Coffee with a bicycle traveler

I had another Monday off today. The city of Duluth is switching all their utility meters over to electronic meters. Someone had to be home to let the installer in. I scheduled ours for today knowing I'd be around. The installer arrived at 9:00 am and gone at 9:05 am. At least I didn't have to wait all day for him to show up.

I needed to get some things to the post office as well as mail off some bills. I had a couple of boxes, so I took the Blue Truck/Xtracycle. Only a mile from home and I spot a bicyclist headed my way all loaded down with Ortlieb panniers. He pulled over and was studying a piece of paper. Knowing how confusing the set-up of Duluth streets can be to a stranger in town, I stopped and asked if he needed help finding something. He said he was trying to get to the bridge to cross over to Superior, WI. It was basically the same direction I was heading, so I told him I could show him. It'd be easier than trying to give him directions.

On the way to the bridge I found out his name was Brian and was from Madison, WI. Forty-five days ago he landed in Anchorage, AK with his bike and has been traversing Alaska and Canada on his way back to Madison. He was meeting his parents today in Superior and had some time to kill. He was looking for a coffee shop. I ended up going over the bridge with him and taking him to a coffee shop I knew of, but had never been to. He bought me coffee in return for getting him to Superior.

I wanted to hear his travel stories. However, we seemed to talk bikes more than tell stories. His trip seemed to have gone well except for some nightmare, shoulderless highways in Manitoba. He had never bike camped before starting on this trip. Amazing to me! The bike he was riding was a 1986 (or 1987) Schwinn Cimarron identical in color to this one. He had a nice set-up with fenders and a 1x6 drivetrain. Tubus racks with Ortleib panniers front and back. He said he acquired the bike in almost new condition and finished the build one week before leaving for Alaska. He did 70-80 mile days.

As I was looking over the bike I noticed it had the dealer sticker on it. It was from The Cyclery, in Lake Zurich. It was one of those "it's a small world" moments. I lived in Lake Zurich (IL) for 12 years. I graduated from Lake Zurich High School. It's a far northwestern suburb of Chicago. Weird!

Anyhow, he said the rough roads in Duluth had cracked one of his waterbottle cages. He wanted to know if there were any bike shops in Superior. I said no, but offered him the bottle cage on my Xtracycle. He took me up on it. There just happens to be a Artisan bread maker in the same building as the coffee shop that does gluten-free baking. Brain said he'd buy me something in payment for the bottle cage. Tuesdays and Thursdays is when they do there GF baking, so I didn't expect them to have anything gluten-free available. Turns out they had one piece of their Chocolate Decadence in the cooler. It's to die for, so it went home with me. I ate it later with some of the fresh strawberries we picked over the weekend. Yum, Yum!

What a nice unexpected turn to my day off. I've always found you have to be open to new things for new things to happen. I enjoyed talking with a real bicycle traveler in the midst of what is perhaps the biggest adventure of his life so far. It inspires me to keep searching for my own next big adventure.