Summer 2018- The Midwest Smoke Avoidance Tour.

July 19th we went from Spokane to Missoula a short start on a very hot day.  On the way to Great Falls to visit the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center we stopped just long enough for Dennis to pose in front of the Lincoln, Montana library.  For a time, when we lived in Helena, Dennis supervised trained and supervised the staff in Lincoln. At the time no one knew the Unabomber was a frequent library patron.

At the Lewis & Clark Center Dennis limited me to an hour and a half in the wonderful air conditioned museum. I really wanted thoroughly investigate all the reproductions of Indian shelters and understand every Lewis & Clark camping site.

That night camped on the Missouri River at Ft. Benton Montana.

It was very peaceful along the river before the 5 tents of teenage girls camped next to us.  They were really amusing and quiet hours were strictly enforced.

The girls had already packed up and left when we rolled out of our sleeping bags the next morning. The following night we slept in Moorehead, MN but spent the evening exploring downtown Fargo. Fargo is not bad. Then on to downtown Minneapolis our first time anywhere in Minneapolis outside of the airport. We visited our daughter Leigh and husband Mike in Madison, Wisconsin.  One Wisconsin highlight was visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wisconsin home Taliesin with Leigh & Mike.  As you can see Wright’s towers leaned and his bed was small.

 

 

 

We next drove down to Indianapolis to meet Fitz Santer the newest and only addition to our family.  Son of my niece Cindy and partner Steve.

It was a quick meet and greet and we off to Michigan. We stopped overnight to explore the dunes at Ludington. The following day we were sitting on the porch at the family cottage at Walloon Lake.  We spent a couple of weeks at Walloon before heading north and west.

 

We took the slow route camping 3 nights at Canadian Provincial Parks on Lake Superior.

 

I should mention this beautiful sunset hike pictured below is one of the scariest things we’ve ever done. At Neys Provencial Park we started down this innocuous  looking loop trail that was supposed to take 30 minutes.  It involved climbing up quite a few sharp slippery rocks. When we got to the top we couldn’t find the rest of the loop. It should have been a short trip back to our campsite.  It got dark really quickly and we were lucky to be able to trace the long rocky route back in the dark without falling and breaking some body parts.

 

Finding the trail markers backwards was difficult and climbing rocks with one cell phone as a flashlight is not fun. The following day we went to Sleeping Bear Provincial Park. We hiked to some more beautiful views of Lake Superior.

We first encountered smoke in Schroeder, MN.   Temperance River State Park had some was a nice scenery but we didn’t want to linger as the smoke started rolling in.

It got worse as we headed west. We took our time staying in Bismark and then Williston, North Dakota.

We ended on an Old West note by touring Fort Union and Fort Buford near Williston. Is there any doubt these pictures are taken in North Dakota?

 

The area around White Sulphur Springs, Montana is beautiful but not in the rain and smoke. We arrived just as Spokane’s record setting “worst in the world” smoke days were ending.  Surprisingly, my squash and tomatoes did  just fine in the smoke and without me for a month.    We rested until October and then decided  that we had never been to Santa Fe. New Mexico NOT 300 days of sunshine