Orr, International Falls

Long day today with a lot happening. Left out of Pembroke, Michigan and did 555 miles today covering Isle Royale visitor center. Pretty sure I can’t claim I’ve been to that park. Then I continued on and stopped in a small town called Orr. Orr is a town of about 500 people and they were having a 3rd of July party today. They had covered booths with food and beer , lots of people walking around. A very small kind of redneck car show that was a lot of fun. I love seeing their creations. It was nice because they weren’t all polished and perfect. And everyone was proud of their car. I have attached a small video of a game that all the children got together to play. Can you guess what they’re doing?

https://youtube.com/shorts/9HmlzCQSKD8?feature=…

Met a nice couple, Chuck and Liz, they had lived here their whole lives. They talked about how the lake freezes over 2 feet thick and you need a much bigger saw than most lakes to go ice fishing. They own two snowmobiles. It’s the only way to get around during winter up here. Laughed about how this place only gets three beautiful days a year and this wasn’t one of them. 😂

Went on to Voyageur national Park and tour their visitor center and then took a small walk through a garden of natural plants and out to the boat ramp and the pier to talk to some people fishing. The guy fishing had three walleye on their stringer and had only been out there for about an hour. One was from Florida, and one was a local. They also had their 14-year-old boy with him. He was very excited to hear that I taught automotive in high school. He loved all things mechanical. This is definitely another park that you have to do by water, although it was very beautiful to sit on a bench and watch it for 20 minutes.

Onward. Next I went to International Falls, Minnesota. Here I stayed in a really old motel. I was the only person staying in the whole hotel and the person behind the counter was very nice and said it was very safe. They said tomorrow would be full for the Fourth of July. For dinner, I ended up at a fairly hoity-toity distillery called cantilever. I’ve included the menu and a couple drinks. It was a very good restaurant. Made a great Manhattan. The guy sitting next to me is an architect and he was in town working on Affordable homes by repurposing an old brick high school into about 10, 3 bedroom family units. Keeping the old skeleton and reworking the inside. Keeping old chalkboards and built-in cabinetry and installing new modern stuff around it. It was really cool.

Next to me was a great family, mother, father and son. They were in town from Fargo just on vacation and were headed home today. They had been out fishing with a guy and showed me pictures of 25 inch walleye that the kid had a hard time holding up. They had a great time in this little town.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going to try to make it to Theodore Roosevelt national Park in North Dakota. Also puts me on a direct path West heading towards home. My foot peg is still holding on with the repairs I made initially. Still treating it with kid gloves. Otherwise the bike is running. My odometer says I have over 9000 miles on this trip.Read more