ELY!!!!

We departed Duluth about 10:00 on Sunday September 3 headed dead north for Ely.  We had several stops planned along the way.  The first stop was at the Walgreens in Virginia MN, about half the way from Duluth to Ely.  I had previously ordered prescription refills for all my medications, which were running seriously low; in fact I was actually out of one med.  I had previously received a notification that all four of my prescriptions were ready for pickup.  Since it was Sunday on a holiday weekend, we called ahead to check the pharmacy hours and learned they were closed, reopening on Tuesday.  CRAP!!!!  What to do now?  We could double back from Ely on Tuesday, but that was a round trip of about 120 miles.  Not a great plan.  There was not a Walgreens in Ely.  There is at least one other pharmacy in Ely, but I had no confidence that they would be open, or if they were, that I could quickly and easily transfer my prescriptions.  Same with the Walmart Pharmacy in Virginia. Dorcas discovered there was a Walgreens in Hibbing MN, and that they were open until 1:30 this day.  So about 11:30 she called Walgreens Hibbing and moved my four prescriptions to that store.  So, while Dorcas was buying groceries at the Walmart in Virginia (stop #2), I would unhitch the car and drive 20 miles west to Hibbing and pick up the meds.  Whew!!!! Disaster averted.  What did we do before we had cell phones and Internet???  By the way, Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, but grew up in Hibbing.  A kindred rolling stone spirit!

"I hate it when Daddy gets stressed out"

Stop #3 was to pick up some packages being held at the Spirit of the Wilderness, our go-to outfitter in Ely. With my packages in hand, and groceries and medications on-board, we proceeded to Fall Lake Campground, a unit of Superior National Forest, and made camp.

Welcome to Ely!  Always a welcome sign.

Site #10 at Fall Lake campground

Chillin' in Ely

We often see a few of these throughout the campground.  It is an ice house fishing trailer. It is designed to be trailered onto the frozen lake, then the wheels and the tongue retract to set down on the ice. I haven't seen inside one, but I assume it has a trap door for ice fishing in the floor and camping/rv furniture.  In any case, people use them like a travel trailer in the summer time as well.

There was an incident at the Fall Lake boat ramp on Monday and emergency responders closed the ramp.  I'm not sure what happened, but one bystander thought there had been a death, perhaps involving a wildenesss or water recovery.  Let's be careful out there!

Nap time

The temperatures in Ely have been in the high 80's which is unseasonably warm of this area. Tonight a cold front came through, with heavy thunder storms, and temperatures dropped drastically. The next week looks like great fall weather, with lows in the 40's and 50's

We have traveled 1388 miles since leaving home 2 weeks ago.  Tomorrow we will park the coach and drive about 30 miles east to the Moose Lake access and put in there for a 14-day canoe camping trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  During that time we will have no cellular or Internet access and will be totally incommunicado with the outside world.  Just like the good ole days.

 Bon Voyage.  Stay tuned for another installment of the Adventures of Myron and Dorcas in about 2 weeks.