It was hard escaping weather in these parts, so a Motel 6 it was the night before. Located right outside Minneapolis, it set us up nicely for todays journey to the capitol. I did have two stops to make along the way to St. Paul and both concerned my childhood television viewing schedule.
"Who can turn the world on with her smile?"
Mary Tyler Moore, of course!
Two entries in my Roadside America App were listed for Mary Tyler Moore. Of course the statute in downtown Minneapolis was listed and often photographed with people tossing their hat up in the air. I myself stood on the same corner years ago, before the statue was erected, and tossed my baseball cap. The second was a listing for the house the used for the exterior shots of her show.
I was driving and all I told Tom was that I had a few stops to make. He didn't ask where or why. Off we went down into the city. I am glad that it was Sunday. Less traffic to deal with. I held the steering wheel with one hand while following the map on the phone to get a picture of her house in the other. Siri's little blue ball, again, led me astray.
I missed the exit and found myself looping around on a long on ramp headed in a totally different direction. The house was not that important, so I let it go. I headed into town and would not let Siri lead me astray. I asked Tom to direct me from our atlas, which he did much better than Siri.
A few one way streets had to be figured out, but within a few minutes, there she was.
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| Mary Tyler Moore |
Tourist stop complete, we headed to the sister city of St. Paul and the Minnesota State Capitol Building. The building was closed when we arrived and only opened at 1:00 PM. Too late for us as we had a schedule to keep, especially after losing a day in Fargo.
As always, a few shots of the dogs were taken.
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| From the front doors of the capitol |
This is where the trip went awry. Not in a bad way, but in an unexpected way. The original intent was to head down to LaCrosse to visit Tom's sister, head over to Madison to the capitol, down to Chicago and then over to Detroit towards Toronto. Tom's sister was down in Chicago so La Crosse was out. Tom thought it would be great to go North towards the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. The clouds were hanging with us, and heading towards Chicago on a Monday morning didn't seem like a dun idea, so we just went with Tom's idea.
It was an easy drive through Wisconsin. We had the opportunity to see the Snowmobile Hall of Fame & Museum, but let it pass by as we continued down the scenic byway East towards the UP. Lots of lakes and rivers were driven by along the way. When we reached Spread Eagle, we knew we about to hit our 10th state within 9 days.
We were both a bit slap happy and decided to pull over to take a picture of the World's Not Largest Bear in the World, pictured below.
We continued down the road somewhere between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. We continued on towards Escanaba and then Gladstone. It's there were we stopped for some gas and let the dogs out. Gladstone is located on the Little Bay de Nok and the dogs were much too interested in running across the street to the water than doing their business.
The weather had not gotten any better and we had been spoiled for the past few nights staying in hotels across the midwest, that we decided to do it one more time. I checked my Yelp! and found a lovely small motel in Manistique. The Star Motel was located on the banks of Lake Michigan, accepted dogs and was run by a lovely older woman whom I chatted with on the phone while checking for room availability.
The rooms were clean and the dogs quickly jumped up onto the beds. BuddyJack rolled around, as he often does while Luther let out a loud sigh. It's been a long journey to the North and we were all getting road weary. Maybe more than we thought. We all slept soundly that night.
Tomorrow...Oh, Canada!
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