August 11 - day 47 Thursday
Start - Spider Lake, WI
End - Mercer, WI
Miles - 61 (Larry 31.6, Marcee 30.1)
Start time - 905am
End time - 423pm
Weather - high around 80, partly sunny with a sprinkling of rain.
Towns traveled through - Spider Lake, Clam Lake, Glidden, and Butternut all in Northern Wisconsin
A highlight of the day was meeting Pete. As Marcee started cycling on state hwy 77 she came upon Pete who was walking toward us. Pete greeted her with a warm greeting and I came out from the car and visited as well. Pete explained how he is from Illinois and spending some time in the area and how last year his son was in a car accident and was paralyzed. That turned his families life upside down. He took early retirement and was caring for his son. Pete asked about our trip and was very supportive when we told him about raising money for drilling water wells. Pete prayed for us in our journey and we did the same for him. It was a blessing to meet Pete!
We cycled on to Mercer and then picked up the bikes and drove on into to Ironwood, MI where we had a reservation at the Comfort Inn. It was nice to get into a room and relax. We have decided to take a rest day in Ironwood and will drive into the U.P. When we checked into the motel we met some guys on motorcycles who were wearing Vietnam Veteran vests. One of them asked us about our Water for Life shirts. I told him. I asked him if he was a veteran and he said yes. I thanked him for his service and he thanked me for caring. There is something very humbling to me about thanking a veteran for their service. There are many others who deserve the same thanks including those who minister the Word.
1 Peter 5 "...All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'"
This morning (August 12) we soaked in the whirlpool as our legs were very sore. Rolling hills are tough. It felt very good.
We met some additional touring cyclists (Hal and Wendy) at the Comfort Inn from British Columbia who are cycling from New Foundland to back home. They have already covered 4000 miles. Wow!
Today is our first full day off since Bismarck, ND. We are looking forward to it!
Update - we got some maintenance done at the Hobby Wheel Ski, Snowboard & Bike Shop in Ironwood today. We planned to just get the chains cleaned and lubed but as it turned out my chain was stretched and needed replacing within about 500 miles so I went ahead and did it now. Bill, the mechanic, said that can happen when you put a lot of torque on the chain when riding uphill in high gear which I have been doing lately. Thank you Bill for taking care of our bikes. It is nice to have a clean chain.
After getting our bikes worked on we took a ride out to Black River Harbor which is on Lake Superior. We got our feet wet in the Lake and Marcee walked across a suspenson bridge, which she was not wild about but made it nonetheless! We also drove over to Copper Peak which boasts the only ski-flying facility in the western hemisphere. It is like ski jumping but the jumpers can go about 600 feet, compared to 90 to 120 meters for Olympic ski jumpers. The chair lift to the top was closed but we viewed it from the base.
This evening we went to Hurley, WI just across the border from Ironwood. We watched a polka band for a while and then had dinner at Freddie's Old Time Saloon & Eatery. It was fish fry Friday night and the saloons walls were filled with many historical pictures, many from the local area. Thank you to Jan Wileman who we met at Freddie's, who donated to Water for Life.
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