The first nine days of our trip in 2005 were spent enjoying ourselves on the way to Portal, North Dakota, where Highway 52 begins.
Saturday, June 18th - We left for Hackensack, Minnesota, to spend a few days there with Liz's family, as we do every year.
Tuesday, June 21st - You might expect that we'd head west, but we went east instead. We had lunch in Duluth with Lynn, one of Liz's college roommates. We continued up the North Shore, stopping at Tom's Logging Camp. Later, we hiked the Oberg Loop of the Superior Hiking Trail. Finally, we stopped at the Outpost Motel north of Grand Marais. We spent the whole next day there, enjoying the lake immensely.
Thursday, June 23rd - We crossed the border and made our way to Thunder Bay. We had a mostly-fun time at Old Fort William and a really fun time at the hotel's water slide.
Friday, June 24th - We finally turned west, stopping to see Kakabeka Falls and hoping to take a cruise out of Kenora, Ontario, on Lake of the Woods. Unfortunately, we popped a tire just as we neared Kenora and had to spend the rest of the evening dealing with that.
Saturday, June 25th - We waved goodbye to Huskie the Muskie (Kenora's mascot) and continued west. We stopped in Winnipeg at the Assinoboine Zoo and then traveled on to Brandon, Manitoba.
Sunday, June 26th - We left Brandon for Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. We went on a historic trolley ride there, bought some souvenirs, and went to bed looking forward to getting back to the U.S.
Monday, June 27th - Finally, we arrived at Portal, North Dakota, the start of U.S. Highway 52.