Off the road
Aug. 31st, 2010 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI'm looking at the weather, and my mental health; so the one has a fair chance of being poor between here and Lincoln, Neb. The other will benefit from a bit of a break. As of yesterday I'd covered about 1,000 miles of road. I did 400 of it Sunday.
There was lovely stuff, after I left Iron Bridge, and then I hit "the Soo". Sault Ste. Marie is s sudden lump of small city. Clapboard and brick. Both sides look about the same, treelined, etc. The border took a fair bit of time. The customs guy asked what I was bringing back (some apple brandy and some chocolate... the tires and the luggage completely slipped my mind; but technically I think they count), and struggled with his computer. I couldn't quite tell if it was saying strange things about me, or the system was being strange.
The system is the more likely bet, as the line was moving slowly. The lane to my right seemed to have one sedan there for about 20 minutes. He didn't check the top-case, the way he checked everyone else's trunk. Something a serious smuggler of small goods might consider.
Through the US side of town and onto the UP. Lovely. A long strip along lake Michigan. At Mackinac things got painful, if no less lovely. The highway goes to one lane, each way, and there was traffic. This was most of the next 500 miles. I got very good a passing, and even with speeds of about 75-80 in clear spots, I was averaging about 60.
Stopped at small cafe, somewhere, and had a lovely lunch of pasty and gravy. Family place, the waiter is off to college, his grandmother runs the kitchen, and his mother makes the pies. The pasty was great. Coarsely chopped meat; preserved, I think... probably treated in the restaurant, potatoes, and some vegetables, wrapped in a sort of yorkshire pudding.
Sadly, after hearing the table next to me talk about their pie, and praising it to each other, I discovered that had been the last of the day.
On and on, the lake coming and going from sight, until the road turned right and I headed into Wisconsin. Where the scenery didn't get any worse, but the driving did. The speed limit was lower, and the drivers more prone to obey it. But safely to Rhinelander, and a delivery pizza, some time in the hot tub, and a repeat of the day when I got up.
Narrow roads, lovely scenery, too many towns (with speed limits of 25-35 miles an hour), clumps of slow drivers, and long stretches when I couldn't pass. I have gotten very good at passing. That's because, in the past week I've probably done at least 250 of them.
I have a breakfast date (because I got in here about 2 hours behind my expected time, and 3 behind my desired), and then there is to be some shopping, and cooking here. Tomorrow, I make my southing, and pick up the long slab of the interstate. Which may lack for the charm of a two lane road, gently winding through the trees, but won't be quite as frustrating as being behind four cars stuck behind a guy doing 50; or a guy with half a dozen bales of orchard grass; uncovered, and shedding (I know it was orchard, because some of it got stuck to the bike... in 15 miles of it flying past it was pretty easy for a blade, or two, to find a crevice and stay).
There was lovely stuff, after I left Iron Bridge, and then I hit "the Soo". Sault Ste. Marie is s sudden lump of small city. Clapboard and brick. Both sides look about the same, treelined, etc. The border took a fair bit of time. The customs guy asked what I was bringing back (some apple brandy and some chocolate... the tires and the luggage completely slipped my mind; but technically I think they count), and struggled with his computer. I couldn't quite tell if it was saying strange things about me, or the system was being strange.
The system is the more likely bet, as the line was moving slowly. The lane to my right seemed to have one sedan there for about 20 minutes. He didn't check the top-case, the way he checked everyone else's trunk. Something a serious smuggler of small goods might consider.
Through the US side of town and onto the UP. Lovely. A long strip along lake Michigan. At Mackinac things got painful, if no less lovely. The highway goes to one lane, each way, and there was traffic. This was most of the next 500 miles. I got very good a passing, and even with speeds of about 75-80 in clear spots, I was averaging about 60.
Stopped at small cafe, somewhere, and had a lovely lunch of pasty and gravy. Family place, the waiter is off to college, his grandmother runs the kitchen, and his mother makes the pies. The pasty was great. Coarsely chopped meat; preserved, I think... probably treated in the restaurant, potatoes, and some vegetables, wrapped in a sort of yorkshire pudding.
Sadly, after hearing the table next to me talk about their pie, and praising it to each other, I discovered that had been the last of the day.
On and on, the lake coming and going from sight, until the road turned right and I headed into Wisconsin. Where the scenery didn't get any worse, but the driving did. The speed limit was lower, and the drivers more prone to obey it. But safely to Rhinelander, and a delivery pizza, some time in the hot tub, and a repeat of the day when I got up.
Narrow roads, lovely scenery, too many towns (with speed limits of 25-35 miles an hour), clumps of slow drivers, and long stretches when I couldn't pass. I have gotten very good at passing. That's because, in the past week I've probably done at least 250 of them.
I have a breakfast date (because I got in here about 2 hours behind my expected time, and 3 behind my desired), and then there is to be some shopping, and cooking here. Tomorrow, I make my southing, and pick up the long slab of the interstate. Which may lack for the charm of a two lane road, gently winding through the trees, but won't be quite as frustrating as being behind four cars stuck behind a guy doing 50; or a guy with half a dozen bales of orchard grass; uncovered, and shedding (I know it was orchard, because some of it got stuck to the bike... in 15 miles of it flying past it was pretty easy for a blade, or two, to find a crevice and stay).
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 02:21 pm (UTC)I wish I could have joined the festivities at Peninsula Monday night...for the company and the food.
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Date: 2010-08-31 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 09:43 pm (UTC)Depends on timing. Send me a private message with contact info.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 07:32 pm (UTC)Wolf Creek, near Adrian, Michigan, -- set a barrel of good Hard Cider outside during the winter, then drain off and bottle the part that doesn't freeze. (Aunt Peggy and his mother and my mother (his sister-in-law) Did Not Approve of this, but the menfolk in the family though it was swell.) As a pre-teen at the time -- which would place it about 70 years ago -- I got only an occasional slight taste, and didn't much like it, but I haven't the faintest idea what I'd think of it now.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 07:42 pm (UTC)I'd think of it as calvados, myself, because traditional "applejack" the freeze distilled stuff you describe.
I've done it, in the freezer, which isn't all that effective (not cold enough to get more than about 20 percent alcohol, still very sweet).
no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 03:34 pm (UTC)K.