Minnesota 2012--Day 7

A little maintenance and a brother-in-law visit.

Not much happening yesterday.  Mostly spent the day doing maintenance on the coach.  Due to a hail storm this past June in Oklahoma City the windshield is cracked and has a small gap between the top of the windshield and the front of the coach.  This allows rain water to come in.  Apparently a large hailstone chipped the windshield up high on the passenger side and I did not notice it before leaving on this trip.  On some of the rough roads (I-35) coming up several large cracks appeared and caused part of the windshield to separate from the coach.  Went to Home Depot and got some blue painters tape and covered over the gap.  That should take care of it until I get back to Oklahoma, contact my insurance company and get a new windshield put in.  Also, my outside driver's side rearview mirror had worked lose so I had to disassemble it and tighten it back down.  There always seems to be something that needs to be done to keep these things operating smoothly.

Today was time to go "up on the hill" to visit with Joanne's brother, Roger, and his wife Marilyn.  Duluth is laid out around the tip of Lake Superior and is surrounded by a very steep hill.  The city grew up that hill and the newer areas are on the back side of the hill.  That area is where the large shopping mall, newer chain restaurants, auto dealerships and most businesses that require a lot of room are located.  Roger and Marilyn live up in that area.  Roger has a lawn mower/snow blower repair business he runs out of his backyard and I caught him working on a couple of mowers when I arrived.

It seems like driving almost straight up when going "up on the hill".  This was taken from the top of the hill looking back down toward town and Park Point.  That long island area just past the bridge is Park Point, an upscale part of town.  The area just past the bridge, on the right, is The Lakehead Boat Basin, where my RV is parked. 

This next picture is from the top of the hill looking down Lake Avenue.  This is the street I use coming back down the hill.  This is fun this time of year.  Not sure I'd care to be driving around here in the winter.  This street ends down in Canal Park at the foot of the bridge.