travelnutz wrote:

rob85546,

Have we ever been to Minnesota??? Only well over a dozen times and once to Duluth in January too. We have taken the "Around Lake Superior" trip 4 times now and went to International Falls/Voyagers National park in 1998. Yes, a beautiful place! Visited DW's relation on her Step Mothers side who lived in St. Cloud and another one in SW Minnesota (the Pipestone area) a few times. In addition, we always take US-2 across the U.P., Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota when going to the Northwestern states and/or Alaska. Anything to avoid the insane traffic around the huge Chicago area. Not fun when pulling a 5'er etc. We only have a choice of going north or south because of the 100 mile wide, 340 mile long, 923 foot deep fresh water puddle immediately to the west of our home. Duluth and the area of Northern Minnesota is so unlike the area we live in for winter temperatures, weather, and soil. We do not have below zero here along the lakeshore nor above 90. Our winds prevail from the west and come right across the big lake. What do you think happens to all that water's heat over the winter? Heat rises and the wind blows it right on poor old us until it's heat is finally exhausted into February. The shipping (boat) season doesn't stop until February and begins again the first of April here. So much for the thought of thick ice!!! One or two hundred feet from the beach is all open water all winter. Just the opposite in summer as the west wind blows the cool air on us mortal morsels all summer until late August when the lake has maxed it's heating. Then the warm fall begins until the leaves fall in November. No matter how hot the air could get, the big lake only heats to about the mid 70's with spurts near the beach (a couple hundred yards from shore out) to as much as 80. Pleasant cool breezes rule. The lake never has cooled below 36 degrees at it's lowest temperature and we don't see the cold temps along the shoreline they get inland for 10-20 miles or more. Yes, we wear zip up or pull over sweat shirts all winter and only cover it with an unlined nylon shell if there's a very cold windy day. Quite a drastic difference from what it's like in winter in Duluth because it's west of the end of Lake Superior and winds blow across Duluth from the west and north (Canada) before it gets to the water. Bitterly cold and coats just aren't thick enough. Lake Superior never does heat up much over the summer because of its far north location and very bitter cold long winters deep cold effect.

We went to so many areas of Arizona. From Douglas to Quartzsite, Yuma to The Grand Canyon, Holbrook to Lake Havasu, and the places in between. There's more to automotive in Arizona other than just Yuma I hope you know. The "green" I'm referring to isn't the grass in a front yard. It's everywhere you look in a 360 degree circle around you and forested with big trees: hardwoods, softwoods, pines, etc too. You might want to check the retirement publications (we do) as they all have high ratings for our shoreline. Money magazine, Forbes, Retirement Places Rated Almanac, etc, also. From South Haven all the way up to Petoskey plus several other locations. Nearly 300 miles of the shoreline! Yes, people open water fish in most winter months and there are some motorcycles running around but I think they're crazy. Fast running trout streams do not freeze over! You can ski, sled, or snowmobile until you go nuts about an hour or two north and inland from us but we have to make snow for our Ski Bowl here most of the winter. So different from Minnesota and even considerably more different from Arizona.

How's your "Having a White Christmas" project coming?