Home»All Photographs»19.07.10.Road Trip 1-Cape Cod to Grand Portage, MN

This is the first of 19 Galleries that capture our 9,000 mile Northwestern Road Trip of 2019. It marks the first time we have traveled with our 15 month old Akita, Jessie. It turned out that she was a good traveler who added a new dimension of fun to the trip. She is a real head turner and was a magnet wherever we went. Without her we would have met far fewer people.

One unknown was just how suitable our new KIA Stinger would be for long distance travel. It turned out that the car was a joy to drive and the hatchback design added much needed storage space. Over the whole trip we stopped for a road force tire balance, a headlight adjustment and an oil change.

Spoiler Alert -- These galleries are first and foremost our attempt to remember as many meaningful details as possible. The average viewer is probably not interested in images of the countryside, road signs, motels, random people, or TV sets depicting the Tour de France or Wimbledon Tennis. But for us they are the highlights. If you are one of those that find these Galleries to be too much, the last gallery, when complete, will be a summary that contains only the best of the best images.


Our approach to Road Trips is to take one day at a time following our inclinations based on the options available. Our general objective was to go west and north visiting Banff, AB Canada and Glacier National Park, Montana, USA.

Initially, we thought we'd visit my daughter and family in New York and then make a beeline for Helena, MT.
After a great visit in New York we changed our plans in Wisconsin and turned north to take a nostalgic trip along the western edge of Lake Superior to Grand Portage, MN, the end of the Gunflint Trail (a canoe trail that crosses MN along the US-Canada border). Having canoed a portion of that trail in 1958, (see picture of me doing a handstand next to the Baptism River) it was fun to visit places I had been so many years before.
Our trip was complicated somewhat by the fact that we had to find motels that accepted dogs-not an easy feat in the east but no problem out west. To our surprise, many motels had complete sections dedicated to pets and their owners. Worth mentioning is that the rooms were clean and there was no problem sleeping because of unruly dogs.

Following are some notes we made in our log:
Fri, July 5
Left Cape Cod at 10AM. Arrived at Larchmont, NY at 4PM.
Overnight visit with Kayla, Greg, Sebastian, Griffin and a new granddaughter due in Oct. Played jenga, made flower puzzle, and played find pink bunny clue game. Start of Tour de France Stage 1, end of 1st week of Wimbledon.
Sat, Jul 6
Noon departure, going west. Diner lunch in NJ, KIA dealer for Road Force Balance-Pam & Jessie watched tennis while Bob chatted it up with the service managers. Overnight in Western PA Comfort Inn (CI). Pam enjoyed firefly display in the back field (see video).
Sun, July 7
CI breakfast. Went to a "Life" church but were too early. Too hot for Jessie, so we went West. Late lunch at Cracker Barrel. Close encounter in Chicago merge traffic. Overnight northwest of Chicago. Just south of Wisconsin.
Mon, July 8
Left IL through WI to MN on way to Helena, MT. Changed plan and went north to Duluth, MN & then Two Harbors, MN on the west coast of Lake Superior. Overnight at the Viking Motel. Visited Lighthouse/Ore docks at night in the fog. Noticed KIA headlights were not focused properly. Bachelorette-Hannah B keeps 4.
Mon, July 9
Two Harbors MN-Grand Marais, MN
Walked the breakwater in Two Harbors. Breakfast at Judy's Cafe, then to world famous Betty's Pies where we met Pat and Sue from SC. Pat is a retired teacher/psychologist and is writing a Dragon book. Walked Gooseberry Falls and took pictures of beautiful Lupins (wildflower). Baptism River picture of Bob on opposite side of bridge doing handstand in 1958. Trouble finding cheap motel in Grand Marais. Only one was stinking/musty. Rationalized upcoming Anniversary on Jul 29 and celebrated with $225 Best Western Plus on the shore of Lake Superior. Ordered hotel pizza (surprisingly good) and watched Tour and Wimbledon.
Wed, July 10
Nice buffet breakfast at BW and chatted with a couple from WI. Foggy tour of waterfront. Went to local Trading Post and then to horse/dog park for Jessie. North to Grand Portage National Park & Monument (Fur trading post on Lake Superior. Once one of the most active & important centers in America. Voyagers from Montreal came in canoes to pick up furs for Europe fashion centers). Met Sandy, John & son, Erik from PA. Sandy and John were on a 10 year great adventure. They were volunteering at Grand Portage National Park and planned to go from one National Park to another over the next 10 years.