Let the sun shine!

6-29-10 Day 24: Watersmeet, Michigan to Ashland, Wisconsin: 93 miles in 7:05 hours. Rt 2 west the whole day.

Haven’t had a stellar, sunny morning to late afternoon day since back in Indiana and lower Michigan!! And that’s no kidding. Been dealing with rain, severe storms, drizzle, fog…….and total &^$^#%$# weather longer than I can remember. Just crazy. Well today I got something back – in the way of just a super day to ride. Got up early, packed my gear, slipped out of camp and onto the road without a thing. Just didn’t feel like stopping at a gas station for coffee and doughnuts. I wanted to RIDE! So I figured that I could go 3-4 hours before I filled up the stomach…or maybe even just go the day on the junk I ate last night.

Which reminds me, last night I rolled over to the casino, about 3 miles away, and hit the buffet. This was the saddest, crappiest buffet I’ve done in years. Total looser for 11 bucks. Now the casino there was just amazing, lines of machines with fat people loading money into them. The was the “poor man’s” casino, not really much. I had to walk by all that junk to get to the casino restaurant. So the buffet: came with salad bar, which I should have just done that alone, and then there was a pizza and pasta bar. I got the both of them, and hit the salad bar first. Really nothing fancy, and I hit most of the veggies. Wasn’t anything more than cottage cheese to go with all the veggies. So next to the pizza. And that was the worst ever! Cardboard with tomato sauce and cheese. Just pathetic. Had 4 pieces and then I just couldn’t stomach any more of that crap. Next the pasta…….bowtie, rigatoni, and noodles. The sauce – the very same cheap tomato that coated the pizza and a sickening looking Alfred sauce that scared the living hell out of me. And there was meat……this pan fried burger meat that looked like it belonged in a Taco Bell taco. Total nightmare stuff. Like I said, this place is the poor man’s casino.

Did one plate of the pasta noodles with the hot tomato paste and the fried ground beef. Looked like a 6-year-old made the meal! Yup that was it. No more. Paid the bill and high tailed it away from that dump back to my little Hellie in the woods.

So anyway, that experience kind of pushed me into NOT going back to the BP at the casino for coffee and breakfast. Just wanted to ride and ride the hell out of there. Got rolling at about 7:38 AM. And the wind was just wicked out of the west-northwest. So if I was to reach Ashland today, it was going to keep me on the saddle for a very solid 7 hours. So be it. Again, like yesterday, I had the road all to myself at times, with zero traffic in any direction and nothing but the ribbon of highway amidst this massive, expansive stretch of woodlands. Felt just awesome to be out there alone pedaling west in the sunshine. Now the temp had to be below 50 degrees when I first got on the bike, and I even had my anorak on to take the bite out of the headwind. Had some pretty chilled knuckles for the first hour. Got off the bike several times for pics of the nothingness of the western UP region.

Had to be about 40 solid miles of nothing between Watersmeet and Wakeman – save but for a few cottages and a 3-4 homes town with zero amenities. The road was my wonderful 6-foot wide berm and it really began to roll with some super long gradual climbs in that 40-mile stretch. Between that and the headwind I was stuck in the 13 mph zone forever. By the time I got to Wakefield I had decided that I had to stop to eat. My legs just felt like jello with zero energy and totally noodled out. Today was not going to be one of those days where I could ride the whole day on nothing. Nope, hot when fighting a headwind and doing a boat load of climbing. Had to get food. So I decided to push to Ironwood for a lunch stop. Good thing I layed up in Watersmeet last eve because if I’d have tried to push on and “make the green” by riding to Ironwood, I’d of spent nearly 11 hours on the bike. Either that or I’d of slept in the bush last night with no food.

By the time I got to Ironwood I was totally trashed, and that was on 60 miles into the day. Saw a Subway and did a big U turn into the parking lot. Did a footlong and probably 50 oz of fountain coke. Then back on the bike, and I’ll tell you what, it couldn’t have been more than 57-60 degrees out. Had to put the anorak back on just because I was pretty chilled coming out of the Subway. Couple of miles in I was over the state line and in Wisconsin and taking the anorak off again. Thankfully the stretch in Wisconsin was way flatter than the Michigan stretch I’d just finished. My big beautiful berm from Michigan….It was gone, down to a mere 3-4 feet with no rumble strip. Still though, the road was an asphalt that was glass smooth and I felt pretty secure on that berm. Traffic was not really that bad, and everyone gave me plenty of room to ride on my smaller piece of berm.

Seemed as though the topography had changed to more of a flats with heavy coniferous forest, with Lake Superior just off to my right several miles to the north. At times I could see a sliver of deep blue water through breaks in the forest. Just wonderful riding on this stretch and the headwind was just a thing that I was feeling more and more at ease with. Can’t fight it, it’s just there all the time. Best thing to do is to just spin into it and not mash. Between Ironwood and Ashland, there’s just a tad more civilization than the barren 40-mile stretch I had done between Watersmeet and Ironwood. Mostly just me and the forest. By the time I saw the Ashland City Limit sign, I was really ready to be done. That Subway break had totally energized me for another 3 hours worth of riding, so that was a very good move. Had I attempted to do the whole thing sans food and coke – it could very well have been a death march. Finished the day with 93 miles in just over 7 hours of saddle time. That headwind just really takes it out of you, and it did again today.

Was amazing how much stronger my legs felt just 30 minutes after eating. I found an RV park in Ashland down by the lake, and set up camp and then beat it out of there for some dinner – Subway, where I downed another 2 footlongs! Also picked up a couple of bottles of James Page Burly Brown Ale. This is a Wisconsin micro brew and it’s a sweety for sure. Back to camp to work on the computer in a gameroom area that has wifi while I drink these delicious beers. May have to go back for a couple more!

I’m a little disappointed in Ashland. I had though that it would be this really cool, kind of sports oriented, hip place being right on Lake Superior, but it’s really nothing that great. Pretty flat around here and there’s a big coal fired power plant right smack dab in the middle of the city right out on the water. Not rocky or craggy like I had pictured it. The temps finally cracked the 60’s by the end of the day, and it feels very nice out now at about 6 CST. Forecast is for a good 4 days of sun, with the temps bumping up to the 80’s by Saturday and Sunday. Have about 72 miles to make Duluth tomorrow. May just make it a short day tomorrow with that 72 miles and enjoy the rest of the day in downtown Duluth and try to find an efficiency in town by the lake. Supposed to be great weather.

Finally made it all the way through Michigan. Now think about it, I’ve spent 10 days riding through this one state. Now we can 86 two of those days, one for weather and one for a mechanical, and come up with 8 solid days of riding to get through Michigan. I don’t believe that there’s a state much bigger than this to ride through other than maybe Texas and Alaska. I mean I’ve ridding for over 600 miles through just one state, north for a boat load of miles and then west for a boat load of miles. Today I can throw my tattered Michigan map in the garbage. And let me tell you, after 10 days it’s totally beat to hell!

Well, that’s it. Talk to you tomorrow. Love and kisses to you Judy!!!! Love also to mom and dad and Kim. Got you all on this one…….Pete