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After yesterday's disaster I was out to make up some serious
miles today. I got up early (around 6:00), packed everything up and (around
7:00) wheeled my bike to the restaurant for breakfast. They were closed.
They didn't serve breakfast. They didn't open until 11:00. I was off to
a terrible start. I didn't have any breakfast food with me.
I inquired at the office about breakfast options to the east: Deer River
- 49 miles or Grand Rapids - 54 miles. Maybe I could get there in time for
a late lunch, but not breakfast. "How about the west," I asked.
They suggested I go back to the town of Cass Lake (where I ate at DQ yesterday)
about 1.5 miles west, then ride a couple of blocks to the north and eat
at the Marina cafe.
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The Marina Cafe was a cheerful place in a quaint old stone building.
I had my usual--2 orders of french toast. The waitress was cheerful. Everybody
seemed happy. Despite gray skies and headwinds (5-10 mph southeast), eating
there helped improve my mood and charged me up for the ride ahead.
When my odometer showed 6 miles, I finally passed where I'd given up yesterday
and started riding on new ground. Around 10:00, I overtook my first bicycle
tourist of the trip. I was going about 15 mph despite the wind--mood sure
makes a difference. I met Nadia, from Vancouver, but bicycling from Calgary
to Ottawa and we rode together for a few hours.
As we were riding along, a couple on a tandem approached from
the opposite direction, so we veered over to meet them (I taped their names
and origin, but must have overwritten that portion somehow). They were riding
fully-loaded from the east coast to Havre, Montana. I had always thought
of a Bob trailer as a good substitute for regular panniers. They had panniers
front and rear, and a fully loaded Bob. What a load!
At big fish restaurant, there was a big fish (about the size
of the Northern Pike that I lost one time in Alaska).
By now I was surrounded by forests . I'd left the prairie behind.
At Deer River, I bought some grocery items and decided to eat
them at a picnic table at the visitor center there rather than try to eat
them on the bicycle. I invited Nadia to stay, but she went on, saying I'd
catch up. At her 10 mph pace, I expected to catch up with her later. She
rode a steady slow pace but didn't stop to eat, preferring instead to "graze"
from food in her handlebar bag.
Deer River is the home of Wille Transport--a trucking company.
As you may recall, I had a violent encounter with a Wille Transport
driver east of Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory on June
7, 1996--the worst vehicle confrontation of the entire trip. That driver
got out of his truck with his fists raised in anger and screamed; "if you ever see a truck behind you and you don't get off
the road, you better hope its not me, because if I ever see you again, I'm
going to run right over you. You need to get off the road and leave the
road for the working people." I just circled slowly remaining
on my bicycle and replied: "have you ever just
wanted to have some fun in your life? That's all I want. I got over as far
as I could. That's all I can do. You could have avoided all this if you'd
just used your brakes for a whole minute."
The confrontation occurred when the Wille driver passed me as another semi
was coming the other way. There wasn't really room for all 3 of us. I was
up against the shoulder of large (2-3") stones and couldn't move over
any further. The Wille driver almost lost his load (a huge spool of what
looked like copper wire) swerving over to the right after passing me to
avoid a head-on with the other semi. He was scared and looking for somebody
to blame for his stupidity.
As I passed Wille Transport in Deer River, I seriously considered going
there to tell somebody in authority just what an idiot they had working
for them, but realizing that he'd said he'd run me over if he ever saw me
again, I was reluctant to alert him to my presence on the road near where
he lived. Furthermore, it was Sunday, so I was unlikely to be able to talk
to management. And, I just wasn't in the mood for a fight.
I finally reached Grand Rapids.
There was a street fair in progress, so the downtown was crowded.
As I was stopped at a light, a man walked up, and seeing my "Ed Noonan,
Williamston, Michigan" sign, asked if I was really from Williamston.
He said he was from Webberville, Michigan and had moved here 13 years ago.
I didn't catch his name.
I rode through town and stopped at Dairy Queen for a chicken sandwich, some
pop and fries. As I left DQ (didn't this happen yesterday?), my rear tire
seemed a bit low, so I stopped and pumped it up. I rode only about 1/2 mile
and it was decidedly flat, so I stopped at a convenience store, drank some
Gatorade and wondered aloud what to do next. The store clerk, Barb Beckers,
said she knew Joe, the owner of Itasca Fitness Centre--the local Trek dealer.
She called him at home. I explained that I thought I was experiencing
a repeat of the same flat and that there was probably a piece of wire still
in the tire. It turned out I knew him--I'd met him at the bike store in
Bemidji and he'd left saying "see you when you come through Grand Rapids."
He came to the convenience store in his pickup and drove me to his store
(which was closed), where we pulled everything off the bike and inspected
the tube and tire carefully in the lighted bike shop.
He found a piece of black wire protruding through the tire just
opposite the stem. As I expected, it was a piece of that steel belting from
a blown-out radial tire. Karen Schwartz had warned me to watch out for truck
tire debris. She was right. We replaced the tube and I got back on my way.
I was still trying to catch Nadia, but she had a few hours on me now. She
was heading to Floodwood. I reached Warba around 7:05. I concluded that
I couldn't reasonably expect to get to Floodwood--25 miles down the road--before
dark. I checked into the motel in Warba ($26) and ate a sandwich at the
bar (the cafe was closed). [Note 9/15/96: I received e-mail this week from Nadia about
her progress. Apparently, I managed to get ahead of her on 8/5, but didn't
know it until now.
This is Nadia, the one you cycled with for a few hours between Cass Lake and Deer River. I did get to Floodwood that night, and was surprised that you didn't catch up with me. The next day, it rained until very late morning, and I declared it my day off. (I had already made it half way, so I was deserving of a couple of extra hours of sleep.) After a very late, and wet start, I got about 5 miles past Floodwood and got my first flat tire. I would have patched it OK, except that someone stopped to see if I needed help, and not paying attention, I patched it wrong. I kept expecting you to catch up at that point, with helpful advice and hopefully a better pump. [I am surprised I didn't]
I eventually made it into Wisconsin that day, after a well-deserved stop at DQ, which I noticed that you did indulge in a few times, but that was by far my worst day of the trip. I did a total of almost 2200 miles, going from Calgary to Ottawa in 21 and a half days.
Nadia's progress was awesome; 2,200
miles in less than 22 days--more than a Century a day for 21-1/2 days. I
thought completing the Quint-Century on DALMAC last year, 100 miles per
day for 5 days, was a feat, but Nadia did much more.
72 miles.
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© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997