July 10, 2011
Day 71 Ashland, Wisconsin to Wakefield, Michigan
We woke up at 4:00 a.m. as part of our plan to beat the heat. This turned out to be a bit extreme, as we could not see a darn thing. However, by 4:30 things began to come into focus. Down by the lagoon, a swan was cruising through the mist, and the sun was putting in an appearance.
Pedalling in to and through Ashland, the sun rose as a giant reddish/peach beach ball in a most scenic way beside a church steeple. Unfortunately our camera could not see it, preferring to pretty much portray a white nothing.
Speaking of "nothing", unless you count trees as something there is nothing between Ashland and Ironwood. We made reasonable time at first, but by 9:30 the extreme mugginess was taking its toll, there was a bit of a headwind, and the trrain was hilly enough to have an impact.
We were weakening fast, but a rain storm blew over and drenched us for ½ hour. After the rain it was hotter and muggier than before, but we had just enough energy left in our tanks to make it to Ironwood. First, though, we crossed the border into Michigan. Hey, Manitoba, Michigan also welcomed us!
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We did not try to look at Ironwood's downtown, but stayed on 2 straight through to the McDonalds. We were after their wifi, so you could read this, their Asian chicken salad isn't ½ bad, and also it is cool inside!
We hopped to Bessemer and then fairly quickly (one big hill) to Wakefield. The city campground here is at Sunday Lake. It is a bit crowded, but the lake is beautiful and there is a perfect beach.
Dodie does not usually go into lakes and if she does it is a slow process of edging in. This time, though, we were so overheated that she pretty much plunged in. We did this in our cycling gear, so that by thrashing around we acted as human washing machines. Even after a thorough dousing we could still feel the heat coming from the top of our heads. There are few mosquitoes here, so after moving our table into the shade, we could sit and enjoy the evening. This is a surprisingly rare pleasure.
As usual, we squandered our relaxing time by suddenly deciding that we should continue from here on 2 rather than the planned 28. So we frantically listed all the towns from here to Sault Ste Marie on 2 and tried to scope out on the netbook which might have supplies and/or camping. We only got 1/2 way before dark, so we will need to find internet fairly soon or fly blind. The distances between supplies are not short but not crazy either, so we should be OK.
Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 4,173 km (2,591 miles)
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