Goodbye Sunshine - Back Home to Cloudy Northern Michigan

 On Sunday we completed our westward trip across the northern U.P. roads of Michigan to arrive home at 5:30 PM.  Our nine-day getaway western trip had taken us 3922 miles through beautiful sunny weather.  Back home in Frederic it was 50 degrees and cloudy when we arrived. .  Karen's 2019 GMC Terrain performed beautifully but was begging for an oil change during the last 100 miles.  Now we are getting ready to mow the grass for the first time this year, do our taxes, and go find some mushrooms!

We loved Montana and especially the town of Bozeman.  Here is the Montana home we are hoping to buy when Karen hits the Mega Millions drawing like she has been promising Bill she will do soon.

Thanks for sharing our travels with us.  In October we plan to take a cruise on the Upper Mississippi, and who knows what else might pop up in the meantime - so check back in from time to time.

What A Difference A Week Makes (In Weather)

 Saturday 5/1/21 we woke up to another sunny warm day - this time in Bismarck, North Dakota, which is about one-half way across the state.  We hit the road east on I-94 to return on a different northerly route and again miss the Chicago traffic.  We crossed the Red River at Fargo and drove northeast through Minnesota toward Duluth.

Something that we had not seen before are the new type of grain silos out here in the West that look like they are made of plastic, and not metal.  (maybe white fiberglass?)

Piles of firewood stacked like tepees were unusual but must help to keep the rain off.

Throughout Montana we were happy to notice field after field of cattle grazing in the open air, often with small groups of tiny calves nearby with the herds.  It was so much better than the stinking, crowded, cattle feedlots that we have seen in Texas and Arizona and other parts of the Southwest U.S.  You know - the ones down there that you can smell two miles before you pass them.

After our normal 500-mile drive we ended up Saturday in Ashland, Wisconsin at the Best Western Hotel that you see above.  It is not today's normal Best Western and looks and feels like a miniature Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island.  (without that kind of price $) 

The hotel sits right on Lake Superior and we got a room with a view.

The hotel had a restaurant on the ground floor and we got to eat outside on the patio overlooking the bay.

The restaurant had a large old bar and Bill kind of felt like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" as he finished his beer.

Footnote:  Exactly one week ago when we drove through Ashland going west - the weather was 35 degrees and snowing.   Today it was 87 degrees and sunny when we returned.  What a difference a week and 50 degrees make!

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