Friday 8/7: day 6

 Well, I ended up liking Munising a lot more than I thought I would/remembered. This is dispute of/due to the blow up of tourism that’s happened there. It definitely felt like one of those towns on the edge of a national park (think I said that yesterday), but they have a cool downtown and outstanding views.

They were repaving roads downtown which exasperated alright present traffic problems. It took us 5-10 extra minutes to get into town on the first day and there was usually a long line of cars snaking through town.

You could even tell that businesses were unprepared/scaled up for the volume increase. We had pizza last night and while they had a system down, you could tell they were working like crazy to keep up with the orders.

This morning, too, we ordered breakfast at a coffee shop downtown. The cool stuff and drinks came up quick, but the egg sandwich took 25 minutes. They only had one, small griddle and simple couldn’t handle the influx of hungry tourists.

A shitty thing we’ve talked about a lot on this trip is how while we’re aware we part of this issue, there are a lot stupid tourists that just want their service and can’t think about it from other points of view. When I was sitting on a bench in town this morning, a guy came up and said “hey buddy, do you know if there are any restaurants in town?” I hesitated, thinking well, yeah. I said instead, “what do you mean?” And he responded “like you know, a place you can get an omelet for breakfast. They don’t have ANY place like that!” It’s insane.” I told him I couldn’t help him and he continued on the street with his family, still muttering about it. First off, I’m assuming there is, try using your phone? Second, if there is not or its full, consider the strain that hundreds of people are putting on a town that isn’t used to half this amount. They don’t just magically pop up overnight.

We did so a standard national park trick though and got up earlyish for a run (7), and ran down the park road. Very quiet, nice to be out there with minimal traffic.

Got out of town around 12 and headed for the long drive to Ashland. It’s amazing how much space there is between towns once you exit the Marquette sphere. Bruce Crossing is a major point, and it’s a 4-way stop.

There’s a reason we don’t race the noquimenom, although I’d like to someday.

Pit stopped in at a random boat launch for lunch, then again in Ironwood for coffee. Funny to see it in the summer, it looks so....bare.

I didn’t even recognize the finish line for the Sisufest, which was right across the street from the coffee shop. They were doing construction at the empty lot they finish in, which I sent a picture of to nick and said, i don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it. He responded, “stadium area for the finish maybe?”. Farmers market, I think, but duel purpose, perhaps.

Ashland is, and felt like the biggest town we’ve stayed in thus far. It’s certainly seen wealthier days like most of the rest Of them, but I like it’s vibe. Went for a double down to the high school, then we walked dash out at the ore dock-turned park, which is pretty awesome. South shores answer to the high line. In seriousness, it was cool to see how much of their water front they’ve reclaimed and repurposed.

Dinner at the edge water, no outdoor seating, so this was our riskiest event yet. Still pretty spaced out, but if it wasn’t the edgewater, I might have considered options. Poor logic, I know, but that was the thought.

We did however, get placed within ear shot of a fairly heated, and painfully ignorant political debate of a elderly lady, trump supporter, and a younger kid that we gathered was moving to Ashland for some reason. Hate to say it, but it was so hard to listen to this lady talk, that Kate got up and asked for another table (they didn’t have one) and it kind of killed dinner conversation.

I can’t remember all the quotes (probably for the best), but a few quips:

“No I don’t think Donald trump is racist, he’s got a black man in his cabinet after all.”

“This is America and people are free to say whatever they want. It’s called freedom of speech.”

“You know that all the money that black lives matter is raising is going directly to the Biden campaign fund.”

“Yes, but that was in the 1950s, things are totally different now days.”

“That’s while i like Wisconsin. They haven’t progressed! You can still go to motels and supper clubs and get a steak.”

I’m not saying I wouldn’t have moved if given the option, but I also debated with Kate that even though we’d NEVER change someone like that’s mind, it’s still necessary to hear their points and thought process, as messed up as we might think it is. I keep going back to the painful reality that 43% of the country thinks more or less the exact same way this lady does. Which makes me pretty dang depressed. But I also appreciated the young relative(?) for going after her and attempting to call her on it, even if he too, didn’t have great taking points.

I always hate to admit this too, but deLaubs is right, we are in a culture war right now and we have to win. Simple as that.