Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox

We tried to leave Grand Forks fairly early, but it was still around 9:30am by the time we got on the road. Said goodbye to our couchsurfing host Jasmine, and got on our way.

Thanks for having us Jasmine!

Kevin, Jasmine, Ruth.

So we headed for Duluth, Minnesota. The scenery slowly changed from farmfields to forests, but still nothing worth taking photos of. We did stop in the small city of Bemidji and asked at the tourist office if there were any worthwhile hiking trails in the area, but they didn't know of anything. They did have lots of bicycle paths though and it seemed like a pretty enough place.

Grand Forks to Duluth. 266 miles (428 kms). You can see the city of Bemidji right around the half way mark.

At the tourist office, they have a couple of statues. One is a huge monument to Paul Bunyan and his faithful ox companion Babe. I ask Ruth to stand by them for perspective so I can take a picture.

Ruth, holding Paul Bunyan's hand. Too funny.

Made it to Duluth around 3:30pm. I had ordered a camera bag from Walmart's online site and had it delivered to the Duluth Walmart. So we stopped by there and did a little shopping. I brought the camera inside with me to make sure it fit. And it was exactly what I was looking for!

Then we stopped by a couple of second hand stores. We need some new clothes! All we really had with us for the summer was work clothes, so we're traveling really light again and some of our clothes are looking a little worse for wear! We each want a new sweatshirt, and we're not paying $60 or more for a decent quality one. By the same token, I don't really want a $12.99 cheapo one from Walmart. So we're looking for a good second had quality one at a second hand store. Haven't found one yet, but we'll keep looking.

Much of Duluth is built into the side of hill overlooking Lake Surperior. There's a lot of shipping traffic through here as the freighters come from the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence seaway to the Great lakes and finally Lake Superior. We found somewhere to park and got a couple of quick pics of some of the boats.

Someday, we will do a trip on one of these types of ships!

So then we headed over to Rebecca and Steve's place. Rebecca has been reading our blog for over two years and had seen we were headed this way and invited us for a visit. Turns out we have lots in common with these people, we're about the same age, and the conversation flowed non-stop. They've been to Mexico several times, and they're now considering the RV lifestyle as their youngest daughter Kelsey will be bound for college next year and they'll have the ability to travel more often.

Rainbow on the way to Rebecca and Steve's place.

Today, there's a hot air balloon festival in Duluth, but the weather may not cooperate so we'll see what happens. Rebecca and Steve are going to show us the sights, and there's a hawk migration going on that we want to try and see.