29-30 August 2014

From yesterdays day of fishing in Big Bay de Noc and our overnight stay in Ogontz Bay we pulled up anchor pretty early and headed south and west into Escanaba, MI. With the shortening days we’ve needed to adapt our schedule to get up and going by 9AM. Dawn is now at 7AM and getting later each day. We are also going to need to get back into our early days to make it through the locks on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

We got into our slip around noon and got all nestled in. The crew of Northern Lights that we had met in Fayette were at the dock. I chatted with them for a few minutes.

We biked into town. Just past the marina entrance there is a marker titled “Sun” with some info about the Sun. A little farther on was one for Mercury.

When we got to Jupiter we stopped for lunch at the nearby “Hereford and Hops”, a local brew pub. We were both pleased with our meals and the dinner option of Mongolian BBQ looked pretty interesting. They had a wide selection of beers, so a return visit to try more was in the cards!

After lunch we did some errands including a grocery mega shop. Our last one had been in Sault Ste Marie about two weeks ago. We are good for another 10 days or so on staples. Our next sequence of places are all marinas and with the exception of the one on Sunday, all are in larger towns. It was a little weird for me, the boxes are all back to being just English text, I had gotten used to the dual language (English/French) boxes in Canada.

When we got back there was a 1986 Bayliner 4588 docked next to ours. Debra Christine was a boat that had completed the loop in the early 1990′s. They had gone with their friends on the Tuscano, docked a few slips away from us. We talked about their experience on the loop and how they thought the Southeast part of the US along the coast was the prettiest section.

For dinner we biked back to the “Hereford and Hops”. The Mongolian BBQ was good, they had an extensive selection of food items to put into the stir fry mix. I also got a chance to try two different kinds of beer, their stout and IPA. Both were very good, I was impressed.

From dinner we rode a few more blocks into town to see the town center. There was a bike shop, a chance to get slow leaking inner-tubes replaced.

The marina was host to the Cabela’s National Walleye Tour, so Friday morning I got up early to watch the event. You can read all about it here. While I was doing that, Susan took her bike on a tour of town and got a massage. Most of the day it rained off and on so it was a good day for me to catch up on blog posts and Susan started getting the last 19 days of videos uploaded.

The crew of Northern Lights had suggested “The Stonehouse”. We took a taxi there but found that the wait would be over 90 minutes. Susan had spied “Ferdinand’s” on the way, so we walked a few blocks back. Turns out it was a great choice, the Mexican dishes were some of the best we’ve ever had.

Saturday morning was more rain and fog. With 100 fish boats out in the fog we decided that staying here was a good choice. By noon it has cleared off some. We took our bikes to “Mr. Bike” to get new tires and tubes. Lunch was at “Rosie’s” the breakfast / lunch diner in town. Susan had a great burger and I had cups of the “Stuffed Green Pepper” and “16 Bean and Ham” soups. The green pepper soup reminded me of Mom’s stuffed green peppers.

We picked up our bikes are were very impressed with our new tires. The bikes seemed to roll much easier on the ride home. I’m hoping that the new tubes will stop the need to pump up the tires every time we ride.

Saturday afternoon was more fish contest for me and more photo / video stuff for Susan.

Susan had the foresight to make reservations at “The Stonehouse” for dinner. To start we had the “Angry Shrimp” and boy were they angry! They were on the edge of too hot to eat. Next time we will go for the “Slightly Annoyed Shrimp”. Susan had a huge piece of prime rib with Mac&Cheese on the side, I had the short-ribs with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Both were very good.

Dessert was from the “Donut Connection”. In theory a good plan, in practice, since they close at 8, buying donuts at 7:30 does not mean you will get fresh ones. We treated the taxi driver to jelly donuts which surprised him.

Sunday we are of to Sister Bay, about a 5 hour trip. I’m hoping for calm waters.