I'm up at the usual time in the morning & help the kids get off to school. Once that was done, I spent a last few minutes with my wife in person before heading out. A couple errands need to be completed before I can get to Kenosha and pick up Joe - I need a tire rotation and want to stop at Woodman's to see if I can't find the elusive Ragu in a pouch. Unfortunately, even the massively stocked shelves at Woodman's didn't have what we needed. We decided to stop at Zup's in Ely as a last ditch effort, hoping they'd have it.

Foiled by the grocery store, I head into town to Joe's house to finish packing, load up all our gear, and have lunch before hitting the road.

We're finally headed out around 2PM for our drive to Ely. The plan is to stop at the rest stop by the Laurentian Divide for a few hours sleep. It's beautiful outside today, bright strong sunshine is on our faces as we head North, then West, then North again through Wisconsin.

We make a brief stop in Delafield at the Sports Authority there hoping to get some fishing supplies as I have a $10 of $10 purchase coupon. Their fishing selection is truly crappy and we end up getting some leaders and a LED glow stick looking thing which we'll use as our tent light. It turns out there's a tackle shop underneath what I've always referred to as 'The Happy Barn' because it used to have a huge smiley face on one side. We head in and come out later with jigs, a rattling rap, some extra line, and some Gulp baits. Back on the road we make good time through Wisconsin, and soon we're stopping a little wihle before sunset at a rest stop to eat some subs we had made earlier. I make a quick call home to talk to my family, and Joe does the same. Neither of us are able to finish our sandwiches and we decide to save them for later if we get hungry.

Soon it's dark and we're getting closer to Superior. We stop to fill up the car and before long we're crossing the bridge into Minnesota. We make the rest stop we targeted around 10PM and after stretching our legs a bit settle back in to the car to try to get a few hours of fitful, excited sleep.