Day 36 – Now Playing: The Titanic

July 23, 2018

Day 36 – Rest Day and Ferry Ride across Lake Michigan (technically, with 7 miles of “riding”).  Seventh state visited: Michigan.  Fourth time zone: Eastern Time. 

First things first:  No, the 60-mile trip across Lake Michigan does NOT count toward our total mileage.  Just saying.

Well, we made it to our fourth rest day, although for a rest day, it was a bit hectic.  The logistics of getting 35 bikes, 35 bikers, 6 staff, 4 vans and 2 trailers loaded with luggage, supplies, and spare parts onto the SS Badger without losing anything or anyone, certainly changed our now well-worn routine.  Basically, the day mapped out like this:  meet for breakfast at 8:00 and load luggage at 9:00.  This would be the last time we had access to our luggage until our hotel in Ludington, MI.  We were told to meet at the ferry dock at 12 noon even though the ship doesn’t leave until 2.  

So, basically: kill three hours and be at the dock at noon so we can kill two hours waiting for the ship to leave, so we can kill four hours on the boat, and then lose an hour when we get to Michigan.  Clear?

“Kill” might be overkill, because we actually had an extremely pleasant day.  Oddly, we had to bike four miles into downtown Manitowoc, dressed in our “civvies”, as Garry called it.  For four miles, we figured we could manage that in sneakers or sandals.  The only holdover piece of mandatory gear was the helmet. 

Of course, there was a quick pit stop at the local bike shop (although, why, I have no idea.)  From there we went to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum and took a tour of the USS Cobia, a genuine WW II submarine that saw combat in the South Pacific.  The torpedo rooms (fore and aft) were awesome displays of real world firepower.  Pretty claustrophobic, too. 

The boat ride across Lake Michigan on the 410-foot Badger was super pleasant and calming.  The boat had a movie theatre (“showing, The Titanic”, one of the staff members quipped, demonstrating why he shouldn’t give up his day job), deck chairs (for rearranging, no doubt), a TV room, game rooms, kids rooms, quiet rooms, lounges, restaurant, snack bars, bars, and (I hoped) a modernized engine room.  The lake is over 900 feet deep in some spots, and Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald kept floating through my brain.  (Oh, except, … that was Lake Superior.)

At this point, I must bring up a topic that has been nagging many of us no end and a sad commentary.  And it deals with the diet of the average American.  Based on what we have seen for the past five weeks, the average American is seriously obese.  Or obese-plus.  Or obese-squared.  Our European riders are simply stunned and I am … gobsmacked.  (I’ve been wanting to work in “gobsmacked” since Day 0.)

This morning, instead of the usual hotel fare of powdered eggs and mystery meat, we walked across the parking lot to Perkins, a “family restaurant” chain.  The menu was voluminous, extensive and gargantuan.  And laminated.  And multi-paginated.  Portion sizes were huge.  Our server came over to take our order.  I was still paging through the various 1,000+ calorie offerings, when I asked her,  “Um, … where do you have, uh … granola? … or yogurt?”  “Oh,” she replied almost immediately, “we don’t carry that.” 

No, of course you don’t.  What was I thinking?  We have been to buffets where, for $11 (I kid you not), you can sit and stuff your face to your heart’s content.  And the clientele looks it.  Oh, you can try to eat healthier if you’re really careful.  But all across this great swath of America that we just rode through, food has been generally high calorie, high fat, high salt, cheap and plentiful.  Every city and town has a stretch of fast food, fast food and more fast food.  It is no wonder that many of us are gobsmacked.  

Ok, enough about that.  Just had to be said.  

We kick off our next segment tomorrow in Michigan with our last super long day at 112 miles.  Break’s over kids, back to work. 

Please enjoy these photos from today’s sort-of hectic semi-rest day and check our progress at Where’s Jeff at jeffblye.com. Thanks for following and I’d love to hear from you. 

…Jeff