Travel day- we plan to leave my house at 8 am to make sure we make it to the ranger station by 5 to pick up our permit. We leave at about 8:30 which isn’t bad considering some of the trips I’ve gone on with others. I am always kind of antsy to get going and am a never late always early kind of guy. I will try to forget all that and be very patient this whole trip since it is a vacation. We make the usual stops(gas, bathroom, and lunch) and make it to Ely from Alexandria MN by about 4. We grab our permit and head to Jordan’s Outfitters, which is where we will rent our canoe. Once there we realized we picked the right outfitter. They are out of town about 3 miles which is great, we can begin relaxing instantly. They offer free lodging and breakfast for all renters which is perfect for us. They have a fire ring which we light up and have some brews and chill out by the fire until about 11. We then head to bed. Hard to sleep with all this anticipation!