We came through 2.5 states today, so unsurprisingly there was a LOT of driving. Unlike our last marathon drive day, we didn't try to fit in a major tourist attraction (or 3) in the middle of it! (See day 6)
Anyway, we checked out of the motel in the morning (there was an industrial size ice machine at the end of our hall, and the hotel owner told Adam to "Load 'er on up - we've got lots of ice!" (which given the fact that some hotels specifically forbid using their ice machine to fill up coolers, was particularly nice)) and loaded up the car.
We went back into "downtown Brevort" to a cafe for breakfast, which was totally serviceable and only about $5, before hitting the road west again. A good note for anyone travelling through the Upper Peninsula - unless it's the weekend at the height of summer, you probably don't need a reservation. Just drive along - there are cute, classic motels with Adirondack/Muskoka chairs out front to enjoy the sunshine about every 45 seconds on average. Some of the oldest, "cabin style" ones are indeed closed and looking kind of decrepit, but there's always another one coming up.
We drove through some beautiful country - the Hiawatha National Forest first, then we followed the southern shore of Lake Superior for awhile, and drove through the Porcupine Mountains State Park (it's so cute how they think those are mountains....)
Also of interest in the Michigan leg of the journey - for the first time (in my personal history at least), we WON the license plate game! Now granted, we lucked out on the first or second day by actually seeing a Hawaiian plate on the mainland, but we had begun to despair of ever finding a West Virginia plate without actually going there. And there it was! Apparently West Virginians only ever leave West Virginia to go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We also got a confirmed Delaware plate (I'd seen a variation that only has "Del." on it but we finally saw a standard one). All 50 states, plus DC, 10 provinces, and 3 territories! Quite a victory! (and all it took was driving cross country one-and-a-half times!)
We crossed from Michigan to Wisconsin at a town called Ironwood, and drove through Wisconsin for a couple of hours - and another beautiful peek at Lake Superior - and then crossed into Minnesota (in a torrential rain that Adam did an awesome job of piloting us through) at Duluth-Superior, as we were leaving Duluth, a highway that must have been closed was reopened - Google maps binged and said that there was a new route available that would save us an hour. Would we like to accept? Why, yes, yes we would!
So with the combination of the "saved" hour and the "gained" hour (we got back into the Central Time Zone in Wisconsin) we arrived in Bemidji at about 8:45pm local time.
The coolest thing about Bemidji is that it sits on the Southwest shore of Lake Bemidji, which is the northernmost lake feeding into the Mississippi River, and is therefore referred to as "the first city on the Mississippi." We drove across the Mississippi River for (at least) the second time on this trip. But this time, a person (granted, a person with a much better throwing arm than me) could probably throw a ball across the river. Adam was pretty thrilled.
We checked into the hotel (a Super 8 tonight that beats the pants off the last one we stayed in (remember Indiana?)) and then across the street to Applebee's for dinner (which was delicious and HUGE).
Tomorrow we're going to get another oil change for Elantra (and hopefully a new set of tires - we decided to hold off until we really needed to replace them, but they're looking pretty alarmingly bald now) at the Walmart that is in the same lot as the Applebee's, and then striking out (mostly) north, through Grand Forks, ND to an informal Celebrations reunion in Winnipeg!
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