A relaxing day.

Sometimes we try to visit a historic site or a well known city. Today wasn't about going anywhere interesting, it was just about enjoying being outside on a perfect summer day. The temperature was just right - not too hot for team A and not too cold for team S. The sky was blue. There was a gentle breeze and nice roads. There was a sign on one of those nice roads saying Detour.

Detour!!! The road with the detour was our friend US-2. The road has a fair amount of car and truck traffic, but a good shoulder. The detour took us onto a well paved county road with no shoulder. The drivers, especially the truck drivers, were outstanding about only passing when it was safe to do so. With Florida drivers the detour might have been harrowing, with Wisconsin drivers it was pleasant.

The reason for the detour was damage to US-2 due to heavy rains last month. Because we were routed around the damage, I only have pictures of pictures to show what happened to the road.

The area on the south shore of Lake Superior was all forest 200 years ago. After lumber companies clear-cut the land, immigrants were invited to clear the stumps and start farms. In an attempt to assimilate Indians, they were also given land allotments (of what had been their land) for farms.

The land is good for forests, but the thin soil, often boggy conditions and short growing season were not good for farming. Most of the farms failed. One crop that does grow well is non-native Reed Canarygrass. It outcompetes indigenous plants and makes good hay.

The biggest town we passed through was Ashland Wisconsin. It's a city of murals.

The rivers that flow into lake Superior are full of red silt because of the recent heavy rains. The bays that they flow into take on that color. Deeper parts of the lake are reassuringly blue.

The Bad River. That's the name of the river, not my opinion of the river.

When we climbed up from the lake, we could see the Gogebic iron range to the south of us. The first mine shipment was in 1884. Two years later there were 54 mines on the range. That boom was followed by cycles of boom and bust until the last mine from the range closed in 1967. Today tourism is the biggest business in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Winter, not summer, is the peak season. Lots of people want to go snowmobiling, not so many want to bike. That suits us just fine.

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