Hitherin Yawn

Today we are back on the Pere Marquette Rail Trail — which looks like it might take us at least as far as Baldwin, if not all the way to Ludington. We love these rail trails! This section so far has been a lot less busy than the Midland section. In the late afternoon, we…

We started before dawn today. The forecasters predicted afternoon temperatures in the neighborhood of 96°F/36°C, so we aimed to cover all the distance we could before noon. I’ve said this before, but some things just don’t photograph very well on a cell phone video camera. I wish I could show you how beautiful it is…

We began a long day with an innocent mistake that nearly cost us breakfast. But hunger didn’t slow us down; we still managed to put 29 miles on our feet before settling in … Okay, maybe we’re not quite “settled.” It’s hard to settle in during peak mosquito season. Even if they can’t find a…

I didn’t get very far today: maybe eight or nine miles from one end of Saginaw to the other. But today wasn’t about the miles. It was about the stories. I had an event lined up at the Saginaw Public Library — my first opportunity to spin yarns since that campfire session back in Ontario….

This morning we discovered that we had arrived in Frankenmuth, MI on the last day of the Bavarian Festival, just a few hours before the parade was scheduled to begin. We hadn’t counted on that. It might have been fun to hang around and soak in the festivities. But it had rained the night before…

For the second time this journey, we’ve stumbled across a long distance bike trail that six months of research and planning didn’t uncover. The first was the Canalway Trail that took us most of the way across New York State. This time it’s US Bike Route 20. Here in Michigan, Bike Route 20 runs from…

Led astray (again) by Google Maps, today we attempted to follow a rail trail heading out of Imlay City, only get mired down in muck. But no matter; we moved on, as we always do. In the afternoon, thunderstorms chased us across the countryside. We evaded them for hours by following a zigzag pattern, turning…

Rain last night. Rain tonight. And in between? Well, the weather forecast said rain, and as we all know, the weather forecast around these parts is never wrong. So what does a blue sky with a few puffy white clouds mean? I can only think of one reasonable explanation. And after watching this video, I’m…

It took all of yesterday afternoon and half of this morning, but we finally got away from the busy roads leading to and from Detroit. Life is quieter once you break free of the commuter corridors. Today we took detours along dirt roads, got to ring the bell of a former one-room schoolhouse (now the…

Well! We had a bit of an adventure crossing Walpole Island, Canada en route to the ferry that would take us across the St. Clair River and into Michigan. Google Maps did send us on the most direct pedestrian route, but Google Maps didn’t check the weather reports first. Still and all, we made it…