Slightly disillusioned with the first taste of the East, we were excited to see the worlds biggest lakes! Heading to Deluth, {a tourist town on the far west side of lake Superior}, we lost count of the abandoned factories and ghostly smoke stacks lining the highway towards the lake.
Deluth was a friendly and welcoming town, although we felt like Evergreen fashion victims, surrounded by the flocks of conservative, polo shirt wearing, preppie college kids and their 
trailing supportive parents.
Watching the 1000ft grain tankers pass just feet from the boardwalk was impressive, but seeing people fishing next to sewer pipes was new to us.
Billboards advertising the beautiful and idyllic wilderness of the 'Upper Peninsula' of Michigan, led us East along the South shores of Lake Superior.
Driving for hours through towns interspersed with patches of thin woods, we were waiting for the wild to begin; we stopped at a Wall-Mart for ice when suddenly we realized, this was it... the eastern wilderness.
It seemed impossible to escape human development; at the furthest most point there were still visible streetlights and old chimneys peering through the defeated deciduous forest.
Trading the woods for 200yrs of industrialization led us to a copper mine tour; the hills are littered with mine shafts and smelters left from the wealth of abundant copper once beneath them.
The mine was cold, crampt and flooded; everything about mining is hard, heavy, polluting and generally scratchy. Above ground the people are accustomed to harsh, cold winters and seem blind to the surrounding mechanical carnage; the mine owner had found treasure in the form of pet, {sent gland removed} skunks! Fat snugly and completely spoilt!
Lake Superior was impressive but we longed for isolation, and we know where to find that in spades... Canada!