Tonight we are bunked the mid-Michigan town of Mount
Pleasant. It’s not exactly my hometown (East Lansing)
but when you’ve biked from Oregon you wonder how you
got so close so fast.
We biked out of Ludington, Michigan at about 7:00am
this morning and traveled about 115 miles. The weather
gods continue to smile on us. It was very cool and
mostly cloudy this morning. There was a fear that the
rain jackets were going to get their first workout.
However, the rain never came and it was mostly clear
and nice in the afternoon. The 115 miles went by very
smoothly except for one short but nasty construction
zone and there were actually some tailwinds. This is
the last scheduled century for this trip. Will we miss
them? Nah!!!
Yesterday was our quasi rest day. We all gathered for
the wedding at a nearby city park in Manitawoc, WI at
10:00am. It was a very nice, informal, non-traditional
ceremony with just a very few family members and about
70 bikers. Nobody did the hokey-pokey, the chicken
dance or the macarena. The wedding actually had some
dignity despite the fact that the groom was wearing
shorts and a t-shirt the was printed to look like a
tux.
We then boarded the good ship “Badger” which is a
ferry boat that was put into service in 1953. It is
still a coal fired steamer but a pretty nice ship,
considering. The trip across Lake Michigan took about
4 hours (we think). Because we lost an hour due to the
time change, we’re not sure when we arrived in
Ludington but we did get there. The “seas” were calm
and it was nice to find a comfortable chair, turn on
the iPod, read a book and nap.
Tonight, my parents, my sister Joanne and her
husband Don and my sister Kathy drove up for a visit. We
all went to a steakhouse for dinner and had a great
time catching up on things. It was a real nice break
from the routine. Joanne brought us some cookies and
we’ll probably kill those off before we get down to
breakfast tomorrow if they make it through the night.
(Marie is asleep right now so maybe I can finish them
off and tell her I left them at the restaurant – Ray).
Tomorrow we have a 75 mile ride to Birch Run,
Michigan.
We’re rolling in more ways than one. The bikes are
performing well, the bodies are holding up and the
morale is good.
Hang in there with us.