The Road West - 2011

Air Travel – Avoid at All Costs
Thursday, June 2, 2011
We had a real bad time in Chicago on the way to Detroit. The flight from Maui to Dallas, and then Dallas to Chicago were the usual, uncomfortable but bearable to get where we wanted to go. Our first choice would have been to skip Chicago all together and fly Dallas-Detroit, but the vagaries of airfare pricing sent us to O'Hare and we got stuck.
A huge thunderstorm rolled in an hour after we arrived, two hours before we should have left, and soon planes couldn't get where they were supposed to be and pilots were stuck two hundreds miles, or two hundred yards, from their next assignment, and everything went to hell in a hand-basket. Our flight was cancelled and we were standby on two others ten minutes apart (gate-to-gate) so I sat at one and Cheri the other as they delayed first this one and then the other all through the day and into the night. We finally decided to pack it in and spend our own money on a good night's sleep at the Hilton. Great decision since they cancelled both flights eventually and American didn't give away any vouchers.
We had a nice time at the hotel, and the line was out the door thirty minutes after we registered, so one thing went right that day. The next day we thought we were in for more of the same but we finally got on the plane and into Detroit. I hadn't called about the rental car and who knows how much that might cost me at the end of the trip, but they had the vehicle we wanted and we made our get-away to the next night-mare.
We were to visit Cheri's parents, and we got there just fine but the power was out; the storm had blown down trees and electric poles and the whole town was without power, and their back yard was littered with tree branches up to six inches in diameter. We ignored it that afternoon and all went to visit Cheri’s brother in Clinton and had a nice evening, but came home to darkness and flashlights. Tuesday we cleaned up the yard and then cleaned out the freezer and refrigerator after the power came back mid-afternoon. Fun, fun, fun. All day the running joke was talking about the migrant labor all the way from Hawaii, but the joke was on us.
Wednesday morning we managed to escape Mason and got to the farm about noon. Hamburger gravy and mashed potatoes for lunch, just to remind us we were back home on the farm, then it was back to work for me to get our toys out of storage and set up the tent to sleep in since Mom had two grand-daughters also staying a few days. It’s been a nice time so far though the wind last night kept us awake and in doubt of our safety for a few hours.
Today we’ve got errands to run; Cheri needs to visit a weight-watchers meeting and I want to visit a bike shop for some parts. Cheri has reached her goal weight and is a life-time member of weight-watchers now and gets in for free, but she has to weigh in once a month to keep that status. Its okay, the meeting is held close to the bike shop, also close to Olive Garden where we had dinner last night: boy was that yummy!
It’s about 7:30AM and I’m the only one up. So I might have to get on that bicycle for a little ride; at least as far as the cemetery to visit Dad. Eighteen years gone and I still miss him. I hope as many people mourn my passing and remember me so fondly when that time comes. See you next time.

Another Storm
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Our errands on Thursday work out well all around and in the evening the families gather at Mom’s house for a celebration of Cheri’s college graduation, which was very nice indeed. We had some wine and talked and laughed just as families should. Friday morning, Mom had a procedure on her eye and is supposed to rest quietly the rest of the day so Cheri and I take the bicycles out to the Saginaw Valley Bike Trail and do the fifteen mile round-trip to St. Charles, with lunch thrown in.
Friday afternoon we pack the tent and start packing the Durango for our departure Saturday. Later in the day the bike shop calls and they have finished the cog installation on my new wheel, though I’ll keep the lighter weight wheels on for the first part of the trip, I make the drive to Bay Road yet again. Kari brings her kids over having missed last night’s shindig, and later Skip and I go out for a crop tour.
Saturday we get loaded up and leave the farm close to 10:30 and go to Hemlock to visit Kelly to repair Cheri’s manicure, and I get a haircut in the bargain. The trip to Indiana goes well with good weather and we arrive in Greentown to look around about 3:30PM. The apartment where we first lived looks the same as it did, still clean and neat though the courtyard is much nicer with the trees having matured nicely. The house we used to own at 626 Elliott Court also looks good with a new front porch and upgraded siding. It’s pleasant to see the care these properties have received since we left. We stop at Windfall on the way to Mike Floyd’s place and arrive to see him lighting up the grill.
After a tour of the house we chat over a beer and watch the hummingbirds congregate around his feeder which seems to support at least four individuals, they are beautiful in flight! Scott Gunning drops by to join the fun and we enjoy wings, brats and steak off the grill with a bottle of Oliver wine, a small winery nearby. As we’re finishing the meal the storm starts with very heavy winds, up to 70 MPH we are to hear later, and we are able to watch from the porch because of the many trees surrounding Mike’s house. The power goes out soon after the first winds came and stay out all night and the next day. As darkness falls the rain starts and we get about an inch before it slows about bedtime. Mike, Scott and I had a great time renewing our friendship and watching the storm.
Sunday morning we breakfast on more delicious meat off the grill, steak, bacon and sausage, along with some melon and strawberries, and Cheri reports that the Kona coffee made with Mike’s French press is fabulous, and she drinks three cups. Mike and Scott run off, supposedly to get some water for toilet use and are gone an hour and a half. In the meantime Cheri and I pick up branches all over Mike’s lawn, another bout of migrant labor. We leave about 11:30 and head toward Kokomo just to see how that town has changed, and then it’s off to Gifford, IL, to visit Clyde and Skip German. We get a tour of the house and town, and their beautiful church before a good farm supper of roast beef and all the trimmings including apple cobbler with ice cream. We spend a quiet evening talking and I catch up on the blog and some reservations for later in our trip.

How much longer…?
Thursday, June 09, 2011
We leave for the long road west about 9:00AM after a pleasant visit with Clyde and Skip and set the Garmin for Blair, Nebraska, about halfway to Denver. My old friend Mike Claywell has a very comfortable home in Blair, and we meet his wife, Kathy and one of their two children, Cameron, just out of college. We feast on good Nebraska beef hamburgers and later Cheri scores a ride with Mike on his Honda Gold Wing touring motorcycle. I’m hoping for an offer to drive it, but I’m not surprised that it isn’t offered, it is a beautiful machine and he is right to protect it from a rookie like me. I haven’t ridden a motorcycle in thirty years and it wasn’t anywhere close to the size of this bike.
We have a very comfortable night and hit the road about 7:30AM the next morning, find a Starbuck’s for Cheri and head west again, or still. We get to Gothenburg about 12:40PM and meet Celeste Nelms, another old friend from Monsanto, for lunch at Walker’s Steakhouse. We gain another hour at the Nebraska line, not having seen a tree in fifty miles, and enter eastern Colorado where most of the land appears to be used for grazing. We arrive at the Safeway store near Michelle’s place to shop for supper, having received the news that her apartment was a no-food zone until we arrived. She has a cold but we have some wine and pupus before going out to the Noodle Factory for dinner. She has given us her bed, and it is wonderfully comfortable, and we sleep very well indeed.
Wednesday is sunny and warm and we have a relaxing morning before going out for a bike ride to Michelle’s workplace a few miles away. She is holding down the fort alone so we wait for her to finish signing up a new resident before we can see the model of the apartment she is going to rent beginning in August. It’s a bit smaller than her current apartment but $100 cheaper and they appreciate that she is willing to move to the property she has been assigned to. She also helps me with some scanning I need to send back to Kihei. That night we go to Baker Street Bar and Grill for dinner where she has many friends, and have a very nice meal, and a free drink.
Thursday we find a beautiful bike path along the South Platte River and ride twenty miles on the bicycles before lunch at Gunther Toody’s Diner (I swear that’s the name of the place) and we drive to a winery called Balistreri’s about eight miles away. They are in the middle of a construction process but we have a nice time tasting some wine and talking to the vintner’s granddaughter. We buy only one bottle because it’s a bit pricey but we want to collect a few bottles for Drummond Island later in the trip. Later tonight we’re going to meet Michelle’s workout buddy, Darrell, and go have some sushi. We haven’t met the boyfriend yet, I guess he’s busy. We catch up on laundry getting ready for the cold weather camping we’ll start tomorrow. See you in the mountains.

Rocky Mountain High
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Michelle has Friday off to attend the wedding of the boyfriend’s friend, so we have a leisurely breakfast with her and pack up the truck. It is a pleasant drive through Boulder and on up to Estes Park and we roll into the KOA in early afternoon to find a tiny campsite, barely able to hold our two tents leaving the truck in overflow parking or in the way of other campers, but nothing else is available so we set up and head into town to lunch and buy provisions. We find some very good, very big sandwiches at a place called Great Shakes and save half for dinner later and get out groceries in Safeway and head back. I reconnoiter on the bike and then Cheri and I ride to the visitor center, which I found to be very commercial, with little information about the park, and much about town and the various businesses. It turns out that this is the visitor center for the town of Estes Park, and not for Rocky Mountain National Park.
They didn’t have any blueberries at Safeway so we have raspberry pancakes for our first camping breakfast and they are great. Michelle is supposed to come up this afternoon after work, so we go for a bike ride and go out to the Park visitor center and start planning our visit and use of the park, and buy a couple guides for information on easy hikes and the Trail Ridge Road. Michelle calls and cancels because of her cold, so instead Cheri and I go out for a wine tasting at Snowy Peaks Winery and then out for dinner to a place called The Other Side for Rocky Mountain Trout and have a very nice dinner; they have the best onion soup I’ve ever had. I’ve had trouble sleeping at night, I think, because of the air mattress we use; the little pump doesn’t get it hard enough for me to be comfortable in my favored position.
Michelle calls again Sunday morning and now she’s remembered that she had promised to accompany Corey and Logan (boyfriend and his daughter) to the zoo so she won’t be here until just before dinner. We decide to put the kayak into Estes Park Lake, and the gal at the Marina lets us do that for ten bucks and we have a real nice paddle, at one point going through a five foot culvert under the highway to another part of the lake; the views are incredible. Got the kayak back on the truck without much trouble now that I’ve done it once, and all locked down with all the straps secured; they sometimes rattle against the roof at higher speed. Michelle arrives and we have wine and pupus and I cook steak on my little gas grill along with some foil pouch potatoes and veggies and we have a nice meal. Latter we borrow a fire pit at a nearby unoccupied site and have a camp fire.
Monday we decide to drive the Trail Ridge Road which goes over twelve thousand feet of altitude and gives a wonderful view of much of the park, not to mention the many different environments represented here including sub-alpine, above the tree-line, seldom accessible by automobile. There is still ten feet of snow in some places and we take a couple short hikes in the cold and wind before hitting the Alpine Visitors Center which is beautiful and has the most shopping of any in the park. We continue on to Grand Lake and in the process come across a baby moose with her mom about fifty feet away from our vantage, and then later, a bull moose who decides to cross the road not ten feet from Cheri’s camera. We continue to see wildlife and grand views of the Never Summer Mountains on the west side of the park, and marvel again at the snow still left high up. They usually hope to open the road and Alpine Visitors Center on Memorial Day, but received snow and drifts up to twenty-two feet in mid-May, so just opened last week. We take Michelle out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant right on the river here in Estes Park and have a wonderful meal before we send her back to Denver to earn a living, it’s so nice not to have to worry about that for a while.
Tuesday was our day for a hike up in the park and the unusual season again gets in the way as many of the better trails are snow covered and impassable still, but lower elevation routes are available and we do two shorter hikes (Bear Lake and Alberta Falls) totaling three point one miles instead of the three mile route I had chosen earlier. We do more site-seeing before returning to the KOA for some work that needs to be done by each of us, not least of which is to update this blog to keep you up to date. We’re going to do the steak and foil wrapped veggies again tonight, so I’m going to close this and get busy with the grill. Aloha for now.

Wildlife Galore
Sunday, June 19, 2011
The nights are chilly up here and I’m still not sleeping all that well on the air mattress. We’ve decided to put the kayak in the water this morning, so we paid the marina’s fees and put in about 11:00AM , and there is already a breeze kicking up a bit of chop. Cheri gets splashed a couple times, but we still get around the lake, including ducking through that five-foot culvert into the south channel. We chase some ducks and geese and have a pretty good time. Later we drive to the Wild River Basin portion of RMNP for a short hike and drop in at the Long’s Peak trailhead for a half-hour hike up that daunting climb before getting back to Estes Park. We pick up some Rocky Mountain Brook Trout and sweet corn at the market and I pan-fry it and it is really good.
Thursday was scheduled for a bike ride before heading down to Denver to spend an evening with Michelle, but the weather is just windy and nasty right from the get-go so we just load up and head down the mountain about 11:00AM. We stop at Target for Cheri to get a CD burned with her photos to date, and pick-up a new gas grill since ours wouldn’t accept a new bottle last night. We get into Denver and stop at the supermarket to pick up supplies and I cook seared ahi tacos tonight, and we get to meet the boyfriend, Corey who I find to be a very pleasant dinner guest and we talk about motorcycles mostly; I used to race enduros and he is the retired world record holder in the quarter-mile drag bike, pretty impressive.
Friday we want to ride more of the South Platte Bike Trail that we were so taken with last week and we drove into town to Confluence Park, but couldn’t find a parking area and finally after many twists and turns, pull into REI’s huge store downtown that also abuts the path. After some shopping we head out and have a very nice ride, though it tends to be pretty industrial down by the river, then on the way back we get caught in a shower and spend half-an-hour under a bridge before continuing on. We finally got good and wet, but still had a nice ride before coming back to the store for more shopping. That night we met our old friends Don and Jackie Dolin with daughter Ashley for dinner at Lodo’s bar and grill and enjoy renewing our friendship. We were planning to drive back to Estes Park afterwards, but cooler heads prevailed and we accepted another night on Michelle’s wonderful bed where I sleep like a baby.
Saturday we return to the park about 11:00am and Cheri wants to shop, so she goes off to town and I head out for a bike ride. Everything is either uphill or down up here and I don’t go too far, but get an hour and a half in before coasting back through town to catch Cheri at the Starbuck’s; surprise, surprise. Afterward we meet back at camp for our usual lunch of turkey sandwiches on diet bread and spend kind of a lazy afternoon before going back into town for some wine tasting at the Colorado Winery and have a very pleasant time for an hour right there on the river which seems to have risen half-a-foot since Wednesday. Michelle comes up for dinner of salad and hamburgers which I had to fry because I couldn’t get the new grill to light, but they were delicious anyway topped with sautéed mushrooms & onions and cheese.
Father’s Day was to be a hike and though Father got little sleep, it was primarily due to a cough I picked up, we went through with the plan. We wanted to do the Bear Lake-to-Bierstadt Lake hike that we missed on Tuesday and against the advise of the rangers who claimed lots of snow, we had a wonderful time, even though we were racing a storm toward the end of the hike, we stayed dry. We had a lovely picnic at Sprague’s Lake, watching two elk just across the creek, and on the way home saw some bulls with big racks out in Moraine Meadow. Afterwards I needed a nap and the girls went shopping and I started to catch up on this blog. Tonight will be more wine-tasting at that same place, and dinner out. They just got home and showed me a gift they picked up for Skip, and one for me; a T-shirt with an elk and the inscription: “Here Elky, Elky.” a play on our moose-calling two years ago in New Hampshire. I’ll close now and head of to dinner. Tomorrow we leave Estes Park behind for a few days in Yellowstone National Park area in Wyoming; see you then!

Grand Beyond Description
Friday, June 24, 2011
The winery was closed so we went to a place called Poppy’s Pizza and Grill and had good salads and individual pizzas and each carried away half, while a storm raged outside including small hail, and the forecast is for more tonight. We had a respite from about 8:00 until 9:30 and built a campfire, and were just about out of wood when it started sprinkling again, and we trooped off to bed. It rained steadily through the night but dawned beautiful and warm in the morning. However there was a pond between Cheri and I and Lake Michelle in which floated Michelle’s bed; the old tent leaked pretty badly, so badly that we decided not to pack it up but just roll it up and toss it in the dumpster. We’d been talking about replacing and this will force us to do so.
Monday is a travel day and Michelle had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment so she’s gets away and we pack up and head out despite my cold. Last evening I had plotted out the distances and decided we would stay the first night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, there being little other opportunity for lodging close to Yellowstone, and we could see Grand Tetons the next morning before going on the rest of the way. We had a pretty good driving day, about an hour of bad weather and Cheri did most of the driving due to my illness, We drove through some gorgeous scenery across lower Wyoming, then came into the Jackson Valley (known as Jackson’s Hole) and saw the Tetons for the first time, still dressed in their winter finery and were blown away. Driving the few miles south into Jackson Hole, we also saw a tremendous herd of bison, and another big herd of elk along the road. We stopped and Cheri walked to within fifty feet of one buffalo who strayed close to the road. The town of Jackson Hole and our lodging for the night at the Snow King Resort were lovely as well and we had a great evening.
Tuesday morning we started at the Grand Tetons Visitor Center with a nice film introduction, and a ranger talk about the wildlife in the park. There is also a pretty bike trail that we see on the way out and we make the scenic one-way drive on the east side of Jenny Lake which also supports bicycling, so we get the bikes off the truck and take a short ride. Jenny Lake is just magnificent and its sister String Lake is a lovely stop for our picnic lunch. We decide that we want to see more of this park before leaving and forego our plans to see much of Yellowstone. We find a campsite at Colter Bay that is perfect, complete with a bear locker, and make plans for kayaking and biking on Wednesday after a trip up Signal Mountain on our way to camp. There is a nice camp store and not many restaurant choices, so we’ll cook our own dinner despite Cheri’s misgivings about attracting bears, just some soup and a sandwich this evening. We’ll sleep in the screen tent and store everything with any kind of odor in the car or locker.
We feast on blueberry pancakes Wednesday morning before driving back to String Lake to put the kayak in. The paddle around String Lake is glorious with a new and more beautiful facet of the Grand Tetons seen at each new angle. We get the kayak loaded just in time for lunch and take it (lunch) with us as we bicycle back toward Jenny Lake again, and we find a flat rock on which to dine with the most beautiful pictures God has ever painted vying for our attention on every side. This day has been what our trip was meant to be; filled with beauty and adventure, and of course, togetherness. We get some good Wyoming beef for hamburgers tonight, cooked over the wood fire, just like the mountain men use to do. The only problem in this park is that there are just four showers for the whole place, (300 sites) so the line to get one is outrageous notwithstanding that they charge $3.75 per shower, so we make do with sponge baths back at camp. Another camp fire concludes our limited time here and we’ll start the arduous trip back east and on to Minneapolis tomorrow morning with just a scant drive-through of the eastern part of Yellowstone National Park.
It rained overnight a bit, though we stayed dry and it’s a good day to break camp. We break our fast on cereal, fruit, and yogurt, then we’re on the road again. We had gotten into Grand Teton on a day they were not charging the entrance fee, but we got caught for the week-long pass just to enter Yellowstone on our way out; but Grand Tetons has been worth every penny. We made a poor decision not long after leaving the park as we drove east through the wilds of Wyoming, when we disregarded the Garmin’s instructions to turn north to Billings and I-94 when we both thought the faster way would be to continue east toward I-90 at Buffalo. The topography and road construction on our route cost us three or four hours and will make us half-a-day late to our rendezvous at Minneapolis, but we feel confidant of Mark and Katie’s forgiveness, particularly because we know that Mark has a poker game scheduled that evening too. We found a good meal at an Applebee’s in Gillette, WY. and slept at a Day’s Inn nearby.
Friday is another beautiful day though poor Cheri has taken over the cold bug that I got from Michelle, but we are making steady progress eastward, with Cheri driving, and me in the passenger seat with a blanket enclosure so I could see the computer screen to bring the blog up to date. We stopped for lunch at the Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota, a huge combination tourist trap/emporium that was entertaining in and of itself. I think every person in South Dakota was in that place when we were, but we got a sandwich and left only footprints on our way out. See you when we get to Minnesota.

Minnesota, eh?
Monday, June 27, 2011
We made Albert Lea (a city south of Minneapolis) on Friday night and had dinner in a nice place called Trumbles, and got the last room in the city by all accounts because of some “Red Power” thing going on (International tractors, I guess). It was only $50 including breakfast, so not too bad. It was only a few hours up to Mark and Katie’s place and we were there by 11 :00AM and enjoyed catching up with them a bit and watch the wedding video they got less than a week ago. We went for a bike ride all together to Minnehaha Falls in southern Minneapolis and rode back downtown on the train, then went out to dinner at their favorite restaurant called Café Maude and had a really good meal.
Cheri and I were up first on Sunday and walked to Caribou Coffee six blocks up the street for an oatmeal breakfast. When we got back, folks were starting to stir and we just hung out until 1:30PM when we were to leave for the graduate party of Katie’s cousin, on her Mom’s side, and Cheri and I had been invited to come along. Her Uncle Rick and Aunt Linda have a lovely house in Coon Rapids and there was good food and drink and conversation until about 6:00PM when we headed back to the city and grilled chicken wings and teriyaki steak for sandwiches, one of our favorites. We had a great time together and slept well on the airbed on their living room floor.
Monday was another travel day and by 10:00AM we were on the road again for Bemidji to camp and visit some old friends from church that moved there years ago and we haven’t seen for quite a while, Mark and Vickie Wangberg. We had to stop enroute to shop for a new tent, and found a Gander Mountain in Maple Grove and bought one. It’s only eight by ten and Cheri is accustomed to bigger, but I impressed on her that the problems we encountered with the last one were exacerbated by larger size (difficulty in assembly and rain-proofing). We arrived in the beautiful park about 3:00PM, got set up and went back to town for supplies. I cooked a nice spaghetti dinner here at camp before we called Wangbergs and made plans for the next day. I’ll go for a ride in the morning and we’ll meet them later in the afternoon. I’m disappointed we won’t be able to see the girls, Hannah and Katelyn, but they are both away for the week. It rained much of the time we were setting up and eating, but turned off dry and cool for the night. See you tomorrow.

We’ve Been Kicked Out of Better Places Than This!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday was as beautiful a day as it could be with the sun shinning and high seventies for the temperature. After pancakes with both raspberries and blueberries, I set out along the Paul Bunyan trail that runs seventy miles south from the park, all asphalt and beautifully out in the woods most of the time; I rode about twenty miles south before turning around. I saw some of the city of Bemidji in addition to a little red fox, and a good sized white tail deer along the way. It seems amazing to me that they have such a trail this far north, but probably it gets more use in the winter by snowmobiles that by bikes in the summer. When I got back to camp, Cheri was out so I took the opportunity to have a short nap after getting cleaned up and shaving, etc. About four-thirty we drove to the Wangberg’s home, right on Lake Irving, and after catching up a little, we took some cold chicken and salad out in their boat and toured the lakes and had dinner just floating. I didn’t realize that the mighty Mississisip’ flows north from Itasca State Park, through Lakes Irving and Bemidji, before turning southeast toward Grand Rapids, then south through the twin cities and on down. Later we boated up the Mississippi to its northern-most point before coming back to Lake Irving, and we got some wonderful pictures of loons with their young, very close to the boat. I’ve always been fond of loons and it was really great to see them up close as we did. It’s unfortunate that we’re not going to get to Itasca State Park this trip as we had hoped and had even reserved a camp site; more about that later.
Wednesday dawned clear and bright again though poor Cheri can’t shake her cold, now thinking it has become a sinus infection, so we take a very short ride out to Bass Lake and then find a medical facility for her to walk into to see about some medicine to help her, and we find a very nice clinic and the doc agrees with her and prescribes Amoxicillin. Later we go back to Wangbergs for a kayak trip with Vickie up the Mississippi and bean soup for dinner, which is very good. They have a beautiful view from their back porch that we enjoy before an early exit so Mark can get back to his office; they are leaving town tomorrow and he needs to prepare.
Thursday is the day we got kicked out. The Minnesota legislature and the governor aren’t playing well together right now and they have allowed the state to run out of operating funds, so they are closing the state parks. The one time during the year when the state parks operate at a profit, but the ranger came around today and said everyone had to leave, even Hawaii visitors, which I thought was rather rude, but there it is, and our Itasca trip will have to go by the wayside since that park is also closed, and the gates locked. We arranged with Mark and Vickie to take over their house in their absence, so we have a place to stay, but after we ride the 18-20 mile round trip into town for coffee this morning, we spend the afternoon packing up the truck and we move into the Wangberg home, which is lovely. We’ll get our laundry done and have a very comfortable camping experience indeed, thanks to the generosity of our friends.

Fireworks Galore!
Thursday, July 07, 2011
We catch up a little on the Women’s World Cup and the Wimbledon Final and get our suitcases repacked for the trip to Cushing and the Brown cottage at Pine Island Lake for the holiday. We really enjoyed the Wangberg’s beautiful house on Lake Irving for the past two days, and ate every available meal on the lanai overlooking the lake. Such good friends!
We head out Saturday morning after doing some shopping to make sure we have enough food to contribute to the festivities and arrive at Cushing to find only a post office and a few houses, where we had expected to buy ice, but we go on and close to the lake there is a bar that sells us twenty pounds of cold-in-a-bag, and we find Velda’s cottage without much trouble. We decide that we’ll be more comfortable if we set up the screen porch for our bedroom, and get that task done along with unloading the bikes, refrigerator, and kayak. Mark and Katie are out skiing and when our tasks are done, I catch a ride in the boat to watch the action up close. Katie is successful in dropping a ski to slalom a bit, while Mark still hasn’t mastered that skill.
Sunday morning, Cheri and I are up earlier than many in the group and have a nice paddle on a perfectly calm lake before breakfast. Mark and Katie also get a ride in the Freighter Racer before the skiing and tubing create too much wave action. We have a quiet day reading, napping, and watching the skiers until a communal supper in prelude to the fireworks display. There are three or four people at this lake that buy illegal aerial fireworks, one of which is Steve’s Uncle Andy, and Steve helps out with setting things off, so Mark secures the boat for us to go out on the lake for the best view. It’s a heck of a competition and Uncle Andy is crowned the champion but there were five competitors in total and three of them each set off more rockets than we usually see in a community sponsored show, so it was a tremendous show around this little lake in the wilds of Minnesota.
Monday morning, I’m out earlier than even Cheri and have a short paddle all by my lonesome on a less-perfect lake surface, and find a little cove full of water-lilies that is accessible via a three foot wide channel through the trees, which is fun, but I wonder if I’ll make it back out, the lilies are so thick. I have no luck finding soccer on the TV, so read until it’s time to take down the tent and load the truck; Cheri is hoping to get back to Minneapolis and stay with the kids one night before we camp outside the city, while I suspect it will be difficult to break away from Curt and Gail Holt’s in time to do anything but bother them tonight, and I turn out right this time. We arrive in Osakis about 3:30 and Curt is just so excited to see us that it is impossible to get away, and poor Cheri finally accepts their offer of a bed for the night rather than the long drive in traffic just to bother the kids. We take a boat tour of this huge lake, over ten miles long covering some 6,000 acres. Curt had a fast boat and we get back to their place right in town, and on the water and have Swedish meatballs for dinner with them before trying our hands at fishing for northern pike or walleye. I told them that taking me out in the boat was the same as conceding that no fish would be caught, and I was right again, unfortunately. That night the town was putting on their fireworks display so we got another helping of last evening’s entertainment, sitting out in their boat for fireworks. It was very pleasant as we went back to the house and watched a video of a concert they had gone to in Branson, MS of six brothers named Knudsen who do acapela music. It was a great show but kept us all up late.
Tuesday morning we had a light breakfast before Curt had to get out another favorite video of a comedian they had seen, to show us “just one clip” and we ended up seeing nearly the whole thing. Curt’s enthusiasm was so endearing that we couldn’t disappoint him. We finally got on the road on this gray kind of Tuesday for a couple hours driving to the campsite I had reserved in Carver Park near Victoria, MN but it turned out that “rustic” means no showers here and Cheri gets on the phone and gets them to switch us to Baker Park near Maple Plain where they have showers, matter of fact, they have the nicest showers we’ve ever seen, and the rest of the park is beautiful as well, with big well maintained sites and ice & wood available. We get set up and head into Minneapolis to see Mark and Katie and we go to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, with Kelsey along for the ride. It’s a very nice evening, and we got to watch some more of the wedding video, including my performance of “This Is the Moment” that I was pretty pleased with overall. We gave Kelsey a ride home and found our way back to Baker Campground for the night.
There are really nice bike paths around the campground and around neighboring Lake Katrina (6.2 miles), and we take a ride after apple pancakes for breakfast. Later we read and nap before going shopping for the dinner we’ll make tonight when the kids drive out to visit. Curt gave us a big filet of northern pike from his freezer and we add to that with some steaks, potatoes in foil, and grilled asparagus after fire toasted bruschetta and a couple bottles of wine. Everything is delicious, if I do say so myself, and we have a great time visiting around the campfire. They have work tomorrow so about 9:30 they are on their way and Cheri calls Michelle while I retire early.
Cheri wants to spend a day at Mall of America which is about twenty miles away and I prefer to do just about anything but that, so she takes the truck, and I ride my bike into Maple Plain to a diner that has Wi-Fi and hook up the computer to update this blog, and touch base with my team back in Kihei. Things appear to be going fine without me, understanding that this has both good and bad connotations. Mark calls and invites me to join him for disc golf and I look at possible routes to get there by bike, and I’ll probably try to join him for that. I'll talk to you'all later

Back home to Michigan
Thursday, July 14, 2011
I ride back to camp and look at the route to Bryant Park and decide I’d better leave right away. It looks like about 25 miles, but I’m going to use bike paths that tend to be slower and less direct. It’s a lot longer than I had expected and at 5:30, the appointed hour, I’m still a few miles away and I call Mark to let him know, then fifteen minutes later, I can’t find the right place and he has to come find me. His friends Jeremy and Billy are there and the course is packed but we find a hole to start on and things go well after the first couple of holes, especially when I hit a lucky toss that lands a few feet from the pin for the first birdie of the day (all holes are par-3 on this course). We play until about 7:30, not quite a full eighteen holes and Mark drives me back to the campground and we have a sandwich around the fire Cheri has going, another good night, but I’m beat.
Friday night we’re going into the city to take Mark and Katie to dinner and we have a paddle in Lake Independence in the morning. It’s nice though the lake is greenish with algae, we do see some loons and enjoy the time on the water, especially as the sun warms up and we take shelter under overhanging trees close to shore. Skip’s kayak cart comes in handy as we had parked a hundred yards from the launch. It’s back to camp for lunch and to clean up a bit before going into town. We arrived about 3:00 and waited in the skyway for Mark to get home. We walk to Target to meet Katie and go to a shop for pedicures for Mark and I, both pedicures and manicures for the girls. They have decided to try a new place for dinner called Chino Latino, which sounds Latin, but is actually based on food from around the world and close to the equator, so there are some Polynesian dishes included. The food is served family style and is great; jerk chicken, Asian ribs, pot stickers etc. We leave pretty early since tomorrow is a long day.
The big thing today is the Minnesota Reception in Coon Rapids, and Cheri and I have orders to arrive at 5:00PM to help decorate, but we take a bike ride in the morning on the Luce Line State Trail that I was on for a while Thursday. It’s a gravel surface but still pretty good for bicycling and my wider tires do well on it (Cheri's are wider yet, perfect for this application). We ride about 10 miles which is probably equivalent to 13 or 14 on pavement, and then head back to camp to rest and clean up. We’ll be packing up tomorrow for the trip to Michigan, so we consolidate the coolers into one and throw away some stuff we won’t be using and clean up the back of the truck, then head north and east for the party. Decorating takes only a half hour or so, and we go over to Christi (Katie’s sister)and Bill’s place for pizza and to dress for the occasion. Mark uses his wedding shirt and fedora, while Katie has a white dress and a bird-cage veil to mark them as the happy couple. They have a group playing Hawaiian music the first hour or more and then Mark’s friend Jayder has his band “Church of Cash” which is a Johnny Cash cover band on stage and it turn’s into a real party. They had planned not to serve any food, but Cheri and I counseled against that and agreed to finance meatballs and chicken wings for the latter part of the party and a good time is had by all though I don’t drink anything because of our need to get back to the campground which is a forty minute drive. We help clean up and get everything loaded in Mark’s truck and get them safely to Christi’s house for the night, and head home about 1:00AM.
Sunday we load up pretty leisurely after sleeping late; it rained early in the morning, but by the time we got up is was sunny and nice. We used the last of the pancake mix, syrup and fruit for breakfast and headed into Minneapolis one last time and spend some time in the pool which was just what the doctor ordered for all of us. Then about 5:40 we left for the ferry some five hours distant in Manitowac, WI. We tried a Taco John for a bite to eat (just like Taco Bell) and saw a lot of deer, one ran across our path a few seconds before we got there at 60 MPH but the Garmin took us right to the ferry. We had booked a stateroom for the extra fifty dollars and it was well worth it; we were asleep before we were out of the harbor.
Monday started early when the steward knocked on the stateroom door twenty minutes before Ludington. Cheri got a picture of our truck being driven off and a half hour later we were in the Big Boy for breakfast on our way to Traverse City to visit friends. We stopped for a catnap as it rained on the truck, then on to find Gail. Not surprisingly Garmin couldn’t find the right house because Gail had handed the phone to ten year old Jordan to repeat the address and there are 17 streets named “Incochee” something or other and that’s all we had been given. We met Gail where she was shopping and followed her to Heather’s place, a gorgeous new home and pool with four kids and we had a nice afternoon. Later we went to Nikki’s for BBQ chicken and sweet corn supper after I’d had a short paddle in her kayak.
Tuesday breakfast was bacon and eggs thanks to Gail, then we were on our way to Hemlock with a side trip into Traverse for some shopping. Back in Hemlock we mostly caught up with Grandma and Uncle Rob, then the big deal was dinner at The Farmer’s Home tavern that has been recognized for many years as the best hamburger in Saginaw county, and they are good! We started out with just the four of us, and somebody said “Why don’t we call Uncle Skip, then Kari called and was to meet us, then Kelly and Matt and their kids, so by the end of the night it was fifteen people at dinner together. Uncle Rob had offered to pick up the tab back when it was just four folks, and I think he got stuck for the whole bunch of us, poor guy!
Wednesday was a great day for rest and relaxation, and Rob and I watched the Women’s World Cup semifinals with the USA beating France, and Japan over Sweden in two good games. It will be the US and Japan in the finals on Sunday. Tonight was to be dinner out and we chose Sullivan’s, an old family favorite that we hadn’t visited in a while and is under new ownership, and we had a really good time, and good food.

Wedding Bells and Island Hopping
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Thursday was devoted to getting the farm ready to host the party tomorrow, so I was on the riding mower all morning, while Rob did the trimming. I came close to dropping it in the ditch but managed to get stopped and had to enlist Rob and his truck for a rescue, but otherwise business as usual. I also set up our tent and air beds for use tomorrow when Mark, Katie, and Michelle would all be here to sleep. I’m sure we must have eaten something, but I don’t remember any of the meals that day.
Friday was again devoted to getting ready for the party, and to welcome Mark and Katie about 9:30AM, they having followed our lead, arriving on the overnight ferry into Ludington. When they awoke from napping, Rob and I took them to the Farmer’s Home for lunch and then bought some beer and supplies. Kari, Sam and Charlie were the first to arrive well before time pleading the need to leave early and we were shocked and overjoyed when Leslie came in the door, having been told repeatedly not to expect her. Attendance was excellent with a number of cousins coming to wish the happy couple well and renewing long over-due acquaintances. We counted forty people all told, which surprised me.
Saturday morning, Michelle arrived safely at about 2:30AM as expected and later I cooked sausage and pancakes for the crowd. We watched Mark and Katie's wedding video before caravanning to Mason for the wedding of nephew Chris Cornish to long-time girlfriend Aliyah Shusterman, who we know very well from previous camping trips. About 150 people gathered at the Michigan State University chapel, where Cheri and I were married exactly a month short of 38 years ago. It was a nice ceremony including both Christian and Jewish traditions with a swanky reception at the nearby Kellogg’s Center on campus a few miles away. We ate well, drank some, and danced until the wee hours before trooping back to Bill Sr.’s house in Mason.
Sunday we’re on the road again having said good by to Michelle and her whirlwind visit at about 2:30AM, and again caravanning with Mark and Katie to Drummond Island where we have rented a house for the Cornish family get-together. I listened to the World Cup Final via satellite radio and hear Team USA lose in a shoot-out to the Japanese women. Bryan and Cheryl catch us in De Tour waiting for the ferry to Drummond and get settled in with a dinner of Texas BBQ brisket.
Monday is bacon and blueberry pancakes before heading up to Potagannissing Bay for a day in the kayaks; Bry and Cheryl have their own and we rented a tandem for Mark and Katie. We take a lunch and have a perfect day on the water, just warm enough and calm as can be. Grandma and Grandpa arrive about 6:00PM and we have a nice dinner of whitefish steamed with vegetables in foil packets (similar to fish en papillote).
We have a very restful Tuesday watching freighters and reading. Friends; John and Patty show up about 10:30AM and we spend the day talking and enjoying this beautiful place. Bryan brought fajitas for dinner all the way from Texas by way of the freezer, great flavor if a bit chewy. All in all a relaxing day.

Yak, Yak, Yak, Bike
Monday, July 25, 2011
Wednesday dawned breezy and cool and I skipped my bike ride to hang out with John and Patty after a short yak-paddle in the Potagannissing Wildlife Flooding, and to help Cheri with her new pastime; to record freighters seen from the deck, trying to see the names with binoculars and looking in the book for the year they were put in service and the length. We log in a 1,004 foot long ship which is the longest allowed through the Soo Locks just up the river. We talk about driving up river on the de Tour side to Neebish Island where the shipping channel is very narrow, so you can see them closer up and eat in a bar John’s customer owns, but John decides to get back home earlier to be ready for work Thursday. Kevin, Sue, Rachel, Bill and Debby all arrive later and we have spaghetti dinner and good conversation.
Thursday we load the bikes on the truck and head to the east end of the island where there are flat roads with no traffic, and a good chance to see some wildlife. We see one deer and after our twelve miles I let Cheri drive back alone while I add another sixteen miles to the bike ride, and feel pretty good on the hilly terrain across the center of the island. Thursday is pastie dinner, and much of the talk is about the proper way to eat these delicious Cornish (from Cornwall) meat and potato pies. Bill claims to be a purist and advocates only a little ketchup on the side while Debbie and I maintain that gravy is required for the most enjoyment.
Friday is another day for yakking and we convince Bill, Deb, Rachel, and Sue to rent a couple tandems and join us (Cheri and I with Bryan and Cheryl) for a day on the water and we head to Scammon Cove to see a couple of ship wrecks, and we have a great time, and even I have a bit of a “red opu” (sunburned stomach) after. Back at the house some wine is opened and smoked whitefish dip is passed along with seared ahi before the steak and chicken kabobs that brother (in-law) Bill has prepared.
Saturday we are going to lose two families; Bry and Cheryl need to get started back to Texas, and Kevin, Sue and Rachel decide to bail out too. I’m not much for drawn out good-byes, so I head out on the bike for a few hours and return around noon just in time to see Kevin and Sue leaving. Later Cheri and I go for one last yak attack at the county park. Dinner was good grilled burgers and a very pleasant evening.
Sunday we load up and hit the ferry at 9:10AM by fiat of Northern Properties (out by 9:00AM). We stop in Mackinaw City at the Hush Puppy store where Cheri buys new shoes every year. We arrive back in Hemlock about 2:30 to unpack and swim in the pool. It’s back to the salt mines for Cheri early Tuesday so that’s the focus for tomorrow as well. On Thursday I’ll begin my short bike trip so I won’t talk to you again until that’s all done. Aloha.

The Bike Path North and West and Back
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Skip volunteered to give me a ride to Midland so he could ride the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail with me for a while, as he hadn’t seen it yet. It was perfect early; the rain had stopped and no wind to impede our progress. We started at the Tridge and rode northwest all the way to Coleman, including a tour of the Arbutus Bog along the way, before Skip turned back and I forged on toward Traverse City. There is a five or six mile gap in the trail at Clare so I have to ride M-115 to the trailhead. Then I stopped in Farwell for a Coney dog, and drop in at the same Rite-Aid store as last year to buy a notebook that I’d forgotten to pack, same as last year. The path after Farwell is great; no highway noise and enough tree cover to blunt the southwest wind that has picked up lately.
With the fifteen mile head start, I figured to make Reed City today, and would have, but fate intervened. There were a couple guys just turning around eight miles short of Evart and I rode and talked with them into Evart, particularly about the trail surface of the White Pine Trail north from Reed City. I thought that we might have a beer together in Evart, but they decided to bail and I stopped at O’Malley’s alone for old time’s sake. While I had a Killian’s Red beer, I called ahead to the Reed City Motel to find no vacancy, and no other lodging options close to my route, so I booked a $48 room with the bar-keep, figuring a shorter day might serve me better for the remainder of the tour. I went upstairs to shower and change before heading back to the bar for dinner of potato and leek soup and Irish Boxty which is potato pancakes with cheese, bacon and scallions. It’s a small room and twin bed with a shared bath, but good enough for who it’s for; I take a long walk down to Riverside City Park by the beautiful Muskegon River before I hit the hay.
I’m up Friday around 7:15 and start my morning routine, which is to pack up my shit and get out of Dodge. First stop is Foster’s Supermarket for a long john, a peach, and Gatorade for breakfast before I hit the trail. The light west wind is still with us but I enjoy the ride. There is a really nice overlook of the river a few miles out and a minute after that, I see a deer on the trail ahead. I take the advice of the two guys yesterday and turn north at Hersey to take 180th Road, aka the Mackinaw Trail, north and immediately start in the hills. I begin to think that the surface of the trail would have to be really bad to make me choose this route up hill and down dale. At Slaybaugh Corners there is a nice park and I take a break, and just up the road I come across an aid station for a ride out of Traverse City for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and the first riders are just arriving at mile 70 in three hours of riding; awesome!
At Leroy I detour to see what the trail surface is like for myself, and find that it is paved, and I ride that into Tustin where the girl in the store tells me it’s paved from Leroy into Cadillac, much nicer than the road I’d been on. The trail is great until it disappears without a trace in Cadillac and I’m on my own. I find my way through town and stop at a Mancino’s for a sandwich and eat only half of the half-size I’d ordered and save the rest. It’s 3:30 and less than forty miles left so I decide to go all the way into Nikki’s tonight. The Garmin wants me to pickup US-131, even though that is limited access, so I take Mitchell Road north to Manton, it’s somewhat hilly but not too bad and then 131 becomes available and I’m in Fife Lake about 5:15. I play phone tag with Nikki and find that she will be out of the house all night celebrating her birthday instead of welcoming me; off I go. Fife Lake Road starts out with some small hills, then levels out, and Supply Road is not as bad as I expected, just a couple big steep ones, but I persevere and arrive at 7:15, after about 12 hours on the road. I clean up, eat my left-over sandwich, and settle down to read with the ball-game on TV.
After the long day yesterday, I need one to just rest and relax and I start with a leisurely paddle in the kayak after a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. Gail and Nikki come out for lunch at Peegeo’s, and I decline an invitation to join them at Heather’s to avoid the noise and confusion, so they leave me alone for the rest of the day. I have another half sandwich left over from lunch and I supplement it with a couple brats, sans bun, that I find in the fridge. At sunset I go back out in the kayak to see if any loons show up to feed, but Daisy (the dog) follows me out into the lake, so I turn around to call her back in and leave her and Molly in the entryway of the house. When I return, I find that the dogs jumped against the doors setting the latch which I had left locked, so I was locked out of the house, no phone, no key, just my own ingenuity. I notice one window around back that is unlocked, so I take off the screen and open the window to climb inside. I go on line on Nikki’s computer to reserve a room in Cadillac for Monday evening and fill the evening the same as last night, the Tigers winning again.
Sunday I opt for a ride into Traverse City and the TART path that runs all the way up to Sutton’s Bay in the Leelanau Peninsula, and follow it about halfway out; I don’t want to abuse myself too badly, and going back through town, I’m surprised to have Nikki and Heather pull up into a parking lot in front of me, and we chat a while. They suggest a better route to the house and I make it back in one piece and stop at Peegeo’s again for lunch. Later Gail and Nikki take me to the Bayside Tavern between Traverse City and Acme for dinner, which is very enjoyable. Later a young man named Dave, that Nikki is seeing comes out and steals her away for a party, and Gail and I drive into Traverse for the free film showing of “Mrs. Doubtfire” as part of the film festival. We all go separate ways after the movie; Heather to her place, Nikki’s brood to Grandma’s, and Nikki and I to Chandler Lake.
When I awoke at 8:00AM, Nikki was up so I started packing and she insisted that she cook my breakfast; a strawberry smoothie and scrambled eggs that were very good. She left to go walk some hill with Heather, and I left to ride some alone. It went well back to Fife Lake the way I’d come, and then to Manton where I had lunch in a Subway. It was almost 1:00 and I wasn’t so much hungry as in need of a rest and to take off my shoes. There were more hills than I had remembered south of Manton, but soon enough I get to Cadillac and used the Garmin to find the road along the north shore of Cadillac Lake, then toured Mitchell State Park. It’s about as I remembered from camping here years ago, not one of my favorites. I used the Garmin to find the Rodeway motel and for a budget room, it’s clean and “good enough for who it’s for”. I grab my book and walk toward town for dinner and go on past the Chico’s Tacos to a park about a mile from the motel and sit down to read a while and look at Lake Mitchell. There is a nice restaurant nearby and I ask someone that had just exited if it was any good, and he said it was their favorite, so I went in to just look at the menu. It looked really good so I went in and ordered bruschetta and a bottle of wine, then the wall-eye with mushroom sauce and corn and potato hash. It was delicious and I stayed until the wine was gone and my book about half. I walked home and enjoyed the book some more, and called a budget motel in Farwell that had a vacancy. We’ll see how the Surrey Motel is tomorrow.
I woke up about 7:30, my usual time, and watched the news as I packed and ate two pieces of left over bruschetta (it wasn’t as good as the wall-eye). The forecast is heavy showers and winds from the south gusting to 30MPH, just what I didn’t want to hear. I venture forth anyway and it’s calm and dry along the south shore of Lake Cadillac, then onto the beautiful White Pine Trail. The rain starts, nice and gentle still without wind and I enjoy it into Tustin where I stop for breakfast at Julie’s grill. I eat only half of the half-order of biscuits and gravy, and they are definitely not up to Aunt Debbie’s recipe. The rain has stopped as I return to the trail and continue south, enjoying the cool, overcast conditions. About halfway from Cadillac to Reed City, at Leroy, the pavement ends and I continue on the gravel surface. It’s pretty smooth and my tires handle it okay. I stop for Gatorade in Ashton, and the surface gets looser and less pleasant to ride on as I get closer to Reed City. About three miles out, I notice a road parallel to the trail and transition to that route into town.
It sprinkles on and off, mostly off, as I make my way into Evart where I find Mishler’s Drive-In complete with car-hops and frosty mugs of draft root beer. I have a good Coney dog and really good onion rings with two mugs, and I even borrow a hose out back to wash off some of the mud from the trail. The bike path takes me all the way into Farwell and I have to back-track two miles to the Surrey Motel, and I wonder as I’m arriving if I’ll have to go back to town for food, but the girl at the desk calls a place called the Birchwood to make sure they were open, about half-a-mile away. It’s still raining and getting on toward 5:30 so I go down there before cleaning up and have good meatloaf and a surprising BLT soup with bacon and tomatoes in the broth, garnished with lettuce, better than it sounds. Back to the motel for reading, writing and watching the Tigers on TV, a throw back to my past as a Tigers fan.
They say that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and I’m rolling a bigger gear today, but that may just be the tail-wind for the first time this trip. I’m on the bike path a few miles, then on M-115 into Clare, and back onto the bike path down to Coleman for breakfast about 9:30AM. I get the corned beef hash omelet and it’s good, though the chocolate milk tastes a little funny, not bad but funny. I figure with breakfast at 9:30, I can forego lunch, and Mom likes to eat early. I’m guessing that I’ll be in Hemlock by 2:00 or 2:30 and it’s quarter of when I walk in the house. I get a coke out of the fridge and prepare to jump in the pool. I wish I could figure out why I go on these trips; it can’t be just because it feels so good to come home, but that may be part of it. I’m going to take the bikes into a shop this afternoon for some adjustments and a new chain on mine, and just a check-up for Cheri’s. Then I have to hang everything up in the garage and think about packing for the trip back to Maui. It will be good to get home to Cheri and the dogs, and even the folks at work, but what a great trip this has been. Thanks for coming along. Mahalo.

2010 Hemlock to Minneapolis Solo Bicycle Tour

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010
Anticipation

I am getting more and more excited about my next bicycle adventure: 2010 Hemlock to Minneapolis. The question of "Why?" has become something that I am thinking about from time to time. Obviously, people enjoy traveling for a wide variety of reasons; new people and cultures to investigate, new and interesting activities and foods, breaking away from the hum-drum of everyday life, and just seeing new places are all important to me. I think another thing for me is to let my day-to-day responsibilities go for a time and think only about my own very limited needs; which direction to point the bike in, and where to stop for lunch. Throughout the rest of the year, my actions are governed by the interconnected needs of many other people in my hectic existence; co-workers, family and friends, and for a few days it’s nice to reduce life to a simpler formula. There is nothing much simpler than eating, sleeping, and riding the bike, and to leave out the riding part would just be boring.

Why by bicycle?

When I mention my plans to friends and acquaintances, they invariably say something like: “I’d need one with a motor” so why not go by motorcycle instead? Two counts; you are treated differently by the people you meet, and you pass through places so quickly and noisily that you get a distorted view of the place. Obviously, traveling by car is similar, and you get even less of a sense of the place because the enclosure of the vehicle limits your senses of smell and hearing. Most other forms of motorized transportation suffer these and similar limitations. Hiking is a good way to see, hear, and feel the places you visit, but your ability to cover distance is so limiting that you can visit far fewer places and again, I think the communities you visit would be somewhat less welcoming to a person on foot. Not every place that you visit will be one in which you wish to spend a lot of time, and on the bike you can make your get-away about five times faster than on foot.
I’ve always enjoyed the conversational opening that is inherent when I come into town on my bicycle; how far, how long, and a host of other questions come from the people I meet, and the answers will often start interesting conversations. I also enjoy the respect (or even occasional ridicule) I am accorded for the physical ability I have acquired to do the things that I’ve done to get to wherever it is that I am. There is something that is deeply satisfying in doing things most other folks can’t or won’t try to do, and thumbing your nose at every car dealership and gas station in town as you pass by gives some pleasure too.
This trip, I’ll have only my blackberry for communication, so the updates won’t come as quickly when I’m on the road; I won’t write more than a few lines on that tiny keyboard with my oversized fingers, but I may find a library with a console for a few hours, and maybe upload a picture or two from the blackberry. I invite you to come along for the ride.

Proposed route: Hemlock, MI to Ludington, MI; ferry across the lake and a take northern bearing across Wisconsin and back down to Stillwater from whence I have a map to avoid most of the Twin City traffic.

Schedule: Mid-June 2010 through July 1, 2010.




SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2010
Planning
Two months to go and my planning is well underway with the route pretty well fixed in my mind. Google Earth has been a great help since I can actually get a look at the road surface and shoulder on my computer right here in Kihei.

Leaving Hemlock, I'll head north to Midland and pick up the Pere Marquette Bicycle Trail all the way to Clare where I'll take the direct route west on US-10. That may seem an unlikely choice, but I've looked at that road in many spots and there is a broad shoulder and good surface all the way to Ludington, and I want to get to the ferry in two days riding if possible, so the direct route is needed. I think I'll need eight days of riding after the ferry ride, if all goes well, and I have only twelve days to my target; June 30th, the afternoon before Cheri arrives from Maui. I'd like to have a rest day in northern Wisconsin, and another day in hand for bad weather, so two days is what I'd like to spend on the familiar roads of Michigan.

I bought a couple maps from the Adventure Cycling Organization that have helped me from Manitowac up to Eagle River in Wisconsin, and then from Stillwater to Minneapolis, the most dangerous section. I'm taking a very northern route through Wisconsin, turning north just out of Manitowac and not heading west until Eagle River, only about fifteen miles from the Michigan border; then probably going as far as Ojibwa before heading southwest toward Stillwater. There I'll pick up the Adventure Cycling route on back streets and bike paths all the way to where Mark lives in downtown Minneapolis.

I hope I'll be in good enough shape for those two long days in Michigan (about 70 miles each) and I'll have a short day after the lake crossing to help recuperate. Then a leisurely stroll north and west at about sixty miles a day and the two extra days as mentioned above.

I have dusted off the stationary trainer and took my Trek to the shop today for a tune-up to be sure it's ready for the trip. I have ordered a new sleeping pad and blanket and inspected my racks and panniers so I think I am fully equipped. Of course, the most arduous task is to tune up the engine itself; I'll be working on that day-by-day and I'll let you know how it's going next month.

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2010
The Engine - The Beast Lives

I took a personal day Tuesday and rode my normal 45 mile Saturday route to Lahaina and back and felt better on the bike than I had in a while. I think having the bike tuned made a difference because I felt a lot faster on the downhills where having those bearings lubed up and rolling properly is most important. Then today I had a perfect weather Saturday and decided to test myself with 60 miles. From Kihei to Napili Plaza and back; go ahead and Google it if you don’t believe me.

I felt great all day and it seemed that my cadence felt stronger and more fluid as the day wore on. I left the house around 7:50 and got back at 2:50 including lunch, two stops for cold drinks, two more for some shade, and a nice dip in the ocean at mile 59. And to top it off, a mile and a half walking the dog as usual after dinner! Of course, I'll be hauling more weight on tour, but the terrain will not be as hilly as today, so I feel pretty good. Nothing like a little over-confidence to keep a guy from training too hard, so I'll have to watch out for that in the next nine weeks.

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2010
Oh Sh*t!

My faithful Trek 520 is faithful no more!

I took my usual Saturday ride in perfect weather (no wind) but something wasn't quite right. Climbing the first hill, I was unable to use the standing position to climb, the bike wanted to shift, and I thought that perhaps the shifting mechanism which had just been adjusted may be at fault. I kept riding but all day I tried various adjustments without success. I was in about the forty-eighth mile of the sixty I had planned when I tried once more to push hard up the last steep climb, and I noticed that the crank set was flexing and as I continued to watch it, I saw that the frame is cracked at the juncture of the seat-tube and bottom bracket. I put it in a small gear and pedaled gingerly the rest of the way home. It did faithfully get me home from its last day on the road, but it is the end of the line for my favorite bicycle ever.

When the crank set flexed it screwed up the alignment of the chain causing the shifting problems. A broken frame is the worst possible outcome and I have never heard of anyone successfully fixing a major crack like this one. I'm afraid this bicycle will never go out on the highway again!

Cheri was upbeat when I told her the news, saying: "Thank God it's today; a few miles from home rather than midway across Wisconsin six weeks from now." And of course, she's right about that part. Do I change my plans or try to get a new bicycle in time to continue this great adventure that I was so looking forward too? I guess the answer is obvious to Cheri that I will immediately get a new bike, but I'm not so sure. The Trek model 520 is by far the best touring bicycle right out of the box for the money. It's in the neighborhood of $1,300 brand new and my accoutrements (racks and panniers etc.) would fit perfectly and bolt right on, but I just broke a ten year old version and maybe I should look at stronger frame materials.

The Trek 520 is made of cro-moly steel tubing which soaks up much of the vibration and bumps that can drain your energy, and have you looking for an early end to the day. Aluminum is stronger but lacks the damping properties of steel tubes, and nobody is currently selling a bike set up for touring using aluminum frame members. Cannondale used to, but they recently discontinued that model: Marketing decision or problems with the bike? Hard to guess. Carbon fiber has the properties needed but it prohibitively expensive, and again, is not currently marketed towards folks like me. Other touring bicycles are made of the same materials as the Trek and most of those have other issues, and none have any significant advantage over the Trek.

Many people choose a mountain bike and change components to fit the requirements for a touring bicycle. Most of the components might be acceptable, but often the frame geometry gives a riding position that is too upright for the long haul. There is a very fine line between short term comfort (more upright) and body position conducive to the long haul. There has to be enough weight carried on the arms to allow the okole (butt) to endure, but not enough to over-stress the arms. Then almost all mountain bikes come with flat handlebars that lack adequate variety of hand positions to allow the rider to endure those long days in the saddle. Road bikes, on the other hand are built too light to carry the additional weight of your gear, not to mention the weight of a big guy like me. They also usually lack holes for the racks and their geometry is closer to what you need as far as the rider, but the bikes don't steer and handle well with the added weight over each wheel where the touring bike often handles better as you add your gear.

I have only six weeks to decide, order, and have the bike delivered to a shop close to Hemlock if I follow Cheri's intuition and get a bike that will allow me to continue with this adventure. Not enough, probably, to choose any option but a real touring bike that can handle what I want it to do straight out of the box. I will spend all day tomorrow researching and deciding so that I can make contact on Monday if I have decided I need a bicycle dealership. Tune in later this week to find out.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2010
Warrantee to the Rescue

Well at least I hope so. As I got busy shopping for a new bike over the weekend, I wondered if Trek had a frame replacement policy and low and behold, they give a lifetime warrantee to original owners of all Trek bicycle frames. I called the shop here in Kihei where I bought the bike and he confirmed that Trek has been very good to his customers in this regard and he took some pictures of the frame and sent them to his Trek customer service rep, and we fully expect to have a new frame shipped out here in plenty of time to rebuild the bike before I pack it up for the trip to Michigan. I know it seems kind of foolish to ship it here just in time to ship it to Michigan, but the local shop needs to do the rebuild. I've ordered some upgraded parts to make it a little more worth their while, and I'm leaning very heavily toward a new Trek from the same shop when I get back to Kihei in late July.

It was fun shopping for a new bike, but what I found in reading all of the reviews and opinions out there about touring bikes is that I already have the best long range touring bike in my price range. To have a brand new one (more or less) is just what I need and I'm very pleased indeed!

SUNDAY, MAY 23, 2010
Waiting.....

I got an email message on Tuesday that the frame should arrive "this week" but its Sunday and no update has come through since then. I am so tired of waiting but there is nothing else for me to do. I've been trying to be patient and not bother the local shop too much since they will be putting the bike back together for me and there is no sense getting under their skin. Tomorrow I might grab my shoes and helmet and go down there on the guise of shopping for a new bike for my return from vacation. I have been shopping on-line some, and I think I know what I want, but maybe I can increase the urgency for them a bit by promising a future pay day.


SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2010
This is the Moment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_1MhZ46TbI&feature=related

Paste this into your browser and you'll know how I feel today and you'll be listening to one of my favorite songs by my favorite quartet.

Thursday afternoon South Maui Bicycles called and said the frame was finally here, so we agreed on the final instructions for the upgrade, and he needed my okay to add a new head-set and stem because Trek changed the frame and fork so that the original items couldn't be used with this frame and fork (yes, a new fork is included). They had it done on Friday about 11:00AM, and I was bouncing off the walls at work, then finally had a free moment and went to pick everything up. I have the bike and the box with packing materials for the shipment next week to Michigan. I went out to ride this morning and put 60 miles on it; it's perfect. The larger frame fits just right and the upgraded shifting is a huge improvement. I don't know why Trek doesn't add STI shifting (built into the brake levers) to this bike; I guess they figure every potential customer is a retro-grouch, which is the only kind of person I think would want the bar-con shifting controls. I also asked for the next larger frame size because even though I've been comfortable on the old bike, I always felt a larger, roomier cockpit would be better for me, and they were gracious enough to give me the larger size on warrantee.

I sent a box of supplies out on Friday that includes my tent, front rack, and panniers (the suitcase-like bags that fit on the racks to haul my stuff.) The rear rack is on the bike and will fit in the box when I send that out next week. I'm a little conservative to ship this soon, but as good as FedEx usually is, there is always a chance for something to go wrong, and I don't have time to wait for the bike to arrive after I get to Hemlock. As I've mentioned, I'll be on a pretty tight schedule if we get any weather disruption and Markie wants me there a day early so we can go to the Twins-Tigers baseball game on the 30th of June. I hope he doesn't mind that I use a diminutive form of his name. He's twenty-nine years old and a man in his own right, but he'll always be Markie-boy to his Mom and I. Sorry Markie!

I do hope you were able to open that song on YouTube (search for "This is the Moment" by Acoustix). You'll notice the quality of the bass first; that's Jeff Oxley, one of the best and best known basses in barbershop, and he is undoubtedly fantastic. What you may not notice is that the baritone, Jason January, joins him on the first verse and sings bass under Jeff's second solo later in the song, Jason also sings the high "A" to resolve the last chord. He is far and away the best baritone I have heard. While you're in YouTube, give a listen to their rendition of the "Stars and Stripes" where Jason has the high "A" again, and in that song it is a hanger (the note that stays constant as the ending resolves around it) that he holds for almost twenty seconds, try that at the top of your range sometime. The lead and tenor are great as well and this quartet is fabulous. Good listening!





SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2010
Soon and Very Soon

I'm very excited now to get to Michigan and get started on this great adventure. Soon and Very Soon is a song we've done in Kihei Lutheran choir, an old favorite that is the only time I can't help but sing the bass part right there in the middle of the tenor section. I have sung tenor in our choir since the very first year when the only other men couldn't or wouldn't, and even though I am a fairly low bass voice, I can reach most of the tenor. But this song has a bass counterpoint that I can't resist, and since I know it and sing it better than any of the other basses, the director allows me this plum.

I got my love of music, and what ability I have from my Mom who was always a fabulous musician and director, and she called today to announce that my bicycle has arrived and awaits my loving ministrations, though she didn't say it quite that way. My kids have always said that their Dad would never use a five-letter word if there was a fifteen-letter word available; and they are mostly correct. I like to educate at the same time as I communicate, or maybe I just like to show off, but my kids have wonderful vocabularies because of that.

So it's Sunday afternoon and I leave for the airport on Wednesday, right after work, and I'm listening to barbershop music on YouTube and writing this blog because my bike is in Hemlock and not here for me to ride. I'll leave this bike in Hemlock and replace it when I get home to Maui; and probably reward Trek and South Maui Bicycles with the business for having treated me so well throughout this warranty deal. I can't wait to share some of this music with my Mom, she is not a computer person, so she will have to receive hard copy of this blog, and I'll play the music for her on my computer when we're together in Hemlock for a few days. For those of you that don't know, my beloved father passed away eighteen years ago at age 63. He was the finest man I ever met, and I still miss him.

After talking to you folks, I'll probably map out an alternate route that takes less time (more southerly) in case I run into enough bad weather that I fall way behind schedule. Obviously, this will only be of use if that bad weather is early in the trip, before days five and six when I'll be traveling almost due north, but it might be of value. I'll go on Google Earth and look at road surfaces and look for tree-lined roads without many towns if I can. The original more northerly route will take me through the area with lots of lakes and forests, and I'll stick with it unless it is completely impossible. Then there is always the back-up plan of calling Markie to come from Minneapolis to pick me up if I fall short of the mark. He has already offered, particularly because he wants me in town on the evening of June 29th so we can attend a Twins-Tigers baseball game together. Then Cheri will arrive on the 1st of July and the next adventure will begin.

I'm bringing my computer with an air-card on vacation, not on the bicycle portion, but I may blog a little on my Blackberry from the road. I probably won't write very much because of my big fingers and the small keyboard, but I'll try to keep you posted, and then I'll write a synopsis when I get back to my computer in Hemlock. This will be the last post until Friday night before the first day of riding. Wish me luck!


FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010
The Night Before the Trip.

The flights were pleasant enough Wednesday night/Thursday morning and everything went well putting the bike back together and installing the racks and panniers. I inflated the Big Agnes sleeping pad (more difficult than expected) and my sleeping comfort when camping should be fine. This morning (Friday) I loaded most of the stuff I'll be carrying and rode about twenty-five miles as a shake-down cruise, and to visit two cemeteries in honor of my Dad and grandparents. No problems detected, and everything is now adjusted as well as I can do it.

Mom was there when I arrived at the airport in Midland/Bay City and we went immediately to the Riverside restaurant (her favorite) and had a nice breakfast before coming back to the home farm to play bike mechanic. Last night we went to a new Genji Tepanyaki Steakhouse where they do the cooking and entertaining on a flat-top right in front of the diners. The food was pretty good, but not in the same league as Kobe in Lahaina, but very nice anyway. After the bike ride this morning I watched part of the Soccer World Cup and caught a short nap. Tonight we met my brother and his wife and a friend at Famous Dave's BBQ and had a great dinner and brought some ribs home for tomorrow’s breakfast before visiting another brother, and more family. A late bedtime after I finish this blog, but I'm not too worried; I have all day tomorrow...

SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 2010
The First Three Days.

Saturday dawned gray and breezy but still dry. I had left-over ribs from Famous Dave's from last night's dinner with Skip and Lenda, Mom and Skip's friend, Dave. I was up pretty early and left the house at 8:00AM but Skip was already out weed-whacking in preparation for Courtney's party next week. I stopped and spoke to him a minute then was off on this great adventure.

The breeze I mentioned was out of the south, so the miles to Midland slipped by pretty quickly and soon enough, I walked across the Tridge and set off up the Pere Marquette Bike Trail. The wind was now southwesterly and partially in my face, but I rolled along nicely to the first rest stop in Sanford for a coke. I took the bottle back to the trail and stood on a bridge over the river to drink it, and soon was surrounded by bicyclists asking questions and taking pictures. It was a group of about ten people together for a singles/leadership training, or something, but I enjoyed riding with them the ten miles or so to Coleman where they had a designated stop and I went on ahead. It was great all the way to Clare where the path ran out and I was downtown looking for lunch.

The little place I found was called the Whitehouse restaurant and it was tiny, maybe 15' wide by 30' long grill and all. They had six tiny booths that would comfortably fit four kids each, and there were four adults in most of them. I sat down in one as someone was leaving and ordered a burger and fries. The food was what you expect, but the service was very homey and it was a good lunch. I headed up M115 that was under construction to Farwell and a pain but I got to Farwell before I saw the bike path running in the same direction, wonder how far back that started. I stopped at a Rite-Aid to get a notepad and pen and talked to the girl there. She said it went all the way to Evart but wasn't paved all the way, which I assumed to mean was gravel or wood chips where the pavement stopped, so I decided to try it.

The sign said "Pavement Ends - 2 miles" but I thought it would end at a road I could take back to the highway if the surface wasn't passable...Wrong! They just ran out of asphalt and stopped where they were out in the middle of the woods, just a path graded on through the trees. I hate to ride back over miles I've already put behind me and the surface looked passable so I went around the barrier and continued riding. After a mile of dirt, the surface became sandy and I couldn't ride any more, and I turned stubborn and declared that I would walk to Evart before I'd ride backwards, so I walked a half-mile until the surface firmed up some, the rode another mile, then walked another half until I could see a road up ahead, finally!

It spit me out onto Maple Grove road, beautiful pavement and I continued on that for three miles until I ran into a lake and had to jog back north to the highway. I looked at the Garmin, and saw I was only a few miles from the turn-off to Crittenden Park where I had originally thought I might stay, and that another 12 miles would put me in Evart where there was a campground right on the route, so I went on ahead. The wind seemed to be shifting around to the northwest by now and the trees on the roadside helped cut that down, so it was pretty good riding. At about 6:30 I rolled into Evart but didn't find the campground at the address I had entered into the Garmin and as I was riding back toward the center of town I came across a bar called O'Malley's and had to stop in.

On the porch were a half dozen guys drinking beer and the questions were flying before I got off the bike and in a minute I was part of the family. These guys were on a golf outing staying there at O'Malley's as guests of the owner who was an old friend that had moved to Evart to open the bar. He told me where the campground was, and said that if they couldn't help me, he would put me up, no charge. So I stayed there, had a great Rueben sandwich for dinner and rolled down to the Riverside Park campground around 9:00 and got set up just before dark and good thing because I found that I didn't bring a flashlight. I was right on the shore with a beautiful view of the moon on the water. The new mattress, blanket and pillow were perfect but I still didn't sleep very well.

SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010

Sunday morning I rolled out about 9:00AM and the camp host told me the bike path would take me all the way to Reed City and I took it all the way out to the junction of 10 and 131 before taking to the highway, wind in my face. As soon as I got on US 10 the hills started, nothing too steep, but a lot of climbing in the granny gear and by the time I made Baldwin, I was pretty tired. The last 30 miles into Ludington were not going to be any fun at all. I wasn't too hungry for lunch, so settled for some Mackinaw Island Fudge ice cream instead and headed out. There was a rode due west out of town that I thought would be an alternative to US-10, and I tried it for a mile until it ran out of pavement and I wisely turned around and took the highway, the very hilly highway. I stopped at the first rest area thinking it had been ten miles and it turned out to be four. I was really hurting and having to rest a lot more often, and I secretly wished that Marilyn Fornwall's sister would come by and offer me a ride, but she just honked as she went by (if that was her).

I almost cried when I came to Custer, because I thought it was Scottsville and found that was four more miles. At Scottsville I turn south for my own safety, fearing Saturday night traffic on the four lane US-10 and look for Chauvez Road, and it is five miles south, not the three I had expected. It is rolling and rural but I keep on, stopping once for directions since the Garmin is already low on battery power (I used it only an hour or so last night!) and I get good directions but on main highways, no alternatives were available. As I entered Ludington, I saw a seedy looking motel and stopped by, and the young man that helped me wasn't seedy at all and the rooms were cheap, and there was a wake-up service, and easy access to the ferry tomorrow, and food within walking distance. As I'm wheeling the bike into my room I notice the front tire is flat so I'll have something to do when I get back from dinner.

I walk past the restaurants and go into a supermarket instead and take a chef's salad, fresh blueberries and a pastry for morning back to my room. I leave it there and hit the hot tub for 30 minutes until the 10:00 curfew, then go eat and fix the flat. I pack up the stuff I want to carry on the ferry because I know I won't have access to the bike and get everything ready to go before I sleep. I'm not in bed until 11:30PM but I sleep well tonight.

MONDAY, JUNE 21, 2010

Monday morning I'm up ready for the wake-up call and everything goes off like clockwork. The ferry ride is very nice with my book and water bottle at hand, and even some M&Ms and a slice of pizza thrown in. I have a bike shop on my map and on the way there I run across another bike tourist who is heading south. He is from Minneapolis and has been on the road since May 24th. I find the bike shop, get two new tubes and head out of town with very little traffic but more hills and soon I'm hurting again. I stop for water from a nice man out washing his truck, and again at a farm with a bunch of old tractors in the yard and find the lady picking currants to make some jelly. The fruit itself is sour, I find out. Some of the towns in this part of Wisconsin don't have any services at all; in one place I went into a bar to get a coke and got a lesson in "Liar's Dice" (I still don't understand why they like it), and in the next town I see a coke machine and a lady says there's no grocery until Hilbert.

At that point my seat was killing me and I was desperate to find someplace closer than High Cliff State Park to stay, so I took the Hilbert turn off and found everything I wanted at a place called Scotty's Bar and Grill. I went in for a beer and to ask for information and pretty soon I'm talking to four different guys and the bar owner tells me I can set up my tent in his yard, so I have some more beer, and then some pizza because despite the name, there is no grill in this bar and grill. I set up in a light sprinkle and sleep in a light rain, and life is good again.

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 2010
Two More Days.

I woke up early Tuesday morning, though I didn't know what time it was, and packed up a wet tent and hit the road. I was hoping I would have a better day today, but the pain in my seat was back and continued to worsen throughout the day. Maybe it was the constant head wind, maybe I was gaining a lot of altitude, but it was just not fun to be on the bike today and I couldn't wait to get off. The only thing I remember about the day's ride was that there is a sign below the name of the town called Freedom, telling you things you can't do there. This one happened to prohibit parking on city streets at certain times, and you see that sign often, it just seemed out of place in a town called Freedom.

When I arrived in Wrightstown, the only place to eat breakfast was a Subway, and I learned there how early I had gotten up; it was only 8:40 and I was already twelve miles into my day. I had planned almost seventy miles to get to Shawano today, and there was no way I was going to be able to do that. Thirty pain-filled miles and one broken spoke later I pulled into Shiocton and stopped at the hardware store to get a flashlight; amazingly, this was the first hardware I had seen since Manitowac. The owner, Dick Johnson was sitting there just waiting to help me, he knew where everything was and he sent me to the Wolf River Inn just across the street when I asked him about places to stay, and told me where the library was, the laundromat, everything I needed. He even called the Inn to be sure Tim was there and sent me on my way flashlight in hand and my afternoon comfort assured.

At Wolf River Inn, Tim gave me a deal on a suite upstairs and invited me to pull my bike into the lobby for security. The suite is fantastic with a kitchenette, balcony, and beautiful view of the river out back. I wish Cheri was here to share it with me; it just seems a waste for only me. I went first to the library to update the blog and got only as far as Monday before they were going to close, then to the laundromat, and managed to get a soda and take a shower because everything was within two blocks of the Inn. I even laid out the tent to dry and went to (you guessed it) Subway to get a sandwich so I could eat in and watch some soccer on the big flat screen TV in my room. Up until 3:30 this was a terrible day, but from 3:30 on, it was great. There is a bike shop in Shawano so I can get that spoke fixed; I brought spokes, but not the wrench needed to get the free-wheel off.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2010


Wednesday morning it was raining, and I was seriously considering staying in to watch the US team play Algeria in the World Cup and take Tim up on his offer to drive me to Shawano (pronounced Schano hereabouts), but the rain stopped and I decided I had accepted enough of Tim's largess (the room was discounted and bike security, etc.) I knew there was a bike shop in Shawano so I can stop and get that wheel fixed this afternoon. I pulled out of Shiocton and wondered what else the day would hold.

I felt a lot better today, but part of that was probably the mental knowing that it was only thirty miles to Shawano, and the route was as flat as if they had painted it on the surface of a lake. It was good into Leeman and my only opportunity for a coke, but when I walked out of the store, the rain was starting up again. I put my lights on and my rain jacket and it continued raining lightly about half-way to Shawano. I shed the jacket and enjoyed the rest of the ride, except that a few miles before I got into town I heard another "ping" of a spoke breaking, and I sure hoped the bike shop would be open, and able to fix me up today. I pulled into a Kwick Stop and got the intel on the bike shop. I found they are open and going to get me fixed up, but it won't be cheap. The wheel is shot and almost certainly won't get me to Minneapolis, so I'm going to have to buy a set of wheels ($225) and ship the old ones back to Kihei ($80) so I can pursue a warranty clam on the old wheel. The nice thing is that when I ask about the Library, they offered me a computer to use here at the shop to update this blog. By 7:00 I should be fed and showered and set up at a campground a few miles away, contemplating the rest of my route to Minneapolis. If I'm paying three hundred dollars for the privilege, I'd better, by God, ride instead of catching the bus.

Wherever the route goes from here, it's likely the phone service and internet availability will be spotty, so I ask your patience. Now I've got a new frame and new wheels, I wonder if the derailleur and brakes will make it to Minneapolis.



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON JUNE 23, 2010
To the Bitter End

I left the shop and headed for Shawano County Campground about five miles northeast of town, and found it, as usual, to be a longer ride than expected. I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way to pick up dinner and breakfast; a salad, strawberries, Gatorade, and a long john. This trip has been unusual for me from a dietary perspective as I'm finding myself choosing salads and fruit at the grocery in place of hardier fare. I'm making these choices based on what sounds good at the time, so my preferences are changing to healthier foods, but I don't really feel too much thinner yet. The park is very much like a MI state park, very clean with a beautiful beach and day-use area. I have a walk-in site up a little hill in a grove of pine trees, very nice.

This is the first time I've been in camp in time to meet some of my neighbors, and Mike & Patti offer me a beer as soon as I veer from my path toward their site. The talk is of the weather and their inexperience in dealing with the thunderstorm last evening, and the likelihood of a reoccurrence tonight. I walk over to an unused electrical camp site and charge my Garmin while I start plotting out my route from here forward. I decide to continue north tomorrow to Langlade and finally White Lake, before heading west along WI 64 instead of WI-70 thirty or so miles further north. The bike felt great on the way out here, and I hope that continues throughout the rest of my tour. I was reading and charging the phone battery when the rain started and I made a mad dash to get everything under cover. I read just a bit more, then drifted off to sleep with the rain drumming on the tent above me.


THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2010


My long john turned into a long john pancake in the rush to cover last evening but still tastes good with the remaining strawberries. I read a little more before embarking for the day; my route north is through the Menominee Native American Reservation. Kenesha is a small town at the edge of the rez (as it is called) and you can see from the schools and other public buildings, our tax and gambling dollars are at work. They are building a newer and bigger casino to continue the harvest of the latter. There were some local folks out selling food in the parking lot of the market so I had a bratwurst with my soda, my $3.00 helping to fund their annual pow-wow. Twenty very pretty, but hilly miles north, I had another one at the Wild Wood Inn for $3.50 with a much better view, and a big screen TV for some soccer viewing, both of which I enjoyed immensely.

Later Thursday:

Just before I stopped at Wild Wood, the new rear wheel was starting to wobble, and I found a number of spokes were very loose. I tightened them back up, just using tension as a guide and it seemed better on the way to White Lake. It was eight very hilly miles to White Lake where I stopped at the grocery, then another seven hilly miles to Elton and the Glacier Wilderness Campground. I am a little worried about availability of services in the next few days so I pick up some cereal bars and peanut butter, and though I hate to carry the extra weight, I also hate to starve.

There is nobody home at the campground and I find a good spot and set up my tent. It's a small campground, only a dozen sites, and empty except for a local neighbor walking his dog. I go back to the office for a shower and the door knob won't turn, so I turn back a little frustrated and as I'm halfway back to my site a lady drives in so I go to confront her with the bad news. She says: "Oh the latch has been broken for years, just push the door open." which works but I'm still a bit miffed. The shower is great and I lose the ire and go into the office to register and try to get some intel on the road tomorrow. The barkeep at Wild Wood said it would flatten out some, and this lady concurs.

The sandwich I got back in White Lake is excellent and I finish the M&Ms Cheri bought for me back on Maui before standing the bike on its head and truing the rear wheel. More spokes were loose, but it looks okay when I finish; something I'll keep an eye on the rest of the trip. There is power and while my phone apparently has no service, I top up the batteries for both it and the Garmin. The Garmin doesn't list any campgrounds where I am going tomorrow, but the Wisconsin map shows a county park in Merrill.


FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 2010
To the Bitter End continued.

I forgot to take a picture of my campsite for Cheri; she likes to see them, but since my phone isn't working, I forget to get it out and record the photo. It's a pretty generic site; trees all around, quite private and grassy enough for a comfortable tent site. I didn't have to climb a hill to get to the campground because it was right at the bottom of a really big hill that I have to tackle first thing this morning, no warm-up.

After the first, comes another, but then it levels out some and isn't too bad all the way to Antigo and beyond, except for the bloody head wind. For a bicyclist, a head wind is an insidious menace that sucks the spirit right out of you. You can't keep momentum from downhills to help with the next climb and every mile takes a huge effort. It can be really disheartening and it is for me today, so much so that I start asking people in Antigo about a Greyhound terminal, with no luck.

The wind is mostly blocked by the trees in the ten-mile section right beside the state forest, so I'm feeling a little better; No wildlife viewing in the state forest today aside from some birds and three deer that have been sacrificed on the alter of the automobile. Then the last six miles into Merrill are really hilly and the wind seems to be picking up, so I decide to stop for the night at Council Grounds State Park just outside of town.

At 4:15 I walk into a bar where no one is friendly at all, and I pester the overworked barkeep to get the World Cup TV coverage, but they don't serve any food except pizza. After I've caught up a little I get the name of another bar out near the park that is likely to have the games showing and head out there and get to see most of Switzerland-Honduras game while I feast on the Friday night fish fry; a great evening for me.

I get to the park about 8:00PM and it is sprinkling so I rush to set up my tent on one of about sixty sites in this beautiful park. The sites are larger and more wooded than most MI state parks but it is further to water and other facilities. I walk the loop I'm on looking for water to take my nightly pills (haven't missed yet!) and it's at least three-fourths of a mile around. MY phone still isn't working so I again forget to get a picture.


SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2010


I waste all morning thinking that the USA-Ghana game will be on at 10:00 and that bar opens at 10:30, but when I get there, the USA game isn't on until 1:00PM. I head out and I'll try to find a place to watch it on the road. It's about forty miles to Medford and the one bar that I find ten miles before town has no TV, so at 2:15 I find Opie and Tammy's Country Corner and I'm alone in the place with the TV tuned to USA-Ghana. I haven't eaten anything all day but again, all they have is pizza which I don't want, so I try a pickled sausage and then a pickled egg with my beer and soccer and enjoy the afternoon. The USA looks the better team but it's tied at full time 1-1 and in the overtime, Ghana scores on a very pretty counter and the USA chases the game for the last twenty-five minutes. It's what the USA team does best, but it's not a good way to win soccer matches and they fall short in this one, 2-1.

The barkeep was a lady my age and we talked on and off throughout the game so I get the skinny on camping and everything else in Medford. There is camping at the city park and I get directions, but it is still five miles into town. I stop at a grocery and have a brat and coke from the local football fund-raisers, and leave with another chef's salad, blueberries and Gatorade to take to the park for my picnic. It's a great park with just a few very nice campsites and I think I'll enjoy the evening, although there are no showers and the rest rooms are far away. I'm set up by five o'clock and go wash clothes before my picnic. I true that rear wheel again and it is still loosening up every ten or fifteen miles which is very unusual, so I have to stop and tighten spokes often. I'm worried that because I don't have the training and tools to really true this wheel, this constant tightening and loosening is going to ruin the wheel sooner rather than later. It looks like rain so I choose high ground close to the trees for my tent, and I baton down the hatches before crawling into the sack.

SUNDAY, JUNE 27, 2010

It was good and dark before the storm rolled in with thunder and lightning and plenty of the wet stuff, but no danger because the lightning was some distance away; at least six seconds between flash and rumble. It was muggy and warm before the storm and I slept better after the rain. I spent an hour breaking my fast and trying to dry things out before packing up and rolling out about 9:00AM. The hills moderated a bit and the road surface improved considerably when I hit the national forest but the wind which had started out southerly now shifted to westerly. I'm in Gilman by 12:30PM (27 miles) and nothing is open save one gas station/convenience store where I get a coke and tighten spokes for the third or fourth time. The next ten miles was better, to a bar called Norma's Place where I decide to have a proper lunch for a change, and ordered a chicken wing basket that was pretty good; whole wings not just the pieces that you get in most places. Another seven miles through a stiffening head wind brings me to Cornell and a state park called Brunet's Island with a beautiful site right down on the river.

I had stopped in town for a coke and Gatorade for morning but I'll leave the park later to get some dinner for a change (again) and spend a fair amount of time thinking about tomorrow and talking to the very nice staff at the park about campgrounds west of here, etc. The weather is calling for NW winds 10-15MPH which is not good news and there aren't many campgrounds that I'm likely to reach in a day's ride. Add in that a pick-up plan without a working cell phone utilizing my son will require a set destination that I can reach for sure, and that Mark can find. With the problems I'm having with that wheel, I'm leaning toward a Monday pick-up rather than Tuesday, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. I go to a little diner called Sandi's Drive-in and they have decent root beer and pretty lousy food. When I'm truing the wheel tonight, I discover a broken spoke, so I'm really in trouble if I can't find a bike shop in Bloomer about twenty miles from here. I sleep well but have an unusual dream about being appointed to fix the USA World Cup team, and I'm not really sure that my skills as a corn breeder will do the trick.

MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2010
The Bitter End

The plan before the broken spoke was to ride to Colfax today and into Baldwin tomorrow for an easy one-hour pick-up from Mark. But the hills, the new broken spoke, the debilitating west wind, and the constant worry about the wheel have completely demoralized me when I get to Bloomer around 11:30AM and you can stick a fork in me, 'cause I'm done. I stop for a long lunch, then call Mark and ask him to drive to Bloomer to save me, and he seems happy to do so. He's at work and doesn't get off normally until 3:30PM so I settle myself at Hardees right beside the interstate and prepare to wait until 5:30PM or 6:00PM tonight. The folks in the restaurant are very nice to me and one assistant manager lady sets me up in a room with a TV and gets the World Cup game on for me and everything. I feel bad freeloading, so buy a couple orders of their chicken snacks for pupus and they are really quite good. Mark shows up at 4:00PM and sees the bike right out front, then finally spots the back room I inhabit and we're soon on our way to Minneapolis.

JULY 9, 2010
Epilogue

I apologize for the tardiness of the last week of this report, but when I got to Mark and Katie's house my days were full of activities and I didn't force myself to sit down at the computer to update the blog. In some ways, this was good because my emotional condition changed over time and allowed me to report more dispassionately. In some ways, this was a difficult tour, and at the end turned into a bit of a forced march. But there were many good moments, and I'm happy to recall them now; however I won't take another tour that requires such rigorous time pressure in the future. I’m thinking that I may not take another fully loaded camping trip because of the wheel issues I’ve had in the two most recent tours, but may switch to “credit card touring” sleeping at motels and carrying a lot less weight. The wheel I had so much trouble with during this tour eventually worked fine for day rides (unloaded).

Mark and I played Frisbee golf twice and took in a Twins-Tigers baseball game at Target Field, then after Cheri arrived on the first of July; we were busy, busy right up until July 6th when we left for Michigan. We had a couple great days at Pine Island Lake with Katie and the rest of the Brown family, and had the best illegal fireworks show ever, sitting on a pontoon boat in the middle of that beautiful lake. What a wonderful night that was!

After an uneventful car trip to Michigan, including four hours sleep in a state room on the USS Badger car ferry, we rode our bikes, played in the pool, visited relatives, and even paddled the kayak on the Cass River with my brother before heading north for the Cornish family gathering on Drummond Island. I'll report more on that adventure later, but take this opportunity to thank you for coming along on this tour. Mahalo and Aloha.

JULY 10, 2010 – JULY 28, 2010
Drummond Island and Beyond

Cheri is a little bit crazy in a couple ways, and one of them is an inordinate love for freighters; she loves to watch them, listen to them, even race them in the kayak (from a very safe distance, of course). Back in 2004 we first rented a cottage on Drummond Island, right on the St. Mary’s River which is the shipping channel between Lake Huron and Lake Superior by way of the Soo locks. We repeated that in 2007 for a few days, and because this was the first year her parents would not be able to camp with us (sold their motor home) we decided to rent a larger cabin and have the Cornish family gathering there instead. It was called St. Mary’s River Retreat and it turned out to be nearly perfect.

We rode our bikes, toured by car, kayaked in the river and nearby Sturgeon Bay, enjoyed visits from some friends and spent a day on a rented pontoon boat exploring parts of the island. There seem to be thousands of white tail deer there and we enjoyed seeing those graceful creatures from the car and bicycle. We also enjoyed a lot of good food, and a memorable dinner celebration of Bill and Anita’s sixtieth wedding anniversary. We also saw many, many freighters, from the smaller tug and barge type, to personal sailboats and yachts, to the great thousand foot lake freighters that ply the Great Lakes.

We returned to Hemlock and the Beyersdorf family farm to stow our gear and visit some more; had a bicycle ride with Cheri and Skip on the Saginaw Valley Rail Trail that finished in the dark, and a nice dinner in Gladwin at the Riverwalk Grill with Mom. Then we packed out suitcases again for the flight to Denver Colorado to visit our daughter, Michelle, and our friends, the Dolin family that moved to Denver from Maui a few years ago.

While there we visited Estes Park, hiked the Bear Lake to Emerald Lake trail in Rocky Mountain National Park, drove to Moab Utah to visit Arches National Park and enjoy the amazing rock formations there, and take another long hike. We visited the Dolins at Dustin and Erin’s beautiful new home, and later in the week Don took me to a Rockies game (pro baseball) at Coor’s field just steps from Michelle’s office downtown at the Premiere Lofts apartment complex. We also met Miki’s coworkers and current beau and his Mom, very nice folks, all. I always hope I don’t embarrass her too badly in those situations, and I think I succeeded this time.

On July 27th, more packing in preparation for the tearful good-by the following morning. We had extended the car rental that we got for the long road trip so Michelle was spared the miles on her car and the drive back from the airport after the afore mentioned good-by, and were able to hold the event in the privacy of her apartment. We left in what we thought was plenty of time and ended up with just enough; Denver is a major hub with a lot of traffic, even on this Wednesday in July. The flights took off and arrived on time and we returned to our home on Maui safely, and to the delight of two dogs. Now all we have to do is pay off the credit cards and start planning for next year, which will be a big one; three whole months if it goes as hoped for. Look for it here next year. Aloha.