We are in to Wisconsin now...the city of Superior and Duluth, Minnesota where we got to see a HUGE, 768-foot ship come into the harbor.


You need to watch this movie to see how very long this ship is as it comes through the channel.


https://youtu.be/PeicqDvuDSc

Then we went in to the maritime museum that was there...nice place with many, many models of the ships throughout the history of the Great Lakes.

Plus, we love lighthouses, so here's a couple....

We found a baseball game to go to...finally, after all these months of not being in the right city when the home team was playing. This is not even minor leagues. It's a college league, where these "boys" come from all over to play in the summer league. The Duluth Grizzlies versus the Green Bay Bullfrogs. Gotta love it. AND, we sat next to a few people that had season tickets ! We had a great time listening to them talk about "their guys".

I did a lot of investigating the iron ore shipping trade out of Duluth/Superior. Very interesting. These massive docks have a ramp for each of the ship's hulls and, after the ship is in position, they load the iron ore (or wheat) directly into each hull with each ramp. They can load one of these ships in 5 hours. That load is equal to over 700 railroad cars!

The ships mostly move Taconite, which are iron ore pellets that are used in making steel.

The ships are so maneuverable that they don't need tugboats to get into position. They used to use them but they became too expensive so they started building the ships with bow and stern thrusters to do the job instead.


I talked to a lady at the ship museum about the crew's hours. She said they'll go 30-60 days without a day off, then take a week to three weeks off. Some just work the entire "season", then take off the winter. Makes sense. They have no place to spend their money and, when they get into town, they cannot get into trouble or no job.

Cindy, the RV park owner said her Dad used to be doctor and, when the foreign ships came into port, he used to go out to inoculate them or they would not be allowed off the ship.

They get the iron ore from northern Minnesota where there are huge iron deposits from open pit mines. We did not get up there to see them....just the Taconite pellets.

Duluth had a nice tourist area full of restaurants, the ship museum, some terrific antique places and more. We had one of the best sandwiches I've ever had at Northern Waters Smokehaus. Smoked salmon.....YUMMMM.





We had a good time in Duluth/Superior. Cozy place.



Steve and Kim