The final planning day.

I have arrived in Sault Ste Marie, ON ahead of Jim and now in a fine hotel room where we will do our final decision making. I was able to drive many of the roads we will be on, or thought we would be on. Some of them in the stretch from Paradise to Grand Marais, MI are in the deep woods and are soft sand in many places. That will be our second day's ride. If we were on a wide open epic in the desert they might look good but not in this case. We will need to decide which of a few alternatives we will use. I also checked out campgrounds we plan to stay at. There are some really nice spots along the lake. The number of campgrounds along the route is huge. The ship in the picture is the ore boat aground on a reef in Whitefish Bay. You may have heard about it. My weather app had

been indicating thunderstorms in this area for tomorrow. I have been a bit concerned about crossing a huge high bridge back to US in a thunderstorm. It appears however that there is only a low chance of showers and that is not a problem for us. I visited the fantastic bike shop across the road from the hotel, Velorution. Jan, the owner, has helped with arrangements to leave our vehicles. Canadians are so nice. Jan rode around the big lake once. He averaged 180 miles a day and did it in a week. He says he wishes he had taken a bit more time. Well yaaaa! Most people in a car or on a motorcycle probably don't do it that fast. Needless to say, he is young (compared) and very strong. When Jim arrives we will have dinner and then dive into organizing and final decision making. As with all big events one plans for weeks and months it is hard to realize the time is nigh. Will be in touch.