July 6, 2014 (76th Day)

Slept til 8:45, but we both had the BEST night's sleep ever. Sound asleep even through the contant flashings from lightning.

Ron invited us in to eat oatmeal with raw honey and strawberries for breakfast. Good chat with him while Shirley was in other room chatting with their customers via video-phone.  

Shirley and Ron

We did not want to leave, but we had other places to visit, so we bid the Johnsons good bye and thanked them for the strawberries they let us have.

From there we got on 19 east then 38 south to Grand Rapids, MN.  Turned right on 2 to see if Erwin's mom's house was still there or not. Nope, the house is all gone and the area is taken over by the paper mill for logging storage.

Checked one roadside attraction: Bunyan adronidack chair and tin man. There was also another attraction: Wizard of Oz mural

After leaving Grand Rapids we took route 169 to go to Ely, MN

Along the route there were lots and lots of iron ore mounds. In Calumet, MN we turned left to go to Hill Annex State Park that was once a mining site for iron ore, but it was closed.

In Hibbing, MN we went by to check out The Greyhound Bus museum that has lots of buses from 1900's to 1980's.  Two business men, Carl Wickman and Andrew Anderson, owned the first bus line between Hibbing and Alice in 1914. The business was so successful for transporting miners that it became Greyhound.

All the different styles of buses through the years

World Famous Logo, The Greyhound

Not too far from the museum we visited the iron ore museum and it had an overlook to see the iron ore quarry. 

A mine similar to this one was where Erwin's father used to work driving a huge dump truck like the one below that Edith is tempted to drive!

First National Bank's Piggy Bank

Even the state bird is HUGE, the Loon

We decided to camp out at Frontier Casino & Resort in Orr, MN. Edith prepared BBQ chicken, pasta side and corn.  After washing and putting away dishes and pans we walked to the casino.  It was not a big casino, but okay.  They had a restaurant that serves breakfast buffet, so we went by to check out for our meals tomorrow morning.  We did not play slots or table games at all, just walked around and watched players in action.

It started to get dark, so we walked back to the campsite.  Rested a bit before retiring for the night.

We bid y'all a good night!