Day 53 Petoskey, MI-Williamsburg, MI

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Jo Day 53: It was a soggy morning for Kevin, Alan and John as they rode away from the Petoskey State Park. Cloudy all day long with a few rain drops here and there. Janut and I walked on the beach and collected what we think are Petoskey stones ... or simply Lake Michigan rocks ... for now we are calling them Petoskey stones until our geologist friends tell us otherwise. A squirrel jumped into the van and just stood there looking at Janut as she tried to shoo him away, she finally stomped her feet and the critter jumped out. Janut closed the van door and the squirrel sat there looking at the closed door...I think he just wanted a tour of the sprinter van like everyone else! Lunch was at the Bob-in-Again, a 50's diner (Bobby burger with American cheese, fries and a raspberry frozen custard). Tonight we are camping at the Whitewater Township Park, Williamsburg, MI (south of Elk Rapids), at a nice campsite overlooking Elk Lake. At camp we noticed that Alan's rear tire was worn through the casing threads...way way beyond repair...yikes...good thing he was able to change his tire before it blew. Still cloudy, so no star gazing tonite...just quiet zzzzzzz.

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Kevin Day 53 Petoskey to Elk Rapids/Whitewater Township Park 71 miles. The morning started off wet and soggy, and for the first time since Washington, we actually rode in the rain! Temps were in the 60's so it wasn't cold, but I was glad I was wearing wool as I was pretty comfortable all day. I couldn't take too many pictures today as everything was too wet to allow the touchscreen on my iPhone to work. For a PNW cyclist, conditions were "normal" ; for those from so.cal, maybe not. A new feature I'm gonna try to include on future postings is a pic of the day's map/route. Petoskey is a tourist town, lots of Victorian homes etc. Very cute. We rode approximately 20 miles on the Little Traverse Wheelway-a bike path from Petoskey to Charlevoix. Lunch was at the Bridge Street Ale house in Charlevoix. Good food and beer. In the afternoon we were back on rural back roads. An afternoon stop at the Oasis tavern in Kewadin, where the people were very friendly, and the beer was cold, but not good. I had a Hamm's Beer. Alan had a Shiner Bock, and John chose a white wine. One of the patrons there sold Uncle Smiley's beef jerky, and gave us a bag of it, because he thought we would need energy. After our stop there, it was an easy 20 minutes to the evening's campsite overlooking Elk Lake. Tomorrow we will ride to the Sleeping Bear sand dunes.