Summer Bummer

Day 43: Lake Michigamme to Marquette, MI--34 miles

At about 5:00 a.m. we were awakened by a sickening smoke that entered our tent. It turns out that the "next-door neighbors" had decided to keep their camp fire going all night, but they didn't have quite enough wood. So they started burning trash--which was pretty smelly and made it pretty hard for us to go back to sleep. But we managed...

Anyway, we had another bad surprise when we got out of the tent. Some random items of David's were missing! His towel and washcloth were gone. His pocket knife (the one Sam gave him years ago) was missing. His snacks were gone, and some other random items that were on the table. In contrast, all my stuff was there, and our sunglasses and helmets had not been touched. It didn't make sense! So we looked all over just in case someone had moved them or mistaken David's towel for their own. No luck. When we reported it to the managers, they said they had had a rash of thefts, but couldn't figure out how it was happening. My theory is that it may have been a pack rat, a fox, or some other animal. Maybe a kid took the towel, but the other stuff was just too random. We'll probably never know, but it was NOT a good way to start the day. We packed up our smoke-filled tent and stuff, and left Lake Michigamme.

We decided to stick with our plan of shorter rides instead of a day off. So we went to Marquette--the biggest city in the U.P. It was a GREAT ride--and the last 10 miles were mostly downhill--that will make anybody feel like a great rider! Marquette is right on Lake Superior, and the city itself is on a VERY steep downhill right to a lakeside park. They have great bike paths, and we were happy to stop for the 4th of July celebration.

Marquette is very picturesque and the people were SO nice! When we came into town, we stopped for lunch at the Sweetwater Cafe--fantastic salads with beautiful dark greens and lots of stuff we love. We talked with some folks outside and they told us about the holiday festivities. They made sure we knew to lock our bikes up and went on their way to see the local parade. The city was having live entertainment and a food fest in the park. They also recommended a place to stay--the Landmark Inn, which is a old hotel in the center of town. Then, two guys came up and chatted with us, offering to let us crash at their place! They had both done long-distance cycling and wanted to pay it forward because people had let them crash when they were riding. We were so grateful, but declined because we had heard so much about the Landmark. So we checked into a room on the 6th floor with a great view of the whole waterfront and went to party with the locals!

We caught the end of the parade--much like any other town in the USA. Fun! The live entertainment was also good, but we decided to skip the food fest because there were no veggies! We went for a really nice dinner at our hotel instead. But first, we found a fabulous organic market with great kitchen and other products! It's called Farmer Q's Market, and we just loved it. We bought a BUNCH of Michigan produce (yes, that stuff that they DON'T serve at restaurants) and took it to our room for breakfast. And we did a bunch of Christmas shopping! What fun!

The dinner was everything we could have wanted. We started off at the hotel pub, where they had FOUR ales on tap. David was in heaven! I had a margarita, which was fantastic. Then we moved to the restaurant, and had caprese salad, shrimp appetizer, and dinner. We didn't realize the dinner came with salad, so we had that also! David had quail and I had Ahi tuna--what a delightful change of pace! Then we headed up to the 6th floor lounge for just one more glass of wine overlooking the water. We met some really nice folks too. One lady was training for the Danskin triathlon, and I was reminded of Jen Maddox's experience. I told her she'd LOVE it!

What a nice evening! The only thing missing was fireworks--they had them in Marquette on Thursday night instead of the 4th. But we loved it anyway--and would recommend a visit here to anybody.