Great Lakes. Great Times.

A short 30km morning preceded our voyage aboard the SS Badger, the last remaining steamship on the great lakes. The 4-hour crossing would take us, without any pedaling whatsoever, from Manitowoc, WI, across Lake Michigan, to Ludington, MI.

We got up earlier than usual, anticipating flat tires and detours, and sure enough we got both. After getting through Washington and Idaho puncture free, we had not cleared as state without the annoyance.

The detours along the route to Manitowoc brought us to unplanned country roads with names like "Hilltop." It was hilly.

Manitowoc was not at all as I'd expected; it seemed a rough-around-the-edges industrial town that had its better days well behind it. The major landmark, aside from the Badger and its pile of coal, was a grain silo painted to resemble cans and bottles of Budweiser.

At the ferry terminal, we met Mike, who happened to be from my hometown of Kingston, ON. He had cycled from the Oregon coast and was headed home. We shared stories from our travels, noting that encountering other cyclists was becoming far less common as we make our way east.

Ludington proved a more promising port town than its Wisconsin counterpart. We had a nice dinner and good Michigan beers at a nice pub downtown before making our way down the street to our host, Juliann's house. We were met by her cat, who shared the bed with us.

Getting out of Ludington was not easy. We left with no real plans and winged it, settling on a destination well into the day. Horrible highway traffic and gravel roads were offset by a couple of fortunate stops where we got good advice, meaning tomorrow will be better. Apparently the quiet campground that we happen to find ourselves at, with our tent 15 feet from the Muskegon River under a full moon, is located along a paved trail that will take us 110km in the right direction tomorrow. By this time tomorrow we should be in Bay City, with a tent pitched along Lake Huron.

Wiscornson. Wiscowsin. Wisconstruction.

We took a vacation.

Two days in Minneapolis had us enjoying the long forgotten pleasures of urban life. Activities included eating proper food (Emi got to eat Japanese, finally!), going to a Minnesota Twins game at Target Field (featuring a 2-hit no-walk shutout from Andrew Albers), drinking beers not produced by Budweiser, and visiting every bike shop in town trying to get Matt's tire situation sorted.

He had purchased as spare at Wal Mart, which should give an idea as to where the story is headed. The spare was needed at the exact moment the gunshot-like boom bulleted out from his blown tire. Unfortunately, Wal Mart tire sizes operate independently of conventional, normal world tire sizes. The "26 inch" was so big it would not seat into the rim at all.

But, as the lightbulb above our heads suggested, it would go over top of the blown tire. Double tires? It got him 50 miles. Innovation at its finest!

In Minneapolis we were hosted by Steve and Louise, a great couple who were kind enough to open their beautiful 100 year old house on the south part of town for not one but two nights. Words cannot do justice their hospitality. We'd have love to have stayed a week, but we had to keep moving forward.

Minneapolis was where we would have to part ways with Matt as well, after three weeks together. He was on his way south to Chicago and on to Pennsylvania, while we were headed across Wisconsin to Manitowoc, port of the only coal powered ship remaining in the US, which would ferry us across to Michigan.

Exiting the twin cities proved a challenge. Crossing the Mississippi into St Paul involved carrying our bikes up and down stairs to a bridge, and climbing and descending some of the steepest hills we'd encountered. Throw in getting a bit lost on winding suburban roads and the first day out of the city wound up being a lot of going nowhere.

We made it across the Wisconsin border and gave up just outside of Hudson, at Willow River.

The following days were much more productive. Short steep hills, quiet country roads varying from shredded to brand new to closed, endless cornfields, and Holstein cows everywhere. The camping has been some of the best on the trip. One night we met Bob and Jennie, along with their family, and the offered us a great dinner of ham and vegetables. Another night we found ourselves camping 50 feet from the shore of Partridge Lake at Blue Top Resort, where the owner Debbie, an experienced cycle tourist, let us camp free.

Currently we are enjoying yet another camp stove pasta dinner, this one in Reedsville, which is a small town just 17 miles from our 2pm ferry. Our last night in Wisconsin. Tomorrow night brings a new state, a new time zone, and one step closer to home.

Still rolling. Somehow.

Greetings from Minnesota.

North Dakota was a breeze relative to Montana. The winds sucked, but less. The route consisted entirely of the I-94, which was safer than anything Montana had to offer, yet presented a new array of obstacles.

The shoulders are very wide, yet filled with rumble strip. This meant of 15 feet of shoulder, we were relegated to the tiniest of lined along the far edge. Which brings us to our next problem; wires.

Truck tires are lined with a layer of wire reinforcement within. Truck tires also happen to explode frequently enough that there is a great deal of this wire along the shoulder of the freeway. Being unable to avoid them because of our restricted riding area, many of these wires find their way into a very bad place... our tires.

Puncture after puncture after puncture.

Oh, and it rained and thundered a lot as well.

We still managed to pull almost exclusively 100+km days, including a 135.

The bull, Maltana, was blamed for the bad luck and was jettisoned in Valley City, ND, forever facing the concrete bridge on the west side of town. Sorry, buddy.

We entered Minnesota after surviving a hail storm in Fargo, which was less challenging than surviving the drivers of Fargo. We got no welcome sign.

I had been looking forward to this stage of the trip since the early planning stages, as it meant miles upon miles of paved off road bike trail along a repurposed rail corridor.

We spent two days on the trail, split up with a stay at Mike's place, a guy we met along the trail in Osakis, MN. He and his girlfriend Steph opened up their pantry (and beer fridge!) on as moment's notice and went well out of their way to make us comfortable.

After that, it was on to Minneapolis.