2017 MinnWisMi - Grosse Ile, MI to Toledo, Ohio

Monday, October 16 - Grosse Ile, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio
Time to head home. Larry and Linda have been totally spoiling us and now they are driving us to Toledo so we can catch the train early tomorrow morning.

It was another beautiful sunny day but chilly. Our timing might be just right. It took about an hour to drive and it would have been a whole day on the bikes....we are still in a bit of a bike tour time warp.

We had dinner at their favorite Toledo place. Tony Packo's was made famous by Toledo native Jamie Farr's references to it when he was on "MASH" as Klinger.

It has had a lot of famous and interesting people stop in over the years. The tradition of signing hot dog buns was started by Burt Reynolds in 1972. Since then people have signed a foam replica of a bun and they line most of the walls.

The view from our motel room.

Thank you Larry and Linda for everything!

We start heading west tomorrow. Thank you Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan for sharing your friendly people and natural beauty with us. And keep up the good work on your bike/ped aspirations!

2017 MinnWisMi - Grosse Ile Family Time

Saturday, October 14 - Grosse Ile
We talked until 1am so it was a pretty slow morning. 

Linda fed us a breakfast fit for cycling 50 miles but, of course, we weren't planning to do anything on the bikes today.

We did go check out their latest sailboat, new since we visited last time.

They spent most of their summer sailing in Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay.

C'est Nous! (It's Us!) is in dry dock now getting ready for winter. 

We did do a little hiking in the refuge on the very southern tip of Grosse Ile.

A new addition to downtown Grosse Ile.

Alas, we did not have an appointment so window gawking had to do.

We spent the evening with Linda's extended family for their annual theme dinner.....this one was Greek food.

Sunday, October 15
We started the day with Larry and Linda's parish family.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church

The rest of the day was family day too. Doug's sister Denise, and her family; husband Joe, kids Robin and Josh - always a delight!

Jim's daughter Laura and her gang of guys - husband Chris, Alex, Ryan and comedian Andrew.

Jim and Lori. It was so nice to see those beautiful smiles and get to know her, at least a little bit.

The Three Musketeers. The stories and laughter flowed all evening. Linda and Donna were hoping that Lori would not be overwhelmed by all that information!

2017 MinnWisMi - Ann Arbor to Grosse Ile

Friday, October 13 - Ann Arbor to Grosse Ile
This is always a bittersweet day, the last day of a bike tour, ready to go home but not quite ready to stop exploring.

This part of Michigan seems to have more bike paths now than when we were here 5 years ago.

This one took us south past the Ann Arbor suburbs.

We have our rainjackets on only for warmth as it is dry....

 ....despite looking very cloudy. We are headed east now along Belleville Lake. Last time we took the road on the north side of this lake but never really saw it because of all the big houses along that shore.

The town of Belleville was all dressed up for autumn.

After Belleville, we followed the bike paths that link 3 parks along the Huron River. Our sound of the day was jets coming and going from the Detroit Airport

Lower Huron Metropark

They really, really want you to walk your bikes over these railroad tracks.

Willow Metropark

Oakwoods Metropark

This is new, a path from Oakwoods to Flat Rock. Last time we had to use a hole in the fence that a local told us about to get out of the south end of the park

Huroc Park Walking Bridge above the Flat Rock Dam

This part was so new that some of the road crossing ramps weren't done yet. It took us almost all the way to Gibraltar. There was also work being done on a path along Jefferson Ave. to link the parks and International Wildlife Refuge along the Detroit River.

Grosse Ile Parkway bridge

The Detroit River on a very fine autumn afternoon

We walked this section!

Larry and Linda (Doug's brother and sister-in-law) met us on their bikes and accompanied us for the last half mile to their house (after lots of smiles and hugs). It was a wonderful way to complete the bike part of our journey. Visiting with family and friends (Larry, Linda, Jim, Lori, and Paul) over dinner was frosting on the cake!

2017 MinnWisMi - Jackson to Ann Arbor

Thursday, October 12 - Jackson to Ann Arbor
It is dry with only a slight breeze....hurray!

The first state prison completed in 1841.

The "Inside"

It looks like a castle but this massive wall is part of the prison.

You can always tell it is October because there are pumpkins everywhere. The end of a tour is always an interesting time to talk to people. The first week of a tour the total mileage is pretty modest but on the next to last day when the answers is "about 1,300 miles" people look at you with incredulity. When we went in this market to use the restroom after talking to a couple of guys outside, our story had preceded us and we were treated like minor celebrities.

The Michigan train museum. We didn't really have time to stop as we wanted to get to Ann Arbor early in the afternoon and were just a little spoiled by the one in Green Bay.

Our lunch stop in Chelsea. We spent the night in Chelsea on our bike trip 5 years ago and have very fond memories of the Jiffy Mix, Teddy Bears, and fancy flamingos.

There we go! Donna just happened to look at her odometer while we were stopped at a red light.

The dryness lasted until the outskirts of Ann Arbor.

Just a little farther down the road we found a little dryness and cuteness in a local quilt store.

We wanted to revisit the Fairy Doors in downtown Ann Arbor but were first distracted by this hat which is at the other end of the scale!

The view outside Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea 5 years ago.

The view today.

The fairy door inside Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea 5 years ago.

Inside the coffee shop today....  a little new construction here too!

One of our favorites from 5 years ago.

A whole fairy homestead has been added next door.

Do you see them?

It was a whole store of "Life Is Good" shirts. Only have to carry it one more day....but we have so many t-shirts already........but these are so nice....probably won't see another one like it.............maybe a picture is enough. Well....I (Donna) didn't get this one but ....

....I did find another one that I just couldn't resist 😊

Sadly, this was the case at a couple of former fairy door locations.

The site of our last fairy door for the day, or so we thought at the time.

Notice the tiny chairs inside the door.

There was a Penny Stamp Art Lecture starting in a bit so the entrance was a really busy place even though our pictures don't quite show it. Ingrid chatted with us while waiting for a friend to arrive. She guessed that we were on a fairy door quest. She also told us that most of the older retail stores downtown have gone out of business due to the Amazon effect which is why some of the fairy doors have disappeared.

Our route to the motel took us right past the University of Michigan campus at 5:00. There were pedestrians EVERYWHERE! It was hard for us to get past this crosswalk on our bikes so you can imagine how long the cars were waiting.

Look what we found waiting for us when we checked in!