Day 4: Bermidji, MN to Duluth, MN

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Start Odometer: 31762 Weather: Clear and warm, with some wind.

After a quick snack of yoghurt and an apple, I had a coffee with Larry, packed and was underway by 9:15am. My goal was to reach Duluth by mid-afternoon. The road immediately entered into heavy forest again, and as it was still early I kept my eye out for animals. Sure enough, a doe popped out the woods just up the road. I braked to a crawl and sounded my horn to get her to make a decison. She bolted across the road, but they hardly ever travel by themselves, so I waited. Within a couple of seconds a little fawn ran out of the tall grass and raced across the road as fast as its little legs would go. I felt pleased with my defensive driving.

As I passed through a little hamlet called Bena, I noticed several motorcycles parked in front of a cafe, so I went in for breakfast. Mistake. The breakfast was fine, but the motorcycle group was made up of locals in for morning coffee. They were guys in their fifties and a bit rough. I decided to keep to myself although that didn't stop them from staring me down. They were all smoking, including the waitress, so I lived with that stink in my clothes for the rest of the day. This certainly wasn't the flavour of the prairie cafe breakfast in Swift Current. Everyone was loud and every second word started with 'f'.

The waitress, Helen, commented that Bena should now be called the home of Bigfoot because its foot print was found just outside of town. She showed me the newspaper article from the previous week inferring that it must be fact if it was reported in the paper. Uhmmm.

I asked Helen if there was any local industry other than tourism.

"Oh, there's fishin', but that's about it."

I got specific and asked if there was any logging or lumber industry.

"Oh yah, they do that stuff all the time, but it's busiest in the winter when the marshes are frozen and the guys can get to the trees."

And indeed there is forestry in that area. Just down the highway at Grand Rapids there were two huge paper mills. I guess Helen doesn't get out much.

The rest of the ride was pretty boring that day. In my boredom, I imagined the roads to be like a prairie road with 60 foot solid fences on either side. The only problem on the prairies is they would blow down regularly.

At 2pm I crested the ridge at the edge of Lake Superior and dropped down into Duluth.

I took a turn and ended up on some pretty rough looking streets. To tell you the truth, this was the image I had of Duluth so I wasn't shocked. I went into the first motel I saw, but was put off the no smoking room when I saw butts littered outside the door. I left their quickly and went in search of something better. I found it, in the real Duluth just down the road. I seems that I had been in West Duluth and it is known to be rough.

Duluth is quite the place. It is an old port city that was settled to service mining and the railways in its past. At the turn of the 20th century, it had the most millionnaires of anywhere in the US. The north end of the city still has the mansions they built and lived in.

Today, the city is clean and seems prosperous. The old buildings have been kept and restored. The water front has a walkway called the Lakeshore Walk and it extends for 5 miles along the city waterfront. The Lakeshore Walk is very well done, with places to sit and view the water, little gardens distributed along the way, and lots of resturants and places for treats (coffee, malts, gelato, etc). The lake is populated with huge Great Lakes freighter boats and private boats of every type and size.

Once I checked into a motel I went in search of an internet cafe to work on my blog. I could only find a coffee shop that had one terminal with a half hour restriction, which was intended to be enough to check e-mail. Oh well, it will have to wait for another town and another day.

After supper I went for a long walk along the lake. It was warm and the wind had died down, so it was about as pleasant as it could be. There were couples and families out on the walk enjoying themselves, which made everything seem rather peaceful and proper. As the sun set, one of the large freighters approached the port. Its claxton sounded, bassy and loud, as it approached, and the Minnisota Slip Drawbridge at the entry to the port went up. This bridge is unique. You can google on it and read about the history if you are interested. I haven't figured out how to put links in here yet.

The scene reminded me of when I was about 8 or 9. Mom and Dad bought me a balsawood model of a Great Lakes Freighter. It was painted, with a black hull, white top and a red smoke stack. I remember playing with that every time I was in the tub. They really are impressive vessels. Long, slim pencil shaped boats when viewed from above and narrow enough to go through the various canals and locks that connect the Great Lakes together. This was the first time I had ever seen one in open water - impressive.

I wandered about a bit more, then returned to the motel to watch the Tour de France replay of the day. I did it again and stayed up too late.

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Photos

Typical 'Wall of Trees' Road
This gets pretty tedious after six hours.

Duluth: Rose Garden on Lake Walk
There were several different gardens. The lake is Lake Superior.

Duluth: One of the impressive buildings
This, believe it or not, use to be the High School. It is now the city Administration Building.

Duluth: View from my favourite coffee shop
Believe it or not, this place was never crowded.

Duluth: Freighter heading for bridge
A bit hard to see, but it looked neat