This is Dave's rig. Wow.
The Duluth area is pretty nice ...
I couldn't get a spot right on the water though. It's almost full.
I've always considered Duluth to be the national equivalent of Hingham.
I slept in this morning, my latest morning yet. It was 10am when I was awake enough to actually get up. It doesn't get all that dark in the motorhome, so I usually wake up sooner than that. I'm not sure why I slept so long this morning.
I did wake up twice during the night when it was raining really hard (and therefore, loudly). This morning it was overcast but not raining, but it was plenty wet outside. Of course, the entire reason for the rain is that I washed the car last night.
So, I got up, ate some breakfast, and then started to head out to the office to download my e-mail. Dave, who is the guy camped next door to me, was up and about loading up his trailer. See the pictures. This is the absolutely ultimate motorhome/towing setup. He was loading his Harley into the trailer on this clever custom rack, and the Corvette (C5 convertible) was going in next. The trailer is a clone of his bus-conversion coach. It has a clamshell rear door, and it's a tilt-bed. It tilts electrically. Inside, the trailer is absolutely gorgeous. I didn't ask to see the motorhome, but there are some pictures of it in the trailer. Behind one of those cargo doors on the coach, there's a full cooktop setup. Behind another one is a huge 25" TV and full audio/video setup. It's sickening. That satellite dish on top? It's one of those that automatically tracks the satellite *as you drive*. I'm sure this entire setup was easily over a million dollars. Staggeringly nice. He's on his way home to Oregon tomorrow (where his house as a custom garage just for the motorhome -- with full hookups). I can't imagine what his house looks like.
Anyway, so off to the office, then back to break camp and get on the road. Shortly after I got rolling, it started raining. I turned on my lights, and the taillight/trailer-marker fuse blew again. Sigh. Replaced it, and it blew within 10 minutes. Well, it was pretty light out, just raining. I decided that if it stopped raining and there was a good spot, I'd try to figure out what's going on with that. In the meantime, I just kept driving.
In the next town, there was an auto parts store, so I stopped in and bought more 20A fuses. And I bought a new flasher module -- Mark, that fixed the problem. See, the flashers in the motorhome are kind of weird. When the lights are off, or when the lights are on but the trailer is detached, all works great. With the lights on and the trailer attached, the flashers flash kind of slowly. In the front. The dash flashers, the front flashers, and the front side marker flashers (attached to the mirrors) all work like that. But the rear flashers, in that scenario, just stay on solid. While I was looking for the fuse I blew the other day, I discovered a flasher module under the dash, and another weird box that clicks with the flashers in the back -- but it's not serviceable. Apparently this thing drives the rear flashers off of the front ones. With the new flasher module, the fronts flash slightly faster than before, and the rears now flash slowly instead of staying on solid.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, driving across Minnesota. It was raining, so it wasn't as nice-looking as it might have been. But the foliage is pretty much in full color at this point, so it was pretty nice anyway.
I reached I-35 south of Duluth at about the same time as the rain stopped. So I stopped in a parking lot and started to try to figure out the fuse problem. First, I took apart the trailer connector, because I've had this problem before and that was the cause. But it looked just fine. Bummer. I was hoping the problem was with the trailer, not with the motorhome, because at least the wiring is easier to trace and replace on the trailer.
Well, there is one marker light (of the 9) on the trailer that hasn't been working. When in doubt, look at the thing that doesn't work. Popped that off, and sure enough, the wiring was a little messed up behind it. Repaired all that, and no more fuse blowing. Surprisingly, that light still doesn't work though. Oh well, another day.
On to Duluth. My AAA software got me interested in this drive called Skyline Drive, a 14-mile loop up in the hills above Duluth, with views of the city, the harbor, the bridges, etc. So, I headed that way. Well, it was on-and-off rain, and totally overcast, so I think the word "Scenic" that the AAA guide used didn't totally apply. Couple that with the fact that it's just not that great-looking of a city in the first place, and it was a losing battle. I took a couple of pictures, so decide for yourselves.
I didn't even bother finishing the whole drive. I headed back to the freeway, across the bridge to Wisconsin, and onward.
My plan was to continue onward to somewhere near the WI/MI border. The guides had a decent-sounding campground in Saxon, WI, close to the border. I figured I'd get there at about 7pm, which was pretty decent. Along the way, I stopped to refuel. I was in the small town of Ashland, WI. Ashland is right on Lake Superior, and has a nice bit of character. The fuel pump had to be the slowest diesel pump in existence. Somewhere during the 20-minute fillup (that's how long it took to pump 86 gallons -- I'm looking forward to my first fillup for under $100), I noticed this sign that said "RV Park, left, 500 yards" ... so I asked the gas-station attendant. This, BTW, was a full-service place, but he wasn't doing much. Didn't wash my windshield (couldn't reach), didn't check my oil (afraid of diesels), and after he started the pump, well, there wasn't much for him to do for the next 20 minutes.
I digress. I thought it might be nice to see if I could squeeze into this public RV park in this cute little town, and then maybe I'd walk downtown for some dinner. As I drove through town, I noticed that all of the little inns and motels had no vacancy! Wow, that's the first time I've seen this. I turned off of the main street down towards the lake to go to the RV Park, and as I rounded the corner, I realized that it was pretty full as well. I circled through and discovered no pull-throughs (at all), but there were a couple of long vacant spots. So, I backed the whole rig into one of them, basically keeping me from unloading the BMW, but it didn't matter. The RV Park is literally right on the water's edge. It's beautiful. The sky was blue here, but the sun to the west was still blocked by clouds. I took some pictures anyway. It's a nice place.
The only problem with these un-manned public RV parks? No modem line. Time to try the cellular modem ...
Oh, one more thing. There are possibly some thunderstorms coming tonight, and some good rain tomorrow. We'll see if I decide to drive on or stay put ...