Glad to be leaving Escanada! What a dirty hole! I struggle along littered shoulders, weaving thru wood chips and bark from logging trucks, piles of sand, and the usual roadside litter of an unmaintained highway. After Gladstone, we at last leave the mess and return to green conifer forests and cattail swamps. It's Jack's Cafe in Rapid River where I can finally relax into a Friday lunch, and the egg and hashbrown wrap narrowly beats the pie down the calorie chute.
From the cyclist's perspective, the whole world is gearing for this holiday weekend. Every other vehicle is a giant, gleeming pickup truck, with half of them pulling trailers holding dirt bikes, ATVs and jet skis. Giant RVs and airstream RV trailers zoom past, all dileriously pedal-to-the-metalling to get to a long sought vacation spot before the other. Cars and vans are packed to the windows with bags and kids. And one lone biker with a geriatric dog tries to tune it all out.
Then around the corner, at Big Bay de Noc, comes the blue expanse of Lake Michigan! It may as well be an ocean; it goes forever south, hundreds of miles in fact. The sun is warm, not hot. The lake just shimmers in a deep, inviting blue. We pass thru Garden Corners, Thompson and into beautiful Manistique, perched on the shore, where we will stop tonite after a short 56 mile day. The Colonial Motel is very clean and it's easy to settle in after last night's dump. Plus, there is an ice cream shed just 100 yards away and I find the energy to visit there twice this evening. Dinner at a local family place is Whitefish (a plain tasting, but delicious deep water fish from Lake Superior).
A stroll along the 2.5 mile boardwalk provides a relaxing finish to the day.
Where are all the advertised blooms of misquitos, I wonder?
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