Back to business

Wednesday. Day after the day off.
One of the fun things of the day off was finding the 'Curbside Cafe' a few hundred yards down the road from the hotel. It was just a little trailer parked in a small patch just off the road with a rug of artificial grass in front and a few tables. We had lunch at a table in the sun there. I had pulled pork and it was delicious. Jim had a cheese burger which he rated as very good. So we went back for dinner and had boaster chicken and potatoes. I got Jim's coleslaw too. Nothing green for him.

In the morning we were up at 5:30 and at breakfast soon after 6. The motel had a great free breakfast with eggs and sausage and waffles and all the other usual stuff.  We took just a few extras for snacks later. Snacks are critical. Can't do it without 'em.

Rolled out at 7:30. Had decided on a different route than original to cut off a few miles. This took us down M-64 south to Berglund on beautiful Lake Gogebic. We made good time with a decent road, a light tailwind and little traffic. A right turn took us on M-28 to Wakefield. Little town, home to Indianhead ski resort, set on another beautiful lake, Sunshine. Nice name. We were definitely looking for lunch at that point and what do you know, we just happened to stop right in front of Ma's Cafe. Ma was not in but her helpers were so we had a nice lunch. I had a cod sandwich which I am sure was Lake Superior whitefish, but it's good too.

One last leg out to Little Girl's Point CG. It was a fantastic day. Really could hardly have been better for riding. Cool, not too much wind and the best part was a long downhill at the end of the day. At Ma's we had received confirmation from locals on the route to take out there and it was a bit more than 20 miles still with a few hills to climb. But not at the end. We rolled down in and saw our first wildlife other than squirrels, rabbits and mosquitos. A whitetail deer. Exotic. It looked like it was remote enough to be bear country but apparently not.

Little Girl's Point is a lovely spot. The camp caretaker registered us and told us the site we took is good be cause the sun rises over the Porcupine Mountains in the east and gets you up early.  He was right. The light woke me at 4:45. I went back to sleep briefly. 

Looking out over the lake one has the Porkies to the east and the Apostle Islands off Bayfield, WI to the west. Pretty cool. 

Porkies

When we had rolled in to camp we were just getting set up when a guy on a bike rolled in and said hi. He and his wife had rode around the lake on a tandem would years ago. He asked if we would like a hot shower (the campground had none) and we thought long and hard and finally, a nanosecond later, said sure. 

So we were clean and we got back and had our dinner in camp and had a nice rest. Next morning the sunrise over the Porkies was stunning. There had been some showers overnight so we were not sure what we would be facing in the morning but it was cloudy but clearing and we got off again to climb away from the lake toward US2, which Jim and I know well from our cross country ride in 2005. We looked for the first place we could for second breakfast after oatmeal in camp. That turned out to be the Bad River tribal casino outside Odanah, WI. We each stuffed ourselves and headed back out on to the road on another perfect day. Got through Ashland and made the turn north toward Washburn and the slight tail wind turned into a head wind off the lake. The last 9 miles did me in. We stopped for a late lunch at Coco's and then found the very nice Memorial campground. We are situated on Chequamegon Bay and again it is very beautiful.