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One of Tom’s duties — though we think it was more a labor of love than a duty — was to host “Coffee with the Camp Host” every day from 7-10. We joined him about 7:30 and enjoyed both his coffee and not having to make our own.
Fern, an intern Park Ranger who was in charge of the day programs stopped by to tell us about a wildflower hike at 2 PM. We said we had to pass as we were leaving that morning, but we had a nice chat with her about the job market (sucks) and her artwork and other opportunities, etc. I excused myself to start packing up camp, and Dana stayed and then met and chatted with Dawn, Tom’s wife. Dana joined me and we decamped and loaded the bikes and stopped by one more time to wish Tom a happy home going!
Our route today to Gladstone was mostly on RT 35. Nice, wide shoulders, but lots of traffic, too. We made a quick stop at a convenience store in Escabana, and leaving there, Dana reported our first mechanical, a F.L.A.T. We pushed the bikes over to a church across the street that had a portico and made our first attempt at fixing the tire. I checked for debris and couldn’t find anything, despite feeling over the whole of the inside of the tire. I passed it off to a puncture from a retread bit, but felt uneasy about putting in a new tube without knowing why it punctured. I patched the old tube, pumped up the new repaired tire, used the church bathroom to wash off, and we continued on to Gladstone. The rest of Escabana was really busy — the UP State Fair was going on that week — and we still had to deal with being in traffic. As we approached Gladstone, things got better and there was a separate bike path for the last couple of miles.
At the campground, we were registered by Dana (a second Dana, not our Dana) and found our spot, setup, ate and prepared to go into town to find a bar and music. However, Dana reported a second flat. I set to work on that and kept bending and squeezing the tire looking for some culprit. I found a piece of metal dug into and covered by the tread. I got the needle nose pliers and tweezers and picked it out and confidently put in another new tube. It flatted, too, but slowly, so we pumped it up and were off to the ??? brewery where a band was playing in the street. There was a small crowd of people sitting and listening, others drinking beer, and others at the ice cream & food shop across the street. I got a beer and Dana a cider and we joined the others in the side street. We hung there for a while, re-pumped up Dana’s tire and headed back to the campsite. As it was getting dark by then, I decided to let the tire wait until morning and we both hit the sack, another day and 41 more miles behind us.
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