Boom town

This was the scene directly outside our motel room in International Falls this morning:

Every middle aged man's dream!  No waiting in line here for the can.

Overcast, cold, and grey this morning. We opted not to cross back into Canada, but that meant we couldn't say Hey! to our new found friends at border patrol.  

We decided to stay in the States for now as the weather is so bad it seemed pointless to take a much longer scenic route thru Canada when the "scene" there is the same as here- grey, icy, leafless.

We pulled into a service station with a quarter tank full 30 miles outside of Brainerd just as Vanna died.  She refused to start and we thought we were done, but on the outside chance there was water in her fuel line we filled her tank and tried again.  After four tries she started. I blame the water in the ethanol.  they add to gasoline here.

We drove by the turnoff for Itasca State Park, the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  Why not stop? Because it was SNOWING.

On to North Dakota 3 hours later.

Signs point to Fargo, but no detour to Fargo; we headed instead to Watford City, the closest town to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The landscape in the eastern part of the state is dominated by very large wheat and corn farms

We passed thru the geographical center of North America in Rugby, North Dakota.

The landscape changed dramatically in central and western North Dakota.  Oil wells were everywhere and tanker trucks were inescapable.  It's impossible to exaggerate the number of semis on these 70 mph two lane highways or the amount of activity and construction happening here. It is like nothing we have ever seen or experienced. We guess with all the truckers and construction workers men must outnumber women here ten to one.

Watford City is dusty and unattractive.  Everything appears to be hastily constructed for the boom and workers are housed in trailers and temporary housing.

This is one of those temporary housing constructions directly behind our motel.  They are everywhere.  They call them "man camps".

Neither google maps nor mapquest could locate our motel, as everything is so new here.

Our motel parking lot is filled with tanker trucks.  

 It feels like the Wild West, but the horses have been replaced by tanker trucks.

I think Teddy would cry if he could see what the oil boom has done to his beloved Badlands.

Update:  I overestimated the number of women here. We got Chinese takeout tonight at a huge and packed restaurant. The ONLY woman there was the cashier.

We wonder how social order is maintained here.

Search "Watford City" at The New York Times for the story "An Oil Town Where Men are Many and Women are Hounded". 

Fascinating and frightening article.  

Nanook of the North

It was a beautiful evening at Gunflint Lodge yesterday. We had dinner in the dining room of the lodge and had the place practically to ourselves. 

We woke this morning to frost and the sound of loons on the lake.

After breakfast at the lodge, we drove to the end of the Gunflint Trail 

and then 50 miles back to Lake Superior and north on into Canada with a stop at Grand Portage, Minnesota en route.

John bought a warm hat at the lodge;  his new name is "Nanook"

The views of Lake Superior today were spectacular. 

Then a long drive most of the day heading west on Canada Highway 11.  Lots and lots of signs warning us of moose, but we didn't see a one.  Just lots of pretty lakes.

We were planning on spending the night in Fort Francis, Ontario but we didn't realize how depressed and depressing the town is.  The mill just closed and there wasn't a single motel in town that was open, and it was way too cold to camp.  

International Falls, Minnesota is just across the river from Fort Francis so we figured it would be easy to find a motel on the U.S. side. 

BIG MISTAKE

The U.S. border patrol agents in International Falls killed the myth that all Minnesotans are nice. They aren't. These were the absolute meanest/rudest patrol agents John and I have ever encountered in all our years of travel.  Absolute jerks. They asked us completely inappropriate questions while a crew of four or so (and their dog) swarmed all over inside and out of Vanna. (She felt violated I'm sure. So did we.)

We were detained inside their facility for 45 minutes while another six of them grilled us.  

Sample questions they asked us:

"Have you spoken to anyone from outside the country?" (duh, we were in Canada and had stopped for lunch. Did I mention these agents were mean AND stupid?)

"Where were you born?" (They knew the answer already.  It's printed right there on the passports.)

"Why were you in Ethiopia?"

(They looked up our travel history on their computer)

"Where do you live"?  (They knew I had been to Ethiopia three years ago but didn't know we live in Seattle? Really?)

"What did you purchase in Canada?"(Nothing, but literally six or seven different people asked us that one, all within earshot, and they heard the same question/answer each time. Guess they were hoping to trip us up on that very tricky question)

"Why are you crossing the border here?"

(The only intelligent question we were asked. None of them could believe we were traveling to Seattle from Florida via International Falls, Minnesota. Clearly we were the stupid ones here but believe me, it won't happen again.)

"What is your relationship to each other"?   (After we answered, the looks we got told us homophobia is alive and well in northern Minnesota)

"What do you do for a living?" (We would have gotten the same reaction from them had we answered "human trafficking narco-terrorists because the potential for growth is limitless")

"Do you own a home in Florida?" (If the guy who asked that one was hoping for an invite to stay with us in Florida next winter when it's 30 below in International Falls he can forget it.  Hope his pipes freeze.)

"What's your favorite color" (ok, I made that one up)

It went on and on and on.  They threatened to crate our dogs too and only stopped when we begged them not to do that.  

It was a slow day at the border crossing; no other motorists were there so that allowed all of the border patrol agents on staff, probably ten in all, to focus their full attention on us.  We even had to fill out one of those custom declaration forms that one fills out on the plane before landing in the US from abroad. It didn't go over well when I asked "which flight number should I say we were on?" but by then we had had enough.

The irony is when we crossed into Canada from the US earlier today the Canadian border agents could not have been nicer.  Maybe "Minnesota nice" should really be "Canada nice"?

Bottom line:  visit Minnesota but avoid the "twin cities" of International Falls/Fort Francis, especially if you're two middle aged men traveling cross country in a beat up old vw vanagon.

Duluth is in our rear view mirror

and none too soon!  Vanna was fixed by noon, thanks to the kind people at SVS repair shop.  The wipers work, the coolant doesn't leak, and the exhaust manifold is welded the best they could. Vanna is still loud, but loud like a Harley now and not like a Mack truck.

And on we go - hugging the north shore of Lake Superior until we reach Canada.

We stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park, which was beautiful.  

A short distance down the road was Split Rock Lighthouse State Park

And then a brief detour to Lutsen Ski Area.

Next stop was Temperance River State Park, so named because there is no "bar" at the river's mouth.

We continued on the North Shore Scenic Drive

to the scenic town of Grand Marais

We turned off at Grand Marais to drive Gunflint Scenic Drive into Boundary Waters canoe area.  We crossed the Laurentian Divide (water north to Hudson Bay, water south to Lake Superior).

Tonight we are staying at Gunflint Lidge on Gunflint Lake. There are deer, moose, lynx, foxes, wolves in the area.  It's spectacular and very few people here.

It's so nice to be back on the road again in Vanna, even if she is a high maintenance b****.

Brrr

There's is only one shop in Duluth that will touch a 30 year old vanagon, and when I called this morning I was told they couldn't get to it till Friday.  After the shock wore off I called back and spoke to another guy who took pity on us and said he could look at Vanna tomorrow, the soonest he could get parts.
So we had Vanna towed to this new shop where now she sits.
It's 37 degrees, raining, miserable. We dropped the rental car off at the airport where there's a mountain of snow piled up from all the plowing they did this winter.
John threatened to hop the next flight out of here. I sure hope he's kidding.

Day 3 Duluth

No repair shop was open on Mothers Day, so John and I walked the Duluth waterfront this morning with the mutts.  It's quite beautiful. I'll take pics tomorrow. Duluth reminds us of Tacoma; it's industrial and a bit gritty,  but is much nicer than Tacoma.

We rented a car to drive to Minneapolis to see my niece, a third year medical resident at The University of Minnesota.

It was so good  to see her and be with her on Mothers Day, since both she and John have lost their mothers.  

She is working too hard, as all residents do, but she is happy and loves her work.

She gave us a tour of Minneapolis, and in many ways the city reminded us of Seattle, but flat.  It was 30 degrees warmer in Minneapolis than Duluth, and the flowers were in bloom and the trees budding.

I insisted our first stop had to be the house they used for the exterior shots of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"

It's for sale for a little over $2 million. It is a block from Lake of the Isles, which reminded us of Green Lake in Seattle, but the lake is larger and the neighborhood more upscale. 

We had lunch in the Uptown neighborhood; the main thoroughfare, Lake Avenue, was reminiscent of Broadway in Seattle but without the edge of seediness. 

It's a two and a half hour drive to Duluth from Minneapolis so sadly we had to say goodbye shortly after five o'clock. 

We decided Vanna breaking down wasn't so bad after all because it allowed us a full day with Sarah, a truly wonderful person.

Tomorrow we start calling repair shops in Duluth and we make some decisions on what to do next.

Vanna on ice

I got up early this morning to drive Vanna to the shop first thing in the morning. Less than a mile from the hotel the engine temperature warning light flashed and steam poured out of the engine compartment. AAA to the rescue to tow her to the service shop .

While waiting for the tow truck a guy on a bicycle stopped to ask if he could help.  (Is everyone here nice?)

The tow truck driver was a prince too, and his accent was straight out of the movie "Fargo".

After dropping Vanna off, he gave me a ride back to the hotel.  (Everyone IS nice here).

Here's Travis:

 

John and I had a late lunch at a brewery/market that reminded us of an indoor Pike Place Market.

The restaurant had a tiki hut outside; John thought he was back in Lauderdale, except for the ice

Duluth was a one time a very wealthy town (iron ore, grain) and at the turn of the last century had the busiest port In the country and the most millionaires per capita.

And Duluth is the home of Bob Dylan.  Who knew?

So now we await a call about Vanna.  Fingers crossed.

Btw I googled "Minnesota nice". This from Wikipedia:

Minnesota nice is the stereotypical behavior of people born and raised in Minnesota to be courteous, reserved, and mild-mannered

I think it's true.

Update:

Cracked exhaust manifold (again)

Cracked pressurized coolant reservoir tank

Broken wiper linkage

VW dealership said they could fix it.  They can't. So we are stuck in Duluth until I can find a shop who can fix her or we decide to ship her back to Seattle and rent a car.

The good news is we are renting a car to drive to Minneapolis tomorrow to see

my niece;  that should be fun.