Greetings from the northern Michigan woods, land of maple,
birch and white pine.
We are approaching the end of our 2nd week of
touring Michigan by bike. We spent our first few days here visiting Doug’s
family and playing tourist with Larry and Linda. We went to the Henry Ford Museum
where the current special exhibit is The Titanic, well worth seeing if it comes anywhere close to
you. It was also Navy Week so we toured a wooden schooner and a Coast Guard icebreaker.
It was great getting to see everyone again as it has been 5 years since our
last visit.
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| The siblings |
Our current route
looks nothing like our original plan. We did go north along the Lake Huron side
of the state, watching hundreds of hotrods in Frankenmuth and visiting good friends Rich and Jane in Rose City along the way.
We went as far north as Mackinaw City where we experienced an hour-long nighttime
parade of semi-trucks: lights, horns,
jake brakes and all. You had to be there to truly appreciate it! We spent a
delightful day on Mackinac Island where the only modes of transportation are
non-motorized – walking, horses and bicycles. We definitely fit right in. That
was our last dry, warm, sunny day.
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| Rail Trail north of Frankenmuth |
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| Rich and Jane |
The predicted cold, wet weather turned us south and west to
the Lake Michigan side rather than continuing north to Canada as originally planned.
Thank you, Jane, for recommending this route to us. It has been beautiful and
we have been pretty lucky so far with the rain which has mostly been coming at
night. We did get caught out in one thunderstorm with rain coming down in
buckets. It was a little more excitement than we wanted. Not doing much camping
as a result but tonight we do have a cabin on a lake just south of Traverse
City.
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| Huron National Forest leaving Rich and Jane's |
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| Lewiston |
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| Main Street, Mackinac Island |
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| Good Hart and one very delicious brownie! |
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| On the trail from Petoskey to Charlevoix |
From here we will be heading south and east back
towards Detroit hoping that the Indian summer will make another appearance next
week. Michigan drivers have been very courteous and most of the roads have really
good shoulders. We even saw a few bike tourists up north. We think they were definitely
heading the wrong direction since snow is predicted in the UP tonight! We have
seen a few fall colors starting to glow but will miss the peak of the season’s
color. It’s been a great journey anyway. As Wes from New Boston said, “The
journey is the destination!”
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| Doug and Wes |
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| Our route so far...as of Sept. 22nd |
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