Moronacity

There are days when you think nothing is going to go right. I have many days like that. Maybe it’s not so much that things don’t go right, but they don’t happen at the most convenient time.

This year, I’ve been working on slowing down my driving. I like to drive fast, but I don’t like being late and I don’t like buying gas. So, allowing myself more time and taking it slowly has become more enjoyable for me. This luxury was not afforded to me come Saturday morning.

The Copper Country Cycling Club’s Fall Color Tour had begun. It was fast approaching 10 a.m., and I was already running late. I arrived at the cycling house to pick up the food and other related items along with two more volunteers to haul to Copper Harbor. I couldn’t find the pasties, though. I called the person in charge and found out that they had to be picked up from the store (this was not part of the plan). I rushed to the store, got the pasties, and hit the road with tires ablaze for Copper Harbor.

Relief was slowly setting in when we hit Covered Road. That meant there were only about eight or nine miles left. We started passing cyclists on that road and I felt the sense of urgency to get to town to set up lunch for their arrival. Then it happened: a long lineup of cars was stopped waiting for the cleanup of an accident. I didn’t have time for this. I turned around and backtracked a bit to an alternate route through Eagle Harbor.

We safely arrived in Copper Harbor and began setting up the food. We weren’t quite ready when the cyclists started rolling in just five minutes after. The bananas quickly disappeared and were soon left with just pasties. I felt the cyclists needed more than that, so I rushed to the store and bought things for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and plenty more bananas. The riders were pretty happy when I announced the arrival of more food.

After the SAG wagon came through, my helpers (yes, there were two other people with me this whole time) and I headed to the Harbor Haus for lunch, beer, and raspberry cobbler. Yum. I felt wonderful and was quite happy to just sit there and enjoy my meal. I was quickly getting into Copper Harbor mode when I realized that we had to rush out of there so two of us could get to a wedding. Pathfinder racing resumed down US-41.

We arrived at the wedding only ten minutes late. Nothing was missed and the rest of the evening went well. Lots of beer was consumed, conversation had, and sleep lost. Saturday was not a good example of convenience, but more a tale of perseverance.