Looks like a Trip to Canada!

I must have been nearly out of pages when I chose a complete United States map for this page. My, my, weren't we worldly? We spent more than one summer holiday on the North Shore and into Canada as well as double runs to Wisconsin, Michigan, and of course, Minnesota.

Mackinac Island in Michigan was an especially fun run. We rode our bikes around the island. Bud got out ahead of us and when the rest of us crossed the finish line, he said, "What took you guys so long"? That year we had an old Chrysler with a dent in the door. We had the four bikes strapped on the top of the trunk. When we got to the border, the patrol didn't even want to have us open the trunk, (we would have had to unload the bikes and take off the car top carrier). Honest, we looked like a family on the move out of some dust bowl.

Another trip included the sand dunes. When I asked a friend if they were as big as the grocery store, he just laughed and stated, they were a lot bigger than Kroger's. The only disappointment of the trip was Bud was too young to drive the dune buggy.




How we managed to drive to the Dells and Story Book Gardens, take in the North Shore, (see Rachel sitting in the fore ground with Split Rock Light House in the back), go to the museum at Grand Portage and on to Fort William at Thunder Bay and still make it to Thief River Falls, is beyond me.





We liked the North Shore; Bud could breathe there. We would get just beyond Duluth and he quit zonking. It was during the era of our vacations, considered one of the cleanest air places in the United States. I love the drive, even now.




It was the summer before Rachel was in fifth grade. I know that because of the length of her hair. I see they were both still wearing clothes made from fabric they picked out and designed. The rule was, crunch it in your hand, if it wrinkles in a ball, find something else. Bud could not have Coke or Pepsi because of allergies, therefore picked out pajama material with the Pepsi logo on the fabric. He stated if he couldn't drink it, he could wear it.



Fort William at Thunder Bay was marvelous. Where else could be travel back in time to 1815 at an authentic duplicate of Old Fort William, which was the inland sight of the North West Company of Montreal. The present fort is about 9 miles from the original sight. The entire fort was recreated to include characters, sounds, sights, and smells. People in period costumes went about their daily chores. Most impressive was the idea that the Native Americans put pine boughs in their tee pees to sleep on.



Its a long way from pine branches to space beds! And to think that most of the nights were spent in a 7 x7 tent. Good grief, what people do to cut corners. We all pretended that we just loved camping! I know the kids liked eating frozen brownies which had been floating around in freezing water in the bottom of the cooler. Will any of us eat Spam, fried potatoes, (those little canned white ones), and eggs scrambled all together for breakfast? I am not raising my hand. But we did then. And it was okay. And regardless of the 'grapes of wrath' sort of migration, we were able to vacation and we did laugh and we did play and obviously we did create memories.

This ends the series of map for scrap. There are others. And there are memories. I challenge you to put pictures and written memories together.



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