click here for more photos
Jo Day 55: Woke up to a stunning orange sunrise at the crowded Betsie River Camp Site, Frankfort, MI, and started the morning with coffee (gulp, ahhh) and $1.09 pistachio nut muffins (what a deal). Kevin, Alan and John took off for their 86 mile day. Janut, Bob and I drove to "Gravity Hill" (on Putney Road just south of Joyfield Road) where Janut drove down the hill, stopped, put the van in neutral, took her foot off the brake, and proceeded to roll backwards UP the hill ... what a fun optical illusion! We did that a few times while the locals drove by smiling at us "tourists". Our next stop was the Arcadia Scenic Turnout, where the view of Lake Michigan looks more like an ocean...especially with all the different hues of blue. We stopped at a little beach in Manistee, MI (on Lake Michigan) and soaked up the sun. It was a beautiful day and Bob was allowed to frolic on the beach with us, so we took advantage of that. We looked for Petoskey stones, but no luck, however we did collect some more interesting looking rocks. We're not sure what we are going to do with all these rocks, but we must have them. We caught up to the boys and ate dinner at Club 37. Our camp site tonight is on the lawn in front of Alan & John's motel room at the Day Star Motel in Wolf Lake, MI...it's a friendly place...right on the busy highway. By Jo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kevin Day 55 Frankfort to Wolf Lake, MI. 86 miles. Another big day, and we have left Lake Michigan. Leaving Frankfort, we were immediately met with some good sized climbs-they reminded me of riding along the Oregon Coast in length and steepness, with occasional views of the water, in this case Lake Michigan, not the Pacific, although the lake looks like the ocean! Some nice sandy beaches, and some highway viewpoints were nice rest stops. We had our second breakfast in the town of Onekama at the M22 Cafe. Michigan state highway 22 apparently has some cult status, and all kinds of things are named M22. This makes the road signs attractive to some, and there's a problem with people stealing them, so the DOT is slowly replacing them with signs that just say 22, in hopes that people will leave them alone. We took a break at TJ's Pub in downtown Manistee, which looked like a Hollywood movie set-really nice and busy downtown area for a Saturday. Soon after Manistee we finally made the turn heading east and left the lake behind. Now we will cross the mitt and the thumb of Michigan through rural farmland. A dinner stop at Club 37, and tonight's stop in Wolf Lake. Tomorrow is planned to be a shorter,sub 60 mile day.
Jo Day 54: We all left the Whitewater Township Park in Williamsburg, MI...and headed west, north, west, and then south! Crazy itinerary for an eastward bound bicycle tour, eh?Janut, Bob and I took off to see the Grand Traverse lighthouse (not so grand, and not so tall...in fact the east/west boat traffic could not see the light until they rounded the bay), close to the lighthouse was an old 150+ year old northern white cedar tree, and there were some nice waves on Lake Michigan. Just outside of Northport, MI, we stopped at a roadside fruit stand and bought (honor jar) some fresh honeycrisp apples, peaches, and homemade chocolate chip cherry cookies. Yum! We strolled through Glen Arbor...we saw a pole with various shoes hanging on it with a sign that said "Lost soles", cute. Then just south of Glen Arbor, Janut and I did the "dune climb" at the Sleeping Bear Dune National Park...a cool view of Glen Lake and the sprinter van in the parking lot....we got to the top of the first dune but ran out of time and didn't make it to the water (another 3/4 mile or so away). Tonight we are camping at the Betsie River Camp Site in Frankfort, MI. It's very crowded...picture tents, trailers and campers all sitting on a grassy parking lot. But it's surprisingly quiet in such tight quarters. Today was John's personal best, he rode over 90 miles! Cheers, way to go John! By jo
Kevin Day 54 Elk Rapids/Williamsburg to Frankfort,MI. Today was a personal distance record for John-92 miles! The day started with nearly 30 miles on the TART-the Traverse Area Recreation Trail. We saw a bunch of old people on bikes on the trail-heck, they were older than us! I think it was a group from the Cherry Capital Cycling Club. We stopped a great bike shop near Traverse City; Einstein Cycles. They probably were glad we stopped, as we spent several hundred dollars on stuff while we were there. We continued along the waterfront of Traverse City, the the trail cut through farmlands to Suttons Bay where we had lunch at the PrimeTime Pub. Excellent burgers,and they served a Bloody Mary that could be a meal in itself. We saw someone order one-it really looks like the picture! After lunch was back on the road-reasonable riding conditions, and great scenery through Glen Arbor and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. At the end of the day we stopped at the Stormcloud Brewing Company in downtown Frankfort for beer and pizza. After dinner we rode the remaining 2 miles to camp at the Betsie River Campsite and RV park.
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.
