Repairs and Gitche Gumee

 Those Gas Stations from the past:

 They were called Service stations. They did small repairs changed oil and pumped gas. They cleaned the windshields and checked the oil and water with every stop.

For Saturday and Sunday’s stuff:

We sat around waiting for a tow truck, and then waited for repairs. You must understand when you show up with an RV at a truck facility you are at the bottom of the list. Those truckers need their trucks, it is their living, and we are in it for the fun of life, as seen by the business. WE are also a onetime customer, they have regulars.

It chaffs at times, but that is ‘life on the road.’

So while we sat I remembered the first time I heard the term, ‘Gitche Gumee.’ We had met sisters, Mel and Darla. online and stopped by to visit them. They live up in the deep woods of Wisconsin, not far South of lake Superior.

 What a wonderful family Mama ‘O’ has. WE also had the privilege of meeting their beautiful mama.  I think she is a little older than I, and still gets her buck every year for meat in the freezer. In talking about Lake Superior, Dar called it Gitche Gumee.

It was not until this trip I looked up the words of Gordon Lightfoot’s song, ‘The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald.’ What a sad tell from the history of the lake. 29 souls were lost in its sinking.

 

The ship was loaded with iron ore, loaded from the now silent piers, most likely Marquette, many ships were loaded, there on the shores of Gitchie Gumee. 

WE marveled at these structures, wondering what they were when we first arrived. Missing is the bridge leading to the top of this monster where the ore was dumped from trucks, awaiting a ship to pull along side. 

We are near Lake Michigan here. We will NOT see Lake Superior this trip.

Nite Shipslog  

 PS: We are Back on the road, more tomorrow