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Richard and Suzanne's Big 2000 Road Trip
Stage 2: Yoop, Yoop, Yooperland
Trout Creek, MI & other Yoopy spots
We took the liberty of sleeping in this morning until about 10 AM or so. That's 10 Arizona time - we actually got up at 1 PM Eastern! Spent the day relaxing, unpacking, reconfiguring the truck, and doing the outbound laundry. In the evening, Suzanne's sister came by and we all went down to the Lac Vieux Desert casino in Watersmeet, where we all donated to the Native American cause, but had lots of fun in the process. We specially enjoyed playing the "Jackpot Party" nickel video slot machine, where we listened to Village People music as we won paltry sums and avoided the "poopers".
Today we continued to relax and thoroughly enjoy the non-Arizona weather - rainy and 57 degrees for the high! In the late afternoon we drove up to L'Anse to visit Suzanne's sister and her family on the shores of Lake Superior (and see her daughter's new tongue piercing...) We were treated to a fine dinner of whitefish, salmon, and lake trout, all caught literally from their front yard. We finished the evening watching the wedding video and looking at pictures from the wedding and other adventures, then received a lovely parting gift of a Billy Bass to serenade us on our travels.
On today's agenda: more relaxation? Sure! We did take care of other more productive pursuits, though: Suzanne began sorting through and scanning the countless family photographs, while Richard fixed odd items and caught up on e-mail, research on more absurd travel destinations, and other things. Suzanne's mom then made us a classic Yooper dinner - Vollwerth's ring bologna and fried macaroni! Then we watched the clouds that have followed us since New Mexico finally part, and we watched the sun go down through the trees - at 10 PM local time.
We almost spent our last full day in the U.P. going over to Ishpeming to hunt down some good pasties (pronounced "pass-tees", which are meat & veggie pies, not very small pieces of clothing) and maybe visit Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, but instead we thoroughly looted Suzanne's mom's house, throwing into the truck many boxes of old books, records, and 8-tracks - and of course the classic woodgrain veneer stereo/8-track/phonograph console to play them on. We were ethical in our sacking of the place, though - we left an even nicer table in place of the console. We then visited the old Trout Creek cemetery to say hi to a few of the relatives, and then back home for a nice dinner roast (beef, not comedy) prepared by Suzanne's mom.
Next Stage: Cruisin' Route 66 - Trout Creek, MI to Phoenix, AZ
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Latest Historical Revisionism 01 April 2005
Scripting: Richard C. Moeur
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