To Duluth to Pick Up Our Truck

Day 13, August 12

Mike Sullivan and his wonderful truck

Twas an interesting day.  Over the years that we have done this type of voyaging, people often ask how we get out truck back to where our trip ends and often are amazed at our answers.  Well, this one is amazing.  The short version is: we met a man in a bar and he offered his pickup truck for us to drive the 215 miles from Houghton to Duluth.  We took him up on his offer and made the trip.  The more complete version is:  Mike Sullivan, a new fellow Balboa 26 sailor, found our blog site and invited us to Houghton, greeting us with warm homemade pie.  Over a beer at a local micro brewery, he offered his Chevy S-10 for the trip.  It is an interesting ole girl with many miles on her and a great little engine that carried us at highway speeds all the way to Duluth and back.  The trip was about 8 hours and uneventful.

When we returned to Houghton, Mike offered that we could leave the truck and trailer at his home while we completed our trip.  What this did was to change the trip from Sault Ste Marie to Duluth at the end of our journey from a two day trip to a one day trip.  We are so appreciative of Mike’s  offer. 

Panache and Damn Dink in Houghton

We started the day with breakfast a little Finnish/UP restaurant called Soumi that was recommended by Mike.  What a neat place!  First of all it is very ethnic Finn with most of the labels in the menu written in Finn with English translations.  Under the Finnish specialties, we noted Pannukakku, an “Oven-baked Custard-like Pancake served with Warm Raspberry Sauce” for $4.25.  With Nisu Toast, it would be $4.95.  The waitress told us how to pronounce it and explained that the toast is a slightly sweetened bread that “really” enhances the flavor of the Pannukakku.  We both ordered it and when she served it, she suggested that we put a bit of the raspberry sauce on it and try it that way to see if we liked it.  Then she said, we should smear it all over the thing because it was really good that way.  AND IT WAS. 

The other thing that was neat about this restaurant was that all of the folks (except for the few tourists) were speaking in a very distinct UP/Finnish variation of the English Language.  Garrison Keillor would be proud.   

By the time we got back to the boat from Mike’s house, it was almost dark and, after talking to our new neighbors at the marina who at one time were in the Power Squadron in Toledo, we went to bed.