Lake Superior

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Gretings and salutations from the far north of Wisconsin. My journey continues to go smoothly with pleasant surprises along the way. Saturday I had my first rain since encountering a bit in Tennessee a week ago. It let up while I walked Chessy and packed up in Madison. I drove in rain for 30 minutes. Shortly after the skies cleared for the dive north. Had one brief shower last night about dark and another surprise storm while I was exploring over in MN today. Even had some small hail for a minute or so.

When I pulled into the campground last night I had several interesting experiences. I'm parked next to another Allegro Bay FRED (FRont Engine Diesel). Had a fun time talking with the folks. Theirs is a 2008 as is mine. Then I noticed a RARE motorhome - a Corvair Ultravan. Yes you read correctly - a 22' motorhome that is Corvair powered. This one has a smiley face on the front. Rewinding 4 years in my mind I said to myself - I know those folks and I met them when I was in Two Harbors, MN in the summer of 2007! So I headed their way and sure enough it's the same couple and Ultravan. I'm 99% sure that journey was one of my first where I blogged on the travelblog site so if anyone is interested, they can go back in time and see some earlier photos of Smiley.

When I was walking Chessy, a couple from CA wanted to get their 'dog fix' and visit with Chessy. They gave her a treat and we talked for a while. Turns out they had been to Oshkosh this summer for the big fly-in. I got some tips and suggestions for taking in that experience with my RV.

This morning I had the radio on while eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. A moldy, goldy, oldie, blast from the past came on: Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Her final voyage began from Superior, WI. I visited a museum today that had a small display on the ship. I also got a 4 page fact sheet from the US Army Corps of Engineers - who operate the bridge that raises straight up (not like the typical drawbridge) to let ships into the harbor.

First stop of the day was Cloquet, MN to visit the only service station Frank Lloyd Wright ever built. In the 20s and 30s he came up with the initial designs. In the early 1950s he built a home in Cloquet for a couple. He was a fuel distributor and decided to talk with Wright about building a station for him. This one of a kind station had skylights in the service bays, a 2nd floor lounge where customers could wait while their car was serviced, and a copper roof. They said a typical station in the 50s cost around $5,000 to build. This one cos $20,000. And I'm here to tell you it was way more fancy than the one my Dad had. Wright wanted to run the hoses in the roof to avoid having a traditional gas pump island, but local authorities said no. Given the history I've heard about Mr. Wright this week, I'm sure he was not a happy camper. Several tour guides discussed his need to control things and do it his way.

In the afternoon I had fun down at Canal Park in Duluth. I got to see a large Dutch cargo ship come into the harbor while I was there. It is going to be loaded with grain.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it during this trip, but all the photos I've posted thus far have been taken with my iPhone (any processing has also been done on the iPhone). I have taken some images with my 'big boy camera', but haven't taken the time to edit them in Photoshop. I'm sure later on in the trip I'll be posting some of those. I've been playing around with my new fisheye lenses. One is for my Canon, the other is for the iPhone. My iPhoneography friends know about the Olloclip, but those of you without an iPhone who are laughing at me right about now, the Olloclip has a fisheye, wide angle and macro lens that attaches to the corner of the iPhone fitting over the camera lens.

That's it for tonight.
Bruce

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Photos

Corvair Ultravan
Here's the Ultravan I first saw 4 years ago.

Twin FREDS
Here's a photo of the two Allegro Bay FREDs side by side. Not quite twins as the other is 37' long.

Wright Station 1
Front view of Frank Lloyd Wright station.

Station side view
I took the original image, made a chalk 'painting' version and blended it with the original to get this result.

view from the lounge
This is a view from inside the 2nd floor lounge at the station.

final station image
I took two images and stitched together to get this view of the station.

drawbridge 1
this is the drawbridge where the roadway is raised straight up to let ships pass through.

Bridge within a bridge
There were several of these little miniature versions of the drawbridge around the park. I used the wide angle lens attachment I mentioned to capture this view.

lighthouse 1
There are lighthouses on either side of the canal that connects the harbor to Lake Superior. This is one of them.

lighthouse 2
Here's the other lighthouse with a boat coming in. In the background you can see the cargo ship that was waiting for a local pilot to board and allow them to come in.

Ship in canal
Here is the cargo ship coming in to dock and load up with grain.

Ship under bridge
I played around and turned this into a vintage photo look.

Artsy
Here's my fun, artsy, fartsy image. It was taken with the Hipstamatic camera app and the Salvador 'lens' which creates crazy effects.