April 14, 2024 to April 15, 2024
Between Sunset And Sunrise
I prematurely ended yesterday's post at the point where I took a nap on my campsite's picnic table. So much happened later in the day that I felt the need to write about it in a post of its own. I admit that it doesn't take anything truly exciting to make me feel the need to write about it. I just like to write stuff. That doesn't necessarily mean anybody is going to want to read it.
Speaking of writing, this so-called "Fun Overnight Bike Ride That Just Happens to Precede an Upcoming Tour" could be called an actual "shakedown ride" after all. Considering how the Pulitzer Prize committee has snubbed my bike touring journals for two consecutive years, it's clear my journaling skills need some shaking down. Here's a quote from a Northern Michigan University English professor whose name I have long forgotten.
"If you want to get better at writing, you have to write."
She encouraged us college freshmen and freshwomen to keep a daily journal. Back then, I laughed at such silliness but she might have been right. While I still don't keep a daily journal in my regular life, I do like to write a little something whenever I travel. It's fun, and Cycleblaze provides me with opportunities to write about my bike travels and post them online for the Pulitzer committee and the entire world to see.
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True to the heading at the top of the page, today's post begins at last night's sunset. It was very pretty. In case "very pretty" isn't descriptive enough, I took a picture.
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Sunsets happen every day, but I'm still fascinated by every one of them. I kind of wish they'd happen two or three times per day. I was disappointed when last week's solar eclipse was obscured by clouds. Here in Minnesota, it wasn't going to be a total eclipse anyway, but I'd have been happy with seeing a partial eclipse.
This evening, I watched the sun go down and was heartened by the idea that I had just witnessed a total eclipse of the sun. In this case, it was the horizon--not the moon--that caused it.
The sunset/total eclipse was only one of the highlights of the evening. I eat a lot of snack food on my bike trips but on this night I was looking forward to preparing a very SPECIAL campsite snack. It's a snack that's as much fun to make as it is to eat.
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1 month ago
4 weeks ago
I think Jiffy Pop went off the market for a while, but I'm glad to see it's back. That stuff is way better than micro-wave popcorn. I should know because, as a celebrity chef and former Iowan, I'm an expert on all things related to corn.
THE CHEF G. COOKING CHANNEL: CORN: Iowa's Crop, America's Vegetable (chefgcooks.blogspot.com)
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The sky darkened quickly after sunset, and the air cooled commensurately. I cranked up some music from my phone, but I quickly got bored of it. The quietness of the campground was so much better.
This campground has 27 sites and they are so spread apart that no site is visible from any other site. Even if the sites weren't so well-spaced, there aren't any other campers here anyway. All the weekend campers are gone. I haven't heard human sounds for several hours. I've only heard sounds from the wind and a few songbirds.
When it got darker, three deer wandered into the area. My phone takes pretty poor pictures in low light. The color gets washed out, but I'll post my photo of a deer anyway.
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I hiked around the huge campground for a while, checking out the other sites for future reference. I came to the conclusion that mine was one of the nicest ones.
Before long, the air got so chilly that I no longer had enough clothing to keep me warm. It was time to retreat to the tent. I love the feeling I get just after settling into my comfy sleeping bag. It's a most satisfying feeling somewhere between comfortably cold and comfortably warm. Or maybe it's the satisfying feeling of being cold, but knowing you are soon going to be warm. Whatever the feeling was, I was tired and fell asleep quickly.
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I woke up a few hours later. Despite having all my warm clothing and cozy sleeping bag, I was frozen. Worse than that, I had to get out of my cozy sleeping bag to pee.
Outside my tent, I did some kind of jumping jack/high leg kick/deep knee bend-type exercises to warm up my body. It worked. After urinating in the bushes, I marveled at the bright moon and stars in the sky. And the total silence was magical. It was as if a big Church of the Great Outdoors vacuum had sucked every bit of sound out of the air.
Eventually, I had to go back to bed. It was an uncomfortable night, but it gave me fair warning that I'll have to bring more layers of clothing to the Upper Peninsula--especially if I stick to my plan of going in May. Last year, Marquette--the Queen City of the U.P.--had a two-foot snowstorm in the second week of May. "Surely that won't happen again this year," was my thinking as I shivered in my tent.
I did manage to fall asleep, but I woke up again at first light. I emerged from my tent, jogged in place to warm up, made and drank a cup of coffee, and then went for a hike in search of a good place to view the sunrise.
Thank you for reading this interlude. Tomorrow, I'll tell you about my ride back home.
Today's ride: 2 miles (3 km)
Total: 20 miles (32 km)
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(Yes, we have several thru-out the house) :)
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