Living on the Road

with Jim and Gayle

June, 2006

We crossed into the "UP" (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan.  This is a much more picturesque area than lower Michigan.  We went to Saulte St. Marie to see the Soo Locks on the American/Canadian border that lock boats between Lake Huron and Lake Superior.

Soo Locks


In the UP is the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  We took a boat out to see them but after a 45 minute ride, we arrived at them just as the fog rolled in.

Pictured Rocks


We were "suckered" by slick advertising of a copper mine where you could see "spectacular" veins of copper.  If one looked hard, there was some.

Copper Mine


Michigan is definitely not a place we would want to spend the winter.  This sign shows how deep the snow has gotten (390.4 inches).
Snow


We moved on to Minnesota.  Our first stop was Sturgeon Bay.  Both here and in most of Michigan the scenery was hidden by too many trees!

Trees


We did a number of factory tours in Minnesota -- Jelly Belly Factory (just a warehouse), SC Johnson Headquarters architectural tour (building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), the Spam Museum, and of course, while in Milwaukee, the Miller Brewery.  Probably the best tour we have ever taken was of the Kohler Factory (world's largest manufacturer of plumbing ware).  It was an absolutely awesome tour.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so all we could take was a picture of the design center sign (a good reminder of what a really great tour this was).
Kohler


The Great Lakes (we saw three -- Superior, Michigan, and Huron) are beautiful and vast.
Great Lakes


From Milwaukee, we headed to central Wisconsin to Wisconsin Dells.  This is essentially a water park tourist town.  We took a boat ride on the Upper and Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River.  Pretty scenery.

Wisconsin Dells


We went to see the "House on the Rocks" (built by the son of a guy who was kicked out of Frank Lloyd Wright's school of architecture).  Lots of people raved about it.  We didn't think it was much.  The "Infinity Room" was an interesting oddity.
Infinitey Room


We cut our Wisconsin/Minnesota trip short so that we could make it to South Dakota and Colorado in time to see our friends Paul and Cheryl in SD and my sister in Colorado.  The picture below was taken in Paul and Cheryl's "little cabin" kitchen.

Paul and Cheryl


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