Ely!

On Monday morning in Thunder Bay I started calling truck repair shops to see if we could get our sway bar bracket fixed.  Two shops I called were busy, and it would be at least tomorrow before they could look at it.  The third shop, Narvi's Auto Service, said they could work on it this morning.  So we packed up and headed to downtown Thunder Bay.  

In the shop at Narvi's Auto Center

We arrived at the shop about 9:30, and Mike looked at it right away.  They didn't have the part in stock, and it would take a day or two to get it. Mike said the broken part could be welded and be as good as new.  We had no other choice so said "Let's go for it."  Mike removed the broken part, welded the part, including a gusset to reinforce the weld and put it back together.  He observed the drag link bolts were also loose and tightened those, then put Loctite an all the bolts.  He then inspected the bracket on the PS and saw some cracks there, perhaps due to the unrestricted motion of the bar on the DS.  He took the bracket on that side off, and welded it as well.  By 11:30 we were on our way.  We were charged one hour of labor and a modest welding fee for repairing both brackets and tightening up all the drag link bolts.  Not bad. 

The repaired sway bar bracket

Mike was pretty cool.  He had been working for his dad, the owner of the shop, for eight years.  Mike owns and drives a race car, and every weekend he, his father and his crew pile into his RV and head south to Duluth MN and Ashland WI for three different races.

Mike the mechanic

We left Thunder Bay heading south and the US.  As usual the crossing was pretty smooth.  There was a backup of about 6 cars, but things moved along.

The border crossing to Minnesota south of Thunder Bay ON

In Grand Marais we pumped 105 gallons of diesel, about 3/4 tank.  The fuel price here was about $1.50 cheaper than in Thunder Bay, and Thunder Bay was the cheapest fuel we had seen in over a week in Canada.   We have fuel fillers on both sides of the coach.  Whenever we find cheap fuel and want to fill her to the brim, I can drop the air on the opposite side and get another 6-8 gallons in.

She's a thirsty beast

Cross Creek Falls on highway 61 in Schroder MN

We arrived in Ely MN in the late afternoon on Monday.  Faithful readers will know that Ely is one our favorite places.  We drove to Fall Lake Camp Ground where we had site #62 reserved.  We have stayed on #62 several times and knew we could not get satellite TV there, due to a tree blocking the antenna.  However, there had been a serious storm here in July and a lot of trees were blown down.  I turned on the antenna. and it locked on almost immediately, looking directly over the root wad of a downed pine tree.  I couldn't have done better if I had brought a chain saw.

A most fortunate blow down

This Mini Cooper was spotted in our loop.  Whatever floats your boat.

There are perhaps 50 canoe outfitters in the Ely area.  This is a scene from our favorite outfitter: Spirit of the Wilderness 

On Wednesday we paddled to the Kawishiwi Falls on Fall Lake, about a 5-mile trip.

It was a beautiful day to paddle.

Our friends Wayne and Lynda on Fall Lake

The Kawishiwi Falls on Fall Lake

 You never know what you will see on the streets of Ely.

This one's for you, Katie

Ely has a new public library where we always spend some time.  The new library has a rain water collection system for irrigation.  COOL!

We are going into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for 8 days starting Friday.  I will post on that adventure when we come out.