Wisconsin, Michigan & Ontario

 6/30 :  To Milwaukee

Short (33 mi), but hot ride to Milwaukee.  Best Western has no laundry, so... had to improvise and change in a laundromat restroom to get the wash done.  After that was out of the way, went over to Leon's for a Butter Pecan Frozen Custard 

My hotel is about 5 miles from downtown, so I rode down for dinner at Amalinda, a nice Spanish / Portuguese place.

Skirt Steak

7/1 :  Cross the lake to Michigan   

Ferry departs @ 6:00 AM... had to check in by 5:30, so woke up around 4:15 to make that happen.

Setting Sail at Sunrise

Arrived in Muskegon, MI @ 9:30 (1 hr time zone change) and had breakfast at a Muskegon diner that was having its debut under new management.  It was somewhat chaotic, but they muddled through somehow... then headed out to Grand Rapids.  Most of the ride was on dedicated paved bike trail.  

Had a late lunch of Fried Chicken at Tupelo Honey, a "southern comfort food" restaurant downtown... then proceeded to my hotel near the Grand Rapids Airport, about 8 miles from center city.

7/2 :  Owosso :  

A 78 mile hard ride over crappy roads.  Not much else remarkable.   Michigan roads are mostly horrible.  There was a parallel bike trail, but it was crushed stone, so the going would've been even slower than braving the crappy road.

The politics of this area is kind of what you might expect from rural Michigan.  Here's a sample

7/3 :  Auburn Hills:  

This is a Detroit suburb which has a lot of automotive buildings, but also a huge Amazon warehouse complex.  Again, shitty roads and a lot of broken glass.  Got a flat about 0.7 miles away from the hotel, so I just walked the last mile and repaired the flat in the hotel.  My tires (Schwalbe Marathons) are very hard to remove, so I ended up breaking 2 of my 4 "unbreakable" tire levers.  Fortunately, I also brought an additional lever that seems to be truly unbreakable, and managed to get the tube patched and everything put together for the July 4th ride to Canada.

7/4 :  Ferry to Canada: 

Algonac is a small town on the St. Claire River that has the only ferry service to Canada.  It goes to Wapole Island, which is mostly inhabited and governed by the Wapole tribe (first nations).  Many of the island's businesses are marijuana dispensaries.  From the Ferry landing on Wapole island to Wallaceburg, where I was staying, is about 20 miles.    One side-benefit of arriving in Canada on the 4th of July is that most restaurants / businesses were open.  It ain't a holiday here.

7/5:  To London

78 mile ride to London.  Left late since there was rain that didn't clear out until about 10:00 AM.  Mostly flat.  Some tailwinds.  A lot of farmland, not a lot of people.  There was, however, an interesting farm store/bakery/cafe (Parks Blueberry Farm) about 1/3  of the way there... lunch time.

London seems to be a little worse for wear since the last time I came through town (2019).  I think Covid took its toll.  I see way more homelessness than I remember seeing last time.

Dinner at The Works, a burger joint downtown