I will break it up to two easy days of short miles. Once we get to South Dakota, we can kick back for a few days.

Oh yea...I mentioned that there was a chance of seeing the Northern Lights last night. Well, I wasn't able to stay up late enough to see them. It didn't get dark till 11 pm.

See ya tomorrow!