2014 Big Truck across the NW, Day 3

Sorry about some of the formatting issues, with the pictures showing up as gigantic images cluttering up the page.  Apparently posting from a phone with half-ass coverage does strange things to the layout. We left a donation in the UP so they could consider a cell tower or two at some point.

Today was all about making good time across the heartland's heartland of the American heartland. Following 28 and US2 out of the UP, our route would take us across northern Wisconsin, all the way across Minnesota, and halfway across North Dakota.

Earlier I mentioned that our new RV tires along with the newly lifted Jeep were not playing nice. That was an understatement - on the way up to Ontonagon (check with your friendly local yooper for the correct pronunciation), each tiny input to the RV steering resulted in the following response from the Jeep.

A few times the big truck and the Jeep achieved a resonant frequency (I know) and caused some clenching of cheeks.   Since the towbar/hitch adapter have a bit of side to side play, the new arrangement of a Jeep with worn 37" tires, a lift, and nothing more than a driveway tape-measure alignment was using the entirety of that range of motion. Weird that this thing wouldn't be perfectly smooth on the road.

 

 

 

A couple of beverages helped unleash the inner MacGuyver (or MacGruber) that resides in all of us, but especially me.

 

 

Enter the low-budget temporary solution - a deck of playing cards. Yeah, I know it's a huge bandaid for the real issue, but we're in the middle of nowhere and it worked. We now have a euchre deck worth of shims that tightened up the hitch in the receiver, and gone is the death wobble. Score 1 for simplicity.

Now that we were on the road, we recapped the first couple of days because this drive is BORING. I felt like this quote from Jordan needed to be included, just to help young gingers out there realize that it's ok and there's nothing you can do. Last night after the rain subsided, Jordan and I headed out to play on the rocks & go to the playground. When I mentioned that the skeeters were killing me, she offered this explanation, "Well, you're the specialest boy ever with your orange hair and orange beard and they like that." I'm sure she meant well.

Let me sum up the rest of the drive.  Duluth - Kim fired up some instant internet research and we learned something about a freshwater aquarium, iron ore, a twin port city, and wheat. Oh, and a big hill.

 

North Dakota - leads the US in per capita beer consumption at over 43 gallons per 21+ year old, actually has something called Bonanzaville USA, contains Fargo, and allows bicycles on a highway whose speed limit is 75mph. Seems wise.

 

As we pulled into the gas station, we discovered that North Dakota is also a leader in preserving the 80s. I defy you to find something in this picture (taken this afternoon) that would imply it is anything other than 1986.

 

And I'd be willing to bet that our RV with Jeep attached is faster than that IROC, which originally came equipped with a 155hp 305 V8. That's right, 155hp out of a V8. At least it had a lot of stickers and inspired a cult following from dudes like this.

 

About 11hrs into the drive, including a quick stop at the least helpful retail outlet in North Dakota to find some local beers (the plan for this trip is to drink beer brewed in the state we are in - North Dakota has slim pickins, but I managed to score some Iron Horse Pale Ale from Fargo Brewing Company), we finally rolled into our campground.

 

Since we need to get to the National Park campground early tomorrow (first come first serve), we chose a KOA in Bismarck, about 2hrs away.  It is serving its purpose as a roadside stop, and of course Jordan found what she needed.

We grabbed a pull through site, so no unhooking of the Jeep is necessary. I celebrated with a novelty beer, and it was a huge mistake. The best thing I can say about this beer is that they were accurate in their description. It was hot (yeah, I know - habaneros), and not at all refreshing.

 

Tomorrow brings Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We did a little preview tonight, and we're hoping to see some Bison, prairie dogs, and bighorn sheep. I'll settle for some views like this.



 





 





2014 Big Truck across the NW, Day 2

The day started with a quick bike ride from the trailhead I had scouted last night. I was expecting some tough trails - what I got was a beatdown. In the first 100 yards I was already off the bike walking the hill. Baby head sized rocks mixed with wet roots and steep inclines made for quite a workout. A couple of miles of this

Led to this

Then a descent down this, which left me with a near glowing brake rotor and just a little bit of terror at not knowing the trail while going over 32mph.

Once I got back we decided to head up to Lake of the Clouds, then Presque Isle scenic area.  Jordan and I had to get in a quick round of 'attack the awning pull down strap thingy as though you were a ninja' (our game needs a more catchy name), during which she manged to injure her armpit.

After some brief pit-triage (not a lot you can do there, and I'm definitely not kissing that ouwie, and I'm sure that's not how that is spelled), we loaded up the Jeep and headed up to Lake of the Clouds. On the way, we ran into a group of Harleys, likely headed to Bike Week in Sturgis - either that or a costume party, or possibly a Village People concert. Whenever they were headed, it is certain that it will take a long time and involve lots of revving the air cooled engine to save lives at stoplights.

Once we got there, Jordan spent a nanosecond acting interested (captured below)

before breaking into full rock climbing mode. That would dominate the rest of the day, except for this brief Wall-E impression.

We did get to see what we came for, and it's pretty cool. We did learn that it's only 15 feet deep, and figured out what 'escarpment' means. You'll have to look it up or drive all the way up here.

From there we headed out to the Presque Isle River to see some waterfalls.  Once we got there, we decided to do a little hike out to the mouth of the river, and on the way we got to cross this little suspension bridge.

The trail led us out to Lake Superior, where an impromptu rock-skipping contest broke out. The winner was pretty clear cut, especially after I picked out a 1lb rock for her.

Next we went for a quick beach-themed selfie, which was ruined by the sheer size of my dome.

 

It is a pretty cool spot, very remote with great views of Superior.

We headed back toward the waterfalls, following Jordan as our trail guide. She prefers the more challenging routes.

Along with some mid-hike tomfoolery,

we saw 3 official waterfalls plus countless smaller ones and a bunch of rapids. The water looked like someone had dropped a million or so of these in it.

3 waterfalls and almost 500' of elevation change later (yeah, I'm one of those GPS dorks), we had completed the hike and it was time to head back toward the campsite. Here's Jordan doing her best Hannibal Smith.

We made one final stop at a place called 'overlooked falls', and it was apparent that it was time to call it a day. It was cooling off quickly, as was our child's patience. We did manage a quick stroll to check it out before previews of a meltdown told us to wrap it up.

Finally, back at the campsite, we took a break to grab some snacks, and Jordan decided to do her gymnastics tricks on the overhead bunk with one hand while crushing a yogurt smoothie with the other one. The result was not dissimilar from this.

We are now in the middle of some light rain, with possibly more on the way

so we may be laying low and calling it a night soon. Tomorrow brings an early departure, and many miles to try to get close to Teddy Roosevelt NP so we can grab a site there early Wednesday.

Tonight's blog brought to you by Brewery Vivant's Undertaker, which while delicious, will never compare to the original.

2014 Big Truck across the NW, Day 0.5

Full post to come tomorrow, no service up here.

Made it safe and sound, currently listening to the Lake Superior waves crashing, enjoying the lack of connectivity for a bit.

2014 Big Truck across the NW, Day 1

Well - off to a great start. Writing this from Kim's phone as we have zero connectivity. This may be brief, I'll have to catch up later because a lot of funny stuff happened today. Our child is ridiculous, and has really stepped up her game in cracking us up. Today she thought the Mackinaw Island ferries were actually Tinkerbell and Silvermist (Dads, don't act like you don't know who that is).

The drive started off pretty gloomy, with rain and fog until roughly Grayling.

Once we got there, we stopped at Charlie's Country Corner and had Cletus top off the propane.

We achieved the rare 'Full Monty' of the Big Truck - full bars on fresh water, battery and propane, and totally empty grey and black water tanks. 

I'm sure none of you care about that, but for an RV nerd that's like making it all the way through Contra without using the cheat code.

We also happened to see this setup, resplendent with matching paint scheme on the Geo toad and clever vanity plates. Looks like I'll have to put some sweet graphics on the Jeep to match the ol' Catalina Sport. Or not.

Fast forward to the bridge - first time crossing it with the full rig setup. Not bad, although the new RV tires and Jeep lift are not a good match (more on that later). After explaining the fairy/ferry thing to Jordan, we headed across the UP and saw and endless barrage of UP things. If you've spent any appreciable amount of time up here, you know what I mean. 2 year olds driving combines, 1 acre parcels with 10 structures (none larger than 600 square feet) and even more vehicles, none of which are operational, tourist traps literally advertised as tourist traps with 10x-scale chainsaws, etc.

Once we made it past Marquette, even our GPS gave up, simply going with 'Road' rather than try to decipher our location. 

Rolling into the Porkies (not to be confused with Porkys), we saw the landscape and scenery we had heard about. Crashing waves from Lake Superior, a dark green mass of pines rising from our campground to the west, and a sense that this remote section of wilderness was some sort of reward for the journey here. (Sorry, I stole that from a J. Peterman catalog entry).

Once we found the park, Jordan was not satisfied until we scoured the entire campground, only to find a tiny sandbox and a 4-up swingset in a remote corner of the grounds.

A few strolls on the rocks along Superior and it was time for dinner and sleepies. I snuck out to do some recon on the bike trails for tomorrow, and ended up riding a bit of coastline right at dusk. Got a few good shots and called it a night.

Hearing the waves from the campsite is always a bonus, so day 1 has been a rousing success. Tomorrow brings sure mountain bike crashes along with a Lake of the Clouds visit and hopefully some day hikes & exploring.

2014 Big Truck across the NW, Day 0

Here we go again.  This time we're going for the unprecedented 3 week trip. This has taken a lot of planning, rearranging of schedules, and understanding from our respective employers. To my knowledge, I have not had 3 consecutive weeks off of work and/or school since I was 12 years old.  This has been a long time coming. The rig is sitting out in the driveway, packed up and ready to go.  New tires (first set made it 42k and 12 years), fresh fluids, and the Jeep is sporting a new look with a lift and some other goodies.

We leave as soon as the female Beutes are ready in the morning - a time that has yet to be estimated with better than a 1 hour confidence interval.  Stop #1 is the Porcupine Mountains in the good ol' UP. Despite having lived our whole lives in Michigan, none of us have ever been there.

Here's a preview of the tentative (this one is quite tentative - other than the first 4-5 stops, we have no reservations) route.  Fairly ambitious, but very do-able given the timeframe.

This trip is going to be an interesting mix of National Parks, crazy natural features, cool towns, an aquarium or two, surely double-digit playgrounds, some great mountain bike trails, a few microbreweries, the furthest NW we can get in the 48, hopefully no incidents like this, and the 1st ever ferry ride with this whole mess.

Thanks for everyone's support, well wishes, prayers, etc leading up to this, I'm sure we'll be fine.

 

Tomorrow, hopefully a description of no traffic, no bridge line, site 71 being the best possible site at Union Bay campground, and gas suddenly dropping to $2.50/gallon for the next few weeks.