Mile 9138

This morning we brace ourselves for the last stint back home for which heavy rain and thunderstorms are forecasted.  We don't care, put our rain gear on and hit the road, i.e. Interstate I-80.  We leave Lock Heaven, PA and drive along the Bald Eagle State Forest and the Pennsylvania State Game Lands No. 13 & 58, and the Little Mountain, and have an incredible spectacle this morning.  The rain over night and in the early morning hours creates a steaming forest with clouds rising from the woods, and the sun poking through the dark rain clouds and mist, illuminating the whole scenery in a picture fit to be the background of any Tolkin story.  But as nice as it is, it reminds us that per forecast we will get drenched today, at about Scranton, PA it shall hit us.  So we enjoy every mile we can ride in the dry, and push to get as many of those as we can under our tires.  We pass Scranton, PA and join I-84 to bring us home.  Not the best, not to say in miserable condition, highway, but thus far we haven't had any rain.  A quick stop for gas, a coffee to waken the senses, and on we go again.  Useless to say the highway got worse entering New York state, and going through Danbury, CT and Waterbury, CT are also definitely not my highlights of this trip.  But it hasn't rained on us yet, and it shall stay that way all the way home (can't trust those weathermen neither anymore).  Nevertheless, we are drenched from inside our rain suits (no water in, no water out), but who cares we are home, and after the bike is parked a long shower is awaiting us.  So the trip comes to an end, time to unpack, take care of gear and bike, and then over some inspirational drinks reflect on this cross country trip.  But this is for another entry.

"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn.  Climb that goddamn mountain."  - Jack Kerouac, American Novelist and Poet of French-Canadian descent

Mile 8802

Today is another day of raking up miles towards home.  The route we travel today might not be the fastest, nor the shortest as suggested by Google Maps or Garmin, but definitely the one which keeps us away from the big, dark clouds above our heads, ready to download all their water on us.  So we follow the slim light shimmer in the sky and avoid, or at least try to avoid, the rain falling on us.  Leaving Dundee, MI this morning we follow Hwy 23 south around Toledo, OH until it merges with Hwy 20 going East.  But progress is slow, and we have to make miles to get Elke home on time, so near Cleveland, OH we decide to join the OH TPK and hit Interstate 80 to move forward.  That idea worked great till Youngstown, OH as shortly after near Mercer, PA we were making the incredible progress of 6 miles in two hours because of road construction and reducing the highway down to a single lane.  When the first exit came into reach we left I-80 and detoured around on Rt. 58.  Joining I-80 after the construction site gave us good traffic again, and we continued on till Lock Heaven, PA. So our luck today was to avoid any heavy rain shower, the downfall was loosing two hours due to that road construction.  But we shall be home tomorrow, just in time.

Unfortunately no interesting pictures today, as Highway/Interstate views never change.

BMW, Honda, Harley Davidson, doesn't matter, we're all happy to be out of the rain

"Today is the first of August.  It is hot, steamy and wet.  It is raining.  I am tempted to write a poem.  But I remember what it said on the rejection slip: 'After a heavy rainfall, poems titled "Rain" pour in from across the nation.'  Sylvia Plath, American Poet (1932 - 1963)

Mile 8388

The best-laid plan of mice and men got changed this morning when we received a text message that Elke has to show in a couple of days for a job interview.  This of course changed everything, and after we submitted the req’d application, resume, etc. during breakfast, the plan got altered to bring us home asap.  We packed the bike, and made our way over the Mackinac bridge to the other side to follow along Hwy 23 the shoreline of Lake Huron.  Even though this highway is not as good as Hwy 2, we enjoy the ride along the many beautiful beaches on this side of the lake.  Another mark in our road travel book to return as the beaches don’t give the impression you are on a lake, but on an ocean.  Hwy 23 joins Interstate 75 at Standish, MI, and this is welcome as we have to make miles to be on time for Elke’s job interview later this week.  But also this plan is not without obstacles as we run in a severe rain storm near Saginaw, MI and getting drenched down to the bone.  So we decide to run some more miles to get dry again, and just as we almost reached that goal we are getting watered down again near Ann Arbor, MI.  We continue on, but as more dark clouds move in, and more rain is coming down, we call it the day at Dundee, MI and look for a motel with a dryer.  Enough is enough, and with two more days left in our schedule we should be able to make it on time home.

Mackinac Bridge, MI

One of many beaches at Lake Huron

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”  -  Allen Saunders, American writer, journalist and cartoonist

Mile 8029

Today is a little run compared to the rides we did the last days.  Our ride starts at Ironwood, MI to cross the over from Lake Superior to lake Michigan over to Escanaba, MI, and then along the shoreline to St. Ignace, MI.  Crossing from one lake to the other leads us through forest area again, nice, low rolling hills with gentle curves, a road condition one can only dream of in New England.  I could run this Hwy 2 forth and back just for the shear pleasure of how good that surface is.  But I can't do so.  We have lunch in Escanaba, MI at the Swedish Pantry, for me a restaurant with an identity crisis.  Is it a gift shop serving food, I don't know, as the walls are cluttered with clocks, and porcelain figurines, pictures, and lots of nick-nack.  A strange setting.  Anyway, we don't have time to ponder any longer on this, as we once again get drenched in a heavy thunderstorm and lightning, too close for comfort, and time to speed up.  We manage to ride through some slivers of sunshine and the occasional downpour again, but nothing as bad as the one which hit us leaving Escanaba.  Soon we follow the shoreline of Lake Michigan, and being early in the afternoon (besides loosing another hour, we are now on EST again), the setting sun turns the water in a beautiful dark greenish / blueish color, very dramatic with the still dark clouds above us.  So our day ends in lovely St. Ignace, MI, taking the trolly downtown in reach for a waterhole, not the lake you stupid.

We  better run, but it didn't help

St. Ignace, MI

We do a lazy one, and keep the bike parked.  We take the ferry over to Mackinac Island, no cars there, only bicycles, horses and walking.  We take the carriage ride through the town and state park, visit the fort, learn about the French and British establishments, the fur trade, about the various Indian population of this area, their live styles and trade routes.  It's an amazing island, and even with all the tourists around, it still feels very relaxing.  A perfect day to recharge our batteries.

Two horsepower do it too; mode of transportation on Mackinac Island

The Grand Hotel

Natural Bridge in Mackinac Island State Park

Locking down from Fort Mackinac

"We arrived here on the 16th after a journey of about 2000 miles, pretty tired but all well.  I like this place first rate.  My quarters are good and duties agreeable.  I think I can stand four years of it very well.  I send you a guide book which will tell you more about the island and post."  -  Lt. Calvin D. Cowles, Fort Mackinac, July 18, 1884

Mile 7686

We leave Grand Forks this morning with the idea of only going to Duluth, MN, a short and easy ride for today. Traffic is low and the scenery changes to nice forested areas and lakes around us.  We drive through several Indian Reservations, regocnizable immediately by the presence of a casino along the way.  In Bemidji, MN we decide to check for a place to lay our head tonight, and find out that there are no open spaces on the campsites, nor any reasonably priced motels or hotels at, or near our destination for today.  To make our mood even worse, shortly after leaving Bemidji we are getting trenched in a thunderstorm front coming through, and more dark clouds are moving in.  We decide to continue towards Duluth and take our chances, but learn upon arrival that we are out of luck.  The front desk manager at the Best Western is very helpful and finds us a place in Ironwood, MI, but that means another two hours riding.  The ride turns out to be nice, the setting of the sun turns on a nice light and the lake views are just perfect.  Even the dark clouds have left us and we ride through the Bad River Indian Reservation to Ironwood, MI.  All in all a nice day, moderate temperatures with a nice scenery going through the forests before reaching the lake.  Reminded us very much to the other side of the border when we were on our way to Thunder Bay, ON.

Those two pictures describe the scenery we went through today

"Fish, I love you, and respect you very much.  But I will kill you dead before this day end."  -  Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Mile 7296

This morning the sky over Williston, ND looks again a little like yesterday, cloudy, and with some having the potential of dropping their load on us.  We pick up Hwy 2 and follow East to Minot, ND with the Fort Berthold Reservation to our right, and the Missouri River with Van Hook Arm and Lake Audubon.  One thing we immediately recognize is that since we entered North Dakota, oil drilling / exploration has increased immensely, and it appears that everybody in this region just lives of that through machine jobs, heavy machinery sales and pipe and tank fabrication shops.  Even the air smells oil and I figure if you're not in cattle, wheat, falafel or grass/hay, that's all you get up here.  Some times we get some sprinkles from those dark grey clouds, but nothing to worry about, and we run them out  very easily.  Once again a day in the prairie where the scenery doesn't change too much, so we rake up miles and pass between Lake Alice and Devils Lake to our destination of the day of Grand Forks, MN.  Once again a good day riding, and perhaps we make it to Lake Superior tomorrow, at least we shall get more interesting scenery by entering some state forests.

The other wealth of this region, North Dakota

Looks familiar, not much change today neither, Devils Lake below

"Nothing could be more lonely and nothing more beautiful than the view at nightfall across the prairies to these huge hill masses, when the lengthening shadows had at last merged into one and the faint after-glow of the red sunset filled the west."  -  Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman

Mile 6946

Waking up this morning the sky is full of clouds, and some of them don’t look too friendly.  We dress up a little warmer and leave Shelby, MT, trying to stay ahead of the big dark cloud which follows us persistently.  Hwy 2 is in good condition except for two or three road work areas of grading and resurfacing which were about 9 to 12 miles long, but nothing our heavy ride couldn’t handle (plenty of experience since Alaska).  But the scenery isn’t very much entertaining, it is wheat, falafel, or grass as far as one can see, and one can see very far here.  Even though that some of the towns have nice names like Zurich, Malta, or Glasgow, but they are far away from any similarity with those locations.  Most dots on the map have about 400 plus people, one as little as 59 people, and we are well advised to take on gas whenever a gas station shows up.  My retirement idea of settling in Montana and breeding horses, mmmh, I don’t think so.  So it is raking up miles today, and that’s what we do.  We loose another hour again changing from Mountain to Central Time when crossing into North Dakota, and call it the day in Williston, ND.  A good day for riding, lots of miles, and we stayed ahead of the rain.

The view never changed all day long, somewhere in Montana

"I'm in love with Montana.  For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love, and it's difficult to analyze love when you're in it."  -  John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley