Folk, gospel, jazz, these arts and trades gatherings seem to attract many musicians. We check out the organized concerts in the main building then spend an hour or so at the blacksmith shop where a folks gather to make music.  A guitar, another, a banjo, a mandolin, a fiddle…..It is a great demonstration of the joy and camaraderie brought to us by music.

A 600 hp engine built to

Snow 600hp Gas Engine

compress gas delivered to a pipeline now runs just as demonstration of mechanical marvel. These precisely designed and machined parts are just idling now with no work required of them.  The complex motion is interlinked and finely timed.  It creates a most amazing rhythmic pattern, its own kind of music

We wake to the mournful wail of a throttled back steam whistle. Kent is up and starts the coffee.  Thirty minutes later a much more energetic “toot” of the whistle pierces the morning silence.  Plumes of black smoke darken the skies over the show grounds as more and more boilers are stoked and tended.  A faint chuga chuga and low whistle of a steam train engine add to the sounds.  We are here as the Steam Thrashers Reunion comes to life.

I am served delicious wild blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Thank you Kent!

The forecast is a bit questionable but we head out to check out the engines of every size from 25 ton to as small as a toy tractor. Rain holds off for the 10AM parade but the skies look threatening and we hurry off toward home.  We have timed it about right and are in safe and warm when the skies open up.  It rains hard for just a half hour or so then calms to a drizzle but that is all it takes to make for the really unusual part of the day.

Remember, we are camped in a hay field, right. Well combine a lot of rain and a lot of traffic on a rolling field and guess what you get?  A mud bog.  We are parked right on the main thoroughfare into camp and it is an absolute circus to watch people spinning and slipping up the hill.  A 40’ class A is the first to get the Thrashers Reunion treatment; it is pulled backwards by its hitch up the slope, around the corner and into its camping spot.   Individuals continue to attempt to drive past us spinning and slipping very much out of control.  It is a bit harrowing now and then.  Finally someone decides “no more”.   A half dozen tractors show up and they pull every single vehicle into camp.  Class As, lots of 5^th wheels pickup and all, trailers, even 4 wheel drive pickups.  Crowds gather all around us to watch the spectacle.  It looks like this is going to go on all evening.  How romantic!  It will certainly be a memorable anniversary.

We ride on toward Rollag. Sand Hill Cranes are more and more common as two by two they began to come together for their great migration. Turkeys are out in the grain fields fattening up.  Here and there yellow and red patches highlight the marsh and woodlands.  We have no trouble finding the Reunion grounds and are soon settled into a tolerably level spot.  It is a good thing we carry a lot of leveling blocks!  We stroll the grounds as far as permitted since the show hasn’t officially started yet then settle in for the night.  It’s a hay field so there is no power and lots of generators are purring into the evening.  Fortunately most campers are considerate and things quiet down by 10 or so.

We take it easy today and stop in Brainerd MN for a night.  Tomorrow it is on to Rollag

The motor home deposited in a campground near Duluth, we take the car back up Rte 61 along the Lake Superior Shore.  First we check out Split Rock Lighthouse.  The lighthouse itself isn’t very tall but it sits 100 feet above the lake on a magnificent cliff top location. They have Peregrine falcons nesting on their cliff!

Built at the request of ship captains and shipping company owners (mostly steel mills) after a disastrous 1905 on the lake; the Split Rock Lighthouse broadcasts a beacon visible for 22 miles and served as a navigational lighthouse for the north shore. The advent of more sophisticated technology rendered it un-necessary but fortunately it has been wonderfully preserved by the Minnesota Historical Society.  Morning fog lifts as we walk around the site.  A young man dressed the part serves as lighthouse keeper today.  Every 90 minutes he actually winds the works that turn the Fresnel lens and spends many an hour polishing brasswork in and around the lighthouse.  Maybe we should check to see if the historical society needs volunteers!  It is beautiful here.

A short distance south we find Gooseberry Falls State Park.  Recent rains have swollen the coffee-brown stained waters of the Gooseberry River and it tumbles impressively down three rugged rock steps on its way to Lake Superior.  Trails wind along both banks and criss-cross the flow on bridges.  In addition to the spectacular natural scenery, there is impressive CCC work along the trail. 

The most impressive is an enormous retaining structure dubbed “the castle” built of native stone.

Who could bypass this? World Famous Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors Minnesota.  We sample wild blueberry and Bumbleberry, each with ice cream of course.  It is a fun, tasty stop.

Born a port town where the St. Louis River drains into Lake Superior, Duluth is still a very industrial city with some interesting sites to visit. We start our walk around along the harbor to check out the lift bridge over the Duluth Canal.  It is a cool kind of draw bridge.  A 386 foot section of highway is suspended below an impressive steel superstructure that juts high above the channel.  Huge counter weights, 500 tons a piece, do most of the heavy lifting when the operator sets the bridge in motion.  It can provide as much as 180 feet vertical clearance for passing boats.  We witness a couple short lifts for fishing and tour boats but timing wasn’t quite right to see the full stroke up close when big freighters pass through.  Before this was a lift bridge, it was an aerial tram that moved a gondola loaded with people and cars across the channel.  That would have been fun to see…and ride.  Nearby we spend some time in the Corp of Engineers Maritime Museum checking out wreck history on the lake and other stories from these great bodies of water.  We wander on to check out Duluth Pack and of course Duluth Trading Company which is packed with much of the same merchandise and silly messaging as seen on their webpage. We stroll a bit more lakefront in route to Old Chicago Pizza for lunch.

The stars of this place are the St. Louis River and the CCC built swinging bridge that spans it.  The river is stained a rich brown from organic materials upstream.  It tumbles and foams down a rugged rock channel.  Geology all along here makes for impressive river cuts and lakeshores.  It makes for big floods too.  This swinging bridge has been completely rebuilt five times, the most recent after a 2012 flood that destroyed all but the piers.  The nature center/picnic pavilion is housed in another native stone CCC structure.  It has an amazing huge fireplace.

Many white tail deer call this area home. I have watched them several evenings as I am out at our “phone booth” location (reception at our site is terrible) checking in with folks.