Day 53 – Petoskey to Traverse City

July 23, 2016July 23, 2016 / wescov / Leave a comment

66 miles. Some on a nice, paved bike path and some battling with traffic for a share of the narrow shoulder.

It wasn’t hard to get up this morning. Some of our fellow guests were packing up their car at 5 AM and had a high decibel conversation about luggage right outside our door! So, after a healthy breakfast of sweet rolls and waffles, we headed down the big hill that depressed us coming up last night. At the bottom of the hill we joined the Little Traverse Wheelway that took us 19 miles to Charlevoix. The path was nicely paved and followed highway 31 all the way – a stress free way to start the day’s ride. After Charlevoix the fun began as the route jumped on and off the highway that had, at times, a wide comfortable shoulder and at others, no shoulder at all.

St. Francis Solanus church on the lake in Petoskey. It is the oldest public building in lower Michigan and was started by a priest known as the “Snowshoe Priest.”

Our maps told us to get off the highway onto a bike friendly side road named US Bike Route 35! It was a country road in pretty bad condition with hills but at least there was no traffic. We stopped for snack at the top of a hill and as soon as we started up again, the pot holed paved road gave way to a rocky dirt road! Not what we were looking for at all. We pushed on and turned onto a paved road as soon as we could and headed back to good old highway 31.

Pink and green farmhouse on the side road before it turned into a rocky dirt road.

This lakeside parcel was being developed for homes. Note how smooth Lake Michigan was this morning.

But we survived and eventually hooked up with the TART (Traverse Area Recreational Trail), another well paved bike path that took us right to the back door of our hotel. It is very high season here and a weekend so we paid a hefty premium for our more or less basic hotel room. We considered ourselves lucky to find this one since the various hotel booking websites said the town was sold out!

A lot of sour cherries just left on the ground!

We checked in and then decided to unload the bikes and go exploring to see Traverse City. The TART took us to the downtown which is filled with restaurants, fudge shops and gift shops, just like most resort towns. We took a side street in the old part of the town and we’re happy to find a brick, tree lined street with large, old Victorian houses on both sides, all well maintained and with manicured lawns.

Tomorrow we head south to Cadillac and we are expecting some rain early and headwinds.

This sign made us think about how the US relates geographically to the rest of the world!

Day 52 – Mackinaw City to Petoskey

July 22, 2016July 23, 2016 / wescov / Leave a comment

40 miles. Also biked 9 miles around Mackinac Island

The approach to Mackinac Island by ferry

After breakfast we boarded a ferry with our bikes and a lot of other tourists for the ride to Mackinac Island including a brief sail under the Mackinac Bridge.

Sailing under the span of the Mackinac Bridge

The island is car free and home to many Victorian homes of wealthy 19th century industrialists. The Grand Hotel boasts the longest porch in the world! It’s 9 miles around the island so it didn’t take us long to circumnavigate but by the time we finished the tourist population had blossomed! There are a ton of fudge shops, gift shops, restaurants, etc. as well as bike rental shops.

No cars are allowed on Mackinac Island. Deliveries are made by horse drayage

Two of the private houses on Mackinac Island.

After our quick tour we boarded the ferry back to the mainland and got underway toward Petoskey. The first part of the ride was on a shaded bike path and the paved surface quickly gave way to crushed limestone, in places so thick that it was difficult to make good time. We switched over to Highway 31 that paralleled the path and rode on the shoulder for most of the rest of the way. One woman yelled at us from her car that we should be on the bike path and a gentleman stopped his car to point out that the bike path was “right there.” We preferred making better time to plowing through the gravel so stayed on the highway until a paved path took us the rest of the way into Petoskey.

The “dome” of hot air is still to our south but today was certainly warm and muggy. We made our usual stop for ice cream then had to pedal up a fairly steep hill to get to our hotel. “Not fair,” we cried.

Many cairns populate the rocky shore on the island.

Tomorrow we continue south to Traverse City, the cherry capital of Michigan, and then turn back east on the following days.

Day 51 – Manistique to Macinaw City

July 21, 2016July 22, 2016 / wescov / 1 Comment

93 miles. Includes the 5 miles lift across the bridge from the Bridge Authority

The day started with the threat of high winds, heavy rain and hail! We had joked yesterday that we wanted a 60 mph tail wind and it looked like we were going to get our wish. We rode for a few hours under overcast skies with a pleasant but not gale force tail wind. It was enough of a boost to up our average speed to 15 mph when we usually are doing 13 or so. But then the rains came! We have been very lucky on this trip having only a brief 40 minute sprinkle so far in the entire 50 days. Today’s sprinkle was a downpour for about an hour then drizzle for two more hours or so. We put on our rain gear and pedaled through. The good news is that it’s only water… We got wet but our Ortlieb panniers kept our gear dry through it all. And the strong wind and hail never materialized. At one point, just as the rain was getting very heavy, a car pulled off in front of us with its flashers on. A woman got out of the passenger side and waved us to a stop. All of us now standing in the deluge she said she and her husband want to take a long bike trip and they wanted to know what it was like biking in the rain! Wet!

The surf was up on Lake Michigan but that didn’t keep these people from jumping in.

We stopped at a rest stop and met a woman who give us her input about Mackinac Island and the road down to Traverse City (and so much more!) and after that time, the rain pretty much went away. Thanks to our speed earlier in the day we decided to coast on by our planned hotel in Epoufette and set out sights on St. Ignace (pronounced “Ignis” around here) and maybe the bridge over to Mackinaw City. Both Mackinac and Mackinaw are pronounced the same – mackinaw.

We had cheese curds and kringles in Wisconsin and now a pasty in Michigan. The “a” is pronounced as in “cat” so don’t get the term confused! Pasties are baked pastries filled with meat and potatoes and originated in Cornwall in the UK. This shop is known for the quality of their crust.

Cyclists are not allowed on the bridge so we paid $5 each to have a bridge employee drive us and our bikes across the bridge to Mackinaw City and he dropped us off there.

View from the St. Ignace shore of the Mackinac Bridge. Here’s a brief history of the bridge, the longest suspension bridge between two anchorages in the Western Hemisphere.

From inside the truck that carried us across.

Tomorrow we will take an early ferry over to Mackinac Island and circumnavigate the place – no cars allowed – then return and start pedaling south toward Petoskey.

The beach immediately off our hotel room!

Day 50 – Escanaba to Manistique

July 20, 2016July 20, 2016 / wescov / Leave a comment

59 miles. Includes a little detour first thing this morning while we were “temporarily confused.”

Another reminder that fishing is king around here. This guy is in front of the Wells Fargo branch in Escanaba.

We slept in a little this morning since we knew we had a relatively “short” day ahead. The weather was sunny and we had a little tail wind all day… the wind wasn’t always right at our backs but it was seldom in our faces. After a run to the north, Rte. 2 headed east across the UP following the Lake Michigan shoreline. For the most part we had a generous and smooth shoulder to ride on but oh, the trucks!!! This is logging territory so there were many heavily laden log trucks with upwards of ten axles meaning at least 40 tires all whining as they zoomed by. Big rigs used to be 18 wheelers but 40+ generate a lot of noise and wind. As I said, we had a wide and smooth shoulder to ride on so didn’t feel at risk from the trucks just slightly deaf in one ear from the ride!

We see so many beautiful beaches and shorelines that we could get jaded by the UP… but probably won’t!

The lake shoreline is beautiful and the vastness of the lake, the dunes, the seagulls all contribute to the feeling of being on the ocean. Again we saw many very nice-looking cabins and homes right on the water. Many of the mailboxes had French names on them (Robataille, LeFleur, Gagne, etc.) reminding me that French missionaries and trappers were the first settlers in the upper Great Lakes region and were only finally pushed out after the War of 1812.

We broke for lunch at an historical marker park. This one commemorated the “Christmas Tree Ship,” the Rouse Simmons, a tragic story of lives and ship loss trying to get Christmas trees to Chicago in 1912. The story is definitely worth exploring.

We rode into Manistique (tomorrow we will hit Epoufette and maybe get to St. Ignace – again the French influence) and saw our favorite sight, an ice cream shop that made malts. We are becoming experts on malts and while we didn’t rate these particularly highly, they tasted mighty good.

The Manistique lighthouse at the end of the boardwalk. Maja was able to catch a seagull floating on the breeze above the mast.

We parked our bikes and walked the boardwalk out to the lighthouse and had our photo snapped by a couple from Colorado who spend part of the summer here at a beach cottage.

Day 49 – Oconto to Escanaba

July 19, 2016July 19, 2016 / wescov / 1 Comment

80 miles. All on roads along the shore of Lake Michigan.

Last night we had a bit of a scare, I left our semi precious ACA route maps at the restaurant and we didn’t realize they were missing until 9:00 PM, the time the restaurant closed. We called and managed to convince the owner that these maps were crucial to our going forward. The clean up crew was nearly finished when we got there and the owner said all the trash had been taken out to the dumpster… except for the trash can at the cash register. The prospect of dumpster diving in the dark didn’t appeal to either one of us but luckily we dug through the napkins, place mats and coffee grounds in the trash can behind the counter and found our maps! A little clean up was all they needed so now we can continue on our trip!

Three things about this photo:#1. The collapsed roof of the barn (maybe from snow load?) #2. There were brown herons walking across the field that, unfortunately, you cannot see and #3. The turkeys in the middle of the frame. As we neared them they began to run away giving new meaning to “turkey trot.”

Getting our of Oconto was a maze of lefts and rights but the country roads were deserted so it was a pleasant ride. We reached the shore of the lake and turned north and were within sight of the lake all day.

An antique boat displayed in someone’s yard. Along the road there were many cottages with interesting names like “Picci’s Paradise,” “Sun of a Beach,” and “Happy Ours.”

The dock of a very pleasant looking campground and RV park along the lake.

80 miles takes enough time that both of us were a little saddle weary at the end. Luckily we found a Culver’s close to the hotel and a friend had touted their malts, made with custard. Well, we had to try them and yes, they are very good.

We lunched at this beach.

Today we entered our 7th state, Michigan, and had to set our watches forward since we rode into the EDT zone.

Crossing the Peshtigo River we saw this warning for thin ice.

Day 48 – Chilton to Oconto

July 18, 2016July 20, 2016 / wescov / 1 Comment

73 miles. Mixed day on roads and paths

After Egg McMuffins we got on the road north from Chilton. The shoulder was OK but cars and trucks were very close and very loud so when we got a chance, we shifted over to the Fox River Trail that took us all the way into Green Bay. For about 16 miles we rode on well maintained crushed limestone. In spots the stone was a little too deep so we had trouble making good speeds but 9 miles or so from Green Bay the path was wonderfully paved, wide and heavily used by cyclists, roller bladers and others. Across the river we could see Lambeau Field, mecca for all the cheese heads out there.

The path ran very close to the road we had been on and was slower than the road but a lot more relaxing.

Leaving the path and into Green Bay the streets were rough and very little in the way of shoulder or bike lane. Google maps and our Garmin helped us get through the urban maze of streets and paths but often they disagreed so we picked Google maps as our guide and it worked pretty well.

This sculpture is on the paved path along the Fox River just before we entered Green Bay.

We made it out of the city and back into fields and countryside with no help from a wind coming from our left sides and paralleled the Lake Michigan shoreline all the way to Oconto.

Very strange location for power lines….

Pretty uneventful day but that’s OK. Tomorrow we leave Wisconsin and into Michigan and the Eastern Time Zone and begin our trek around the north shore of Lake Michigan.

Cool use of an old pick up truck in a flower garden.

Reflections

July 18, 2016July 18, 2016 / Maja Wessels / Leave a comment

27:11. Hint: you can enter both of the things I’m counting.

“In organic architecture, then, it is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, it’s furnishings another, and it’s setting and environment still another.” –Frank Lloyd Wright

As we get ready to depart Wisconsin tomorrow, we are also leaving Frank Lloyd Wright’s home state and the area in which most of the FLW buildings we will see en route are located. Charles has already described most of these in previous postings. I just want to focus on a couple of things.

First, as Charles has mentioned, FLW was a major innovator in the field of architecture, being the first to design what we now call great rooms that combined kitchens with family and dining rooms, using under floor heating, track lighting, seamless window corners, and folding doors to open whole walls to the outside. He also invented the concept of car ports and, it can be argued, was the real father of ranch houses. The way he thought about his designs as being organic and part of the environment was truly unique. I could go on and on. But what really stood out from our visits of FLW homes was how far ahead he was of his architect cohort. His designs have much more in common with modern houses being built today, 70 or 80 years later, than they did with those of the day. FLW was truly a visionary. And so were his clients. They were individualists who valued what FLW had to offer and were willing to stand out in a crowd.

If you look closely enough, you will see one lone stalk of corn in a huge field of soy beans. The foot of the corn stalk is about an inch from the bottom of the photo and just right of center. I couldn’t help but think of the corn representing FLW, rising above his contemporaries.

We were lucky enough, on several occasions, to meet the owners or owner representatives of FLW houses that they had saved from almost certain destruction. Charles and I were so impressed with the passion that these owners brought to their homes, the precision with which they restored the structures, and their willingness to open the homes to the public. They, without exception, view what they are doing as a public service, both to the general public and their communities. We really couldn’t believe the “before” state to which some of these houses had fallen compared to the “after restoration” that we were viewing. In most cases, the restorations took years and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars over and above the purchase price for the house. In some cases, like for the Willey house, the new owners, using FLW’s original plans, finished several rooms that had never been completed by the original owners. We have so much to thank these individuals for and we look forward to keeping in touch with them.

Day 47 – Beaver Dam to Chilton

July 17, 2016July 18, 2016 / wescov / 1 Comment

63 miles. Avoided the rain but never found the predicted tail winds. Rats!

We awoke to thunder and pouring rain so after breakfast we postponed our departure for close to two hours while the storm raced through. Weather radar was very helpful in timing our leaving since I could see the clean air behind the rain. We were anticipating strong winds from the south and we were headed north for most of the day but except for a half hour at the very beginning, the winds weren’t much help.

26 miles of our route today was on the Wild Goose State Trail, another rail to trail project with a crushed limestone surface. There were many holes dug by various animals so we had to be attentive all the time. One 500 yard section was all grass and we would have abandoned the trail for the road if the grass had lasted any longer. We only saw three people in the entire 26 mile run, two of whom were walking dogs, so we had that world to ourselves.

We encountered several downed trees on the Wild Goose Trail so had to do a little bushwhacking

The trail dumped us into Fond du Lac and our Google map directions were incomplete, leaving out about 3 miles that we had to decipher on the fly but we made it through and rode on highway the rest of the way into Chilton.

The Lake Winnebago harbor at Fond du Lac.

We stopped in front of our hotel, The Rang Inn Thunderbird Motel, a 60’s throwback, and saw an ice cream shop! You had me at chocolate malt! Inside we met a woman in her 70s who had ridden the Southern Tier across the US, another woman who was curious about our trip and a guy with his daughter who also asked about out trip. I gave him the blog info and he logged on there on the spot then linked Bikewright.org to his Facebook page. He also pulled out his wallet and tried to give us cash for the Foundation! Our nephew Andy who is administering the blog says that one or two people a day click on the donation link!!! As we checked into the hotel, two women approached us to ask about the ride. They are sisters and one of them had lived close to Spring Green so was very familiar with Wright. The other sister had her house designed by a Taliesin Fellow!

Pizza at Papa Don’s (not John but Don – maybe Papa John’s little brother!) and now we are settling in. Tomorrow we are off through Green Bay to Oconto, our last stop in Wisconsin.

The obligatory farm shot, the barns standing in a sea of soy. Note the threatening clouds but all they did was threaten.

The windmills were turning. Too bad the wind was coming from the wrong direction for us.

Day 46 – Taliesin, Spring Green, to Beaver Dam

July 16, 2016July 16, 2016 / Maja Wessels / 1 Comment

25:9. Hint: every single one of you will recognize both things I’m counting.

85 miles. Rolling hills and a wrong turn at the very end that added 6 miles to the trip when we least expected them.

After a busy “rest-day” yesterday we said good-bye to Taliesin and started riding back toward our original planned route in the north. We will rejoin the Northern Tier route at Escanaba, MI where we hope to be on Tuesday. Spring Green is the most southerly point in our journey.

I have been asked several times what my expectations were for the countryside we would be riding through. I can tell you that I had no idea what eastern Montana or North Dakota would be like. I also hadn’t expected so much of our riding to be on relatively busy country highways with trucks, RVs and pickups hauling heavy loads. But today was a day much as I had imagined we might be having.

It was almost a picture perfect day. It started out cool — we actually had to put jackets on — and the fog was lifting picturesquely over the pond at Taliesin and the Wisconsin River as we started our ride at 6:45 am.

It was a little chilly when we started today.

And the fog was lifting over the water of both the pond at Taliesin

and the Wisconsin River just around the corner

This looks kind of spooky but the weather clearly up shortly after this photo was taken.

The fog quickly lifted and soon we were riding under crystal clear skies that turned partly cloudy toward the late afternoon with beautiful, fair weather cumulus clouds. The temps maxed out at about 90 degrees, but it never really felt too hot.

For the most part we were riding on quiet back-country roads imaginatively named County Road T or V or S with a couple of Mueller or Lange roads thrown in. There was little traffic, which was good since most of the roads had no shoulders. With the exception of some stretches that had annoying expansion joints, the riding was smooth and enjoyable. There were rolling hills for the whole day, with as many downs as ups so we got to coast as much as we climbed. The wind was calmish and coming from the south, so we enjoyed a slight tailwind during parts of our day as we zig-zagged first north then east then back to north, etc. for the day. It was fun to switch it up a bit, rather than being on the same road all day long.

I found the scenery today very, well, scenic. We were riding through lots and lots of corn already silking out, wheat that is very heavy on the stalk and about ready to be harvested, some soy beans, and hay that was being turned as we biked by, enveloping us in its aroma. Some of the corn fields were bordered by beautiful wild flowers including corn flowers, Queen Anne’s lace, Black-eyed Susans and alfalfa. As we biked I was thinking that with the addition of some vineyards, this area could be sold as the American Tuscany. We even saw some sunflowers!

The scenery today reminded me of Tuscany

Lots of corn with beautiful farms and dairies. We saw many fields with lone oaks in the middle. I was so happy to see that the farmers took the time and effort to plant around these gorgeous, old trees. Many of the fields were bordered by beautiful wild flowers.

We also passed numerous dairies. The area seems much more financially stable than some other parts of the US we’ve biked through. The farms are well maintained and beautiful and I think we passed only one establishment that was permanently closed. Interestingly, even though we were still biking in the country, we saw folks walking their dogs, a couple of joggers, and some cyclists out for day rides. Maybe this is more of a function of today being a Saturday, but I think it also has to do with the area not being dedicated 100% to agriculture.

We were entertained for a bit by a barn cat and her romping kittens and saw the usual numerous bird populations: herons, geese, ducks and songbirds. We also saw the saddest thing on our trip to date: a poor chipmunk pulling itself across the road by its front legs; its back legs were dragging behind it. It must have just gotten clipped by a car. Heart breaking.

We had lunch in the shadow of a quite large Catholic Church, St. Joseph, and passed a historic one-room school on the way.

We saw the steeple of this church for miles, but weren’t 100% certain whether it was a steeple or the tip of a pine tree.

Our scenic luncheon stop. We had picked up a sandwich at Subway on the way, which was a good think because we would have gone hungry had we relied on restaurants or groceries after the Subway. The next opportunity for food was at our destination of Beaver Dam.

Historic one-room school house.

The neighborhoods of the two towns we rode through were also very picturesque and upscale and included a few old Victorian houses.

One of the Victorians we rode past.

All in all, it was a perfect day for a bike ride and the scenery was enjoyable and interesting. The only downside came at the end when we turned right instead of left just a few miles from our destination for the day. By the time we realized what we had done, we had biked three miles into a head wind. So we turned around and biked seven miles to our motel in Beaver Dam, this time with a tail wind. When we got here we were pretty well pooped. So we took showers and then had chocolate malts at a family restaurant next door. We look forward to dinner at a neighboring sports bar and catching up on emails and reading. We continue to follow the news from Turkey. Luckily, Stuart has not personally experienced any hardship associated with the attempted coup and the meetings he was there to attend will continue tomorrow after a break today.

A word of encouragement en route.

Day 45 – Racine and Madison

July 16, 2016July 30, 2016 / wescov / Leave a comment

Today was a rest and a pilgrimage day to see several Wright houses and buildings up close and personal.

Ray and Mary picked us up at Tan-y-Deri and we drove to Racine in a sometimes heavy downpour so we were glad we had picked that day to not be on our bikes! We met Mark Hertzberg at the Thomas P. Hardy house on the lake in Racine just a few blocks from Wright’s iconic Johnson’s Wax building and Research Tower.

Wright designed the house, built in 1905, in the Prarie School style with the main views toward Lake Michigan and turning a relatively blank face to the street. As with many of Wright’s houses, successive owners had made changes and also like others of his houses, the Hardy house had fallen into disrepair to be rescued by the current owner.

After a very informative tour Mark left us with George, the caretaker of our next Wright house, The Keland or Boyd house. Wright designed this house in 1954 for Karen Johnson, the daughter of Herbert Fisk Johnson of the Johnson’s Wax company. The house has seen many alterations designed after Wright’s death by architects at the Taliesin Fellowship so the changes remain true to Wright’s design and vision. Karen Johnson Boyd passed away earlier this year and the house displays her impressive art collection.

Not satisfied with seeing just two Wright houses we sped off to an appointment in Madison but not before stuffing ourselves with Racine’s famous “kringle,” a Danish sweet.

We’re burning lots of calories so why not have one more piece?

Our first stop was the Jacobs I House and Bill, the caretaker of this National Registry property met us. After giving us a little history of the house on a double lot in Madison, he took us on a tour inside. Jacobs I is an early Usonian design from Wright and again, it has been rescued from disrepair by its current owner. The house features many of Frank Lloyd Wright’s innovations – car port (he invented the name), track lighting, radiant heating, modular “sandwich” wall panels, exterior doors that open full width including at the corner and other new ideas. Bill confirmed the legend that the brick used in Jacobs I came from the cast-off pile at the Johnson’s Wax Headquarters that Wright was building about the same time. By using these bricks, construction costs were kept down.

Leaving Jacobs I we drove to the Unitarian Meeting House (1951), a building recognized by the AIA as a significant contribution to American culture. Wright’s father was one of the founders of the original congregation and Wright often spoke at the meeting house.

Inside the Unitarian Meeting House. Wright’s father was one of the founders of the original congregation and Wright often spoke at the meeting house. July 16th, 2016 in Shorewood Hills outside Madison, WI.

The Unitarian Meeting House, a building recognized by the AIA as a significant contribution to American culture. July 16th, 2016 in Shorewood Hills outside Madison, WI.

Not finished yet, we drove by the Lamp House, hidden away on an interior lot near the Wisconsin state capital. The building now houses U Wisconsin students and as such is in a pretty sad state on the inside.

This was a hard one to find, the Lamp House. But Ray persevered and here’s the proof as he poses with Maja.

We drove by the Gilmore House, also known as the “Airplane House,” but were not able to go inside.

After a much needed break for food at The Old Fashioned, where I was finally able to taste a Three Sheeps beer from Sheboygen (award winning beer from the son of an old friend of mine) we walked over to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. Wright designed the complex in 1938 and it was finally built in 1997. Some call it “ersatz Wright” since it was constructed long after he passed away but the building is unmistakenly Wright.

That was our exhausting day of total Wright immersion. On the way back to Taliesin we heard the news about the attempted coup in Turkey, news made more important to us since the President and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Stuart Graf, is in Istanbul for World Heritage meetings. We were all relieved to hear that Stuart is not in harm’s way and is doing fine, hoping to return to the US as soon as the airport in Istanbul is open for US carriers to fly.

bikewright 2.0

Biking tour across America to benefit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

Month: July 2016