First, let me give a full throated "second" to your motion declaring pasties the Finest Food of All Time, bar none. You are truly a connoisseur of Iron Range cooking Greg. We keep a supply in our freezer at all times. Sadly, what we ate in Charlevoix - though tasty - cannot qualify as pasties. More of a pot pie.

And Good Lord I love the Freaks Nest suggestion. Unfortunately I cannot figure out how to drop images into comments/responses so I'll just say I wanted to add the cover image of a Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic book here to show my unbridled support for your idea. It even had Fat Freddy's cat. Freak's Nest ... Gold!

Dare I ask, were those "meat pies" pasties? Regardless of the cost of the various salads, pasties are one of the best foods on earth and are worth whatever price they ask.

"What would be the proper name for a group of bike tourists?" Since you asked, I'll go with "Freaks Nest." Yes, a freak's nest of cyclists.

I have three weather apps, four counting windy, and choose to believe the most favourable, which really proves that the optimistic are truly delusional.

That’s good to know. Two-lane highways and paved backroads in BC look very similar to that. I wish there was easily accessible traffic information available for them.

The unsung heroism of inanimate objects : - )

LOL!! You are spot on with Wisconsin county road designations!! Pick a letter, it's the name of a county road. Double 'em up (MM, CV, etc.) same thing.

My favorite urban legend relating to this is this: There is a long standing day ride every June called the Horribly Hilly Hundreds. Its a ride intended to find the absolute steepest climbs in SW Wisconsin and they do a heck of a great job doing that. The 200K option has over 9,000 feet of ascent. The name came, in part, because there is a county road in that vicinity named City. Rd. HHH. Legend has it that local riders used that prompt to coin the name "Horrible Hilly Hundreds." Love it!

Yeah, that's actually a poorly placed photo. It understandably misleads ... the shoulders on the two lane "highway" were really ample. That picture is from the back road we were on afterward and though that shoulder was pretty much non-existent there was hardly any traffic on it. Shoulders though .... its always a roll of the dice isn't it?

They are tubeless ready but we haven't quite gotten the courage to go that route ... mostly an "old dog, new tricks" problem.But we are right on the verge of having gravel bike frames delivered and our LBS will be building them, so we may take the plunge with them. But, you are a fan? Could you share your experience and any pro/con observations?

I love stories like this. It reminds me of the time I drove a mile with my coffee cup on the roof of the car, excited to find it still up there.

Thanks for the reminder, This brought back our ride across central Wisconsin last summer. Here’s a quote from the journal of our ride from Chippewa Fallls to Abbotsford:

“We make our way through a good share of the alphabet today, leaving town on J before quickly moving on to X. M, N, and MM came later, and we also cross paths with D, E, G, K, O, P, T, and XX. So you can see we had quite a full and exciting day of it.”

Is that what you mean by “adequate shoulders”? Shoulders like that are why I dislike riding BC highways.

Are those rims tubeless ready? If so, have you converted them yet? I love riding tubeless!

I just looked. I have 9 weather-related apps on my phone, all collected into one group on my Home Screen. I use YR most often, plus Environment Canada’s WeatherCAN most often. When they agree, I’m reasonably confident, but I clearly remember our overnight trip to a CycleBlaze meetup in 2018, when we got drenched even though neither service had any rain in the forecast for anywhere in the area. When they disagree, who knows?

Hmm…those upper lips don’t look very stiff to me. Poor doggies! :)

: - ) Coming at ya!!