Lake Superior

Having visited the headwaters of Old Man River and taken the scenic drive that follows the first leg of his long journey, I had developed a taste for big water. So I headed east from Lake Bemidji to Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and the third largest by volume.

I met the lake at Duluth, Minnesota, which bears little resemblance to the city of Gore Vidal's fabulously mind-bending novel Duluth. I stood by the water and gazed sadly towards the horizon that I knew to be Ontario, Canada. That way lies my good friend Tim and the planned weekend visit that Bambi stole from us. I ate some truly excellent choc-mint ice-cream and walked along the lake's edge for a while.

The deep water triggered shallow thoughts. I tried, unsuccessfully, to recall an appropriate and pithy line from the novel Duluth. I resolved to reread Duluth. I reflected on the relative rarity of the choc-mint pairing in the USA versus Australia. It's such a good combination that it's hard to understand why they don't do it more often here. I pretended that I could just swim across the Great Lakes for lunch with Tim, do a bit of choc-mint comparison shopping and maybe pick up a copy of Duluth.

The whimsy disappeared with the last of the ice-cream and, with a jaunty little salute towards Canada, I headed resolutely south.