The Great Lakes Tour and Kentucky, 2016

[ssicarman]

Been a bit lazy this year on doing a vacation pictorial for our 2016 vacation.

We did a three week trip to Ontario down to Kentucky and back home. A mere 10,721 Kilometers (6661 miles). We left September 16, 2016 and got back October 8, 2016.
We managed to see or stop at each of the Great Lakes, go through cottage country in Ontario, visit a bunch of good friends, drive through the worst rain storm that I have ever driven through, see relatives, have a perplexing car problem, taste good food and drink and see a lot of different parts of Canada and the USA not seen by us before.



So it begins

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Managed to leave work early on Friday so we headed out to Swift Current for the first night. Short warmup drive.

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Welcome to Saskatchewan.

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Getting close to sunset but we are heading east.

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Moon rise, the pictures do not do justice to the amount of light that was not there. This is why the pictures taken on the roof of the car are so shaky. The moon rise was incredible though.

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First Motel, the next morning. Old, not good looking anymore but clean, bug free and inexpensive.

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Take note of the fall foliage. This changes so much through the trip depending where you are.

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[ssicarman]

So onward and southeast from Swift Current through Moose Jaw and Estevan to the American border.

Welcome to Saskatchewan flat.

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You can always tell where there is a farm or used to be a farm, trees.

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Then we come to the way to tell where a town is, grain elevators. Sadly they are dieing out, being torn down as the railways cut service to the small towns.

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This town and grain elevator though are special. It was a pleasant surprise for us to see this one.

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Dog River of Corner Gas fame. Canadian show so many of you may not know it but I think most Canadians will.

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This is the real town

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouleau,_Saskatchewan

This is what has happened to the set

http://regina.ctvnews.ca/end-of-the-...sask-1.3146178

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Continuing through the town. Seemed like a nice town.

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Welcome to the USA. No pictures of the border crossing for obvious security and me getting in trouble reasons.

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Heading to Minot.

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Welcome to

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It was an interesting drive through North Dakota. Lots of cattle, lots of corn----lots and lots of cattle and corn. A field of cattle, a field of corn. Repeat and repeat. Broken up by cities/towns with military bases and places that I figured out where missile silos. Middle of no where, large areas with concrete barriers inside, surrounded by chain link fence. Clues military HUMVEE parked at the gate at a couple of them. No pictures though, drove past them before realizing that they were there.

Welcome to Grand Forks.

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We can recommend a place not to stay there.

[XCovlov70]

Well you most certainly have got those 'Wide Open Spaces' over there. with some nice pictures to go with it!

With you current weather I bet you just wish you were rolling back the time clock and being there, not here!

[ssicarman]

Well you most certainly have got those 'Wide Open Spaces' over there. with some nice pictures to go with it!

With you current weather I bet you just wish you were rolling back the time clock and being there, not here!

The weather was certainly nicer then than now. Wait for the tail end of the trip though.
As for wide open spaces there is no shortage in those areas.

[XCovlov70]

Shame that house was 'SOLD' I was going to throw in an offer!!!
Can you ship some of that BLUE Sky and 20C Temperature over here PLEASE?

We are freezing our 'xxts' off over here in Scandinavia!

[XCovlov70]

WOW!!! Sounds like you had 'problems' with the rain storm as we had problems of picking up about 50 extra pounds of snow that turned to ice and stuck to the 'TinTent' & 'Flamenco Red' as we went through a snow storm over here!

Great pictures!!!

[ssicarman]

Next morning onward to Escanaba, Michigan via Duluth for the first of the Great Lakes. Kiss the prairie's good bye, we are going through trees now.

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First tree with red leaves.

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First glimpse of Lake Superior coming into Duluth.

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Lake ship in the picture. Stopped for lunch in Duluth at a place called Culvers, looked like a local place but through the rest of the trip we saw more of them so they are a franchise set up. Very much enjoyed the food there.

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Coming into Ashland on Superior and a coffee stop.

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Trees and hills, big change from day before.

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Welcome to Michigan.

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[ssicarman]

Next morning and we leave from Escanaba heading for the Canadian Border for Sudbury and then to Huntsville for a few nights.

First glimpse of the waters of Lake Michigan.

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So we have now made it over the top of the lake and gotten to the area north of Mackinaw City.

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Time to head north to the border crossing at Sault Ste Marie.

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I-75

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Coming up to the bridges to cross the border.

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One the Transcanada Highway to head to Sudbury.

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Made it into Sudbury for supper as it was getting dark. Then a run into Huntsville in the rain and the dark. Once off the Transcanada Highway we got onto the twisty two lane secondary roads to go cross country to Huntsville. The roads were fun to drive in the dark as you could only see as far as headlamps went. Next day in the sunlight you could see how twisty they were and the results if you missed your turn. For some reason the speed at which the roads were now driven was slower.

[XCovlov70]

Sadly it looks a bit like another Disneyland (With the prices to match!!!) and completely different from when we went there a long time ago!

Still at least the water is still flowing, and 'Hornblower' is still bobbing up and down and getting everyone soaked as the water runs down your neck!
Arrrrgh!!!........

[XCovlov70]

WOW! These 'On the road analysis and repair' seem to be popping up all over the place!

But I have to say 'Well done you' for the analysis and finding the root cause of the 'problem'!

I wondered when I saw the 'O' ring if it was fatigue in the rubber that had caused it as the length of the 'failed' part is quite large?

Bet you felt a lot better when it was 'cured' and you could carry on with a much quieter ride?

Referring back to that little 'Snow Storm' we went through on our trip, it was a first for us to travel through something like that while we hopefully will not get a repeat as we go back over the same road in a few days time as the weather is improving nicely!

Hope the rest of your trip goes well.