More Pasties and a Joe on his lawnmower...
I'd like t see the pasty hop... :-)
Me, no Budwiser and a bit more comfortable than on a lawnmower move further West on Rt-28, through Ewen, Matchwood, Topaz, Bergland, Merriweather, Tula, all the way to Wakefield where US-2 is coming up from Lake Michigan. I turn right to go West on it to the town of Ramsay that is the border-town to Wisconsin. At 4:20 pm I cross over the State-line and continue on US-2. But not for long, as I study the Wisconsin map I now realize that I should have gone a different way. I pull over and make a U-turn back towards the Michigan border. In Hurley I turn onto US-51 for just a mile or so then onto Rt-77. Then, hold it, am I lost again??? This is Montreal, but Wisconsin not Canada. I better call Harry Spehar and tell him that I'm in range and should be at his house in about an hour.
Passing through Iron Belt, WI...
In Mellen I take County Road GG to Clam Lake, a shortcut through the woods of the Chequamegon National Forest, to get back onto Rt-77. At quarter to six I turn North onto County Road OO towards Seeley. But not all the way. Harry Sperhar and Carolyn Senty have a beautiful house right here in the middle of the woods right by the American Birkebeiner Race-track. An ideal place for them to have a home away from Madison, WI.
Remember that Harry was also on the Cycle Zydeco ride in Louisiana earlier on my trip. And now I see him again. this time with his partner Carolyn, whom I haven't seen since last October. It is great to see her again.
First I had to tour the house and admire the changes since last time I was here, that was at the same time in 2005 after the Great Mother Conference in Nebagamon, WI. Now the first thing I noticed was a whole new building, a 2 car garage with an upstairs loft, okay the loft is still in the "raw", by that I mean unfinished, no insulation and no sheet-rock, a beautiful outside that matches of corse the existing house that they build in 2003. Then back in the house, there is the basement that got finished, a cool living-room to watch TV, s shop for Harry to play in, in the summer fixing the bikes, in the winter waxing the skis and all year round to hang-up all the pin-girl centerfolds from the Playboy Magazine... ahh, not really the last part!!!. lets move on with the tour, another bathroom was added and Carolyn claims that it is the nicest in the house now, off that is also another room with a sauna... boy now I really wanna come here in the winter!!! Two more rooms that are utilities, like the boiler for the floor-heat and radiators, hot water, well-pump and all that jazz. Modern and high-tech, and that in the deep woods of northern Wisconsin. It's good to be back!!! Ohh, did I mentioned the WiFi capability of this place now??? Hell yes, DSL with a wireless router, my heart-rate just went up, that means I can get some work done while I'm here, instead of going over to the Mooselip Java Joint in town. A real yodel for that!!!
After this big welcome, a beer in my hand a a few things moved out of the car it's time to enjoy the company and eat...
Grilled Chicken and Vegetables with a huge bowl of salad and another beer, Great food, Great company!!!
Friday, June 12th 2009, the start of the Festival of the Trails
I'm up by 7, ready to go back onto the computer, Harry is already tinkering around the house, he is really excited about this weekend, it is the weekend of the "Festival of the Trails" and he is is a big part of it, and I'm here to help him, that's why i had to be here by last night. Harry signed me up as a volunteer for this festival and so we have a lot of work ahead of us. After breakfast on the run, I help with setting-up the "easy-up" tents, to make sure that all is in working order. Four single tents and one double, one of the singles had a bit of a rip, but as long as it does not rain it'll e fine, the double one had some serious damage, one of the peak has a ripped seam, we have to figure out a way to glue or re-stitch it in order to have a working tent. We decided to glue it, Harry had some fabric-gue, glue. We clamped it down after the glue set and leave it like that for later. Now we have to get ourselves ready for a short bike-ride into the woods right here.
The testing of the "Easy-Up" tents...
Off we go on a little spin into the woods, some fire-roads, some ATV-trails and best of it some single-track, my favorite...
On the way home we stopped at the neighbor house, Chris is the guy who also made that Apple-pie, he is also the guy who build the garage and does all the stone-work, he is quite the guy, this Chris!!! Back home, a quick shower, a thorough body-check for ticks, these woods are full of them, and back to work. We check on the glue situation of the double tent, it's so so, we add some duct-tape for more strength and I make-up a little something out of cardboard to distribute the pressure at the peak of the tent, it works!!! Lets all pack them up again, load everything and lots more onto the trailer and into Harry's car.
We're just about ready to go... but stop, there is one more thing... there IS another piece of this Apple-pie that needs to be eaten...
After all it is 3 o'clock, Harry is hitching the trailer, Carolyn is loading-up her car while I'm eating my piece of pie...
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