digging in

(Note:  See my Flickr page for more pictures)

Its no secret that we don’t put the miles on our bikes like a lot of our friends do.  We got knocked all out of sorts with my ankle surgery followed not long after by Nick’s broken arm.  And in recent years, our hobby count has continually expanded and its hard to make time for biking, running, music festivals, brewing, sailing, kayaking, smoking meat and general geekery .. and also keeping life under some kind of control.  We just don’t ride like we used to.

But we rode a lot on our one-day trip to the Keeweenaw, for us.  We drove home happy and a little cooked.  So, we decided to ‘take a break’ and go for a trail run on Monday after our Keewenaw trip.  My legs were still pretty angry about the 2 mile uphill on the IOHT a couple days earlier, but there’s nothing like the North Trails at dusk.

Our friend Bruce rides with a group of guys every Tuesday night.  Once every fall, they take their ride to Bruno’s Run.  Last year we were invited along and it ended up being our last and one of my most favorite rides of our October trip.  So, I was happy to have been invited back this year.  Being earlier in October, it was much less chilly this year – which was awesome.

The ride was followed up with pizza and beer at a newly opened brewery in Munising.  East Channel Brewing Company is normally closed on Tuesdays, but opened special for us (the owner is a mountain biker and was on the ride with us).  And what a treat that they did!  East Channel is a very cool little place and while I only sampled a couple of their beers, both were very good.  I definitely recommend checking it out.  They don’t have food, but there is a Main Street Pizza just down the street.

A rainy Wednesday allowed for some much needed downtime, but an early morning alert had us out of the house by 6:30am the next day to chase some northern lights.  While we didn’t see any lights, we were treated to a pretty beautiful sunrise at Little Presque Isle.

We went back out to Little Presque later that night to try again, but still no luck.  We did, however, run into my parents at Vango’s when we stopped in for dinner on our way home, so that was also a nice treat.  I love running into them in town like that but it makes me long for the time when this will be our life all the time.

Feeling right at home in our little rental here in Marquette, we had a couple of houseguests for the weekend.  Since Carlos couldn’t make it the following weekend for Nick’s birthday (more on that next time), he convinced Mike (Soupy) to meet him here for the weekend (Soupy (Mike) lives in Chicago, Carlos lives downstate, MI).

We’ve been friends with Carlos and Mike (Soupy) for years and before Mike (Soupy) moved to IL, we rode together and hung out often.  But he’s been out of state for awhile now and it was so nice to have this time to catch up.  Both he and Carlos were lovely houseguests and it was really a great weekend.

Neither of them have spent much time in the UP, and Soupy (Mike) had never ridden in Marquette at all.  So, it was a whirlwind weekend of eating, drinking, biking and sight seeing.  Carlos rode all of our legs off, and we forced him to be a tourist in return.  I’m pretty sure a good time was had by all.

Unfortunately, while hanging out at Little Presque Isle on Sunday evening, our dogs got a little bored and found some mushrooms to eat before we could stop them.  By the time we got home, they were both drooling messes (seriously, it was like faucets pouring out of their mouths).  Some googling of “dogs eating mushrooms” had me worried enough to call an emergency vet.  I’m happy to report that they are both fine and I’m pretty sure we’ve found our new Marquette vet 😉

Carlos and Soupy (Mike) were so great through that ordeal.  They just hung out here at the house while we took the dogs to the vet, drinking beer and waiting for us to get back.  They were both happy to just get take out from the Superior Mobile Koney truck and a growler of beer from Blackrocks to enjoy at home while watching the LCD Soundsystem concert recording from Bonnaroo.  Love those guys.

While I rarely mind hanging out with a bunch of guys, I’m excited that the boys are both working to get their wives to come with them next fall 🙂