This will wrap up our 20 year ago road trip. We were driving across the northern border of Wisconsin. You know what the northern border of Wisconsin abuts? It’s the southern shore of Lake Superior, and the drive is beautiful. Beautiful, that is, until you get to the city of Superior, a city which in no way seems to live up to its name.

My first reaction driving through Superior was “well, this place sure has seen better days” and my second reaction was “well, maybe not”. I really don’t know.

You cross the St. Louis River at Superior and all of a sudden you are in Minnesota and Duluth.

Duluth seems totally different from inferior Superior.

It was peopled, where Superior looked empty. Lively, where Superior looked dead. Prosperous, where Superior looked like it needed welfare.

We didn’t stay in Duluth, but drove a couple of hours north (yes, north) to a Lake Superior resort, Bluefin Bay, where we stayed a few nights.

This picture (like the others, not mine) shows a type of light that we did see. Bright sun, enormous dark clouds, right next to each other.

Bluefin Bay will always be important to me, because it is where I ended my 15+ year period as a vegetarian and then pescatarian. For two nights in a row, I dined on venison.

After leaving Bluefin, we drove south back through Duluth and then back into Wisconsin, now going south. We were surprised that this part of Wisconsin looked so unattractive, since so much of the state is the opposite.

The Mississippi south of Minneapolis is the extraordinarily scenic, but on this trip, we skipped it, and drove through unappealing northwest Wisconsin, stopping for lunch in Eau Claire.

Eventually, we reached La Crosse, where we had cousins and which we had visited several times before. La Crosse, sitting on the Mississippi, is a very attractive, lively place, and we have always had a good time there. Sadly, my cousin Susan passed away several years ago, and her husband moved to Kansas City where their daughter lives, so we go to LaCrosse no more.

From La Crosse, we drove south along the Mississippi, through Fond du Lac WI then to Dubuque, adding Iowa to the states we passed through.

Our next leg was to go across northern Illinois to Chicago. We crossed the river at Galena, which I don’t know I had ever heard of, and was that a surprise!

Galena, once the home of U.S. Grant, is a tourist mecca. Who knew? (Answer: a lot of people. It was jammed)

In Chicago, we saw several of our cousins who live there, as well as friends and did it all in a day and a half. No sight seeing this time.

From Chicago, a two day drive home, stopping in Sandusky, on Lake Erie.

That was the trip. And in case it hasn’t occurred to you, we accomplished our goal, which I have failed to spell out. This was our Great Lakes road trip, and we hit all five lakes. It was a very beautiful drive and goes to prove the old maxim: no matter where you wander, there is no place like HOMES.