Apostle Highlands Bayfield

... through hell and I was just waiting for Lucifer to pop out. Right when the word Lucifer came out of my mouth, the biggest fox I have ever seen ran across the street, stopped in the middle of the road, and glared at Ash and I. It was abnormally, eerily, mutantily large. We both freaked out and even to this day I know Ive seen the devil and he resides in the woods of Iron River, WI!

... state is an almost unused four-lane divided road. We also started seeing trees in the small river valleys.

In Minnesota, fall colours are starting to appear. Also, they are building a pipeline (Canadian natural gas?) across the state which made it almost impossible finding an inexpensive motel room. Picked up a gallon refill of beer (Oatmeal stout) in Duluth to be used at the Minnesota-Greenbay football game -- the ...

... 2000 rose bushes and 600+ varieties of roses. A lot of the bushes still had roses in full bloom. In another area there was a peony garden that had over 380 varieties of peonies. The downtown core catered mainly to tourists – small cantinas, bars, lounges, restaurants and gift shops. The whole area (about a six square blocks) was built with brick cobblestones instead of pavement. It was a pleasant walk after a long day’s drive!

... br>The girls are holding up well. I think I have the packing thing down better too. Tomorrow we will enter Michigan and cross the upper peninsula trying to reach Mackinaw where we will camp. Here's some photos of today's adventures. The big fish is "Willy" and lives in my hometown, Baudette, MN, which is the town on the Southeast side of Lake of the Woods, and it is the "Walleye Capitol of the World. " LOL.

Our first stop today was at a local business named Timeless Timber (www.timelesstimber.com) For the past 10 years this company has been recovering previously harvested timbers. Back in the heyday of logging, that is to say prior to the Civil War, entire old growth forests were cleared. The easiest way to get these logs to sawmills was to float them down rivers and into lakes. They would than enter ...

... a period of time which is difficult to comprehend. The islands are in fact made up of layers of sand, gravel and stone which have been shaped over time by wind, water and ice.

Our trip would take us past most of these islands and there unique features. It was a wonderful 3 hour tour which we hated see come to an end. This area is very popular with boaters and kayakers who are allowed to ...

... playing the penny machines. Don't laugh, these machines actually cost more than a few pennies to play, really! Ken, on the other hand has been having a pretty good run at the Blackjack tables despite the previously mentioned 'children'. Well, after about an hour I walked away ahead for today but down about 40 dollars over the last several casino visits. Ken is still ahead. Maybe I should take up Blackjack!

We made it back to the ...

... in a calm lagoon which had plenty of plant life which Brian enjoyed. The lagoon turned into a small river, which then came out at the BEAUTIFUL Lake Superior! The wind was causing some waves and Brian wasn't too much of a fan, but i was enjoying every minute of it! Even without going to the sea caves, we saw some pretty sweet cliffs and even some bald eagles. One of the guides was more our age and talking ...

On the road by 9:00. For the most part it rained all day and we were remeinded that the roads in Minnesota are terrible. We listened to country music once again and we made it to the Apostle Islands! Halfway home! woohoo!!

... chowder plus pizza and local beer -- all were excellent. On our last day in the Bayfield Peninsula, we took Bogie on a ferry ride to Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostle Islands, for a hike about the town and lunch in Tom's Burned Down Cafe (lots of cute wall hyrogliphics). Took a quick drive around Bayfield on our return to the mainland before continuing our jaunt around the lake -- next stop the Porcupine Mountains. Tidbits (courtesy of Tom ...