Day 35 Wakefield to Ashland

Wednesday 23rd June
Daily mileage 47miles Average Speed 12.1mph Ride Time 3hr53min
Total Mileage 1287

We had some serious sound and light show last night for it felt like most of the night but thankfully it was only spitting when it was time to pack up the soaking wet tent. As we packed away our gear it became apparent that earwigs also do not like the rain as they had hid themselves away in every dry fold of each of our bags, not so nice for us.
We only had a 2 mile trip up the road to Bessemer where Kris sniffed out a bar that was open at 9am and convinced them to switch channels to show the England v Slovenia match as opposed to the USA v Algeria, a good effort. We dined on scrambled eggs on toast and enjoyed our dry seat watching the game. The rain did not really stop the whole day but we ploughed on through Ironwood to cross the state border from Michigan to Wisconsin and set forth on the new route 2 West toward Ashland. We passed Saxon and had a stop at Cedar to escape the rain and grab some warm lunch. We met two guys at the bar who were hitch hiking from Lansing to San Diego and back in a month and a half. They had been equally drenched and were seeking comfort in the same Cedar Bar.

They left a good half hour before us and we overtook them on the roadside only a mile up the road with their flysheet over their head for protection from the rain. We wished them safe travels and thought how strange it was to be travelling faster than someone else! We made it to Ashland some 20 miles later where we headed straight for Bay City Cycles where we met Karl and his children Alex and Eric. Karl took a look at the rear tyre on Kris’s bike that is wearing thin and placed an order for a new one which will arrive in a couple of days which is not a problem as we are in town until the weekend. After a short chat we were being escorted by Alex and Eric back to their house and shown their spare room, a safe haven from the rain! Thanks Karl very much for making us feel at home!
On the way we passed several murals on the town walls and Kris noticed that Karate Kid was being shown at the local movie theatre so before long we were there with Pepsi and popcorn in hand to enjoy the show. Bizarrely enough we ran into the two hitch hikers from this afternoon whom had managed to pick up a lift shortly after we passed them. Its now midnight writing this and we are planning to leave early in the morning to go Kayaking around Apostle Islands for a few days, weather permitting, so we will be in touch again shortly, watch this space…