The odometer says 3501
Mile stones: Two months on the road as of July 22nd, wow.
Sorry to have missed Bev's birthday on July 15th.
THUMBS UP
I crossed into Ontario today by ferry from Marine City, Michigan. It's a $1.00 ferry ride. Since my last post, I have completed the lower peninsula or thumb of the state with these stories to tell:
MY, BUT THAT WERE A LONG ONE.
Turns out that I will ride more miles in Michigan than any other state. Eight hundred and ninety three all toll.
PRETTY TOWNS.
As I made my way down the western side of the thumb I was treated to a number of picaresque towns. Harbor Springs and Petosky are two towns on either side of a bay on Lake Michigan which, again, remind me of Maine coastal towns without the smell of salt air. Lots of boats in the harbor, beautiful homes and plenty of nice (tourist) shops. In between is the state park with a beautiful beach and sand dunes. After the west coast I headed east through the center of the state. This is a treed and farm filled area that could easily be mistaken for Maine. (Wait a minute, does it sound like someone is homesick?) Smack dab in the middle of this otherwise rural area is the town ow Frankenmuth. An interesting German settlement with beautiful buildings and plantings and lots going on. I arrived on a Friday night and was treated to, perhaps, a dozen street performers. People were milling about enjoying the music and weather. A local restaurant was having an all you can eat steak and chicken barbecue. They lost money on me that night!
The town of Spring Harbor. Looks kind of like a town on the Maine coast, doesn't it?
Petosky State Park Beach. Looks kind of like a beach on the coast of Maine, doesn't it?
The town of Frankenmuth. Ok, this one doesn't look like a Maine coastal town.
MID-STATE.
The middle of the "thumb" looks a lot like, you guessed it, rural Maine.
Methodists mid-Michigan style.
Farming mid-Michigan style.
Ah, so there is a mushroom capital after all!
TRAILS.
I have had the opportunity to ride several trails during this trip. Many have been converted from former rail lines. On the eighteenth I rode 46 miles on the Pere Marqoette Rail Trail, a highway for bicycles. It's nice to spend some time away from traffic.
The Pere Marquette Trail. A highway for bicycles.
BOB GETS SOME NEW SHOES
A close examination of my tires in Traverse City led me to conclude that they would not make it to Burlington as I had planned. There was still plenty of rubber left but the casings were starting to come apart. I think that I may have had a bad set of tires to begin with. Shortly after I began my trip I noticed that the sidewalls were beginning to crack and as I went on the tread began to separate. Never-the-less, I got 2,800 miles out of them, that's enough. Absent any mishap the new tires should get me home.
Time to re-tire.
A TEA PARTY
I have been desperate. Desperate for a good cup of tea. Seems as if there's not much demand for lose tea across most of the country and I soon ran out of tea to brew. As Dave, a fellow biker from Scotland says,: "You cant get a bloody cup of tea in the States". Well, my good friends Bill and Lee from back home took care of that problem for me. The sent me a car package of seven different teas. I'm now set to make it back home!
Dave from Scotland - is he a vampire or something?
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