Day 8, September 16; Tower to Virginia on Four Wheels

9/16/26; Zero miles.

Surprise? Bad weather? Exhaustion? Boredom? None of the above. After arriving in Tower from Aurora on the 12th, we looked at our planned ride back from Tower to Virginia and the forty-plus miles to retrace most of our ride there on the Mesabi Trail. The auto route back on highway 169 is only about 23 miles. While highway 169 has high speed traffic, it also has broad shoulders. We have ridden such roads for short distances comfortably many times before in our tours. The options did not make a lot of sense to us. Bob decided to join the local version of an “everything-about-our-community” site. After prompt approval, He posted our interest in hiring somebody to drive us here to Virginia after our return to Tower from Ely. Cheryl responded a couple of hours later; we quickly reserved her time and Silverado pickup for this afternoon. No guilt, no apologies. 

It has been a beautiful day. We enjoy planning details of a trip months in advance, but we usually enjoy just as much the unplanned deviations from our plan that are integral to our memories.

Alas, we do have a paucity of photos to share: both of us with our road-angel, and Marney with Jen who has been both our air-b-n-b host and our host for two breakfasts and one lunch at her restaurant downstairs. Look closely at the latter image to glimpse an abstraction of Sasquatch, the local "Big Foot" legend.







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