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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