On Wisconsin!

Day 39: Nermantown, MN to Iron River, WI--55 miles

Although we have become suspicious of "flatlanders" telling us about big downhills, we really found one today going into Duluth. Several people had told us about this hill. We climbed at the beginning of the morning for several miles into the suburbs with a STRONG north wind. We turned a corner onto Mesaba Ave, and WOW! Below us was the whole city of Duluth and Lake Superior! What a sight! It was truly beautiful! My plan was to go into the city and explore the Canal Park area for a little while.

We started down the big hill--a true, screaming downhill! In fact, it was a little scary because there were stoplights on it. That means we had to be ready to stop at a moment's notice. This was a bit tough, but we didn't really have to stop until we were at the bottom of the hill. That's when we realized that we had totally missed the turns into downtown Duluth! So we missed it and were not willing to climb that hill into the wind to recover--after all, we had a long way to go. So we'll plan to come back and explore Duluth at another time. It looks like a GREAT place to visit!

Instead, we looked for a bike shop. David had noticed that his right cheek-itis may have been caused by a collapsing bike seat, so we decided to trade his in for a new one. After a bit of searching (always a joy to go through a city without a detailed map), we found the Twin Ports Cyclery. And what a great bike shop! They were very helpful and friendly, and they changed David's life for the better by selling him a bike seat. We also both bought new gloves and got directions on how to get into Wisconsin.

We rode through a lot of empty commercial buildings--not only in Duluth, but in many other towns and cities on this trip. Where are all the businesses going? It would be an interesting study to see how many small businesses are making it these days...

We crossed into Wisconsin over the Bong Bridge (named after Major Dick Bong--no, I'm not making this up). It had a great pedestrian/bike lane on the edge, and we had fun scaring ourselves by looking down into the white caps on the lake--200 FEET below! The whitecaps were because of the wind that was howling!

Once in WI, we had to work our way through Superior. We stopped for lunch at a great little bagel shop (Bab's Bagels, I think) and headed out into a strong north wind blowing off the Lake. In case you didn't know, Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. It actually seems like the ocean in parts and is about 1300 miles around! That could be another trip... The winds are strong off the Lake and it is very cold. They say you can only live 7 minutes swimming in the lake, and I can only imagine how cold it must get in the winter!

It is also a mecca of boating--power boating and sailing, as well as kayaking and canoeing. I have never seen so many boats on the road as we saw this day. It seems like the locals really take advantage of this spectacular lake!

We had LOTS of ups & downs on our ride in WI. As usual, it seemed like more ups than downs, but maybe that reflects the amount of time I spend going up! WI has very rolling, green terrain--with lots of little towns with names like Blueberry, Maple, and Brule! Of course, I had dessert on my mind...

It was a LONG trip into Iron River due to those hills and the wind. We arrived at about 5:45 p.m. with VERY dirty laundry. We made laundry our top priority because almost every item of clothing we had was filthy! That's a down side of living with no running water, I guess... Anyway, we did laundry, searched the town with no success for beer with taste, and took our clean clothes (yeah!) back to the room. We then walked about a mile to the only sit-down restaurant in town--only to be told that it had closed at 8:30 (we arrived at 8:34).

We stomped back to town and went to the only other place available--a drive-an A&W. This is a true drive-up where a waitress comes to your car and takes your order! Very cute--and I haven't seen one of these in a LONG time! We ordered and sat at a picnic table bitching until we saw a fantastic sunset and our food came. A necessary activity for the moment that allowed us to appreciate our food back at the room while watching TV!