Traveling as Two - Rounding the Bay at Ashland

Did you notice that I changed my title on yesterday's post? My sweetie pointed out that I had the wrong city listed; that we didn't actually get to see Ashland until today. The hotel we were staying in was in a little place called Ontanogon, but I didn't think you would have heard of it even though they made delicious fried Wisconsin cheddar cheese curds.

Anyway, you will not believe what it looked like outside our window when we got up in the morning. The ice was almost completely gone from the lake!! When my sweetie showed me his pictures of the sunrise, I thought he was just teasing me until I pulled back the blinds and saw it for myself.

We didn't have time to stand around though since we had so many places to see. We ate breakfast on the road and I watched Lake Superior in and out of the trees. As we traveled, the snow seemed to be deeper and the lake progressively more frozen. 

It wasn't long before it was totally frozen over again and we saw little warming shacks where people were ice fishing. That's when I saw a full-sized pickup truck with a trailer out on the ice. I just had to drive out there.

My sweetie was nervous even though all logic pointed to the fact that half a dozen vehicles and a parking lot leading out onto the ice proved that we would be safe. I finally convinced him and he hit the gas to get through the muddy tracks.

Then we were doing it! Driving across the ice! The adrenalin rush was incredible and as we skidded to a stop, I opened the door to take a picture or two... or five...

We were both laughing so hard, but my sweetie thought it was probably better not to do any "donuts" or slide around much. 

Ten minutes later and we were back on the road. Ten minutes after that, we rounded a curve and a huge area of the bay opened up to reveal dozens of cars and trucks out on the ice. 

We were confused at first, but then we realized that there were two distinct groups, the spectators, and the pit crews. All eyes were focused on the coned-off area that was the race track. Half a dozen numbered cars, all different makes and models, were racing around what would definitely be considered a short track. When they hit the curve, they would slide around, sometimes spinning out, and then punch it again on the straightaway.

We couldn't miss this! We eased carefully into the row of spectators and pulled out our sandwiches. It seemed like a great time to stop for lunch.

And this seems like a great time to stop this post. I will tell you all about Duluth tomorrow.

In the last pic, my sweetie thought it was so funny that the GPS showed us IN the lake!