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We had a good night’s sleep by the lake. The first thing this morning after coffee was to tackle Dana’s flat again. It took me about 15 minutes to find another piece of metal in the same spot, but it was so deeply embedded in the tread it wasn’t visible, and apparently only entered the tire innards when there was weight on the wheel. It took 10 minutes of digging with a knife, pliers and tweezers to get it out: a little shard of metal about 1 mm by 2 mm. Our first stopped this morning was at Advance Auto parts for another patch kit (LBS wasn’t open ’til 10). Armed with fresh glue, we took off for Munising, MI & Lake Superior.
Today’s ride was all highway with good shoulders, except for about 2 miles that was chopped up for non-existent. Traffic was pretty heavy on US 41, but when we turned onto Michigan 94 it got quieter, still with some logging trucks. The rest of the way into Munising on Michigan 28 was again good shoulder and moderate traffic.
We did have one pleasant surprise on route 41. A guy in a Subaru passed us going the other direction and pulled off the road and turned around and stopped in front of us. He got out and handed us a loaf of bread. Giraffe bread to be precise, baked by Mike himself. He told us he toured a long time ago and liked to hand out bread to touring cyclists he sees. Will let you know later how it tasted. Dana also wants to hear in the comments how many of you would have eaten the bread handed to you by a stranger?
First order of business in Munising was getting a place to camp from the night. We knew they were at least three campgrounds as first comes first serve campsites. The first one was 3 miles outside of immunizing, and we went there and by luck there was a one campsite left and Dana snagged that and right by the water. We said set up camp and headed back into town for dinner. Some refreshments and maybe some music.
We got all three, though not at the same places. According to the Book of Dana, you must visit them all and then pick. We started at the Barge Inn. They were immediately disqualified from dinner because their menu was served by the hot dog place next door. However, Dana got a martini and a glass of Chardonnay and I got a Stella and we sat on their outdoor Patio. Place 2 was the Driftwood Deli which was attached to the ByGeorge Brewing Co. It was disqualified because of the very awful performer playing on the patio. Music to the ears it was not. So, we ended up at East Channel Brewing where the Whiskey Ryan band was playing on the large patio. Dana asked about food and was told that you could bring your own. We got a pizza from the place across the street and settled in to list to WR. Good classic rock, Dead stuff, and bluegrass and folk. Lots of John Prine, who we love(d).
While we were eating, two guys came over and asked about our tour. Josh and Tyler were from Muskegon and had come to the UP for a five day hiking-biking-kayaking vacay. Terry also had family in the area, so they were also visiting. We chatted with them quite a while, while listening to WR and eating our pizza. They were camping across the highway from where we were and were staying another day so we parted expecting to see them in the morrow.
We went back to the campground and covered the bikes in the tarp Gus had given us at JW Wells as rain was expected that night. We crawled into bed and wrapped up the day hoping for another wrong weather report.
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