Great Plains Dinosaur Museum

Malta, MT has a small dino museum.  Not impressive, mostly small pieces of bone and a few casts.  These colorful guys (gals?) are fun, though.

This critter reminded me of Star Wars character, Jar Jar Binks.

Rustyjunkosauros.

Combine!

It's the talk of the town and a must see, according to our hosts, Tom and Louise, LHC friends.  The town is Willow City, ND, population 162.  We stopped there to visit, parked the RV on their lot - with full hookups, no less.  The combine is new, cost $650K, and it's a huge mutha.

Kevin, proud owner of the combine, and his 2 sons, have 5,000 acres in crops.  Incredible that 3 men can handle that much acreage.  They couldn't do that without the help of this tractor, though.

Just kidding.  The old tractor still runs but the one below is the current edition.

This little doohickey is called a header; it fits on the front of the combine, cuts a 40' swath.  We got our first combine (on the family farm in MN) in the early 60s.  It could pick up one windrow, the result of a 6' swath.



My, how the times have changed!  I spent 100s of hours on tractors back in the day.  They had hard metal seats with hardly any springs, no cabs - sore butts and a dirt diet.  Now: enclosed cabs with cushy seats, A/C, fridge, microwave, stereo, computer.  As far as I know, they haven't added toilets yet.  Maybe next year's model.

Cranes, Forts, Obelisks

Sandhill Cranes in a slough near our campsite in Munising, MI, first I've ever seen.  These are much larger than herons and egrets, up to 4' high, with 6' 8" wing span.

Copper Harbor, MI is highly touted in the tour books but highly disappointing in reality.  Driving there is slow, over poor roads.  The 'scenic drives' are a joke: even worse roads, no scenery worthy of the term.  The only thing of interest in the area is restored Fort Wilkins.

Rugby, ND lays claim to being the geographic center of North America - a false claim.  The real center is 16 miles away.  "Close enough," said the town's leaders several decades ago.  "Let's build an impressive monument with a large plaque.  It will draw lots of tourists here."  It didn't draw us but we were passing through, so what the hell, stop and take a picture.

Superior, Indeed

Lake Superior is aptly named.  Because it:

1.  Contains 10% of all the fresh surface water in the world.

2.  Is as big as the state of Maine.

3.  Holds as much water as all the other Great Lakes combined - plus 2-3 Lake Eries to top it off.

4.  Has enough water to cover all of North and South America with a foot of water.

5.  Has the largest surface area of any fresh water lake in the world.

Pictured Rocks

The Pictured Rocks boat tour is 2+ hours long.

Munising, MI is the launching point.

The colors are leached minerals.  Red is iron; blue/green is copper; black is manganese.

Several boats offer kayak tours, the kayaks loaded on a rack on top of the boat.

There is no soil under this tree, just solid rock.  Notice the rope-like thing between the large rock on top and the 'mainland' to the left.  That's a bundle of roots through which the tree gets its nutrition.  Mother Nature is indeed a determined mother.  There used to be rock between the tree island and the mainland, long gone.

Soo Locks, Part 2

This beautiful old building is made of cut rock, over a million of them.  It houses numerous turbines, powered by the the St Mary's River.  At water line, note the small boats.  Good place to fish.

The structure is just south of one of the southern up-bound lock on the US side, pix taken from the tour boat.

Approaching the lock, big freighter in next lock to the right.

Wave, smile, take pictures!

The viewing side of the platform pictured in my prior post.

Our tour boat is now in the lock, which will raise the boat 21', to the level of Lake Superior. 

Steel mill on Canadian side has been operating for 100+ years.

This Canadian cruise ship sailed past our campground before parking here.  It's probably headed into Lake Superior and stopping in Duluth.

Admiral Trish.  Aye aye, ma'am.  Our tour boat is sitting in one of the up locks, freighter in up lock behind the Admiral.  Some ships get mail, laundry, food, etc while in the Locks area.

Soo Locks

These pix were take at the Soo Locks visitor center and grounds.  Visitors can call a hotline to get ETAs of ships 'locking' up or down.  Viewing station, below, is loaded with people when ships arrive.

Flower child.

Screwed.

Edmund Fitzgerald

   
A scale model of 'Big Fitz', the biggest, baddest ore freighter ever, when launched in 1958.  It was 728' long, carried a cargo of 26,000 tons.  It sunk on November 10,1975, and all 29 crew members were lost.

The model and the original ship's bell are on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, MI.  The museum also has an excellent film about the disaster.

The bell was recovered by a joint US/Canadian task force on July 4, 1995.  A ceremony was then held with the survivors (family members) stepping up and ringing the bell 29 times.  A replacement memorial bell, engraved with the names of all crew members, was lowered to the site.  No attempt was made to recover the bodies of the crew members.

Big Fitz broke in half when it sunk in 530' of water.  There are many theories about the actual cause, none ever confirmed.  Suffice to say, the violent storm did the job: gusts up to 80 MPH and waves up to 35' high.  Numerous safety requirements were put in place as a result of the disaster.

Gordon Lightfoot recorded his hit song about the wreck in 1976, best ballad ever written in my opinion.  The song is played in the museum and is also in the video.

Below, a huge wooden rudder recovered from an old wreck.  It's huge, about 12' high and 10' thick, held together with large iron spikes.

The Museum provides details, pix and artifacts of several old wrecks, some going back to the first days of Great Lakes transportation.  6,000 ships have sunk in the Great Lakes, 30,000 lives lost.

Mackinac Island

We were in the Mackinac area 8 years ago.  Trish visited the Island then but I didn't; this time we both went, Artie too.

The Grand Hotel was built in 93 days in 1887, no labor laws then.  It boasts the longest covered porch in the world, has a full golf course.  Several famous people stayed here, including movie stars, on the Island to do what they do - act in movies.

The carriage house, above and below, dozens of carriages and sleighs with names and history.

Motorized vehicles aren't allowed on the Island.  Cycle, walk, rent a horse or take a horse-drawn conveyance.  The one below is the second one we boarded, doing the Island tour - which, if you enjoy history, is excellent.

Artie, patiently waiting for his burger and fries to arrive, napkin tucked into his collar.  Trish washed hers down with a margarita while I had an IPA.  After lunch, we took the ferry back to St Ignace.

Big Mac

We're talking bridges not burgers.  Big Mac is how the locals refer to Mackinac Bridge.  It marks the dividing line between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

Mackinac Bridge is a real doozy.  Total length is 26,372' and the towers are 552 high.  In case you're curious, the Golden Gate Bridge is only 8,981 long.  No contest.

It takes 5 years to paint the huge mutha and they're finishing the job this summer.  The top 1/3 of the south tower is draped with drop cloths - BIG drop cloths - and people are up there with their brushes, rollers, spray cans, or whatever they use.  Elevators inside the towers go up to the second crossbar, after that it's a ladder.

These pix were taken from the St Ignace-Mackinac Island ferry.  When weather permits, the ferry drivers include the bridge in their route, briefly stopping directly under it.