Westbound on US 2 - Day 1 Wisconsin to Washington

The weather has finally gotten more sensible and not so bad with heat and humidity. We have been chomping at the bit to take off on a cross-country trip. The grandchildren's birthdays are done until October, and we had something on our bucket list that we've wanted to do for a long long time. 

See, while Steve was still working, they never wanted him to use up any of his vacation time during the summer months. That's when they needed him the most. So he would condense all his vacation and we would only go in the winter months. That meant we could really only go south to avoid the snow. 

One thing on our bucket list was to hop onto US 2 and head all of the way west --- across the country.  

We pulled up a few maps and figured out a few routes. We decided US 2 would be really nice to head out on and we will see how far we can go. Mainly it's a two-lane highway, which is our style. We really try to avoid the interstates. 

So we will see if we make it all the way to Everett Washington by the Pacific Ocean!

It's about 2,000 mi there and it might be another 2000 mi back. Maybe we'll loop around and come back on a more southerly route. We are planning about 2 months for this trip. 

We have been waiting and waiting for our asphalt guy to get back to us on a start date on our driveway. It had been delayed a number of times, and were we going to wait around the entire month of August for it to get delayed again? So we said heck with it and scheduled it for later in October. I also moved ahead a dermatology appointment to October. Now we were free and clear to go go go!

In the matter of one morning, we had everything packed up for a 2-month trip. 

It was a beautiful day to travel. Those blue skies and green trees and smooth roads were beckoning us to get out and get somewhere.

Here we are on this video just starting out and hitting the road... Full of excitement and no particular expectations. 

The shortest route to get up to US2 is heading straight north to my hometown of Iron River Michigan. I spent my teenage years here growing up. A childhood friend still lives there, along with other family members. I had something special to bring to her.

So it was a great way to start our trip. Here is a video of what I brought to her: 

My sister also met with us and shared with me a prized kohlrabi from her garden. It's a very dense vegetable similar to rutabaga or jicama. Cut off the outside edges, slice it thin and sprinkle with a little salt. A great side vegetable for munching or snacking with sandwiches or dipping with other vegetables. I've never cooked it or fried it. Just eat it raw. What a great gift from her green thumb garden.

After we were done in Iron River we hit the road and headed west on US 2. It winds its way back out of the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan and leads us back into the northern edge of Wisconsin. Our first destination we had in mind was a Wisconsin state park called Amicon Falls near Superior, WI.

We got all set up into our site just before dark. We were kind of tired, because we had put on 300 miles today. We don't often do more than 200. Although we had a break in between, we also added into our day spending the entire morning loading up and packing the motorhome. So we were pretty beat. We went straight to bed and slept very well in the peaceful quiet of the woods.

We woke up and perked some coffee on our new to us Furrion stove / oven combo that we just recently installed. I still have to do a blog post on that. I am a little out of order here and need to catch up on my blogging. Couple mugs of coffee and a couple apple turnovers and we were ready to explore Amicon Falls.

The campsite was really large, but it was also tilted somewhat. We used our new Levelmate Pro and we had to utilize every leveling block in our arsenal. 

The cargo trailer looks funny and tilted in this picture because of the unevenness of the campsite. Otherwise it tracks straight and level when we drive down the highway.

Oh, one of the other things I forgot to mention is that for this long trip, we brought along a new toy. We bought this really nice lightweight (28 pounds) washing machine. It sets perfectly in our shower stall and doubles as a hamper in the meantime. We can just dump all of our dirty clothes right into the tub. 

We can fill it straight from the detachable shower head and set it right into the tub to fill the machine. When it drains, the drain tube can be set right next to the shower drain. We watch it carefully to make sure it all goes down. We really really hate going to laundromats. This is a great alternative for us. We miss the splendid washer dryer combo that we had in the larger Safari motorhome.

It washes in the tub on the left side, and spins close to almost dry condition on the right side. Clothes can be hung on hangers and hang from the shower curtain rod until completely dry. We hang most of our clothes anyhow.

The morning was a little cloudy and gray, and it was supposed to rain later in the afternoon. We figured we better get going down to the Falls and see what we can see before the rain started. We thought it might be easier just to pack up the motorhome and head down to park in the parking lot and view the falls before exiting the park.

We were a little surprised that when we got down there, we were not allowed to bring an RV (or buses or trailers for that matter), into the parking lot by the falls! So we found alternative parking over by a picnic area and walked the rest of the way with Nicholas on leash.

Once we got further down near the falls, we discovered that it's only narrow parking spaces big enough for a car, and there is no way that you could get big motorhomes or RV trailers etc down there if a lot of people were around. 

The array of waterfalls did not disappoint us. It was absolutely beautiful. We walked our way down amongst the different falls and over the walkways and bridges.

There were some people around, but not too many in the morning hours.

It was absolutely breathtaking---- the amount of water that went crashing through these rocks. 

Nicholas walked everywhere with us, willingly on the woods paths. When we got close to the rushing water he wasn't so sure. But he trusted us to take him through the bridges even if he wasn't comfortable with it. He is really learning to be a good dog.

These steps were a little slippery going down. We changed our minds and stayed back up on the main ground and looked from the top level at the waterfall.

It would have been nice to sit by the waterfalls for a while, but with the impending rain on the forecast, we decided to get moving.

We walked around to the other side of the Falls over the bridges. That brings us out to a little island. From there we crossed one more bridge to get back up to a lower parking lot near the dumpsters for the campground. Steve was able to jaunt the little way back up to the picnic area, and bring the motorhome right down to the parking lot where we were going to dump our trash anyhow. So Nick and I waited on a picnic table while Steve went to retrieve the motorhome. We made it all the way through viewing the Falls without any rain.

Here is a video of our trip so far up to this point: 

Traveling is going well, but I really do miss little Binney who used to ride at my feet for the last 10 years.

Nick isn't interested in riding down there. So we have him with his harness on the loveseat attached to the seat belt. He says he can see more from that position!

As we were heading west out of Wisconsin, we crossed the big bridge into Minnesota. So we were on US 2 traveling west across the state. And what did I see? A QUILT SHOP! Out in the middle of virtually nowhere was this big sign for a quilt shop. Of course I made Steve screech on the brakes... Actually, he went down the road a little further and turned around to come back.

The building was set a little further back from the road. I would have never seen if it hadn't been for the big sign. It was about halfway between Duluth and Grand Rapids. Called Hingeley Road. 

https://www.hingeleyroadquilting.com/

There was enough room for Steve to maneuver our motorhome and cargo trailer around in a big loop. This is in extreme contrast when we used to travel with a 40 footer towing a vehicle behind. It would have been a lot more difficult to find a place to turn around down the road and come on back. We probably would have ended up just parking on the side of the highway while I dashed into the store. Those days are gone, we are now in the more maneuverable little Winnebago View. It sure makes things easier.

I toured through the store and talked to the owner. She gave me permission to video tape. 

She explained that a lot of their fabrics are under special contract with the Northkott company and they are their own original designs. I indulged in three big pieces of a pattern that caught my eye. I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I "had to have them". 

My "souvenirs" of Minnesota

I was so busy videotaping that I did not take any still photos inside of the store. So I guess you just have to watch the video link up above to see the huge array of beautiful fabrics. I tried to walk throughout the entire building, filming as I went.

When I was done, we hopped back on the highway and continued west. We had looked ahead to an Army Corps of Engineers Park that we had missed when we were up in the area earlier in the spring. It is called Pokegama Dam, just a little bit west of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. 

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/233588

It was raining quite a bit and we just wanted to get in and get set up.

It is next to the highway, and there are railroad tracks even though we didn't have any trains go through. So there is some highway noise. But it's an easy on and off for an overnight. Plus it was raining and miserable and we didn't feel like boondocking somewhere that we might get stuck.

We did a same day reservation for site number 1 for one night. After we spent a nice relaxing night, we decided to stay for one more night. I will have an upcoming blog post and video about that.

For now, I will end this because we're ready to move on to our next place. 

Traveled 304 miles from Oconto, Wisconsin thru the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Back into Wisconsin to Amicon Falls Wisconsin State Park

Traveled 110 miles from Amicon Falls Wisconsin State Park to Pokegama Corps of Engineers Park 

Traveled 414 mi total so far 

Averaging 14.7 mi per gallon diesel