On finishing with a splash, unfortunately

I blame myself really.

I had wanted to get to Sault Ste Marie early-ish in order to make life easier for Gregory with whom I was to stay with (and am staying with). So I made a relative quick and early departure from Newberry.

It was a cool but sunny morning with a light wind more or less in my favor. As Newberry's crossroad to Highway 28 dropped out of sight a crop-dusting biplane with a radial engine snarled low above a nearby field. About ten miles later, I stopped to take a picture of an immodest highway adopter's sign. As I resumed my ride, I noticed a license plate on the shoulder. I dutifully picked it up and stowed it for delivery to the appropriate officials.

After a couple of hours, I was getting a bit bored as the 28 was going through a National Forest which means lovely trees but not much else. Consequently, I decided to dig out my Joby GorrillaPod and use it to secure my iPhone to my handlebars to play some Bruce Springsteen. Margo probably doesn't approve but music gives me an edge and I wasn't getting the order to the verses to Stan Roger's "White Squall" right. (I liked the line about "...Roll North to the Soo".)

Nearing the "Yank" Soo, I turned North to Brimley in hopes of finding a police station in order to turn in the plate. What I found was a very nice local history museum partially housed in an old Algoma Central passenger car. I stopped to check it out and fell to chatting with one of the volunteers. I eventually handed on the responsibility for the license plate to the volunteer before heading on.

It was nearing two o'clock by the time I got to the Soo, so I got a quick lunch on the American side then set off for the Sault Sainte Marie International Bridge. After paying the toll ($1.75), I nipped into the duty free shop to buy a bottle of Famous Grouse Scotch. Owing to state regulations, I had to take it out of the store in a plastic bag. I stuffed it, slippery bag and all, into one of my rear panniers where in partially stuck out.

The Sault Sainte Marie International Bridge is probably best described as bike tolerant. It has no particular provision for bikes across its relatively long span with one wide lane in each direction. It is not for the faint of heart cyclist. I attempted to cross as fast as possible. As I was coming down into Canada, I heard a pop, crash tinkle behind me and briefly smelt malt. A quick glance behind revealed that 1.14 L of Scotch was now in the gutter.

I was almost tempted to go back across the bridge to get another bottle.

I found my way to Gregory's where news to of loss was particularly felt by his roommate, John. (Strangely enough, John's almost girlfriend is called Caitlin. This is odd given Margo's John and his Caitlin. (I am not sure of the spellings of the various Caitin's and will happily submit to correction on the matter.))

Today was spent doing laundry, visiting the Canadian Heritage Bushplane Museum and putting Leonardo into a bike box. The Bushplane Museum seemed more focused on aerial fire fighting that bush flying. It had a 3D movie about fighting forest fires (featuring a big one near Sioux Lookout in 2011). The experience was enhanced by various wind, lighting and smoke effects. The film narrator was quite familiar. I tried to place the voice until I has a "D'oh!" moment: it was Gordon Pinsent.

He, of course, is the *other* person I know who was born in Grand Falls/Windsor, Newfoundland. (My niece Anna being the more important one to my family and I.)

Post return addendum

While on Highway 2 in Michigan, I noticed a Leatherman multi-tool by the side of the road. As is my wont, I stopped, picked it up and discovered it was still serviceable. I stowed it in one of my bags and more or less forgot about it.

Today I looked up which type of Leatherman it was and was somewhat surprised at the result. It is a Charge TTI, which retails from the the website at about $170.00 US! I would be tempted to bring it on future bike trips except for the fact that it weighs about half a pound which is rather heavy. Rather makes up for the loss of the Famous Grouse.

On my current status

I arrived at Gregory's house in the Soo (Ontario) about four hours ago. I am surprised at how tired I am and I am about to call it a night. I can also call it a trip. More details tomorrow.

On today's lack of significant events

Today...

...I can't think of anything terribly exciting.

I:
-Didn't go into "Honest Injun's Tourist Trap."
-Got rained on sufficiently to deploy rain gear for the first time this trip.
-Saw a turkey vulture up close. They aren't birds that bear close scrutiny.
-Chatted with a man who was cleaning his riding mower by driving it down a boat ramp.

-Had a vanilla malt at the Moose du Nord Ice Cream Shoppe.
-Was surprised Newberry had a large state prison. (Not something they tend to advertise in tourist brochures.)
-Figured out that bikes are allowed on the Sault Ste. Marie Bridge.
-Phoned Gregory in the Soo to work details of my stay.

It's my last day on the road tomorrow and it looks like the weather will be nice.

Oh. Alice posted pictures of little Kerry on her Picasa site.

On American beer

One of my anxieties about biking in the United States was American beer. This was a minor one. However, I do enjoy a good beer at the end of the day and typical American beer has been compared to making love in a canoe. The Frantics made the comment "We [Canadians] may have a devalued dollar, but [the Americans] have devalued beer."  The astute reader may well deduce that I don't consider typical American beer as good beer.

However, my anxiety was all for nought as I am sitting in Timber Charlie's in Newberry, Michigan on the last American night of my trip with a sampler of four different craft beers in front of me. I have not had to confront or consume Spudweiser or Coors or whatever Lite on this trip.

In Boulder Junction, I ate both nights at the Aqualunge Alehouse which features about a dozen different craft beers on tap in rotation. The first night they had Raftman from Unibroue on tap. I am reasonably sure I sampled 6 of them. On the second there was a "Cheese shop" type incident when I asked for beer A only to be told the cask had just been installed and wasn't on line yet. When asked for beer B, they had just ran out of it! They did have my third choice.

On cold day's unexpected end

I was woken at 3 AM by a tremendous rain storm. I took a look outside and was very glad I wasn't camping. I casually wondered if the water in the parking lot would flood into my room, then dismissed the notion as a result of watching too much Weather Channel. That channel makes way too much fuss about every last thunder storm.

The day proved gray, windy and quite frankly cold for July. I loafed out of town and along the coast of Lake Michigan. I soon decided that my hands were cold and that I should dig out my fleece gloves. I had felt a bit foolish for packing them, but they were just the thing.

At Rapid River, I saw a restaurant with the evocative name of "Jack's Eat" (sic), so I stopped for lunch. As I was finding a spot for Leonardo, a fellow long distance cyclist came up and yet another chat began. He was travelling very light by my standards, especially as he was apparently camping. No rear panniers but he did have a bag that sat inside the frame the bike. He was headed West and recommended the Star Motel in Manistique. It proved to be cheap, wonderfully spacious and very clean and nice to the point that in order to protect the carpet, I put spread out maps under Leonardo. However, I am getting ahead of myself.

I saw another pair of sandhill cranes beside the road. This time I could accurately judge their (small) size as they were that much closer to me.

I stopped at Manistique's tourist office. When he saw me come in, the guy behind the counter punched up the weather forecast as that was he found cyclists always wanted to know. It was 12 degrees Celsius out. I made a comment about how glad I was about bring my fleece gloves. He replied that one should always bring warm clothes to the Upper Pennisula regardless of the season! (Remember, this is the tourist information officer talking. ;-) )

As I neared the Star Motel, as recommended by the cyclist, I saw a circus tent set up near a mall. I gave it a once over and kept on going. I went to a nearby restaurant recommended by the nice old lady who ran the motel for supper. In the atrium there was a sign announcing the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus would be performing at 7:30 that night. I took this in and filed the information away. My plan had been to go into Manistique to see the sights after supper, but I thought I might give the circus a try if I got there in time, which I did. So I went to the circus.

Circuses are odd things for me. They feature in books and movies far more that they have ever featured in my actual experience. If I remember correctly, I have been to exactly one traditional circus, and that was a three ring affair in Santa Barbara at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Aside from some Chinese acrobats, my only other circus experience was a very early Cirque du Soleil performance with Aunt Lorna.

And yet circuses have played background roles in some of my bike trips. One of my memories from the trip in Spain was countless posters for circuses. On the Calgary to Winnipeg trip, I saw the circus-themed "Madagascar 3 Europe's most wanted".

Sadly the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus rather resembled the Circus in the movie before the Penguins buy it. It was a very modest one ring affair. Their advertising featured their big cats prominently. Alas, they were easily the weakest act. The two tigers and the magnificently maned lion seemed rather bored and unimpressed with their trainer. He made me think of Bruce Campbell's character on Burn Notice. After a few rather dull tricks, the cats were coaxed away and the cage was taken down by the trainer assisted by the roustabouts. I was struck by how small they were compared with to the lion trainer. Looking more closely, I noticed they seemed Latino looking.

Thankfully, the other acts were better aside though the clown wore thin at times. There was a great act from London, Ontario featuring six unicyclists. Another interesting act had two performing horses: one was a draft horse and the other a miniature horse! It wasn't a long performance and even that had a lot of schmaltz and padding.

Aunt Lorna had been a driving force behind my visit to the Cirque du Soleil as it didn't feature animals as she was an animal lover and circuses are so cruel to animals you know. Years later, I once asked a question about an apparent contradiction in my great aunt as she appreciated fancy horse riding (she was a very respectable rider in her heyday) as well as dog acts (she was also a prize-winning dog trainer). If there had been a circus featuring dogs and horses as well as humans, would she have gone? This relevant this evenings performance as aside from the big cats, the only non-human performers were the horses and a set of dogs. The latter really seemed quite happy to do their tricks.  Part of me thinks that the C&M might be well rid of the hassle of the big cats.

On a good day that could have been a great day

Today was supposed to be a relatively long day and it was. On fact, it was an even longer day on paper than in reality, as I returned to the Eastern Time Zone which meant I lost an hour.

However, it was an exhilarating day as well. It was nice, sunny with the wind at my back for most of the day. As well, much of the day was on Highway 69 which gently rose and more often fell in such a way as to encourage high speeds. At one point I was keeping pace with a couple of ATVs that were on a trail parallel to the highway. Mind you, they had to stop at the intersecting roads whereas I didn't. At one point, one of the drivers gave me a friendly wave.

Lunch came at Hardwood. I went into the only grocery store I had seen in about 20 miles looking for a sandwich or something. I choose the best option out of a very limited selection namely a frozen microwaveable ham 'n' cheese thingy and a bottle of cold Gatorade. There seemed to be an issue at the cash with the customer before the customer before me. As the store was quite cool, I let the matter sort itself out with the patience of someone having a good day of biking who knows he needs to rest a bit before going on. The matter resolved itself in due course.

(What little attention I paid to the matter leads me to believe it was some sort of credit and/or debit card machine issue. I have noticed the Yanks are way behind Canada in financial technology. You can't verify a credit card transaction with a PIN like I have done in Canada, Australia or the UK. As well, I have seen many signs in businesses about which personal checks they will accept. I can't remember the last time I wrote a check to a business.)

Getting back to Hardwood, the customer in front of me asked me about where I had biked from and where I was going. Then she insisted on paying for my lunch, such as it was. I accepted given the good spirits she was in. After the woman left, the clerk said: "That's Tina Murray for you. Her whole family's like that. If it had been her sister, she'd have insisted on driving you!" ;-)

It was a nice day, but a dry one. By the time I got Perronville, I was dying for a cool drink so I went into the tavern there for a Sprite and to cajole the hostess into filling up my water bottles with water and ice.  While was sipping my drink, one of locals informed me that there was a bad accident several miles ahead that the authorities were detouring traffic around. Not knowing quite what to make of this, I shrugged and thanked him for the news.

After I had turned off 69 onto 14th road, I came across a cycle tourer going the other way. We stopped to compare notes. He confirmed the continued presence of the accident. He was returning to Minneapolis after a seven week jaunt. I didn't event him in the slightest as he was a camping cyclist and was facing a twenty mile or more slog against the warm wind before he reached the next campground.

I had to take the detour. This involved talking talking to a Michigan state trooper and not making references to a Bruce Springsteen song about Michigan state trooper based in Perronville. The detour was no fun as the roads had no shoulder, heavy traffic and a certain amount of dust. At one point, I opted to get off the road completely to let a truck with an over-sized load go by. I used the time to reset my watch.

All things considered, the detour wasn't that bad, but it put a damper on an otherwise very good day. Among the stats, 155 km, 26 km/h average and a 70 km/h maximum speed.

On Big Two-Hearted Day

Students of American literature may get the reference to a certain short story by Hemingway set on the other side of Michigan's Upper Pennisula. It has been a good day which could have been better.

I left Boulder Junction just after a rain storm had past.  Shortly afterwards, the road opened up into a long straight showing a series of three dips and hills close in front. I called out the Simpson's line: "Ay-yay-yay! No me gusta". Then a doe appeared in the road in front of me, so I called to her "Tu me gusta!" She hesitated before bolting from the lunatic barreling down the road towards her. ;-) That sort of sums up the day.

It was cool but humid. It was mostly cloudy so I didn't bother with sunscreen. I stopped to pull on tights after 20 km as I felt a chill only to discover that one should first brush off the wet sand stuck to one's legs before doing so.

Shortly afterwards, I chanced upon a pair of road cyclists just setting off in the other direction. We stopped a chat for a bit but between the arrival of one them's wife and mosquitoes, we didn't chat long.

At lunch in a crazy excuse for a mall in Phelps, I decided I would try to further than my goal of Caspian, Michigan, subject to the availability of lodging as rain was forecast for the night. This made me make a wrong turn after lunch which took me a couple miles out of my way.

After returning to the correct road, I was rounding a corner near a wetland when I spotted what took to be two deer in the grassy bog.  Not so, they were large birds that I first thought might be emu, then concluded were sandhill cranes!  One of the birds ducked down behind a hillock of grass while the other kept a close eye on me. My theory is that there might have been one or more chicks hidden in the vegetation.  I stopped and pulled out the binoculars to get a better look, as well as take a few second rate pictures. (My camera is poor for zoom shots.)  Their bodies were "deer" colored (ochre) and they had red crests one their heads. Unless anyone can think of a better match, I am convinced they were sandhill cranes.  A little while later, after having crossed the border into Michigan, I came across some wild turkeys who scuttled into tall grass before I could deploy the camera.

A little later, the sun came out. I stopped to put on sunscreen only for a rumble of thunder to arrive. Riding before the wind and hoping to beat the rain to Caspian, I poured on the coal. I made it before it fell in earnest and found a gas station C-store with lovely big eaves to shelter Leonardo under. As I was taking the handlebar bag off the bike, a motley group of kids arrived bearing a box of returnable cans and went inside. I followed in their wake. I pondered what snackerel would suit me as a certain confusion reigned to the dismay of the 20 year old cashier. After they left, she apologized to me. I said I didn't mind as I partly waiting out the rain.

Once snack enabled, I went outside to consult my sources and to phone ahead regarding a room for the night. The first two places I phoned were in Crystal Falls (about 20 miles further on) and closed. More's the pity as it was only 3 o'clock and there wasn't anything in range beyond. I did find a room at the Chicaugon Lake Inn about 5 miles further on.

I then noticed a smiley face painted on Caspian's water tower. I was about to take a picture when a man got out of a minivan with a bike rack on the back asked me if he could pick my brain about bike touring! His name was Mike. He was from the Chicago area and he was scouting the area for a possible Boy Scout ride. I confessed that all that I really knew of the area was based from a few days experience, road maps and my Adventure Cycling maps. I showed him the latter which intrigued him, as he was a member of Adventure Cycling and had been for about twenty-five years. In fact, his honeymoon had been to cross the U.S. on a tandem in an Adventure Cycling organized trip! (He is still married after twenty-three years.) However, he didn't know about their maps. I gave him one of my cartes de visite with the url to this blog on it. After some more chitchat, I rode off, only remembering a couple of miles down the road that I hadn't photographed the smiley face. I didn't go back.

The inn turned out not to have a restaurant nearby so I inquired about getting some boiling water for my freeze-dried "just in case" food. A solution was found. A few minutes later, one of the owners came out of the office in her wheelchair as I was schlepping bags to my room. She said she was about to drive into town so would I like her to pick up a salad for me! Yes, please!

It has been an odd day in a good way.  And I remembered to email Alice a happy birthday.