Michigan 26 Day 5 - Thessalon to Spanish

 I am at the 57 Marina and Campground in Spanish Ontario. This is the bike tourist's dream. 

It is decidedly not fancy, but the host lady is super friendly. There are dogs running around. I called yesterday to see if they have a tent spot available, and she said "Sure! I'll pencil you in!"

So I roll in today, and checkin goes something like this:

Host lady: "Are you Drew? Where are you biking from?"

I tell her about my trip.
Host lady: "That's amazing! Want a beer?"
me: "OMG, I would love a shower beer."
Host lady: "I'll give ya a beer to set up your tent too!"
me: "Should I pay you for the site and register or something?"
Host lady: "How about $25"
me <fiddles with my phone to pay>
Host lady: "Do you have cash?"
me: "I don't have any Canadian money."
Host lady: "Just give me $20 American."
me: <gives her a twenty>

She hands me two Busch Lights from her fridge, and shows me around. There is a women's shower, labeled "inboard", and a men's shower, labeled "outboard", and a shared unisex bathroom. There is laundry!

Host lady: "Laundry is $5 a load." 
me: <hands her $5> "I am completely out of clean clothes. You are the best." <quaffs beer>

This place is the best. 

Today was a pretty tough ride. It was 66 miles, and 65 of those miles were on the Trans-Canada Highway. There were moderate headwinds and 1800 feet of climb. The weather was nice, it threatened rain, but no rain happened.

A lot of the way there is a nice shoulder, but there are a lot of miles with n



o shoulder at all. There is little traffic, this is a very remote area. I went through maybe 5 very small towns today. There are a lot of First Nations trading posts and dispensaries.

I scored for lunch at the 17 Restaurant at the halfway point in Blind River. 

This does not look promising on the outside, and the big crack on the front door is not inviting.

But it has top ratings on Google, and the ratings aren't wrong. They have pierogi's!

This place is very popular.

I stopped to have a Gatorade and some wings at this pizza place in Spanish, which is the only restaurant in Spanish. I ate before I went to the campground, since it's a mile from the campground and it might rain this evening.

The wings are OK. They come with dipping sauce.

Since I didn't have a lot of appetite that early in the afternoon, while riding in the heat, I brought half the wings home with me and ate them here.

There are storms coming on the radar, but the tent is all set up, and I can hunker down in there and read a book.

This place is great.

Here's the Strava page, which I entered manually because somehow it didn't upload properly from my watch: https://www.strava.com/activities/19562140979

Michigan 26 Day 3 - Newberry to Sault Ste. Marie

 I started the day at a nice campground (once a KOA) where unfortunately the camp store doesn't open until 9. I'm not going to wait around all morning for coffee, so the night before, I went to the camp store before it closed and filled one of my water bottles with the cold leftover coffee from that morning.

So I'm happily reading the news on my laptop and drinking cold coffee on a not so level picnic table, and the water bottle of coffee fell over and dumped a ton of coffee all over my fancy, expensive MacBook Neo.

I quickly wiped it off with a dirty bike jersey, and it seemed to be fine, so I packed it up and went about the day.

But when I got to Sault Ste. Marie and started working on my trip update, after about 20 minutes it died. The screen went black. Which is why I'm writing this a day late on a new cheap Chromebook.

It was a very hot, brutal ride today. It got up to 88 degrees and it was pretty humid. I was pretty roasted when I got in.

And this campground, which caters to RVs, has no shade whatsoever, and no lounge area or lodge or any place like that with air conditioning. 

The way to deal with this is to go take a shower in your bike clothes and let them dry while you wear them. And keep doing this until it cools down at night. 

The day started great, very pleasant riding, along 40 more miles of M-28, which mostly had a huge shoulder.

Eventually, I had to get off M-28, my companion for 100 miles or so, to go get some food. The best option for that being the tiny waterfront town of Brimley. Strava found a rail trail that is a straight diagonal shot to Brimley.

Unfortunately, it's a trail for snowmobiles and ORVs (which are very popular up here). The surface is loose gravel and sand, and it's not bikeable on a touring bike. 

So I had to do zig-zaggy back roads to get to my pizza in Brimley.

And while I was eating way more of this huge, delicious pizza than I should have, in air-conditioned comfort, it was getting hotter and hotter outside. 

Which made riding the last 15 miles to the campground pretty unpleasant. I was so overheated and overstuffed, I never got hungry for dinner.

This was a pretty nice RV park. It's super dog friendly. The bathrooms and showers are clean and nice. It's on the waterfront, which is the St. Mary's river that connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

It's a major shipping channel. There is a constant parade of giant ships going by, and they all blast their horns when they pass.

The people who stay at this RV park see the ships as a feature. They like to sit and watch them and take pictures.

For some reason, Strava cropped my route, although Garmin did not. This is very weird. So here is the Strava track, which only goes until my pizza.

https://www.strava.com/activities/19533945191

Michigan 26 Day 4 - Sault Ste. Marie to Thessalion

 First things first, I have replaced the dead Macbook Neo. It is in the mail home in case it is fixable.

The new lappie is an Acer something or other. It's slow and clunky, but it fits in the hard case I got for the Neo, which means it fits in a pannier. It cost $400 of Canadian Monopoly money.

That issue is resolved. But if it's not one thing it's another.

Today I learned in Canada, they just decide they will let everyone have a three day weekend each month. For no reason, other than it's nice to have a three day weekend. And this weekend is one of them. Monday is the "August Civic Holiday". I am not making this up.

Which means everyone in Canada is driving off to go camping or stay in a lakefront hotel this weekend. Which means there are no campsites or motel rooms or any form of lodging whatsoever on Sunday night on Manitoulin Island. Looks like I'll be stealth camping in the woods somewhere.

Monday night is looking real bad too, so I've booked my ferry ride off the island and a room at a grossly expensive dive motel a couple miles from the ferry terminal. This should be interesting.

I do have a camp site for tomorrow night, thank goodness.

Tonight I am in this cheap motel in Thessalian, Ontario.

I am here because:

1. I need to get this laptop set up and working.

2. It's pouring down rain all night, with severe thunderstorms, which have already begun.

3. There aren't actually any camp sites anywhere nearby because August Civic Holiday.

4. I was off to a late start due to a visit to the post office to mail my bricked Neo home, and a detour to Best Buy for the new laptop. I had to wait for both these places to open.

4. The motel includes an awesome Indian restaurant next door. RDOQ FTW BABY

I am full of butter chicken and very happy.

This motel is quite a find. It's right on the waterfront!

Check out the knotty pine paneling!

The restaurant has an amazing view too!

Today was a really nice day of bike riding though. First, I got to see this weird site in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

This is the "Tower of History". WTF. It's huge. It's weird. I can't imagine who thought this would be a good idea.

This was followed by three miles of terror riding over this bridge to Canada. In the fog, with drizzle all over my glasses.

Bikes get to ride in traffic, there is no shoulder, there are only two lanes, and there is barely a center stripe. Luckily, there was very little traffic, and there is no passing on the bridge. So that giant semi truck right behind me got to follow me over the bridge at 7 mph on the climb part. I'm fine with that, because I know he sees me, and if vehicles could pass me, I have to worry about whether each new vehicle sees me.

My other terror was that the border guard in Canada would decide I can't come in, and I'd have to ride back across that bridge. But he was super friendly and I zipped right through. 

Border Guard: "Where your from?"

me: "Elkridge, Maryland outside of Baltimore."
Border Guard: "Where are you headed?"

me: "Home to Elkridge!"

Border Guard <jaw dropping on floor>: "No way! Have a great ride!"

The Best Buy detour only added a couple miles to the ride, and I was out of there with my new laptop by 10:30 with 50 miles to go. I got in at 4:00, which is pretty much when I always aim to get in. 

Weather was great, there was a high of 80, a bit humid, and some headwinds, with thunderstorms off it the distance for the last couple hours.

There's a nice bike trail heading out of Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Then some highway with nice shoulders through First Nations land, then about 20 miles of this fabulous desert back road through farms and forests.

I rejoined the highway in the tiny town of Johnson, which is definitely in the middle of nowhere, but unbelievably, has an African/Caribbean restaurant, Ije's Place Cafe and Bakery!  

I had some tasty jerk chicken!

The bad news was the remaining 20 miles were all on the Trans-Canada Highway, which is the biggest highway there is around here. This means sometimes it's two lanes, sometimes 4, but more often than not no shoulder whatsoever. So you get to ride in the traffic lane and get passed by lots of semi trucks. 

The next town is Bruce Mines, where they still have mines. This is the biggest gravel pit I've ever seen. It's like a mile long.

Everything is fine. I'm sure the lack of lodging in two days will all work out. 

Here's the Strava Track for today: https://www.strava.com/activities/19546950977

Michigan 26 Day 2 - Christmas to Newberry

 

I rode 64 miles today. All of it on state route M-28. It looked exactly like the picture above, except a lot of the time the shoulder was narrower, and there was more traffic. And sometimes the rumble strips were in the middle of the shoulder instead of by the white line.

It was a great day, though. Perfect weather, not many hills, and a tailwind. I left at 8:30 and was in by 3:00.

I always measure hills based on my own idiosyncratic metric, the Lawyers Hill Road Equivalent, or "LHR". My house is at the top of Lawyers Hill, and the climb up Lawyers Hill Road to get there is 240 feet in 0.6 miles, which is about 6%. 

There was only one big hill today, which was about 6 miles in after Munising, MI. It was one LHR. Then it was totally flat for 40 miles. Near the end there were a few smaller climbs, but none of them were even half an LRH.

I'm camped at a very nice former KOA ($60) near Newberry, Michigan.

For $60, you do get a pool, where I had a nice soak in the afternoon, but you don't get coffee until 9:00 when the office opens, which is way after I will be gone. So I went by the office after dinner and took the leftover dregs of today's coffee, which I will drink cold tomorrow morning.

My tent is so nice and serene. This is great. So much better than the America's Best Value Inn up the road, and half the price.

I'm feeling really good. I'm sleeping well and eating well, which feels great after a week of eating chips at the cabin in Michigamme.

Lunch was a bowl of Mac'n'Cheese covered in crumbled bacon at Andy's Bar in Seney, Michigan, 40 miles into the ride. 

There were a lot of miles in that mac and cheese.

You don't think Andy's looks very nice from the outside? Well too bad, it's the only choice other than Slim Jims at the gas station next door. For 20 miles in any direction. Not much up here.,    

Andy's has a remarkable collection of stickers on the wall behind the bar, most of which have to do with guns.

Dinner was a mile up the road from my campsite at the Joshua James Bar and Grill. The best thing you can imagine hearing when you sit down is "We have a fried walleye basket special today."

All Right!

All these places are like Daniels.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/19519208124

Michigan 26 Day 1 - Michigamme to Christmas

It's time to say goodbye to beautiful Lake Michigamme.

And my brother-in-law Steve's family lake house compound

And get on my bike and ride home.

 It's about 1100 miles. It should take about three weeks.

I got going early this morning, and since it was easy riding and perfect weather, I did 74 miles, and was done by 3:00 pm. I was planning on doing 68 miles and camping, but I got to the campground at 2:00, there is no restaurant nearby, and it's $84 dollars for a tent site with no electricity.

So I decided to ride on for another hour or so to get here to Christmas, Michigan, which is highly beloved by Steve's family, and my sister Amy says the Foggy's steak house in town is a winner. 

And, what do you know, there is a motel with rooms available across the street from Foggy's. The downside is the motel is $200, which turns out is the cheapest room available anywhere nearby. There is primitive camping across the street, but my phone was dead, and I want a shower. 

This is the second year I've come up here. I've learned there are time honored rituals. One of them is that one evening will will eat take-out pasties from this place:

A "pasty" is a lump of fried dough with meat and rutabagas inside it. This is the traditional lunch of iron ore miners. You can also get them hot and ready to eat at the grocery, next to the rotisserie chickens. "Pasty" sounds like "past". It does not rhyme with "tasty". They are better than you think.

Another ritual is to go visit "Da Yoopers Tourist Trap and Rock Shop". This is like a small-scale, stupider and crappier Wall Drug or South of the Border. I got a sweatshirt because the nights are in the 50s now, and I didn't bring a warm shirt. 

 

They also have a rock shop with many cool rocks because the Upper Peninsula is the home of cool rocks. There were some big chunks of multi-colored diorite that would look absolutely amazing in the aquarium I am setting up. Debra flat out refused to carry any big heavy rocks on her flight home. I am sad. I will return with my pickup truck someday.

These fine establishments are in the town of Ishpeming, which has no known pronunciation.

I rode Route 41 for 20 miles to Ishpeming, which is a 4 lane road, but it has huge wide shoulders, not much traffic, and it's scenic. At least until Ishpeming, that is. I went on city streets in Ishpeming, and discovered that there is a fantastic bike trail that goes another 20 miles to Marquette, the Iron Ore Heritage Trail. It's a rail trail, it's fabulous.

Sometimes it's paved, sometimes it's not, but even when it isn't paved, it's fast, smooth, comfortable crushed stone.

Mining iron ore is part of the heritage here, but it's also still ongoing. I got to share the road with some pretty huge ore trucks (24 wheels!) before I found the rail trail. I also came upon what looks like an operating mine.

I took the trail all the way to the ore dock on the shore of Lake Superior in Marquette.

The trail continues about 5 more miles to the town of Harvey, where I had some disappointing and greasy pan-fried perch at this barbeque place.

It was 34 more miles to Christmas, where my present was a huge fancy room at this expensive hotel, which also has a really awesome hot tub, by the way.

After I soaked in the hot tub, and had a shower, and a nice nap, I went across the street and gorged myself on this lovely slab of beef.

This was a good call, Amy.

Here's the Strava track:
https://www.strava.com/activities/19504610386

Over The Top Tour Day 4 - Abingdon to Home

 The quick tour from the beach to home, going over the top of the Chesapeake Bay, was a success.

Here is the only picture I could take:

This is me testing that my phone still works after I drove back and found it where I dropped it a mile from the start of the ride. The phone has been run over, the screen is all cracked, but it still works.

The ride today was very old school, what with no phone. No checking the map for where to eat, no texting Jim to see where he is, just riding.

What lead to this mess was the rain. The forecast said rain in the morning until around 1:00. This was no big deal since we only had to go 40 miles or so. We hang out in the motel until checkout at noon or so, then have lunch nearby, then start riding when the rain stops. 

But at 10:30, the forecast changed to light rain until 1,  then heavier rain from 1:00 to 2:00. So we decided to set out at 10:30, and stop for lunch when the heavy rain came. 

I didn't bring rain gear, just a jacket that is not water repellent, so I was big on staying dry. Instead of riding at Jim's very comfortable pace, I took off faster to get as far as I could while it wasn't raining much. Jim had rain gear. 

There are not a lot of good options to get into Baltimore from the northeast. The recommended bike route is Route 40, the Pulaski Highway. Route 40 has a big, wide shoulder and it's direct, but other than that it's really horrible, with heavy traffic, lots of trucks, and it's generally ugly. I had a plan to avoid 40 as much as possible by meandering around on back roads, but due to the weather, we decided to just ride 40. 

I realized I had dropped my phone about 5 hilly, rainy miles from the start.

So I have no phone, I'm way ahead of Jim, and the expected heavy rain at 1:00 never actually comes. By 2:00 I'm at Rossville Road, which is just before the Baltimore beltway, and 40 gets really ugly inside the beltway. A much better route is to take Rossville to Mace Ave. to Essex, then come in on Eastern Ave. Which is by no means a nice ride, but way better than 40. 

So I lean my bike on the traffic light pole at Rossville, sit and make myself comfortable and wait for Jim to catch up. Fifteen minutes or so later, he does, and he rides right by. He doesn't hear me yelling because he's listening to books on tape and the heavy traffic noise.

By the time I catch him, we decide we might as well continue on 40 because it gives us an opportunity to visit Chap's Pit Beef for lunch. We will make lemonade from the Route 40 lemons.

Chap's is very famous and is generally recognized as the best pit beef place in Baltimore, which really means in the world because pit beef is a Baltimore thing. Despite its location on horrible Route 40, which is full of heavy industry, sleazy motels, liquor stores, payday loans, tattoo parlors and used tire stores. Chap's literally shares a parking lot with an ALL NUDE strip club. Location location location. The inside of Chap's has all the glamour of the outside environs.

And after having an amazing pit beef sandwich at Chap's, I can confirm that it is EXACTLY THE SAME as the most frou-frou Southern California Tri-Tip Sandwich. Except for toppings, but the Chap's fixin's counter has every sauce known to man, so you can exactly replicate the fancy-pants Tri-Tip if you want, instead of the classic Tiger Sauce, thin-sliced onions, and pickles.

Ten blocks later, we are in my old Southeast Baltimore neighborhood and the rest of the ride was my old commute route. And there was no more rain.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/18404492921

Over The Top Tour Day 3 - Middletown to Abingdon

 It was a nice 50 mile ride yesterday. We are back in Maryland.

It's interesting how different things look in Maryland compared to Delaware. This is in the small town of North East, which, not surprisingly, is in the northeast corner of the state. No more swamps. Gentle, rolling hills instead of flat. No more chicken houses and fields of chicken food. More and different trees.

We had lunch in this nice pizza place in North East.

Just after North East, we discovered we have a very big obstacle to overcome.

This is the end of the Hatem Bridge, which takes US 40 over the very, very wide Susquehanna River. It's legal to ride your bike across it, but it's no fun at all, and there is no shoulder. Except it's not legal if there is a lane closure for construction. And that would be the case.

The nearest alternative crossing of the Susquehanna is Route 1 over the Conowingo Dam, which is 30 very hilly miles out of the way.

So we had a seat at the weigh station right before the bridge and got busy with Lyft and Uber. Prices vary dynamically and dramatically between $21 and $75. But regardless of what the price is, nobody will take our fare!. After about 40 minutes of failure, my phone battery is nearly dead, so we decided to ride back up the road a half mile to a Dunkin Donuts so I can charge my phone and we can reconsider our options. Maybe the ride sharing drivers think it's sketchy to pick people up at the weigh station? 

Jim is tossing out ideas like maybe renting a van from Enterprise and having them deliver it to us so we can drive ourselves across. One thing for sure is we are not riding up to the Conowingo Dam.

So at Dunkin, I got Uber to find us a driver, but he said he wouldn't carry bikes. So despite immediately cancelling, I had to pay $7. With Lyft, you can put a note in your request that you have bikes. Big win here for Lyft over Uber.

After another half hour of trying and failing, Jim declares we should just ride over the bridge anyway. 

I gave Lyft one last try, and a driver accepted the job! And it was only $21! We were so happy, we both tipped her $20. 

Now I realize that when I was gouged for $150 to cross the Bay Bridge a few days ago, I should have cancelled and tried again for a half hour or so to see if the cost would come down. 

Next time I try to do this ride, I think the plan would be to make an overnight stop at the end of the bridge and reserve the ride share the night before crossing in the morning.

The Hatem Bridge fiasco cost us an hour and a half, but we finally made it to our end point at around 6:00.

We are at the Country Inn and Suites, which is between Abingdon and Aberdeen. Call it Abingdon. This place is the best lodging deal so far on the trip. It's new, clean, spacious, and includes a decent breakfast, all for $100.

It's also a short walk from food.

And we are within the Radius of Baltimore Bar Food Influence. Which means Natty Boh, Buffalo wings, nachos, steamed shrimp with Old Bay, and lots of crab things.

We are almost home.

Here are the Strava tracks.

Part 1 - Middletown to Perryville: https://www.strava.com/activities/18389682357/overview

Part 2 - Backtracking to Dunkin: https://www.strava.com/activities/18390512732

Part 3 - Havre de Grace to Abingdon: https://www.strava.com/activities/18391527052