Day four - from Wisconsin to North Dakota!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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North Dakota flora is different from Michigan!

Lake Superior shore in Ashland, WI

In Ashland, WI - an old pier into Lake Michigan

roadside park/path in Ashland, WI

golf course in Wisconsin (out of order - sorry!)

headwaters of the Mississippi - Lake Itaska, MN

#1 of Dan crossing the Mississippi!

#2 of Dan crossing the mississippi!

"I did it!!"

Gena crossing the Mississippi the easy way...!

Mississippi at its beginnings - flowing north!

"Roll on, mississippi, roll on!"

Turtle River State Park, campground, N.Dakota

more Turtle River

we went for an exploratory bike ride in the park

lovely sunset in North Dakota

Ok, so I am new at this blogging thing - can't seem to put the narrative before the pictures...
We've had another lovely lovely day - beautiful Fall weather.  Started the day near Superior, Wisconsin, drove through Duluth, MN - what a beautiful city!  Found a Starbucks downtown, then drove along the Skyline Parkway which runs up in the bluffs over Duluth and Lake Superior.  Fantastic views.  Unfortunately, I had lost my camera for a while and got no pictures!!  I amaze myself sometimes!  Anyway, we drove to Lake Itaska in Minnesota where the Mississippi River gets its start.  Cool to walk across the few yards of its width at this point.  With any luck, we'll be at the other end of the Mississippi in a few weeks.
Tonight, we're camped east of Grand Forks, ND, at Turtle River State Park.  It was interesting to see how quickly the terrain changed from the trees and hills of Michigan, Wisconsin, and most of Minnesota - suddenly, we were in the northern plains, flat flat flat, with the occasional trees.  The dirt in these huge farms in ND is BLACK!  I'm used to the brown in Michigan, and the red down south.  This park is along the Red River of the north, so is hilly and treed - gorgeous!  We jumped two deer as we rode around on our bikes.  There's a really beautiful CCC shelter here, built back before WWII out of wonderful stones and wood, right beside a dam on the river.
Tomorrow, we'll go to Minot, ND, and start our detour to South Dakota and the Black Hills - probably reach there on Sunday, or maybe late on Saturday.

More later!