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I don’t remember much about leaving Barnes county Park campground except that it was a routine morning, save for getting water from a pump well. We did make coffee and had some breakfast, broke camp, etc. We rode back to the Torch Lake Inn’s coffee shop for another cuppa and some WiFi. Three of our four potential warm showers host in Traverse City had turned us down. I tried the remaining one who had indicated he traveled for work and might not be available. To our luck, we got an almost immediate response from Pauly accepting our request. Made for an easier day just knowing where we were going to be staying.
The ride was similar to yesterdays: rolling hills of rural farms and orchards. I did stop at one point to buy a couple of peaches at a farm stand. Pricey at $2 each and not quite ripe, but a good diversion from PB wraps, which we had for lunch in a park in Elk Rapids.
About 10 mi from Traverse City, Dana reported another flat. We just kept pumping it up to get into and around the city and that strategy worked for a while until our luck ran out and it was completely flat. The hole was in the same place on the tire as the three previous ones and I couldn’t understand it because we had booted it there. I still couldn’t feel anything poking through. I put another boot in (a boot is a patch piece of rubber or an old tube to put in to close a hole in a tire) and we were on our way again.
I messaged Pauly that we might be a bit late, but turns out it only took 15 minutes and we got there pretty much on time and. Pauly was a delight from the moment we met him. Hilarious, warm, light-hearted, and he had an amazing repertoire of LPs and interesting music. We got showers and Pauly suggested a Detroit style pizza place, ‘like you’ve never tasted before!”
Pauly had done a 7-month tour in 2015 and 2016. An immediate connection was that he loved it when we said we didn’t know where we were going tomorrow or where we were going to stay. Spontaneity is the watchword. His style of touring too, and he told us of a story on his tour in Oregon. He was in a bar and an older man offered him a 5-day rafting/hiking trip and he jumped at the chance. It was an amazing story and so similar to many of ours. Pauly’s latest focus, though, is on ultra long distance running. He’s working up up to metric century and then a mile century run. That’s something neither of us could imagine doing.
We hopped on our bikes and headed to Charles & Reid Detroit Style Pizza. It was indeed very different. Very tasty and served by a woman Pauly knew very well. She was a very “Flo” like character (“Flo” from the TV show “Alice,” minus the gum chewing!), with a quick and sometimes barbarous tongue.
Back at the house (BTW, TC has an excellent bike network), we listened to some more music and after I put in a load of laundry, we got back to the subject of hiking the dunes tomorrow. Pauly offered to drive, and to hike with, us. I said, “We’d love that. Then, would it be OK to stay another night?” Without a moment of hesitation, Pauly replied “Certainly!” Dana, ever worried we were overstaying our welcome was a bit reluctant, but changed her mind after Pauly’s insistence that it was ok. We climbed into a very luxurious bed for a good rest before tomorrow’s activities.
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