Off to See the Country: Waterfalls, Taconite pebbles and morning pies

Monday, June 4, 2018

Waterfalls, Taconite pebbles and morning pies

The North Shore drive in Minnesota is supposed to be one of the best drives to take soooo....we decided to try it out.

The line in blue is the North Shore route we took...about 140 miles.

We got up early in order to get to the Rustic Inn at 8am when they opened as it was a Saturday during Memorial Day weekend. Boy are we glad we did! We were first in the restaurant, followed by about 30 people !

Selfie in the entrance !

We went there for the pies they're famous for. Pie for breakfast !!?? You bet.

Here's the pie menu on the wall. Where to start?

We started out by each ordering one.

..which led to another one by Kim....

...then, after finishing my first one, I ordered another ! (We ended up taking some home for later.)

Next, we went up to Gooseberry Falls State Park where there are five waterfalls. When we pulled in, the parking lot had only 6 cars. When we left a couple of hours later, the parking lot was full of 100 cars and the road leading up to the main road was lined with more parked cars ! Glad we got there early.

Upper Falls

Lower Falls

This is about half of the people that eventually showed up.

5th Falls

View from behind the 5th Falls. Kim is way in the distance on the bench.

Next, we went up the road and screeched to a halt at this amazing "flea market/garage sale" place.

Check out the glassware in this place! Kim spent over 45 minutes looking through the tables.

Next....to the Taconite plant....This is where Iron ore is surface mined from the ground, taken by railcars to the plant and, after distilling the iron ore out of it, it becomes pellets of Taconite, which is then shipped to steel plants in Detroit or Cleveland to make steel...to make cars, etc.

This is what comes out of the ground before processing

before processing and after....

This is what gets shipped to the steel mills.

We drove up above the factory to view the operation.

View from above showing part of the plant.

The process illustrated...

...and the numbers that correspond at the plant.

Here's a large, large pile of the pellets waiting to be shipped.

We were fortunate to be at this location when an ore ship showed up.

At first, it looked like a ghost ship with the mist coming off Lake Superior

But little by little, it became clearer

Until it finally docked at the plant. These large ships no longer need tugboats because they're equipped with bow and stern thrusters so that they can maneuver right into the dock sideways with no assistance.

We both find this kind of observing very educational. One of the great things about travelling is that we're not just seeing Mount Rushmore or Statue of Liberty, etc. There are so many less-visited places that help educate us to more of what goes on in life. All of this helps to fill in the gaps to make our world larger and more full. We see iron ore being processed, then we visit an steel mill and then take a tour on a great lakes boat and it all comes full circle.

Also, we got see some cool tunnels, lighthouses and wonderful views.