Lots of landmarks

We reached the eastern time zone; we finished another Adventure Cycling map; we have completed 2/3 of the miles.

All that on an easy day. Well, when I say easy...that's one of the things that this trip has changed. I rode over 80 miles today, and although it was more down than up (according to Ride With GPS we climbed about 1200' and descended about 2400') it was more flat than anything. Not many days go by when I don't think about how I got here. The exercise bike, Bruce talking me into a ride up to Sawyer Camp Trail, our July 4th Tiburon rides - I was so amazed to realize I had covered 25 miles - then Velo Girls & Lorri, my first road bike, first 40 miles, ALC, all Curtis's advice & PT, Ride FAR, 6000 miles a year, and now I am sitting in Escanaba, MI with most of the width of North America behind me. All in less than 10 years.

So many people have asked about the trip and have exclaimed that they certainly could not do it; almost all of them are younger than I was when I began to ride. Really ride, I mean. So I tell them not to assume they can't.

But back to today's news.

Our place for the last two nights was another favorite. The Listening Inn was really a treat. Les and Carol took wonderful care of us and have an incredible setting. Hundreds of acres, part cultivated, much of it wild. Last night we saw two bears at the turkey feeder at the same time. I hope we can return some day with time to explore more thoroughly.

Today was a longish route, so we left right after breakfast. Breakfast was wonderful, so we never considered peanut butter to give us an early start! There were a few minor climbs in the first part of the day. Bruce was a little achy today, but I felt great. An extra day really works for me. The Upper Peninsula is very, very attractive. It is a mix of mostly evergreen woods and farms with the occasional town. The trees are not very tall. My guess is that they don't have a very long growing season; they sort of remind me of Anchorage. I like the style of many of the farmhouses, and I always love old red barns. It was fun arriving at Lake Michigan, too. Our views are likely to be pretty different as we ride along the shore for the next several days.

We had a surprising lunch today. There were not a lot of choices, so we stopped at the Nordic Trading Post feeling very uncertain what we might find. The sign was pretty worn out. I was a bit surprised to find the door open. It was, though, so we went in. The seats at the counter were those chairs we used to have to use in grammar school. The tables and booths were clean. The menu was fairly typical except: there was a very good beef & barley & vegetable soup; there were three varieties of homemade bread for sandwiches; there were several topping and condiment options we have not been seeing in these tiny places. I got talking to the woman there. She had a brace/bandage-thing around her shoulders. It turned out to be for the collar bone she had broken falling off her bicycle. So she was quite interested in our trip.

At about 2:00, Jim and Bruce traded places, and Jim & I whizzed right in to Escanaba. He pretty much doubled his previous mileage today & seems to be feeling fine. He also plans to ride some of the day on Wednesday when we are supposed to cover more than 90 miles. Bruce is pleased he will have some time to explore by car with his sister.

There have been a couple of rough spots.

Logging trucks. I can't say I had never heard about them. Adventure Cycling even refers to them in its brief description of riding conditions. It never occurred to me that they would actually be different than other big trucks. At breakfast this morning I was telling the other people how impressed I always am by truckers in general. They make tons of space for us, they wave, they toot their horns - not to make us move, just to say hi.


Not the logging trucks. Oh, they don't exactly aim at us. They just try to pretend we don't exist. It was so consistent - we were on a route much of the day where one of the loaded logging trucks passed us every several minutes - that I found myself imagining their training manual:

Drivers must NEVER cross the center line of the road.
Drivers have full use of all paved shoulders. Should an obstacle (farm vehicle, fallen tree, disabled vehicle, bicycle) limit driver's ability to use the shoulder safely, driver may move to the left edge of the lane, but may NEVER, we repeat, NEVER, cross the line at the left edge of his lane.
Driver should not give any signal of intentions; driver owns his lane and other users of the road must yield to his big, scary load.

Or something like that. Anyway, I learned a lot more about logs today than I ever thought I would. I did not need my glasses to see them in great detail.

And then there was the glass bottle heaved out a pick up truck window towards, but not quite at us this afternoon. Its path was just far enough away, and the throw was just strong enough that I am reasonably sure that it was not meant to do anything but startle us. It did.

It was an isolated act. Everyone else has continued to be very, very friendly and helpful. Many other drivers waved, most made it clear they'd be happy to wait for us at intersections. We always waved them through ahead of us, though.

Good dinner, good local ice cream.

Miles today: 83
Total miles so far: 2745