It took some doing but I finally got my photo of the Split Rock Lighthouse. With scores of lighthouses on the Great Lakes, this one seems to be one of the more celebrated. It must be the iconic pose on top of that tall rock that does it.

Thursday broke bright and blue. My Dark Skies weather app foretold of a slow but sure deterioration. For once, Dark Skies was accurate - the gloom soon began to creep in.

This was our transition day back to St. Germain, Wisconsin, so we thought we’d spend some time in Duluth. 30-some years ago we toured Duluth, and it made a favorable impression on us. The entire downtown had been turned into a giant interconnected mall.

At first, this sounds horrible, but Duluth did it in a most intelligent manner. The historic storefronts were all preserved. Only the interiors were remodeled into individual stores, and even then, much of the original flavor was retained. The buildings were interconnected with so-called skywalks. You could walk the entire downtown inside if you preferred. We wondered how well this project weathered the years of declining malls and declining downtowns.

But first, I wanted to get a photo of that elusive Split Rock Lighthouse. Accessing the lighthouse turned out to be impossible without buying tickets. At $12 a person, it was too pricey to just get a photo or two. We drove around the park until I finally found a parking spot that got me close enough for an iconic photo. Unfortunately, it was still pretty far away and a bit out of my iPhone’s telephoto range. I did the best I could.

The rugged rocky coastline near the Split Rock Lighthouse.

Highway 61 had a couple of these modern tunnels carved out of the rocks.

Roasted pecan, carmel, and apple pie (top). Cherry peach crumble pie (bottom). Both were wonderful little taste morsels - bigger would have been nice.

So how did Duluth do over the past 30 years? Not as well as I had hoped. It still has some amazing brownstone buildings, however, they could use some maintenance. The downtown mall was also long-in-the-tooth. Like most malls, it had its share of vacancies. The skywalk could use some maintenance and cleaning. It was a great idea going to seed. I was so sad. I was pulling for it to work out.

The industrial side of the Duluth-Superior twin communities wasn’t all that pretty either - webs of rusty iron girders, piles of dirty coal, etc. But there were two positives: 1) Duluth has a vibrant Black Lives Matter Movement going. A lynching of three black men had occurred in Duluth’s past, and Duluth decided to recognize it with a monument so it would never happen again. There are also monuments heralding the downtrodden as the backbone of the land - it reminded me of the 1930s labor movement fighting for reasonable working conditions. 2) The city of Superior, traditionally the dingier of the twin cities, was getting a well-needed facelift with new streets and sidewalks downtown.

Duluth developed a special plaza in rememberence of a 1920 lynching of three black men in the hopes of it never happening again.

I especially liked the Bertrand Russell quote.

I just love old brown stones.

We arrived back in St. Germain at sundown. Next week, we will tackle southern Wisconsin. The days are getting a bit cooler, and the driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin should be 5 or 6 degrees warmer than the north.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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