Tag: Agostino’s

Books, Duluth, MN, Finland Campground, MN, Mr. Sutton scrambled eggs, Spirit Lake Marine and RV Park, The Last Wild Road

On to Duluth

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September 15, 2025 

Low 57 degrees, high 73, sunny!

Finland State Park Campground was a great place to stay, peaceful, quiet, pretty. At first national forest and state forests, make me a little nervous. They are remote, and you don’t know what crowd will frequent them. This one couldn’t have been better. It is well maintained, clean and good facilities.

Martha made Mr. Sutton scrambled eggs using bacon, peppers and left-over french fries – yum!

It’s only an hour and a half to Duluth, but first to the dump station in Silver Bay. While preparing to hook up, I noticed a missing nut on the awning arm. I don’t care how many nuts and screws you carry, you can’t have them all. 

After dumping, I did Sandra Wheless’ blackwater treatment, putting soap and Borax down the toilet, then giving a generous flush. During travel this will slosh around and clean the tank. Probably should do it to the gray water tank too.

In Two Harbors we turned onto Scenic 61 that runs right on the coast. It is very pretty, with rest stops and picnic tables all along the way. You can ooh and ahh at the cute cabins and grand houses. Do they just come in summer? Certainly some are here year around. 

As we entered the city, there were many magnificent homes. Then it merged into apartments. We turned onto I35, which is under heavy construction, but the traffic wasn’t bad. We turned off of that and wound our way to Spirit Lake Marine and RV Park. Mostly, it is an eclectic boat harbor on Spirit Lake. 

We backed into site #4 and setup. When I went in the trailer, the water pump was going! I must have left it on when I treated the black water tank. Fortunately, no faucets turned on, or it could have been a very bad day. The galley faucet is usually the culprit, so we take the drain out of the sink and put a rubber band over the on/off lever. I had that problem in Oregon years ago when learned the hard way. the drain was in the sink and all that bouncing around closed it and opened the lever. I entered the trailer with a full sink of water and water all over the floor.

The probably was the pump was dry. I turned the pump off, removed the back panel of the storage cabined under the refrigerator and the little, clear bowl in front of the pump was dry. Once I added a little water, it ran fine. It was an easy fix that could have been much worse.

We had lunch looking out the window at the water and boats. We loaded up all the dirty laundry and went to another eclectic place, a laundry that used to be a car-side fast food restaurant. Two old carseats were outside. The neighborhood was a bit rough, but the machines were great. $5.50 for a large machine wash – in quarters. We filled two of those and sat in the only chair on that side of the laundry. The other side had smaller machines and one more chair. 

As Martha said, it would have taken into the evening if we had used the marina’s single washer and dryer. Besides, the people watching is good. One nice fellow brought four large trash bags full of clothes and loaded them into two even larger machines. He probably has nine children. He knows the routine and was very efficient.

Back with clean clothes and sheets, we put them away and made the beds. Having showered in the trailer for the last three nights, it was good to take a real shower. Then we fixed a drink and walked around the harbor, gawking at some beautiful boats. There were more sailboats than motor boats. One big, beautiful sailboat looked like it had many stories to tell. Similarly, one old Airstream got my attention. After a little investigation: The J in the serial number means it was made in Jackson Center, Ohio; 1 means International model (top of the line); 30 means 30ft; 5 means 1965. From https://www.airstream.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1959-to-1980-Airstream-and-Argosy-Serial-Number-Decoder-2020-06-16.pdf. That is 61 years old and still in use!! I must say the quality was better then, when it was a family-owned business that employed local people who took a lot of pride in what they made.

Martha warmed up the chicken pot pies from Agostino’s, which were very good. 

This book has been the perfect bedtime read. He is a hunter and fisherman, who was a writer for Field and Stream Magazine. The stories are a page or two in length, sometimes a series of these. Last night it was how he loves coking in a Dutch oven. One was about how we use GPS on our phone so much, we can no longer use a map and topographic features (as our canoe friend said in Quetico).

Perfect bedtime reading
Cuisine, Fort William, Thunder Bay, Ontario, The Fish House, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Thunder Bay

Moving to Thunder Bay

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September 4, 2025 

41 degrees at 6:00, high of 54.

We booked a campsite at Fort William in Thunder Bay on advice from Airstreamers at Terrace Bay and from Sandy at the Silver Islet store. There was no need to hurry, so I went down to the South Kaybeyun parking lot to see if I could get some posts done. Nope. Surely it is a good idea to just allow enough to get messages and email. It forces you to concentrate on the outdoors. 

It was a raw, cold morning as we started to get ready to travel. Our poor tenter neighbors were sitting outside all bundled up. I took our firewood out and offered to build a fire for them. They were thrilled. They were from Quebec on a trip across the country to Vancouver. Their names were Gatinau (?) and Leis. They met 32 years ago, each camping, so they are used to this.

They related their issues with their new GMC electric car that gets 375 miles/charge. They started to buy a Prius that gets 500 miles/charge, but they wanted more room. They searched for charge stations and travelled accordingly, but there were issues. They would arrive and the station wasn’t working, out of order or all being used. They had to be towed at one point, and had to backtrack a few times. I told them they need to write this up. I would love to know if they make it to Vancouver.

We hooked up and just barely made the turn out of the campsite. Our nice neighbor across the street offered to move his truck, but we were OK. Traveling with three young girls, I offered him the prize for neatest campsite in the park. They were there for 10 days and had a big time. Canadians are different. On a chilly morning with it spitting rain, one of the little girls, maybe 4 years old, was dancing around in her rubber boots, raincoat and little umbrella. 

It was only an hour to Thunder Bay. Sandy, at the Silver Islet Store, had told us to go to The Fish Store, following a big sign on the side of the road. We did that and it proved to be a great place. Liisa owns it and showed us frozen, wild blueberries. She said it was a tough year for them due to several major weather changes. Bears were having a hard time finding enough to eat, so they have been coming to town.

We bought a bag of candied smoked salmon chunks. Sandy said it sounds weird, but they are great. We bought a smoked Rainbow Trout, Pickerel cheeks, blueberries, a loaf of bread and some local Gouda cheese. She was interesting to talk to as she meets all kinds of people, many coming from Europe to do the big loop – across Canada, down the west coast of US, across the south and up the east coast. Some do an even bigger one, using the Pan American Highway that goes all the way to the tip of South America. This one takes two years. We thought we were doing well to go around the big lake. Martha asked what to do with the smoked trout. Another customer named Laura was contributing to the conversation.

It was a bit of a trick getting out of the parking lot, but we made it. Across town, we found our site at Fort William. After getting settled on a damp and chilling day, we went to the Visitor’s Center to register and look around. It’s a very interesting place that was in competition with the Hudson Bay Company for this part of Canada. We watched a good video on how they carried furs and other goods in big canoes with 8 or more men on board. They paddled incredible distances this way. We never did see the fort, as we had a lot to do.

First, we were off to a laundry. It seemed like everything useful was dirty. It was a busy little place with the owner, Cosmo, coming in to help people. Someone came in with a great-looking sandwich from next door. After loading the wash, we went next door to Cosmo’s other business, an italian bakery, deli and grocery store – Agostino’s Deli.

We were like kids in a candy store looking at all the good things when we saw Laura from the Fish Store. That started a whole conversation about the great food in the deli. Martha asked about where to get a “Persian,” and she told us. She told us about a local coffee roaster. She told us about the best hot sauce, so we bought some. And then she told us about a good fresh seafood market. She had come in to look for some little round red peppers in a jar that a friend had put on a salad. She found it and showed us. Then she gave us her phone number in case we had any other questions. 

The help in the Deli were great – friendly, helpful, patient. We kept adding things and putting them on the counter. The girl said that was fine, as she called out to Cosmo for a price for a box of plum tomatoes a regular customer was buying. A man in line said we were going to love that hot sauce. Martha asked what he put it on. “Pork chops…everything,” he said. 

It was like a friendly whirlwind of regulars who all knew Cosmo. Back to the laundry, then back to the deli. Even the people in the little laundry started friendly conversations. Martha spun the washing machine drum because she heard change in there, but couldn’t find it. An older guy sitting behind her said, “Oh that doesn’t come out. Only Cosmo can get that money.” A lady found a sock on the floor and asked Martha if it was hers. There was some debate about no, it wasn’t hers because it has an L on it, and she wore a medium. “Maybe it’s your husband’s.” I said, “Maybe it’s for Left foot.”

We loaded up our laundry, deli meat, pasta, bread, chicken pot pies, frozen meatballs and sauce, and biscotti and headed out. We went to the LCBO for wine and our favorite bourbon, Makers Mark. “We don’t buy anything from the states,” the nice salesperson said, but she recommended some good wines.

Next was the fish market for some fresh steelhead trout for tonight’s dinner.

Then off to the grocery store for a few things. I mean we are only going to Quetico Provincial Park for 5 days! I was ready for a drink when we got back, but Martha said, “Don’t you love that kind of day? It all fell into place and we got so much done!”

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