Skip to main content

Day 24 - August 12

Waking up with 2,200 feet of kinetic energy in the bank justs makes a body feel good all over. It would be hard to piss me off right now. Thanks to yesterday's slog up hill, I will be able to mostly coast to Marquette 35 miles away. Whee!  I left at 7:15 and arrive in Marquette at 10:00a.m. without breaking a sweat.

The one disappointment in this otherwise uplifting experience is that I arrived in Marquette too early to sample Asian food at Jasmine. I have yet to disclose that any and every opportunity to dine at an Asian restaurant gets my attention. Vietnamese, Chinese or Thai - it doesn't matter - I'm all in. Now I fear my next opportunity will be Nina's kitchen in Zimmyville. Not that I don't appreciate that venue, it's just that it is a whole week away.

I rode by the cabins where I spent a week's vacation with daughter Heather and my neighbors from Farmington Hills in the mid-70's.  The contrast was striking. In those days of yore, this stretch of road was desolate. I remember coming back to the cabins after a day of fly fishing on the Chocolay river. A Michigan State Trooper pulled me over for 90 in a 55. My aforementioned neighbor was a Novi policeman and talked the trooper out of a ticket. Today, you could never get it up to 90. It just too congested for that.  So, the observation of the day is that in 30 years this formerly obscure stretch of beach is now populated by hundreds of 1,000 SqFt RV's. Some of the romantic quality has been lost. I fear that I may have to go to Alaska for a nostalgic northern perimeter fix - right Donna Leigh?!?

Today's ride was 74 miles for a total of 1,282. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Post 2 - March 2018

I am a casual bike rider.  Five or ten miles is a typical ride and on occasion, my wife and I have completed 30-mile trails for a day of fun.  Biking Superior is going to be a much harder endurance test than a few casual days.  Being well aware of this fact, I have been conditioning for the event. Now in a near vegetative state, the Midwest winter has taken its toll as usual, adding a few pounds here and there.   Following doctor’s orders, I have been doing my level best to speed recovery from a partial knee replacement a few months ago.   The routine established following professional PT consists of three to five miles walking daily and weight training 2 or 3 times each week.   For a Superior ride, I will need to step up my game – especially legs and core. In mid-winter I was taking advantage of every thaw to get a few miles in before the next snow storm.   The threat of snow is gone, but the temperature is not yet inspiring.   Noneth...

7/16/18 - Why?

A frequent inquiry:  "Why are you doing this?" The comic below from yesterday's Chicago Tribune struck a chord.  I first heard the question "why?" from my sole mate when the adventure began to take shape.  My first reaction was that she should already know the answer.  But with some reflection the reason for the question (not the answer) becomes clearer; we share many interests, but not universally.  We both love cooking and wine, sunset cruises, Sunday golf and evenings with our friends and neighbors.  But my wife and best friend finds sleeping in the wilderness to be unthinkable.  "Painful" is how she would label a month on a bike which is the same description I would ascribe to a book club meeting. So, for Nina and some other friends that have had the same question, the answer is so eloquently stated below.  The physical challenge, which is most frequently cited by observers, is only one element of the total.  Physically and mentally, ...

Day 10 - July 28

Today is a rest day. Not sitting in the saddle even to go to dinner. If it is not walkable, it is out of range. As luck would have it I'm right in the middle of Thunder Bay's annual Busker Festival. For the uninitiated, a Busker is a street performer looking for gratuities.  I can't to you how unimaginably bad the performers are but somehow, it manages to add to the charm of the festival. There is a hula-hoop girl that doesn't really hula, but walks in a circle carrying various hoops while recorded music plays. Then there is the duo of a 16 year old accoustic guitar player singing into Mr. microphone while his little brother beats on a Toys R Us drum set.  Finally, a New Zealander with a big gold front tooth manages to climb up on a 5 foot tall unicycle on the 6th try and holds an unplugged electric guitar which he never plays. This is all incredibly amusing and has brought out the whole town. 500 miles into BikeSuperior and the journey continues in the morning. Expec...