Day four of our westward trek.

We discovered today that the motel we found last night was the last one along our route for at least 60 miles. We are very happy that Elizabeth noticed the badly lit sign at the last moment and saved us an uncomfortable night sleeping in the Echo.

Today we chase our Finnish heritage on the Keweenow Peninsula. Our goal is Copper Harbour at the very end. This is typically Hannah. Pick a remote spot on a map and drive there. You don’t need a good reason.  This heritage detour will take about 5 or 6 hours. Our westward goal is now Duluth MN.

The Keweenow Peninsula seems like the ragged edge of nowhere. But that bias is caused by our car based transportation. History suggests it is on the main routes if you travel by boat.  The link to Nova Scotia and BC is light houses. There are lots of them (OK we saw 3 or 4). 

The entire Peninsula was settled in the 1840’s, primarily for the copper.  The old copper mines start at Houghton/Hancock and continue all the way north.  Some are museums and one offered underground tour – pets welcome. 

Finlandia University in Hancock was founded in 1896. 

We had lunch in Copper Harbour – think Tofino on the Superior. Mountain bikes, kayaks, beaches and sand dunes.

The history is written in the place names and other signs. While English dominates there are Indian and a few French place names. The Finnish presence is signalled in some of the street/road names, a few political campaign posters (re-elect Matt Huuki), and a store advertising ‘Sauna Stuff.’ There was Touch of Finland’ store in Marquette last night. But we did not see any Finnish memorabilia stores during our Hannah tour of the Peninsula.

Dad. We did see the sign to Copper City but did not take that detour.  Calumet was an important little town.  The downtown core contains more than 3 or 4 streets (maybe a 3x4 grid) and consists of substantial buildings (3-4 stories) made of stone.  The high school seemed huge and most of it seemed older – also made of stone.

According to our map, Americans think any road through the forest is ‘scenic.’ Well … maybe.  Driving down a wide, flat, highway with walls of trees on both sides is NOT scenic. On the other hand, driving along a narrower windy (but well paved) road where the trees arch over the road IS. 

Elizabeth and I now better understand Lucas Davenport (fictional police detective).  Whenever he has to travel outside Minneapolis he takes his Porsche and drives 100 miles per hour (with official permission of course).  We assume that the Minnesota landscape is much like this.  We would like to drive our Porsche at 100 mph.

John Sanford’s other character Virgil Flowers also makes more sense. He drives around Minnesota pulling a boat and seems to have to solve mysteries instead of fishing. There are lots and lots of lakes here. So being prepared to go fishing when not required to solve murders seems sensible.

We stopped for the night in Duluth at 5 pm. After last night's adventure we wanted a room. Our bland hotel just off the interstate at the edge of town (no attraction we can see) had 2 rooms left after we checked in. Glad we stopped.

List of USA license plates so far:

Indiana             Tennessee         Connecticut  

Maine               Michigan          Nebraska        

Texas               Vermont           Wisconsin

We were very impressed we'd made it to Alberta so quickly.

Here's something Finish!  Found a university in Hancock, MI

The plaque for the University.  Apparently it started with everything in one building!

Quincey Mine on the way to Copper Harbour.

A lighthouse accross from Fort Wilkins State Park (Copper Harbour).

The lighthouse in Eagle Harbour, couldn't get far enough away to get it all.

If you look closely there is a brick navy boat on the side of the road.