Okay, so, why in the world would we want to
travel so far over the Canadian border, back into the USA, through a
whole lot of nothing, much of it on unpaved roads, to eat lunch and play
on a playground? Well, the
Northwest Angle of Minnesota is the northernmost point in the contiguous, or lower 48, states.
Again, so, why would that matter???
Well, it all started when we took our
road trip last summer
and when researching places to go, I learned about Lubec, Maine. It
was somewhat, kind of sort of, near Acadia National Park and super close
to a spot that we were going in Canada to see one of President Franklin
Roosevelt's homes, AND it was labeled the easternmost point of the
states. So, we went!
While we were up there, I saw this on the wall...
Knowing that B had already been to Key West, the southernmost point...
{Yes, we do still need to get the girls down there!}
I
knew that next on our list would have to be the Northwest Angle. So,
the Northwest Angle along with Mount Rushmore became the two ultimate
destinations of this family road trip, and everything else kind of fell
into place as I began planning.
We
left the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area after dinner and traveled through
the night (and a whole lot of nothing) into the northern area of
Minnesota, stopping in a town called
Bemidji for the night.
The next morning we got up, explored the town a bit, and set off on our grand adventure!
One
of the things that I enjoy most about "road tripping" is seeing the
outlying areas around all of our destinations, really learning about and
experiencing our country in full. It is very beautiful up in the
tip-top of Minnesota, but there is really not a lot there, at all.
We continued north through the little town of
Roseau, which happens to be the home of
Polaris!
From
Roseau, we traveled about 10 miles to the Canadian border and crossed
into Manitoba. One of the nicest little Canadian border patrol guys
ever, was manning the booth, too... He asked where we were from and
just went on and on about our accents... "I've just never heard one
quite like that before. It's melodic, like you have a song in your
voice..." Ummm, how sweet was that?!?!?
After
snapping the mandatory photos documenting a new province for the
littles, we continued into Manitoba, and some more "whole lot of
nothing", beautiful nothing for sure, but not a lot up there!
About
halfway to our destination, we changed over from paved to gravel/dirt
road. I knew that this was coming, but there honestly aren't a whole
bunch of accounts out there of people that have done this trek. I'm
sure a good many (well, maybe not a good many, but at least more
than I could find that wanted to write about it!) have done it, but
still not a lot out there detailing it. So, I wasn't sure what to
expect, but aside from our car getting caked, the road was fine. It
wasn't awful at all. There are not very many people on it. We maybe
passed 10 total cars/trucks (both coming and going) in the total 20ish
miles that we were on it.
So,
once we finally arrived in "the angle", it was so neat to have
accomplished this trip, especially knowing that the only way to reach it
is by boat across Lake of the Woods (ice road in the winter) or by dirt
road through Canada, like we had just done!
{Now,
do remember that we've been on a dirt road for miles and in the middle
of nowhere for much more than that + we are all smothered in bug
repellent ~ the bugs up there were out of control and totally gross ~ I
am not into bugs at all!}
A
big thanks to Hubby for my tripod so that we could get a family
shot... No matter what we looked like, we needed a group photo to
memorialize the occasion!
From this point, we passed the official border sign and continued another 8 miles or so to Jim's Corner.
This
is in an experience in itself... Jim's Corner is one of 3 customs
reporting booths on the angle and the place where you officially notify
border patrol that you are leaving one country and crossing into the
next.
After
making our border cross official, we grabbed a late lunch at Jerry's
Restaurant. It was great, and we loved talking with the owner. He is a
native, born and raised. His parents own one of the resorts (now, from
what I gather, the word resort is used very loosely up there, v-e-r-y
loosely) up there - I think that there are only two or three, and the
accommodations are not exactly what I would consider "resort" worthy!
He and his wife bought the restaurant a couple of years ago.
I
loved learning about the one-room schoolhouse (still in operation) and
how the students get to school in the winter...snowmobile and sometimes,
ice plane?!?!?
We
visited the school and played on the playground. The littles LOVED
that... It was a really awesome playground (the big covered slide was
super fun ~ we all gave it a whirl!) to be in the middle of nowhere + it
had a view of the beautiful lake.
On our way back to Jim's Corner, we stopped at the post office ~ it's really adorable...
After checking back in, we set out for Winnipeg, Manitoba for the night, about 2 1/2 hours away...
with at least half of the trip looking a lot like this...
a whole lot of beautiful nothing...
It was honestly a very pleasant trip, and I am so very glad that we did it!
More {Road Trip} 2014 Fun
