Day 1
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Duluth, MN to Superior, WI
8.7 miles, 0h41m, 12.9 mph
Elapsed Time: 0h44m, Max speed: 24.6mph
Total Climbing: xxxxft, Max elevation: 740ft
Total mileage: 8.7
Finally back on the road again.
We woke up this morning at 6am and were at the airport by 8am.
Things
weren't looking too good when I got on the flight and found I was
jammed
in next to the 300 pound guy, and there was a dog in the row in
front of
me. But the 300 pound guy was able to move to the exit row and
the dog was good all the way to Detroit. Then on the second leg from
Detroit to Duluth the plane was nearly empty and I had my own row.
The weather was beautiful in Duluth when we arrived, and we rented
some
kind of SUV at the airport and Linda drove me to the bike shop.
My bike was ready to go. So we
threw it
in the back and headed across the harbor to Superior for the
Anchor
Bar. I had been tipped off about a remarkable hamburger they
have
there: The Galleybuster.
Galleybuster and fries
Yes, that's a triple hamburger,
each
patty a 1/3 pounder, for a total of one moist, greasy pound.
They
should have called it the Widowmaker. Well, I was pretty hungry.
We'd
had no lunch and it was about 2pm by our stomachs (1pm local
time). So it went away.
Actually, we ordered one burger between the two of us. Linda
managed to
eat slightly less than half of her half, so I ate a little over
3/4 of
a GalleyBuster. If I'd had to I could've devoured the whole
thing. And
now we know the secret of how I can exercise for at least four
hours a
day, every day for two weeks and still not lose any weight. By
the way,
the burger was very good with fried onions, and the fries were
excellent.
If you're ever in Superior, WI, here's the place with the
ginormous
burger.
Actually, it's kind of a dive.
After consuming the burger, we
headed
back out across the harbor into downtown Duluth. We quickly
found City
Hall and I got my gear together and set up the bike. Today's
plan was
to ride back into Wisconsin to the Holiday Inn Express.
The official start photo. You can see the effect of the
Galleybuster on
my jersey.
I'd ridden a good 400 yards before
I
realized I'd forgotten to clip my maps to my handlebar stem.
Then as I
was digging out the maps I discovered that I hadn't attached by
bike
computer. I am way out of practice. Eventually I got myself
squared away and
continued along. The streets of industrial Duluth are pretty
lousy,
almost as bad as Jackson, MS, but at least here they have the
excuse of
harsh winters.
Soon I found my way to the big bridge and bike path across the
harbor
(I forget the name). It was both the literal and figurative
high-point
of the day.
As good as it got today.
Some token industrial decay.
I bounced my way through the dirty
and
busy main drag of Superior, and at the other side of town I
reached the
Holiday Inn. And despite dire warnings to the contrary, I did
not lose
any part of the Galleybuster into the harbor.
Tomorrow the ride begins in earnest. It should be more than 80
miles to
Bayfield, WI.
Next
"Great Lakes Tour 2009" Copyright © 2009 By
Bob
Clemons. All rights reserved.