UP For A Road Trip?

[pdedse]

Saturday, August 8, 2020.

The Covid restrictions in effect in early August in Wisconsin and Michigan permitted gatherings of 6 or fewer people and the day would end with just such a gathering, including me and 5 of my favorite people on the planet. That gathering was a bit delayed, though, due to a morning rain in Appleton. Fortunately, the day's planned mileage was around 170 which allowed us to enjoy our fairly upscale hotel room for a bit longer in the morning and to dine with Glen and Laura at a local coffee shop called Copper Rock which was just down the block. You may recall that we stayed Copper Leaf Hotel. The morning after a couple martinis and a couple of old fashioneds probably dulled my intellectual curiosity a bit because it's only as I write this that I wonder why both places had "copper" in their names. Perhaps there was a copper mine here once? Or maybe the two businesses share the same ownership? Or the same marketing consultant? Like I said, martinis, old fashioneds and the dulling of curiosity. They did have good coffee and breakfast sandwiches, though.

We hung around Appleton for the entire morning waiting for the rain to push through. It came down pretty good for a bit, but let up to rideable level by mid-morning. There's not much to do in a Covid-closed Iron Mountain, MI and we only had 170 miles to cover to get there, so we waited until a little after noon to head north. Onlookers may have noticed the flash of High-Viz rain gear as we made the right hand turn onto College Avenue and rolled out of town.

Mike and Jennifer were making their way across the top of Lake Michigan while we were making our way through the eastern portion of what Wisconsinites call The Northwoods. Turns out that "Northwoods" refers to a boreal forest in North America that coverage about half of Canada and portions of Minnesota, Maine, Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and a few other eastern states. I was unaware of the of the vastness of this forest until preparing this report. Most folks I know would define Northwoods as Wisconsin's version of the Upper Peninsula. Conifer forests and cold, glacier formed lakes abound in the Northwoods, especially to the west of our route, making it a popular place for folks from Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis to build vacation homes.



Our server's route placed on Wisconsin State Highway 55 for a good two-thirds of our trip and a very good two-thirds it was. 55 runs along the Wolf River for fairly long section and much of that section is on the Menominee Indian Reservation. The river helps reduce the number of crossing roads and this section of the reservation is not well-populated so traffic was minimal. If you ask Cheryl, 55 is her favorite road in Wisconsin with just the right amount of sweeping turns and northwoods scenery. It's always difficult for me to disagree with her, but it would be particularly so in this case. It's not a challenging road, but what it may lack in difficulty it makes up for in delightfulness. To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, It is so choice. If you have the time, I highly recommend traveling up.


[url=https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=254475fe8a76a76d3a&hoursPast=0&showAll=yes]UP Trip Day 2

Had we followed the suggested route in its entirety, we'd have added another 40 or so miles to our day. Glen was having some pain in his shoulder and Laura was coming off of knee surgery so we decided to cut off the section that took us further west. That would mean missing a ride on Military Rd. which was really the road he wanted us to experience. The blue line on the map below shows his route and the orange shows the route we took. After doing a "street view" in Google, I want to head back up and check out Military Rd. The first of many excuses to head back north.




A tributary to the Wolf River


Nice sweeping curve through the forest


Time to stretch and relax for a bit.


Glen asked me to lead us the rest of the way



Entering Michigan's Upper Peninsula - First time Cheryl's ridden in Michigan

I had a few pictures of our landing pad for the night and of Mike and Jennifer and their motorcycles, but I cannot locate them for this writing. We stayed at the Comfort Inn - Iron Mountain which is adjacent to Recreation Lanes - Antoine Room which is a combination bowling alley and banquet all. Mike rides a Goldwing and Jennifer is on an Indian Scout. On the opposite side of the Comfort Inn from the swanky bowling alley/banquet room complex sits Romagnoli's Fine Food & Spirits where we dined. I had a surprisingly good steak with a fairly ordinary martini. It is not a bad place to eat, but its best quality was that it was walking distance to the Comfort Inn.


Seriously, though. It was a nice dinner with wonderful table mates


Not that I was in the market, but I never saw a local honey in the bar or restaurant.

The very short walk back to our hotel passed this run down chunk of concrete that caught our attention. The Comfort in is located not more than 200 feet from this old ore furnace.


Remnants of an experimental furnace designed to process low-grade iron ore. Built in 1908 and due to financial and mechanical issues, was dismantled at the end of WWI. Although the Ardis Furnace was an engineering and design failure, elements the design were later put into successful processing operations.

The time change into Michigan gave us daylight until closer to 9:00pm. We returned to the hotel, poured Manhattans from my growler for those who wanted them. Most took theirs back to their rooms. I took mine outside to enjoy with a short cigar and watching the sun as it dipped quietly below the roof line of the Recreation Lanes - Antoine Room.

I'm taking notes! Not difficult, but frightful sounds promising. Care to elaborate on the frightful part?