What I did on my vacation: Day 1

[dreamshark]

Took Friday off from work just to pack. It was complicated, as we needed to carry clothing for temperatures that could be anywhere from low 40's to low 90's, bedding and food for one night camping out, 2 bikes, and an excess of float toys that I had acquired on the Internets in an orgy of pre-vacation ordering. We got everything into the minivan somehow and headed out on Saturday shortly before noon. Our destination was Virginia, where I had reserved a room in the AmericInn at a highly inflated price. It was Labor Day weekend, after all; I was just lucky to find a hotel with rooms available at all. We stopped about halfway to bike a short stretch of the Albert Munger trail between Finlayson and Rutledge. The southern part of this long trail is not very exciting, running mostly through cornfields, so we deliberately picked a section that had a few hills to make it more scenic. Perhaps that was a little too ambitious, given the heat and all. It was pleasant but uncomfortably hot, and not exciting enough that I even felt moved to take any pictures.

We arrived in Virginia at about 5pm, checked in to the hotel and headed off on a sunset ride to Mountain Iron, 4.5 miles away. That was a beautiful ride, in the cool of the evening. Mountain Iron is a fiercely proud little town, in a region where every town seems to be proud of something. In their case they are perpetually celebrating the fact that they were the first mining town on the Mesabi Range. We finished up the evening with a pleasantly greasy meal at the "Sawmill Saloon and Eatery, an Iron Range Tradition" and a soak in the hotel hot tub. All round, a very fine first day.

	This is why I save the cushions from every couch we've ever had Look at that! It fits perfectly. And with a quilt over it to smooth it out it made a comfortable bed for our one night of camping.
	On the trail from Virginia to Mountain Iron Getting out of Virginia was kind of messy, but from this point on it was just a beautiful ride.
	On the way to Mountain Iron
	Our first pit lake! Wacota Pit, an abandoned mine outside Mountain Iron
	Entering Mountain Iron at sunset
	Mountain Iron is very proud of their town founder Although I kinda wonder what happened to the OTHER Merritt brother mentioned on the plaque. If they started the mine together, why did Leonidas get a statue and his brother is only a footnote in the small print??
	You can tell how successful the mining town was by the construction of their public buildings And Mountain Iron was very successful - the site of the very first mine on the Mesabi Range. That village hall isn't really big, but it truly is a gorgeous building.
	Mountain Iron is proud of its history and Matt is proud of his bar. The art-glass windows are pretty nice, but the extensive window display of all albino taxidermy is really rather stunning. I didn't know there were albino beavers!
	The Sawmill Saloon and Eatery, Virginia Here we are at the end of the day, ready for the first of a long series of well-deserved burger and onion ring dinners. Yes, the place really is built of real pine logs.