Country Back Roads and Other Rainy Places: Michigan Tour of the UP-day four

Monday 9/9-64 miles

Today was a short day to Tahquamenon Falls State Park 30 miles away. The terrain is till flat with some rolling hills but not too bad at all. It was also really rural with forest broken only once with a small town, Eckerman’s Corner. I mention it because it had great coffee and homemade pies. We soon discovered this was the norm for all the little towns and stores we stopped at. Coffee and great homemade pie, what better reason to ride than that? As we pulled out of the café we started down a huge hill. Even with me braking when Susan screamed we hit 40 mph. It had a long straight run out at the bottom and was a fun hill to ride down, but I wouldn’t want to bike up it.

We’ve rode into the park around 12:00, and after setting up we decided to ride to the shipwreck museum at Whitefish point. There we saw the bell off of the famous shipwreck the Edmund Fitzgerald. As we toured the museum we realized the Fitz was only one of hundreds of shipwrecks. Lake Superior is littered with sunken ships, it’s just no one wrote a song about them. As we headed back to camp it started to rain. It was a light rain, but that leaking tent was starting to worry me.

After another great supper the rain picked up, and by 8:00 it was a downpour. This time there was thunder and lightning as well, and as I lay there with water dripping on my head I begin to feel some empathy for the old sheik we had water boarded at Gitmo. Around midnight it stopped and just as I was finally drifting off to sleep Susan asked me why we didn’t bring our LL Bean tent. Me, “It is heavy.” Susan, “But we don’t have to carry it.” Me, “It takes longer to set up.” Susan, “It’s dry.” I had no comeback for that and I lay awake for hours trying to come up with one as she snored away.