A Huge Freighter Ship in Duluth

A gray day in Duluth, with rain squalls passing through during the morning hours, and we couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to tour anything.  We did venture out and find a Wal-Mart, and many shopping centers west of town.  The town of Duluth is on a hill, and the Downtown area has streets as steep as Hood River Oregon.

The RV Park we are parked at, is just 3 short blocks from the shipping path for the huge cargo ships to enter and exit the Duluth and Superior Bays.  The Lake Superior Lift Span Bridge is 390ft long, raises 141ft and was completed in 1930.  Yesterday afternoon, as we were returning to the RV Park, we could see a huge cargo ship out in the lake heading to the shipping channel, and that meant that the lift span would be raised.

It looked to be over 1/4 mile long and the pilot house looked like a 6 story building on top of a deck that is already four stories tall above the water.  The back side of the pilot house is a maze of balconies and stairs, and as the ship passed there were several yellow hard hats visible, moving about on the deck, as the crew was preparing for docking.

These wide pictures show how long this ship is, but the massive height just isn’t shown.

Our mail did not arrive Friday or Saturday.  We were planning on being on the road heading West tomorrow, Monday, but after a call to the mail service in Hood River, and they traced the package, delivery is expected on Wednesday this week.  We have five days travel to get to the North West, and this delay here makes travel days closer, and a bit more rushed.

The pictures show a grey day yesterday, but we have blue skies today, and with four touring days left of our Duluth visit, we have to choose which attractions we would like to visit today.