 | July 23 - 29, 2008 - Michigan |
Wednesday, July 23rd was our first day in Michigan. It was sunny and cool, when we hit the road. The country roads were in a good state, the hills not too steep and many flowers were alongside the roads. In short: It was fun to ride. We made a short stop in Freesoil for a sandwich and a coffee. We had lunch in the Big Bass Lake Area. Our plan was to stay in Wolf Lake, which was a surprisingly small town. We had cycled through before we realized it. We had another small motel room. When we walked to the grocery, we ran into a family of four on their bikes. They were from Michigan and had just finished (nearly) a tour around the Upper Michigan Peninsula.
| Freesoil |
| Freesoil City Park, where we have our second breakfast |
| Wolf Lake |
Thursday was a long ride via Luther and Le Roy along Hwy 11 to Farwell.
After 16 miles in the morning to Luther, we had a nice breakfast with 3 other
riders from Michigan, who were on a week-long tour around their state. The next
stretch to Le Roy was surprisingly hilly. We came through Amish country. At the
intersection of Hwy 66 and Hwy 115 we had a longer rest, before we made it over
18 miles on a small shoulder and strong traffic. We had a tailwind and no hills
which made for "chain right". The only motel in Farwel was 2 miles out
of town, so we ordered a pizza delivery.
Friday, July 25th was a pretty easy day. In Clare we started onto the Pere Marquetta Rail Trail, which was wide, paved, traffic free, and with no hills.
By noon we reached Midland, a town for a rest day. It
took us some time to find a reasonably priced motel. Besides the usual routine
(laundry, internet, maintenance) on Saturday (July 26th) we visited an Antique Car
Show on the nearby fairgrounds.
On Sunday we were again on the road. With pleasant tailwind we made it to Bay
City. Surprisingly we did not find any cafe open in Downtown. But finally we
found the American Legion Post # 18 with a cheap breakfast. When we left the
Post, a man approached us, telling us he liked our bikes and the setup. He was
planning next summer to start with the Panamerica Road in Alaska.
Wow!! Via Fairgrove we made it fast into Caro, MI.
| Midland antique show |
| Near Caro |
| Gravel road shortcut |
On Monday we wanted to ride to Imlay City, a bit off the route from ACA, via Mayville to North Branch. While I waited for Maren to pick up some drinks at the nearby gas station, I saw another couple on bikes two hundred yards at the end of the town just taking off. Although it was our direction, I did not hope to catch up with them. We were very surprised when we saw these two bikers again after a couple of miles. They rested in the shade, because it was a hot day. But we had to rest too. They did not seem to have seen us so far. Finally at a gas station we caught them, when they refilled their water bottles and camelbacks with ice. We knew each other!
We had met Cindy and Joe Basta in the moment of our departure in Whitefish,
Montana on June 13th. What a surprise. They were also on a short detour to Troy,
MI to visit friends. It could well be that we run into each other in Wallaceburg,
Ontario in two days. We made it into Imlay City easily and I got another beard trim.
Tuesday started with two miles on gravel, but an important shortcut. Via
Riley Center and Memphis we headed for St Clair, MI. At an intersection of
two highways was a gas station. We pulled in to get something to drink and saw a
Tricycle as a tandem with an attached BOB-trailer! What a rig!!!! The people
were
from Rochester, NY and heading west. They made about 40 miles a day. On the
climbs theywere extremely slow (3 mph). But they had a great time. We exchanged
road maps. I got one for the Buffalo/Niagara Area where we planned to be in a few
days.
In the early afternoon we arrived in Marine City. When we inquired about the only motel in town, we ran into a guy named Mike. He not only helped us find the motel, but he also invited us for a short motor boat cruise along the St.Clair River in a nice 30 years old Chris-Craft Cruiser, wonderfully restored with mahogany wood. We had a nice cruise along the river. Mike is a retired captain of one of the many ships on the Great Lakes. Most of the time he hauled coal from the West to the nearby power plants in St.Clair. After he delivered me back to the motel he also invited us for dinner.
| Marine City |
| Chris Craft Cruiser |
| Mike and Joanne |
In the evening he and his friend Joanne picked us up and brought us to a very fancy restaurant where they treated us with a fine meal and wine/beer. Joanne is working for the oil industry. We had a wonderful relaxing and interesting evening with those two and we found two new friends. Thank you again, Mike and Joanne!!
