"Bicycle Lifestyle" Web Event

I don't usually promote bicycling news but I thought a few of my readers might be interested in this:

On November 22 & 23, Darren Alff of Bicycletouringpro.com is hosting a web event called "Bicycle Travel as a Modern Lifestyle Choice".

Info from the website:

"The event, titled, “Bicycle Travel As A Modern Lifestyle Choice,” will take place on the weekend of November 22nd and 23rd and will feature a jam-packed schedule of articles, interviews, videos, and live Q&A sessions having to do with bicycle travel, commuting, and lifestyle design. The event is aimed at anyone interested in learning how to use a bicycle to change the way they live, work and travel.

Event participants include:

- The Adventure Cycling Association
- Author, Joe Kurmaskie (The Metal Cowboy)
- BikeCommuters.com
- Bike Friday
- Canadian Best Selling Author, Ted Schredd (The Cycling Adventures of Coconut Head)
- CrazyGuyOnABike.com
- CycleAware
- Entrepreneur, Yaro Starak
- Gene Bisbee
- Momentum Magazine
- Road ID
- WarmShowers.org
- Writer and World traveler, Chris Guillebeau"

Summer 2008 Bicycle Tour - July 6, 2008

July 6, 2008 - 3 miles

The night before was mostly uneventful. I sat near the beach watching the lights along the shoreline and playing games on my cellphone. At one point, a policeman came around to patrol the area. I explained what I was doing there and he was fine with me waiting there. I would've tried to get some sleep but I was worried that I'd miss the ferry. Eventually, the sun began to rise and I decided to wait over by the ticket office.

An hour or two later, the ferry pulled into the dock and began to unload passengers from the midnight ferry from Manitowoc, WI. I spotted a few bicycle tourists: one solo female and a group of four Asian people. I should've said "Hi!" and asked them about their trips but I'm a social dumb-dumb when it comes to introducing myself to strangers. So, I waited and people-watched until it was time to board.

For somebody who's never been on a boat larger than a pontoon, wandering around the ferry was fun. It's huge, like a miniature cruise ship. There's multiple seating areas on the boat. Of course, there's the outside deck area where you can watch the water. (Which is kind of boring since it's miles of endless water.) Two were set in front of televisions that people could watch during the four hour trip. In another, guests were playing a game of bingo led by one of the crew members. Another was mostly used as the dining area for the buffet.

After looking around for a bit, I made my way over to the buffet and grabbed breakfast. The food wasn't great. It reminded me a bit of school cafeterias but it was free and filling.
Afterwards, I found an open booth and fell asleep throughout most of the crossing.

When the boat landed, I grabbed my bicycle and looked for a hotel. Eventually, I found one and caught up on sleep.

A view of Ludington from the ferry's deck.

Another view of Ludington

Summer 2008 Bicycle Tour - July 5

July 5, 2008 - 64 miles

When I woke up, I slowly started to pack up my tent and sleeping bag. About halfway through, a small vehicle similar to a golf cart pulled up and the driver inside started up a conversation.

"Hi! Did you find us on your maps?"
"Kinda. It was on the maps but I just sorta stopped when I saw the sign."

The driver was the owner of the campground and introduced himself as Uncle Dick. He told me about some of the previous bicycle tourists that had stayed there including one couple in their 70's who had been in the middle of a coast-to-coast tour.

"Want a ride around the campground?"
"Sure."
"Hop in."

He drove around the grounds, stopping every now and again to chat with the various guests he encountered: two cheerful twenty-something women, a few members of a large group of twenty- or thirty-somethings, and a young family.

When I cycled in the night before, the site struck me as rather small. But, it was much larger than I had thought. '3 acres,' the owner told me. A few minutes later, the vehicle ended up back at my campsite. We said our goodbyes and I finished packing and set off again.

Around 8pm, I arrived in Ludington and did a little cheer. There were two highlights of this bicycle tour that I had been looking forward to. One was Mackinac Island and the second was the ferry ride across Lake Michigan from Ludington, MI to Manitowoc, WI. I maneuvered my way across town and found myself near the port where the ferries would dock.

When I was planning this bicycle tour, I hadn't really planned to bring along a cell phone. But my very nervous mother had suggested I buy one and, to calm her fears a little bit, I did. I also promised to call her at least once a day. (Which didn't really work in parts of Wisconsin where there was no coverage but oh well.)

And, so, near the ticket office, I called her. We spoke a little bit about what I had done during the day and various other things. Eventually, the conversation turned to safety and security and I nodded my head politely* and occasionally muttered out an "Mmm-hmm, yes, yes....Oh, of course!" Then, I spotted something near a bush.

*Which is kinda pointless when you're on the phone.

"Oh! A kitty!" I squealed into the phone.
"What?"
"There's a cat out here!"
"Pfft, are you listening to me?" she said while laughing.
"Oh, yes, yes. Of course. Go on." I said as I rummaged through my bags looking for edible things for black-and-white outdoor cats and half-listened to her go on about Very Important Things.

Eventually, I hung up, made a reservation for the next ferry ride across the lake, and set off to look for a hotel room. There's all sorts of hotels and motels and B'n'B's along Ludington Avenue. On most other days, it would've been easy to find one. Unfortunately, I didn't account for the fact that it was the day after a major holiday in a tourist town. I went up and down the street and all but one sign read "No vacancy." Oops. I knew there was a campsite a few miles out of town that might have a vacancy but I had already made the ferry reservation and didn't want to miss it. The only place that did have a vacancy was priced at $290/night. 'Umm, ouch! I'd rather sleep in the city park!' I thought. And, so, I did.

By the time I ended my search, it was 11pm. Ludington has a public beach very close to the main part of town. I propped my bicycle on one of the buildings, sat down and waited until morning.

Ludington at night

The S.S. Spartan

Looking down Ludington Avenue

The Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery

Some people are fabulous at writing about their daily lives. Me? Not so much. If I tried, it would turn out something like, "O Hai! I completed 12 quests in WoW today. 'N I suck at Dance Dance Revolution. Kthxbai." It's easiest for me to write about the structures and locations that surround me. So, I headed out today to take pictures of a place more interesting than me.

The Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery looks out-of-place. Enclosed by a rusted, beat-up, wrought iron fence, it occupies approximately 4 city blocks. Inside the fence, a small stone caretaker's cottage, trees, and scattered and, often, off-kilter tombstones line the green grass and mark the graves of some of Minneapolis's earliest residents.

If it were positioned out in the country, it'd just be a slightly spooky place. But it's located in the middle of one of the most developed parts of the city. It's surroundings include a modern strip mall and a state-of-the-art YWCA built just a few years ago. Nearby, a large industrial brownstone with a tall smokestack towers over the area. I think it's a factory. I can't say for sure. Lake Street, on the cemetery's southern border, is constantly clogged with traffic even late into the night. Cedar Avenue, on its western border, is almost as active. When it was first established in the late 1800's, it probably wasn't located in such a populated area. But, as the city grew, it expanded outward and surrounded the cemetery.

One of the few local ghost stories that I've heard of actually comes from that cemetery. A friend of mine in high school lived only a few blocks away and would often walk past it. One day, she and a friend of hers were walking past when she noticed something near the caretaker's cottage. When she turned her head to look closer, it was gone. She stopped and asked her friend, "Did you see that?" "Yes," he replied. After a short conversation, they realized they had both seen a group of nuns near the cottage standing in a circle as though they were playing "Ring Around the Rosey"

Before today, I knew very little about the cemetery's history. I only did an internet search about it because I was curious about the place. The organization that supports the preservation of the historical site has a website at http://www.friendsofthecemetery.org/ and it is awesome. My favorite section is the biographical sketches (under the history tab) of some of the people who were buried there. There's some fascinating people in there. From John Cheatham, one of the city's first African-American firefighters, to Della Stokes, a "woman of the underworld".

Taken from the southeast corner of the cemetery.

I think this is a caretaker's cottage.

The cemetery is closed to visitors from October to April so I couldn't go inside.

This was taken a few blocks away at the Lake Street light rail station. You can see how urbanized this area of town is.

Summer 2008 Bicycle Tour - July 4, 2008

July 4, 2008 - 62 miles

I would have liked to have stayed in Traverse City. It's a moderate-sized city that looked like a fun place to wander around. And, as I was leaving the city, people were setting up stalls and tents for the day's 4th of July celebration. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any rooms or campsites for the night so I kept going.

When I was looking at maps the night before, I thought Highway 31 would a straighter shot to Ludington so I tried to take that route but, at one point, the shoulder dropped off and I had to walk a mile. On quiet country roads, you can often ride in the street and listen for the sound of approaching cars but that's not possible on a busy highway with cars zipping past you at 60+ mph. Later, the shoulder dropped to a thin strip and I edged along it slowly and nervously. Near Interlochen, I gave up and went back to the route outlined in Adventure Cycling's maps.

Spent the night at Peterson's Cabins & Camping. (Only $5! That was a relief for me and my quickly draining bank account.) I almost didn't stop but it was nearing 8pm and I didn't want to end up pedaling through the dark like I tried to near Escanaba. I was warned that one of the groups at the other end of the campground might be a bit loud and rowdy. If they were, I never even noticed because I was fast asleep by 10pm.

I love the sky in the photo above.

Augh!

*dies a little inside at the first snow of the season*

Returning to Blogging

So, now that I've driven 90% of my readers away with my absence, I think I'll return to blogging. See, there's this phenomenon amongst people who go on long bicycle tours or backpacking trips. Once the trip finishes, some of us fall into a mild depression. For however long your trip took, you had something new and exciting to do every day. Over the next hill was a town you'd never seen before or you hit a new personal record in miles bicycled or walked. Once you return, that disappears. (Well, we could do the second one at home but I was more entranced by the next town over the hill :-) ) I wasn't getting all emo about it but my motivation to blog died for awhile. But maybe I can kick back that discontent a little bit by blogging about places around Minneapolis-St. Paul like I was doing before the trip.

I might also take a class at one of the community colleges during the spring semester but I don't know how bloggable that will be. Or if it'll make my head explode after being away from school for eight years. :-/