July 9, 2021
Day 39: Devil's Lake to Michigan
Friendly people
“I thought I’d better come back out today, couldn’t hit the ball at all yesterday.” The man in the golf cart stops by to chat, he is a local farmer now semi-retired. The caretaker stops by to check on us, tells us there’s a tournament tomorrow, a contest to hit a hole in one. Earlier two ladies in golf carts also stop and talk with us for a while, and then were joined by a third woman. Then a man from Grand Forks who plays the small golf courses along Highway 2 chatted. He works in the Sugar Beet factory and warned us that there is road construction from Arvilla to Grand Forks with two way traffic and no shoulder.
We are in Michigan at the city park/golf course. We’ve had more people stop and talk with us today than in any previous day.
We are up early again and decide to leave a note to our WS host and start riding. Their schedule is so much different and opposite to ours; they are up late because of the Restaurant and Joel is in a play that goes until 11pm. We are at J & J’s Restaurant for breakfast at 7:01, they had just opened. The man at the next table says “I’m not that conceited to take this big table, usually there are others here.” A true American tradition: mostly men gathering in the morning at the local café for coffee and talking about the weather. On the way out of town is a Wal-Mart, and we stop for supplies. While Rachel watches the bikes and Patrick shops, a man asks about our trip.
There is not much between Devil’s Lake and Lakota except a wide shoulder that disappears on the other side of the town. We follow the lake for a while, there are a couple of “resorts” and some huge RV trailer parking-lot “campgrounds”.The corn is taller here, beans are growing, the landscape much the same. We stop at the Lakota gas station for a break. The convenience store is very well stocked, even with fresh vegetables and bananas. Two motorcyclists resting by our bikes say “it’s a good day for two wheels.” They are North Dakotans on a 4 day camping trip. It is a good day, the wind is from the southeast but not too strong. We arrive in Michigan around noon.
We are actually camped in the shelter of the Duffers “club house” for the golf course. We moved the tables out of the way to create space for the tent, we will move them back tomorrow morning since we are told there is an event here tomorrow. We’ll be gone before that starts. The golf course is quite entertaining, we watch as just about every golfer looks for their ball in the dry creek. Better than TV, we love watching Susie and her two friends play golf.
We explain to Susie that she’s an internet celebrity. We saw her photo on Timothy Tower’s blog over on that other site, if you read this Timothy you need to edit her age: she was only 63 last year when you met her, not 65! Her friend makes fun of her because she is wearing the same green t-shirt in Timothy’s picture.
The Horseshoe Bar and Grill opens at 4pm. We walk back to the main street to the grocery store to buy milk for breakfast. Then next door, we go for dinner in the bar. The burgers at the Horseshoe are good and they have Blue Moon Belgium White on tap. First we talk with an 83 year old farmer who retired at 62, and found out “I’m no good at being retired.” So he now goes about the county as a crop insurance adjuster. He’s also selling tickets to the big event next Friday at the golf course, tickets for a golf cart raffle. There are a couple of guys at the next table who then start talking with us about our trip and cycling. The highlight though is when Susie comes in and sits at the table with us. She tells us a bit of history of the town and her story.
Everyone has a story if curious enough to ask.
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Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 1,588 miles (2,556 km)
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