Langford, SD to Elk Rapids, MI

I’m still a little suspicious that our campsite at Tschida Lake was illegal, mostly because it was just so nice. So many birds, so much water. I kept asking myself if we were really in North Dakota.

Still, I’ve heard for years that the Dakotas are some kind of barren wasteland so I had low expectations as we made our way towards eastern South Dakota.

Once again I was pleasantly surprised. Everything was so… green. And yellow. We drove past acres of corn, sure, but also acres of sunflowers.

Is South Dakota the sunflower capital of the US or something?

We started our trek across the midwest with a stopover in mind: Langford, South Dakota. This tiny town is about 45 minutes or so from Aberdeen, South Dakota, and is currently home to one of Michael’s oldest friends, Rob, and Rob’s wife, Heather.

We spent just 2 days in the Langford area but it was a lovely break from all that driving. Rob and Heather brought us to a place in Aberdeen called the Briscoe Building and if there was ever a time I was sorry I didn’t bring my camera, this was it. The historic Briscoe Building went up in 1910 and spent its first three years as a clothing factory. When the clothing company moved its headquarters to Minnesota the Briscoe Building became home to a candy factory and bakery. Our tour of the building made me want to write a book about it.

A couple of cool details: All the doors that separated the candy factory from the bakery were blast doors. And all the doors on the bakery side were these funny looking barn doors. Well, the doors themselves were steel but they were on slider tracks. The slider was also on a pretty steep angle. (See, this is where I kicked myself for not bringing my camera.) Anyway, apparently these doors would have been tied open with a rope and in the event of a fire, the rope would burn through and the doors would automatically slam shut.

Am I the only one who finds this kind of thing so fascinating?

With a nice rest day under our belts, we pushed on. Our next campsite was Bruno City Park in Minnesota. This was a free site and the park was quite nice… although it was right across the street from some kind or train depot. A diesel locomotive idled all night. That low rumble did get drowned out a couple of times… by passing freight trains. Earplugs are helpful but they weren’t enough to drown out those deafening whistle blasts.

Still, it was a free site. The next day we found ourselves in Ashland, Wisconsin. Armed with maps we’d picked up at the nearby Lake Superior Visitor’s Center, we decided to camp in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest that night and headed north on highway 13 to check out the area, as well as pay a visit to Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Along the way we passed a little joint that was advertising their fish fry. I looked at my watch. No way, I said to Michael. It’s Friday!

He looked a little confused.  But he’s a southerner, you see, and the Friday Night Fish Fry was a bit of a foreign concept to him. I explained that in the midwest this kind of event is legendary. Kind of like a Louisiana crawfish boil, but midwest style. I even tried to sing Sigmund Snopeck IIIs “The Friday Night Fish Fry Song” until he asked me to stop. Maybe that’s because I only know the chorus, and the chorus just repeats it’s the Friday Night Fish Fry over and over. (Trust me, I looked on YouTube for this little gem. I couldn’t find it but Sigmund Snopeck III is a real artist.)

It was too early for dinner so we continued on, stopping in the National Forest Ranger Station in Washburn. The people there were super helpful, giving us suggestions on where to camp, and the best place for a fish fry: Patsy’s Bar and Grill, right there in Washburn.

At this point it was 4pm. Patsy’s opened at 4, but who eats dinner at 4pm? The problem was, our campsite was pretty far from the town of Washburn and we knew we wouldn’t drive back, even for a fish fry.

Who eats dinner at 4pm? Lots of people, apparently, because at 4:10 pm we took up the last available spot in Patsy’s parking lot. We also took the last available seats at the bar.

The most common fish fry fish is walleye, but Patsy’s used locally caught whitefish, and it was excellent. I paired mine with a Moscow Mule because I was in the mood for a drink and because Michael was driving. After dinner we continued our drive north, stopping at Myers Beach at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Too bad we don’t have boats, as this is a great spot for kayaking out to the sea caves.

I guess it’s important to note the clear skies here in these photos. Because overnight it started to rain… and that rain didn’t let up until we reached Elk Rapids, 465 miles away. More on that in a bit.

Well, at least it wasn’t too cold. I had seen posters for a Pow Wow on the Bad River Reservation, home to the Lake Superior tribe of Chippewa Indians. The Pow Wow was outdoors but we hoped the rain would clear off.

No such luck. Still, the Grand Entrance was held, even in the rain. I loved the drums and all the colors and the dancing.

The rain continued all day. We checked the weather forecast and saw that this lousy weather was supposed to continue for the next week. Decision time. See, we had wanted to stop at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along the way to Elk Rapids, but what fun would that be in the rain? In order to see the rocks, you actually need to be on the water.

We looked again at the map. Pictured Rocks is only about 4 hours away from Elk Rapids, so we figured we’d just go hang with my parents until better weather surfaced.

Time for one more long day in the truck.