Bay City , Michigan…july 23

 

 

here we are in michigan!! we are at jerrys house in bay city. doing laundry and cleaning the bikes. went to breakfast with lauries family, and will attend a loons baseball game tonite. go you loonies!! we will hit the road tomorrow . I think we’ll head to ontario on saturday, just a guess. and maybe take a few 3-4 days to go across ontario . michael wants to stop in niagra falls to ride the maid of the mist. sounds like fun. anyway had a strange experience the other day in wisconsin. I was riding toward Kaukauna to visit the old neighborhood and saw what I thought was another dead coon in the road. as I approached I saw an animal sprawled with all four legs straight out and I thought to myself, “self?” what sort of animal am I looking at? as I approached you can imagine my suprise when the animal jumped up and sprinted away!! it was a young groundhog, and I suppose was playing a little game with me? that rascal! scared my pants off!! just after that I saw a couple of baby goats in a barnyard having such a great time jumping and playing I laughed. wish I could have taken a picture . have met up with a couple of dudes heading to NYC and law school for arron, peter is going to head back to S.F. and his “regular life” as he puts it. we are seperated from carolyn and greg for the time being. they headed to grand rapids Mich and a day or two off at their home. hopefully they got all the skunk stink off of themselves before we see (smell) them again!! they were lucky to escape an encounter from Pepe Le PEW last week on a bike trail in wisconsin, just south of eau claire. I think even a molecule of stink will stay with you a LONG time!! I am greatly looking forward to seeing the old stomping grounds in New Hampshire. don’t know how close we’ll be to any particular sights, like  mt washington or the franconia notch area. or even if they look slightly familiar to what I remember. we camped all over the cankamangaus Hwy area near them both. the white river? sabbaday falls? don’t know if I’ll recognize the place? had a horrible nights sleep in ludington mich right off the ferry. we headed to the state park about 2 mi north of the ferry landing for the night. its a state park and looked ok. short walk to some awesome pizza. anyway the campground was quite full being a saturday any beautiful weather and all, the campground was full. well , wished it wasn’t as a group stayed hard at it until the wee hours and werent stopping until the police were called at 4:30 am. that makes a cyclists day a might weary , if it was already!! just a night earlier in mannitoc wisc at the other side of the lake , a group of race drivers decided to destroy a nights sleep with weird music and rowdy behavior at the expo grounds. the actually were attempting to destroy a kids bicycle by throwing it from the rooftop of the showerhouse and running it up a flagpole. jerry and I got up to put an end to that crap!!we did finially get a restful sleep in a forest service camp about 97 mi from here and cleaned ourselves in a really nice lake.

stevens point wisconsin,july 16

ok so I was wrong, we did go into eau claire, but only at the last minute. everything was changed!! town is growing and there was a lot of construction. the “U” was expanded and water street was all ,like, upscale!! BAH!!! not the college town I remember, but, the old party house was still standing,student transit was still in operation, although much improved. the town was different but there was still students there and still a university. we headed to nellesville next with a stop at the higher ground memorial , really cool place. then on to our campsite at the fairgrounds. todays ride from nellesville to stevens point was going great till a huge storm forced us to take shelter in a barn just off the side of the road. we chatted with the farmer about crop prices etc till everything calmed down. then it was off to fellow cyclist bills home. after a great dinner and a couple of brews, its time for bed. unfortunately the weather forcast for this part of the country calls for extended periods of rain. so we are going to be wet!!!!

WISCONSIN!! JULY 14???

Here we are in rugby north dakota on the fourth of july. we decorated our bikes up and appeared in the parade. everyone thought we were goons but what the heck..somebody had to show those dakotians how to party !! we played bingo and played with all the animals in the opetting zoo. there were even PIG RACES!! what a gas! of course you all know my affinity for the four legged pig-like porkies . so we headed out for the next 10 days across ND and then Minnesota. with a close call in the charles lindberg state park, a TORNADO went by within a few miles of our camp. I was listening on the radio and heard all about it as we were getting pelted with hail and tons of rain. trees were down all over the park, but I’m happy to report we faired well, not a scratch!! michael and I were in the tents when it hit and it was furious!! heavy rain and lots of wind. next day we headed out into a 4 hour deluge. rained a ton and we took shelter after about 35 mi in a repair shop. the guys didn’t mind us hanging around watching them work. we left with the shies clearing and warmer temps. so we crossed into wisconsin yesterday at oseola and headed to new richmond. the wind was terrible, let me tell you!! at least 40 mph and off the right front quarter. we were weaving around the road like a couple of drunks!! thankfully we had a wide shoulder to work with and when we got to town there was a huge softball tourney going on and we made some friends that invited us to share their picnic and we stuffed ourselves. one gentleman there organizes bike rides in this part of the state, and since we are officially , “off route” , we used his expertise to guide us here. I must say this part of the state is very scenic!! loads of rolling terrain and very pretty and well kept farms. we are about to head toward Eau claire this afternoon, but will follow the bike path  south and them we’ll start to drop further south toward rt 10 and our exit point …the ferry across lake michigan landing in luddington mich. I think we’ve reached our mid point of the trip. michael says we’ve gone either 2100 or 2200 mi. so as far as getting to bar harbor? who knows!!

minot North Dakota, wednesday

 

 

 

so… we are in minot for the day, doing some bike shop looking, michael needed new bar tape, I had an old do-rag that needed replacing, and some new gloves too. slept like a baby last night . musta been really tired!! tonite we are going to sleep in the masonic park on the outskirts of town by the fairgrounds. its free and there is some nice grass. we may head out tomorrow and may not depending on how we feel. the geographic center of north america is in rugby North Dakota, and in that very same town on the 4th of july they have “pitch fork fondue” what ever that is!! I’m sort of looking forward to being in the center of north america though. sounds very exciting doesn’t it? we are 300 miles from fargo. hopefully I’ll have a visit from jimmie wright and have a few beers with him. guess that depends on if he’s not too busy working on laurens new house in brookings. the weather has cooled quite a bit, todays high is only 75 deg. looking forward to another nice restful nights sleep. we are both needing some down time to recharge. visited theadore roosevelt nat’l park with deb over the wkend. those pics of the bison and the rugged terrain are from there. not a very noteable park, with the exception of the bison herd and the numberous mosquitoes!!

tuesday july 1

how can it be the first of july already?? doesn’t seem possible! this trip has been going by a a fast rate. the flats of eastern montana have been replaced by the rolling hills of western North Dakota. along with it, some heat and headwinds thrown in for good measure. the riding has been tough, don’t get me wrong, but the endless views are strarting to wear on me. those long assed going on forever straight aways. how many miles long? who knows, just way too long. so endless that I’d say that today we rode a 50 miler without so much as a patch of shade or a gas station rest stop. BETTER PACK SOME EXTRA WATER GUYS!!  so michael and I are staying in minot for a day or two of R+R and patching together our bikes and bodies. not that they need much, just a day off here or there is good for both. the rest of the bunch are heading off the route for a quickie short cut . HI SETH!! hopefully they’ll not get too far ahead of us to catch. but maybe they’ll have a rest day soon?check out seths blog at bikingforallergies.blogspot . well not much else to tell you, hi to everyone back at NGA now get back to work you bunch of lazy good for nothings!! I heard that evening shift is going to be cancelled!! that’ll throw the fear of incompetent management into ya!!