Seeing the Forest Through The Trees

Seeing the Forest Through the Trees

This leg of the journey is way too rich for one post. I will break it into delicious bites for you.
Wednesday’s drive was delicious (one of my synonyms for beautiful). The entire ride took me through one National Forest or another. Even though late for full color, this Texan reveled in the lushness of the trees. How can anyone say we are running out of room in the US? I literally drove miles and miles, spotting very few houses.
Along the streets of Hancock,MI were lines of lifesize posters featuring pictures of Grandmas ---literally. Remember inserting your head into period costume cutouts and being photographed? That is what the entire main street looks like. At the end is a blank one for anyone to use. They call it Grandma doors. It is rather startling to see block after block of octogenarians in “all manner” of dress.
Finlandia College is here, as well. The town’s distinctive Scandinavian flavor gives you a sense of having traveled way more than 1300 miles from home.
I stopped at the Quincy mine.. As I descended into Houghton, MI, a great hill stood before me, covered with quaint houses and colorful leaves. Dominating the view was the old copper mine. A woman in McDonald’s (where I unsuccessfully tried to get online) drew me a map to the mine. The rain and cold helped me decide NOT to take the tram and surface tour. The sheer terror in my heart when contemplating a 2 hour mine tour WAY BENEATH the surface made that decision an easy “No, thank you.”
The history of the Keweenaw County Peninsula intrigues me. The Eagle Harbor Light Station advertises an exhibit of artifacts left by copper miners of many millenniums ago….besides clearly “mis-pluralizing” millennium, doesn’t that mean thousands of years? Had Christopher Columbus arrived on the Lake Superior shore, copper miners would have greeted him with trainloads of ore!
The next post will introduce you to Mary and Bill, proprietors of Sand Hills Lodge…..stay tuned