Day 21 - July 20 - the resort community of Bemidji Minnesota - who knew?

Left Marquette this morning, heading west on Highway 2, that pretty much runs all the way to the Pacific - perhaps most notably in its related Highway 20 manifestation in the northern Cascades of Washington state. But I'm getting ahead of myself - we were still in Michigan.

Interesting to take a moment to look at a map, and see that Michigan has a separate part that extends up in a penninsula to become the southern shore of Lake Superior. We kept hearing of "the U.P." as an area, as in "the best (pizza joint, automotive shop, judicial candidate) in the U.P.", before realizing that the U.P. was/is the upper penninsula of Michigan.

But before long we were out of Michigan, and into Wisconsin.

Drove through some very pretty area - a quiet Sunday morning, complete with some attractive country churches with apparently busy congregations, judging from the parked cars.

Stopped for coffee in a great little restaurant attached to a little motel - dreadful coffee (water, with only a faint association with the bean) but engaging local folk out for their Sunday breakfast.

On to Superior Wisconsin (what a great name for a town - no municipal self-esteem isues for these folks!), and lunch at Perkins, on the edge of Lake Superior. After lunch, over the bridge to Duluth, and halfway across, enter the great state of Minnesota. I say the "great state of Minnesota" not because it is or isn't (great, that is), but because as we see these various states, I can't help thinking of years of watching U.S. national political conventions, and representatives of states saying one by one, "the great state of (x) casts its (y number of) votes for ...", etc....

Interesting drive west from Duluth: for a long stretch there is little to see but scrubby growth, and dead taller trees, reminiscent of some areas in the far north of B.C. - it seems clear that there are harsh winters here.

En route we could see a monstrous storm brewing, kind of to the west where we were heading, but a little more to the north (one hoped). Great black clouds were swirling around to the extent that I was looking for a tornado, imagining that we might be scooped up from Wisconsin, and be deposited in Kansas. After thinking we might dodge it, suddenly we were engulfed. We stopped to put on warmer clothes, even though we were only 50 kms from our final destination, by chance stopping adjacent to a tavern called "the Big Fish" - George can be seen in the mouth of the fish. When we resumed riding, the rain was falling so densely that we had to slow right down, unable to see the road or the driving lanes. After 20 minutes or so, the rain diminished, and then vanished, leaving us laughing in the way you do sometimes afte something has been kind of intense.

Arrived in Bemidji Minnesota, a charming lakeside resort community of 11,000, with a state college with 4,000 students, and staying at a Hampton's Inn and Suites that is relatively plush by our usual standards. As has happened at a few places, the desk staff offered without being asked to let us park our bikes right outside the front door, in the most visible, secure (and, in this case, covered!) spot in the property.

Tomorrow, continue west across Highway 2 for another 750 kms to Williston North Dakota. Today we cracked the 3,000 kms barrier to the "and back" part of the trip. So given that we've already travelled more than 12,000 kms, 2800 or so doesn't seem like much.