Date: 4 August 2001 (Saturday)

Start:

End: Duluth Tent & Trailer Camp (0 miles)

The temperature was 69f when we arose, and hazy with the high humidity forecast for today. There was little breeze.

We ate lightly, and headed for downtown Duluth. On the way, we stumbled into the "Duluth Skyway" signs – this is supposed to be a drive along the top of the bluff overlooking Duluth. We followed it for quite a while, up the bluff and along it, until we came to a confusing directional sign for the skyway. We guessed at what it meant, and we were wrong. We had to go down the bluff to the waterfront to re-establish where we were, and go on from there.

We went over the bridge to Superior, WI, and Barker’s Island, where the SS Meteor is docked on dry land. She is the last survivor of the class of Great Lakes steamers called "whalebacks". These ships had a hull that was, in cross-section, something like a semi-circle on top of an otherwise square ship. The idea was to allow the waves to wash over the ship rather than to slam into the sides and try to knock the ship over.

This class of 42 ships was built in the late 1890’s. They were only somewhat successful; it was hard to load ore or other bulk cargo into them due to the small hatches. They were slow (12 knots), and didn’t have much capacity compared with the large freighters that soon followed. Still, they did their jobs until they were, one by one, retired or became casualties.

SS Meteor was re-named in 1943 after a grounding caused refurbishment of the hull, and the owners decided to make a tanker of her at the same time. The ballast tanks were opened to the hold to make larger oil tanks. She continued in this service until 1969, when she was de-commissioned. At that point she was the smallest freighter on the Great Lakes, and the only (last) tanker. I remember her off-loading fuel oil in Holland Harbor when I was young, probably around 1955.

The tour was nice, well presented by a young lady who had done her homework. It was already getting quite hot, and the hull of Meteor is painted black. We were glad to get outside for a snack and drink.

D had purchased a pin of the lighthouse at Wisconsin Point, so we had to go see it. What a road! It was worse than most we’d seen in Alaska.

Then we went into downtown Duluth, to the former Duluth Union Depot. It is now a museum, with several galleries according to subject, one of which is a great children’s museum. The largest one is the railroad museum in the old trainshed. Many old cars and locomotives are displayed (quite well). Also, the North Shore Scenic Railroad runs out-and-back trips from the depot up the shore of Lake Superior.

As I went to get the truck to pick up D on leaving the Depot, I saw a self-unloading bulk freighter leaving the harbor. She was about to put her bow under the lift bridge. I saw the name "Arthur M. Anderson" on the side, and shot a few pictures. None of them came out well enough to publish.

I picked up D and we tried to get toward the lift bridge to watch the ship leave harbor, but there was a big traffic jam of cars trying to get into the Canal Park. We missed it. We turned around and left, looking for a church for D. We found one – St Mary’s Star of the Sea.

We talked with a man, wife, and two sons, who are parishioners there. They said they had had several 90f days, a very unusual summer. Not only that, but the air conditioning in the church, they told us, was broken. So we stayed outside on the steps until we had to go in.

It was really warm inside. The priest looked as though he had recently had a stroke, because he relied on a cane to walk. He thumped the cane down with each step, so he sounded like Gregory Peck playing Captain Ahab in the movie, "Moby Dick". Thump, shuffle, thump, shuffle. He was heavy, and very red in the face due to the robes and heat.

The subject of the day’s readings was "vanity". When it came time for the sermon, he said that if he preached one, it would be only because of vanity, said "amen", and ended the sermon.

We departed quickly, and went to the Fitger’s Brewery complex. This is an old brewery along the waterfront, now turned in to a set of shops. The parking lot is terrible to get into, and some of the shops aren’t very good, but others are quite nice.

When we left, we went up the Scenic 61 highway past our campground to the Scenic Café. There, after a short wait spent looking at the lake and the flower garden, we had pistachio-encrusted walleye with a New Zealand Riesling. It was very good.

We then returned to the little house in the woods by the big lake to relax, figuring we’d put in a long day and deserved it.

We made reservations for the day after tomorrow and the day after that, but have no idea where we’re going tomorrow. We’ll do a little research tonight and take a guess tomorrow.

There’s no time now to go down to Dunn County, so that’ll have to wait a bit.