July 12, 2021
Naubinway - Sault Ste Marie, MI
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These were nice little cabins. I'd stay here again - but now I know to take the rubber sheet off before I go to sleep. I didn't sleep well last night, I was far too sleepy. But I didn't want to wake Jacinto to pull the sheet off.
Today is the longest I've ridden this year. In my favor is the sunshine, and the flat road. Against us was a ESE wind. Temperatures were moderate. 82 degrees at the finish.
I wanted to fuel wisely today. I had a chocolate milk (the store was out of white), supplemented with my favorite meal replacement, Spiz. An oatmeal with dried cherries, and pecans. The milk was labeled as having 14 grams of protein. We won't talk about the carbs! That was as much food as I could eat in the morning. I had beef jerky, two boiled eggs, and assorted other snacks on the bike to carry me through.
Jacinto and I agreed I would get a head start and he would catch up.
Naubinway is a tiny little place. It's my sort of town. There was our motel, two places to eat, a sporting goods store (loosely stated) and a convenience store. For some strange reason, there was also a bank. That was happy for me as I need to print some documents, have them notarized, and scanned back to me. What are my chances at a bank where I do not have an account? Diane was accommodating and took care of me in no time. Whew. Sometimes real life interferes with fun.
The other cyclists were long gone as I was preparing to leave. The cleaning lady was in their rooms. She had opened the door to our room, saying a loud ,"Excuse me! I didn't see a car and thought you were gone". Last night there were three cabins of cyclists and only one vehicle. It's not a busy area.
I was on the road by 9:30. Jacinto later said he left at 10:10. I didn't see him until the store, 50 miles down the road.
Today was my kind of touring. Country roads with little traffic. I saw a vehicle every 5-10 minutes. I have a habit of waving at country drivers. I have no idea why, but when I wave at people on this trip, hardly anyone waves back. Isn't that a rural thing to do? It is in our area.
Jacinto and I keep laughing about the Tunnel of Trees and good marketing. Every time we see a good stand of trees lining the road, we say that they will be marketed as Tunnel #2. Today qualified. There were no views at all beyond trees and more trees. Little Trout Lake had a couple of motels, a store, and a restaurant. It could be a possible overnight spot. Then I was back in the trees.
I watched the miles tick off in a satisfactory fashion. One reason I left ahead of Jacinto was wanting to ride without concern of being too slow. This was not a day to play race!
I hit mile 42, yesterday's total. I could stop now. But, no, almost 30 miles to go.
I had a request from Spoon for photos and reports of progress during the day. That gave me an activity. I tried to find something, anything, worth of photographing. It was a little tough, riding in the forest. You should come and ride this stretch of road and look for photographic opportunities! It was a fine riding day.
By mile 50, I was starting to drag. I gave myself the pep talk about getting to town. Then I decided a wise person would take a break and get a cold drink. I've only had one V-8 this trip. Salt would be good right now. Convenience stores have V-8, as do liquor stores. Grocery stores hardly ever have V-8 cold and this one didn't either. I settled for an Armour drink. It was cold and large. I called Jacinto to see how far back he was. Two miles. I sat in the shade on the cement outside of the store. Sitting down and letting my legs get cold was a potential mistake. I only had a few swallows of my drink left when Jacinto arrived. I had difficulty getting up, to Jacinto's alarm. I was operational though! I can pedal. I was really not looking forward to those last miles.
I counted down each and every one with satisfaction at their completion. The cold drink was exactly what I needed to put some life in my legs. I was afraid my average speed would go down, but I kept going right on down the road. We had a cross wind or a head wind all day. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't helping.
I got within two miles of the motel and called Jacinto. Where was he? Right behind me, he could see my lights, although I could not see him.
We are on the very edge of town, for easy departure tomorrow. I took the wrong exit at the roundabout. No surprise. It was an easy fix. We are at the Best Western. I am so happy. It's one of our cheapest stays of the trip and the nicest room. Huge room, hot breakfast, bikes in the room. What's not to like. We should have had our layover here.
Now it's dinner time. There's an Applebee's next door, but Jacinto wants to walk to a Mexican food. Because we haven't had enough exercise . . .
Oh - check out Jacinto's new flag in the photos. It's a cloth he found on the side of the road. The whip he found in Utah last year. He keeps the whip in case he's attacked by dogs. We haven't seen a single dog on the road this year. It is notable how few dogs we have seen. Not even fenced farm dogs. Jacinto picked up the yellow cloth for me to clean my bicycle chain. Instead I suggested it was clean enough and a bright color, it could be a flag. We fixed it last night. But Jacinto doesn't like it, he says he needs something lighter weight that doesn't bend the pole. He found an American flag today, maybe he's going to swap them later.
Also, today we have seen many Trump signs of various types. There has been few political signs so far this trip. I've seen a number of signs for the Great Lakes Tunnel. A few signs that say no mining. Today was notable for Trump signs.
We are not going to see the water locks here. We've traveled through the Esna Lock on the Nile River in Egypt. We feel we are up on locks. We had a long day today and another one tomorrow. We are on the edge of town, poised for a good exit.
OK - dinner time.
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70 miles!!
3 years ago
Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 510 miles (821 km)
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| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |
You're getting into the best part of the U.P. now. In my mind, Lake Superior is vastly superior to Lake Michigan. But yeah, there are too many trees (view-blockers.) I'm still waiting to see your reaction to your first real U.P. pasty. I hope so much that you like them. (Hint: Don't put gravy on it.)
If you need a refresher course on pasties, I've created my own cooking blog since I got kicked off Topicwise. Here's the pasty article:
https://chefgcooks.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-magnificent-pasty-upper-michigans.html
Have fun in upper Michigan. I hope you make it to my old stomping grounds in Marquette.
3 years ago