Too wet and windy to travel

We had very sad news last night that Judy's nice Kristen died last night due to the cancer she has been fighting for many months.  We pray that she is in a pain free and much better place now.  We will continue to keep Jean, Steve, Garret and Cole in our thoughts and prayers.

The rain and wind stated at 2am and has been non stop since, it's 7pm as I write this post.  We easily decided to stay put today and inside.  I did stick my head out the door to take a picture.  We hope to escape in the morning although rain and flooding we main in the forecast but the winds decrease to 10 to 20mph.

Wet ride to MT & through SD oil fields

It was a very wet 285 miles to Wolf Point, MT but we enjoyed going through the SD oil fields.  It is difficult to find decent CGs along route 2, tonight's has 6 or 8 long term trailers surrounding 3 1/2 pull troughs.  We do have 30a and FHU (full hook ups....electricity, water and sewer).  The area is in an Indian reservation and the owner is one.

It was a wet ride with lots of fog in the morning.  We got a kick out of the windmills, we could see the blades only at the bottom, we knew there were two more blades up in the haze.

Unfortunately the rain and an inexperienced photographer curtailed our SD oil field pics.

We saw lots of the things above but don't know what they are.  We were impressed with the activity for miles and miles along route 2.  Construction of all kinds all over the place, we wondered how busy it is if we got off route 2.  Some housing consisted of what looked like 2 story shipping containers, single wide trailers, RV scattered all over and in clusters, hundreds of gray single story units with huge parking lots beside them, and new no name multiple story motels.  There are thousands of trucks of all shapes and sizes running up and down the road and sitting everywhere. Two new railroad tracks are under construction and we saw long trains of oil cars.  Oh......LOTS of oil wells too!  There are hundreds of support and logistical support companies and building too.

Our 3 traveling companions have left us.  We wanted to see the SD oil fields and they wanted to avoid them and travel further south so we split up this morning.

Riverdale, ND & COE beautiful park

It was 275 miles today to a very nice COE (Corp of Engineers) park below a huge dam.  COE parks are always near water.

The day started out with clouds and rain off and on all morning.

                                        But as you can see it cleared into a very nice day.

Along the way we saw two huge excavators, I assume they were removing to topsoil over a coal vein.

The other three travelers always stop for lunch and we seldom do so after we set up we went out to eat and the Dam Bar.  The burgers were very good but the fries were pale & wimpy.

                                                                 Happy hour.

Crookston, MN

                             Today was a 240 mile drive to a small and very nice city park in MN.

Duluth harbor cruise

The bridge had to be raised for the sightseeing boat to exit the harbor and cruise the entrance to Duluth harbor.

                               A happy happy Judy, between the rains she sat outside.

                                         We crossed this bridge entering Duluth.

There are several piers in the harbor; iron ore, scrap metal, cement, coal, freighters servicing, packaged freight and containers, grain, etc.  The grain elevators Judy is looking at are the largest in North America and contain enough grain to make every person in the USA a sandwich.

Duluth, MN

Home sweet home for two nights.....a marina parking lot.  It was a 250 mile day but it went fast.

This is the view from in front of our site.  The tall bridge raises vertically to allow boats and ships access to the Duluth harbor and Lake Superior.

                                               Judy on the dock in front of our HitchHiker.

                    A large freighter approaching the bridge and heading into Lake Superior.

The bridge all the way up for the approaching freighter.  We cross this bridge to get to the marina where we are staying.

                                                           The bridge at it's mid point.

                                                       And the bridge all the way down.

Ishpeming

Time to head west.  We left Sault Ste Marie today and traveled to Ishpeming for one night.  For dinner all of us went to Lawry's.....a true hole in the wall joint.  We split a pasty and it was much better that the joint we were in.