Update #20 - JUL 20, 2006
Gladstone, MI
4407 miles ( 7052.4 kms) since March 27th,
4899 miles ( 7838.4 kms) since Jan 01st

I'd never thought that I'd post two updates but something happened today and I think by writing about it my allow me to sleep tonight. The first half of the day went really well. Even though I got on the road a little after 8 a.m., I was still able to ride thirty miles in the morning. Because of a little tailwind, I was flying about 16 mph. There were a couple of times when I almost coasted up some hills.

About 12 miles west of Escanaba, I crossed into the Eastern Time Zone. Hopefully, my bioclock will get back into synch again. I stopped at a quick-mart for lunch. About two miles down the road, I hit a stretch of road construction where they were repaving U.S. 2. The main lanes of traffic had been repaved but the shoulder was still chewed up from the pavement grinding that they did. I had a bumpy five miles of riding. I wasn't able to get onto the repaved surface because of all of the traffic. I made it through the construction zone okay.

Between Escanaba and Gladstone, a railroad intersected with the highway and there was an underpass. There was a good paved shoulder to coast down but at the underpass the shoulder narrowed. I made it through the underpass but on the uphill slope and I had to swerve to my left to avoid a patch of dirt and stone. I tried to make sure that I stayed out of the main path of traffic.

Well, the guy in the car coming up from behind me didn't give me enough clearance. His passenger side mirror clipped the edge of my handlebar mounted mirror. The glass in the mirror shattered. My Guardian Angels were giving me some clearance because it was a miracle that my left hand wasn't hit since it was an inch away from the edge of my handlebar and the mirror.

The force of the impact did make me swerve into the patch of dirt that I was trying to avoid and I went down. It was lucky for me that I didn't go hard and I didn't go into the path of traffic. I got up very quickly. Of course, nobody stopped to see if I was all right. Praise the L-RD that no bones were broken. I did get two minor cuts on my left elbow but I didn't bleed much. I didn't have any ripped clothes and my bike didn't get any more damage except for the broken mirror. My elbow doesn't even hurt.

I still had about 3/4 of the mirror so I used some of the electrical tape that I had on the bike to fix it in place and I had to use more tape to repair the mirror mount. The mirror will have to work till I can do more repairs to it or replace it. There was a bike shop here in Gladstone but they wanted $14 for a new mirror. I'll just stop at a dollar store and get a small round make-up mirror and fix it into the mirror frame.

It was around 5 p.m. when I got into Gladstone. Because they have a campground here in Gladstone, I didn't think that I'd be able to connect with a minister that might have allowed me to stay in their church for the night. Even though the rate for a tent was kind of high, I bit the bullet. At least, they have free wi-fi at the campground.

I'll be riding to Manistique tomorrow. I think I still have some contacts there from the last time I was here in the UP of Michigan.

I'll try and post and update as often as I can if my plans change. The next update should be posted between July 27th and August 05th.