Last of the Great Lakes: Superior

From the truck:
Day 3
Dear Diary:
We’re in this rig together for the long haul.  Nothing opens up the heart in thought and conversation quite like highway miles with friends on the bench seat of a big truck. Mars, however, never really opened up.  He power napped.
Wagons Ho!

From the car:
Meanwhile in the Highlander, Sara and Laura played a very successful round of alphabet road signs. We made it all the way to "Z" before our lunch stop. We were almost to Duluth before Sara finally spotted that elusive Z! The journey through Wisconsin was bordered by farmland and wildflower prairie. Further North, the land began to bubble up into rolling hills and pine trees.

 

From Duluth:
As we arrived in Duluth, Rich's mom shared a little family history with this part of the country via email.

"Wisconsin-where Snyder's [her paternal family line] settled in about 1840's. Central Wisconsin. My grandma and grandpa were married there, then moved to Duluth. My grandpa had tuberculosis and was in a sanitarium just north of Duluth and is buried in Duluth. Ray and I drove there on our motorcycle on one trip. My dad was born in Duluth in 1910. They lived right on the river edge part of the time in a tent when his dad had tb. They moved to Oregon in 1918. It would be fun to be with you."

We carry her and this history with us as we soak up the magnitude of the last of the Great Lakes on our winding road. Lake Superior is comparable to Austria in surface area. The Ojibwe name for her is gichi-gami, meaning "great sea." Being near her, you understand why.