We're in Canada! The sun is low in the sky, as we're driving northwest through the countryside toward English River, where we are stopping for the night. It has been a beautiful day for a drive - sunny and warm, with some beautiful, wispy Cirrus clouds. They have a yellowish hue as the sun begins to set.
Barry and I left home at 3:52 a.m. and made it to the Indy FastPark in 50 minutes. We went through the TSA pre-check line fairly quickly, on the wrong side of the airport. At the gate, we had a slight boarding delay but departed about on-time. With about an hour layover at O'Hare, we made it to Minneapolis before 9:00 a.m. Dad and Larry missed the ramp to the baggage claim area at the airport and were disappointed to discover the airport has no turnaround. After leaving the airport property and driving several miles, they eventually found a spot to turn around and come back to us. We left the airport around 9:20.
Dad initially seemed to have trouble following the signs for I-35E, but soon enough we were headed north toward Duluth. During the drive it seemed Larry and Dad both enjoyed telling stories about family history and previous fishing trips. Larry says this is his 61st fishing trip to Canada. That's amazing! This year he's making three trips, like he has a several years in the past. I was surprised my dad hasn't been to Lake Osnaburgh for 5 or 6 years. I think this is my 7th Canadian fishing trip. I was reminded that my last trip was in 1997. It's been a while!
I drove for about 115 miles from a rest area through Duluth to lunch. There was 10 miles of construction which, unfortunately took. About an hour to get through. At one point the one-lane traffic stopped suddenly and cars were veering left and right to avoid collisions. I stopped hard with a few feet to spare between us and a couple of cars in front of us. I was wondering if everyone behind us would get stopped and, lucky for us, the truck behind us flew past us on the right into the ditch, avoiding us and the car on the shoulder. They driver said they were ok, so went went on, thankful we were able to do so.
We stopped at a Culver's north of Duluth for lunch, then had a lovely drive up the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior. We stopped along the way at Gooseberry Falls. The park was packed with people and their pets enjoying the great weather and the holiday weekend. We walked around to take a quick look at each set of falls and to take a few pictures (each of which included quite a few people in addition to the aceneryscenery). After that, we stopped at the Palisades Head to take in the view and watch some climbers, followed by the Split Rock Lighthouse scenic overlook, and finally a high scenic overlook from which we could see Isle Royale. At each place, Dad seemed to misjudge the entrance and ended up going in the exit.
We stopped just before the border for fuel and an odd little duty-free shop. We bought some alcohol and then drove up the road to wait next to the Customs office for some guy to deliver it. We got through the border fairly quickly, and they let us through even though Barry did most of the talking on my behalf.
Well, now it's dark and we're driving past an occasional closed restaurant wishing we had eaten some supper. We should be in English River before 9:30 p.m., within the next hour.
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