Figment – 08-16-12 WY/Canada Trip – Ely to Woodbury, MN (St Paul)
I don’t really know what happened today, but it seemed to be a day from hell. Yep, I know, I shouldn’t talk like that, but I really had a rough day and I have to rant just a little. Not long after we started out for the day, we had a detour. This turned out to be a very lengthy detour and took us quite a way from where we were headed. At one point, the pavement just stopped! Yep, dirt and gravel. One good thing I will say for it is that it was much smoother than the previous paved roads that day. Well, we drove and drove on this 2 lane dirt road for a long way. Then, we finally saw some guys working on the road and Mama Conni asked them how much further on the dirt. They kinda grinned and said “oh, about 8 more miles”. Yikes! Did I say it was also wet? So, I was getting really filthy and you couldn’t even believe how dirty poor Gully Jumper was getting.

 

 

 

OK, we finally got thru that detour and were on our way again. Even though we had the detour, it was absolutely beautiful. Tall, tall evergreen forests, with lakes scattered about. Anyway, back to our route we go. It wasn’t long until we hit construction work and then we hit it again and again and again. At one point, both directions of traffic came to a complete stop for about 15-20 minutes while some gravel trucks unloaded.

 

 

 

 

Finally, we got to a highway that hugged the coast of Lake Superior for miles. The wind was blowing again, so neither I nor Mama Conni got to catch too many glances that way.

Oh, oh, did I tell you? When we got kinda close to the Minneapolis/St Paul area, we got on the beginning of Interstate 35. Oh, I thought we were almost home. Then the Mamas explained to me where we really were. I still felt pretty good about it because I knew that from there it was just straight home. So, when we finally do get home, I will have been on the beginning of Interstate 35 all the way from MN to past San Antonio! Wow!

Anyway, Mama Conni said it was her worst ever driving day and I feel bad about that. But, I did feel the same way. Exhausted, we both went to bed early.