But hope at times is a brick falling from the brain into the heart. The boy walks off into the woods. The girl sighs when the shot spins out of the rim. The brothers and sisters and wives and husbands slouch at the table with anger. The turkey is rough and dry. The gifts suck.
Yesterday, after being forced from the road by brutal head winds, I was hoping today for a tailwind. I said that when I turned east at Escanaba (in Song of Hiawatha, Longfellow describes how Hiawatha crosses the river "the rushing Escanaba") I said that when I turned east I hoped to have a tailwind as I headed into the Upper Peninsula. But hope fell from the saddle and tangled itself in the spokes of the wheels.
When Gary and I got up this morning, it was still cold, the sun was bright, the sky was blue, and the wind was almost without a breath. We rode the 15 miles to Escanaba pretty fast, sometimes hugging the shore of Green Bay, sometimes crossing idyllic creeks and rivers, and sometimes riding deep in forests without a sense of the nearby expanse of water. What was it like? The two of us riding through this section of Michigan? North on HWY M? Until we picked up HWY 2? We're like boys riding our bikes in summer. But it is cold. What was it like? It was like a winter summer day.
It was even a beautiful day. Lunch at the Swiss Pantry in Escanaba was lemon meringue pie. Gary found $70 on the road, he took it to the police station. If not claimed in 90 days, the police will send him the $70. The day was Dylan Thomas.
But hope fell from the saddle and tangled itself in the spokes of our wheels. When we turned east into the UP and started toward the Little Bay de Noc, the wind turned from the east, and there we were again being pushed back as we tried to go forward. It's not that the wind was brutal like the day before. It's not that we were forced off the road. We got to our camp here on the east side of the bay. Our tents are pitched. We showered. We had a good freeze-dried dinner. I'm in my tent now listening to Einstein on the Beach by Phillip Glass. The installation of a new fence at home went well. Life is good. Tomorrow there will be sights I've never seen. Gary and I will be biking into a New World.
Hope, of course, springs eternal. The brainy boy will return from the woods, he will get a girl even more beautiful. The girl will sink a foul shot to win a game. The family will laugh and hug, they'll be happy, they'll eat delicious turkey, they'll exchange simple but wonderful gifts.
Gary and I are hoping to be across the UP by Monday afternoon. We want to celebrate Memorial Day at a state park under the Mackinaw Bridge. (We've heard the park is beautiful.) Tomorrow we'll be looking for small flags to attach to our bikes. We hope to ride across the UP with flags waving.
Follow the BALM.
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| Ford River |
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| Swedish Pantry, Escanaba, MI |
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| Little Du Nuc Bay |
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| Vagabond Campsite |
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| View from tent |
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