Under grey skies, we're out of Iron River on Rte. 2 and heading SE after a recuperative 36 hour furlow. Lower legs are slightly swollen again, which seems to have become a regular side effect of the strenuous activity, diet and otherwise odd extremes of this lifestyle. Makes me look like the locals. Lots of truck traffic accompanys me into Crystal Falls, a stately community with traditional brick downtown and American flags galore. I pass Sagola thru mixed farmland and forests, before turning off the main in favor of lesser travelled SR 69. What follows is 50 miles of happy riding; low traffic volume, comfy tailwind and ample shoulder... all the way til I rejoin SR 2 into Escanaba. In Foster City, I meet Chris Knoeller, an English professor from Purdue, who is out on a month-long bicycle tour around the Great Lakes. We enjoy lunch and chat at a Swedish Pancake house.
Escanaba arrives at 7:15 pm after 94 miles, and I could not figure out the hour loss til I was reminded that I had slipped into Eastern Standard Time just 10 miles west. The Eagles Rest Motel is close to the worst overnight accomodation I have stayed in on this trip: rundown, dumpy and dingey and on the eastern outskirts of town, such that I need to walk a mile just to find a can of dogfood and some bad restaurant food (but not a camel). The town was no better: a dusty, dirty chain of boxstores and fastfood, cleaved by always busy SR 2 and its steady flow of semi trucks and increasing holiday traffic.
Oh well, so the town is ugly, the motel is a dump and dinner was a letdown. At least I don't live here...
Wish I could have found a beer or three...
Passed 2600 miles this morning amidst all that happy riding!
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