After a restful and dry stay in a hotel in Manistique, I rolled out on US 2, headed east with no set destination. I was playing the day by ear.

The road angled northward at the start into a strong wind. Despite yesterday’s difficult finish, my legs seemed fresh. When the road angled east and the headwind went away, I rolled effortlessly on the flat highway.

It was a bit disappointing that the next 50+ miles had no views of the lake but there were plenty of trees and ferns and swamps to keep me entertained. There was even a roadkill porcupine. Damned thing was huge.

I snacked the whole way and it seemed to keep my energy level on an even keel. At 12:30 I stopped for lunch at a sub shop. Nice people (again). Yoopers are like that.

After lunch the views of Lake Michigan opened up. Under a clear blue sky there is only one way to describe it:

WOW!

I actually worried that drivers would be gawking at the endless blue and run me over. Soon I was passing through dunes. Cars were parked on my paved shoulder forcingme  out into the travel lane.

Not ideal but traffic was light and forgiving.

(Around this time The Mule hit 41,000 miles. Go Mule!)

The beaches went on for miles. It reminded me of the Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Barbara and Malibu.

Every few miles the flats would give way to a climb up to some bluffs. This made the last ten miles honest. For my troubles I got my first views of the Mackinaw Strait Bridge. Cool.

I pulled into a state park near the bridge. The cost of camping is only slightly less than a cheap motel. I think I’ll be moteling more next week.

I’m dining on whitefish with Escanaba Black Beer in St Ignace. Tomorrow the ferry to Mackinaw Island and the lower penninsula.

Last night Felkerino, who is on a tandem tour of the Sierras and Cascades with Coffeeneur, advised me that my touring itinerary might be a tad too aggressive. Today proved him right.

After a somewhat restful sleep (shut up owls!) I left camp at 6 15 am. A dense fog had fallen overnight. It was spooky. Fortunately there were very few cars on the road. My legs were dead but I soldiered on in search of a rejuvenating breakfast. The town of Alpha offered a general store but it was closed. Crystal Falls looked promising but all it had was a gas station with two scruffy townies sitting out front. I grabbed my back up Clif bar and rolled on.

The fog had lifted as if to welcome the logging trucks. These sucker are HUGE. I rode on to Sagola, 25 miles from the start. It had a gas station with day old pepperoni rolls. (They weren’t even proper pepperoni rolls but I didn’t care.)

I ate and hit the road with new life in my legs and ears wide open for the sound of big trucks coming up from behind.

Yesterday’s encounter with a westbound bike tourist led me to believe that I would hit a steep hill near Crystal Falls. I did. It was a steep down hill. Ahhh.

It was the exception though. The terrain was much more like the first day and a half. The hills were long and gradual. After my first 25 miles of struggling, I was cruising along nicely, powered by junk food.

I finally found out what was going on with the logging trucks. They were carrying logs from the National Forests (run by the Department of Agriculture) to an assembly point. Here they were sorted and trucked to lumber mills. When I took the photo that follows, I thought I was looking at all the logs. In fact, as I rode on. I saw that the operation went on for what looked like a half mile.

I rode on losing energy with every mile. I stopped at a general store for more junk including a bona-fide UP treat, a Yooper Bar.

Off again I found my head sagging and my mind contemplating my route map more than the scenery, a sure sign of burn out.

I played mental games to take my mind off the fact that it was now raining and I was riding into a slight headwind. I was very grateful to be going ever so gradually downhill.

The terrain was very reminiscent of the counties north of Albany NY, where I grew up. I finally rolled into what I thought was Escanaba, my destination. Instead I got 5 miles of dull, flat boredom. When I finally arrived at Escanaba proper it looked just like Valparaiso, Indiana. Zzzz.

The rain made me rule out camping on Lake Michigan. Nothing like a wet campground with the promise of more rain overnight to put my sorry old ass into a hotel for the night.

Some idiot scheduled another 80 miler for tomorrow. Fortunately the same idiot found out that The Mule’s rear hub is loose.

I now have an excuse to lay in, go to the bike shop at 10, and ride a more modest distance, albeit in the rain.

For the record I managed to ride 89 miles today. It felt like 189.

It rained last night so my choice of a motel worked out fine. I slept soundly and hit the road at 6:30. The first miles on a deserted byway were a nice warm up for the best road ever. Military Road through the Nicolet National Forest was a dream out of a car commercial. Windy. Rolling. Through forests on a fern-lined road. I zoned out completely except for when the occasional dump truck passed me.

After Military Road the bliss ended. For most of the next 13 miles I was on high speed 2 lane roads with but a 3 foot shoulder and lots of massive trucks blowing by me.

During this bit of bicycling hell I stopped at a general store. It was filled with hunting and fishing gear. Culture shock.

Once I reached the town of Conover about 40 miles into the day’s festivities I turned east. My hope was for flat roads.  My hopes,we’re realized for about 4 miles before the hills began again. At least the scenery was pretty. More forests. More ferns. Puffy white clouds.

Every five miles or so the road would flatten out. Ahhh. Then more hills. I am such a sucker. To add to the fun, the road had expansion cracks every 100 feet. My body was getting seriously beat up.

I stopped in Alvin WI at a roadside bar. The stench of cigarette smoke hit me as I walked in but I had to eat. I’d done 50 miles on junk food.

I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with chips and a side salad thinking that a modest amount of food  would be served. The sandwich was normal but the side of chips was more than four people would normally eat. The side salad was bigger than my head!

I did my best to down this gastronomic monstrosity but failed to finish it.

On the road again the hills were spaced farther apart. I left the Nicolet Forest and entered the UP,  the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Long flat stretches ended with grinding climbs. New road signs caused confusion but I managed to find my way to the town of Caspian. To get th re I rode straight up a steep hill past the town’s water tower. This was by far the hardest hill of the trip and maybe the hardest I’ve ridden in a decade.

Caspian appeared to be rode hard and put away wet. After another snack break I decided to carry on, even though it meant more hills.

But the hills quit after a few miles and I had a two lane road with manageable rollers. Then a beautiful bike path appeared. No more cars! Yesss!

Just outside of Pentoga a touring cyclist came my way. We stopped and compared notes. He told me about a community camp ground on the lake ahead. He also said that the hills are nasty ten miles beyond so I decided to call it a day. Good move. This lake is gorgeous.

So another 87 miles of riding are done. With luck I’ll see Lake Michigan tomorrow evening.

Last night I slept well in my tent. Maybe it was the sound of the waterfall. Maybe it was the nice people. One camper, a retired trucker, helped me get set up when the campground manager was AWOL. Another camper came by to chat and gave me a shrink wrapped bag of trail mix. (I thanked her profusely and didn’t mention that trail mix makes me gag. )

I left a little after 6. The roads were empty. Just as I thought, “There will be deer around.” There he was. A young buck was standing in the middle of the road

The trucker told me that I could get breakfast in Bowler but the place was closed so I continued on to Mattoon. The only place to get food was also closed but I spotted the manager and asked him to open early. He did!

Today’s breakfast was fruit and chocolate milk.

The roads were getting hillier and hillier. And hillier.

I spotted a sign for a ski resort, pointing in my direction of travel. Good thing I started early.

Up, up, up. Only a few hills were steep. I refused to use my granny gears on them. Pride goeth before the knees.

I hoped that the top would be a plateau but the road came right back down. It was a fun ride but short. I stopped to take a picture of the sign for Lily, WI. (It’s my daughter’s name.)

I foolishly had not bought water in Mattoon and now I was paying for it. I arrived at a lakeside community and asked a woman sitting in her carport for some water. After a pause, she stood and stomped into her house. She came out with a 12 ounce bottle of cold water. “Here” she said but you could read the “Get lost” from her demeanor.

What a peach.

The water and the flatter road along the lake made for 6 easy miles into Crandon. I stopped at the first restaurant I saw and ordered a skillet with corned beef hash. It turned out to be a massive pile of food. I struggled to eat it all while downing three glasses of water and three of Pepsi.

Before I left, the waitress filled my water bottles with ice water. Yess!

While I ate, the outdoor temperature had spiked. The humidity also was higher.

So I checked into a motel instead of camping. The owner gave me a bottle of water and, then, a can of beer. The room is old but huge.  I’m coming here when they put me in the witness protection program. There’s a lake nearby but the Nats are playing the Brewers (Wisconsin’s baseball team) on TV. And I bought some Totally Naked beer which is brewed somewhere near here.

I had strongly considered adding miles to my planned 80+ miles but the water deficit earlier in the day did me in. I stopped at 84 miles. This put me near 70 miles per day. So far.

Aside from the hills, today’s ride featured much more forest than farm. Also, the drivers were very courteous and careful around me, even the logging trucks.

Tomorrow’s plan includes 39 miles of riding to the north before I turn east for the Upper Peninsula.

I slept all of two minutes last night. The drunken campers two slots over were watching the movies until midnight. And it was way colder than I expected. And my sleeping pad is useless.

So I got up early and hit the road. I ended up in Freedom (I kid you not) on the 4th of July. As I was about to raid a minimart, a local told me to eat at Rico’s around the corner . So I did.

For $12 + tip I got 2 plates of food, a giant glass of OJ, and 3 1/2 mugs of watery coffee. I simply could not eat it all. Good thing too. All the other Rico’s customers were about as large as you might expect.

For some reason the next 15 miles seemed uphill the whole way.

There were farms. Of every persuasion. It was depressing to see the veal operations. I don’t eat veal often but I think I’ll stop altogether now.

For much of the ride I was off in space. I’d sort of snap out if it from time to time. My biking is my meditation indeed.

I was serenaded by red wing black birds all morning. Their chirps were so regular they had me wondering if something was clicking on my bike.  A pair of quail burst out of some roadside underbrush.

The terrain began to get hillier. Despite this, I was considering pushing for an 85 mile day until I met a cross country bike tourist heading east. He stayed at the campground I was shooting for. He said it was crap so I went back to plan A. I stopped at 70 miles. The campground is quiet and has a waterfall.

Tomorrow is set to be my first 80 mile day. That’s the plan but I’m going to take it one mile at a time,  Riding  between over and next.

I was worried that I’d puke on the ferry crossing to Wisconsin this morning but Lake Michigan was like glass. I ate breakfast on the boat and took a nap. I awoke thinking in was still in the hotel! Then I heard the rumble of the ship’s engines and went back to sleep.

Once across the lake, I made arrangements for a campsite near Freedom WI. ‘Merica.

Once clear of Manitowoc where an SUV nearly hit me during a dangerous pass, the ride was bliss. Rolling hills. Tailwinds. Farms. Simpson’s clouds.

At one point I spooked a red wing blackbird. It followed me for a quarter of a mile chirping in protest.

Another highlight was riding side by side with a fawn who had lost its mother. Mama deer made a bleating sound from the high reeds near the road and the fawn reversed course and dove into the reeds.

The finale was the pair of sand hill cranes feeding next to the road.

I am drinking $1 beers from frosted mugs and eating tater tots with cheese in them. When in Rome…

I have a mile or 2 to go before setting up camp for the night.

I drove 13 hours to Ludington MI today. It was bad but not like Thanksgiving on the NJ Turnpike.

I rode my bike fully loaded from the ferry parking lot to my hotel. Let’s just say that the bike needs to go on a diet by morning.

Speaking of diets,  I need some food. Ciao.

The ladies of the house went to yoga so I went to church. It turns out that today is th latest sunset of the year. I left my sunglasses on my bike so I’m in squint mode up here in Section 222 Of Nationals Park for the next hour.

I’m really looking forward to the game but I’m even more looking forward to the 16 mile ride home in the dark.

UPDATE: Late in the game, as we were standing during the seventh inning stretch, cameras panned the crowd. I was on the jumbotron!!! The crowd gasped in horror.