Lake Michigan, Rail Trails and Canada.

We continue to meet sweet people along our way, like the man who was sitting by us in a small cafe, and bought our lunch when he found out we were bicycling across the country.  We stayed with such gracious hosts the night before we crossed Lake Michigan, who provided us with a gourmet meal, and a hearty breakfast on the morning we had to wake early to make it to the ferry.  Our first glimpse of Lake Michigan was through a cloudy haze, and it was beautiful, as it's massive size blended into the horizon.  The ferry ride was great, and the first thing we did was go into the quiet room and take a nap!  The crossing was 4 hours long, so we had plenty of time to rest, relax and take in the aura of the last coal fired steam ship ferry still working in the US.  

Our tour through Michigan was like a love-hate relationship.  Either the roads were sweet and indulgent, as in paved bike paths for miles and miles, or cruel and abusive, as in gravel shoulders, rough patching and rude traffic.  We enjoyed an entire day of 80 miles or so on rail trails that ran through the quiet countryside.  However, the side roads were almost impossible to ride at times, and some of the main roads had only gravel for shoulders. 

We had another interesting chance encounter that led to a beautiful place to stay one night.  The process went something like this,,,,

   We looked up hotels online for a small town called Memphis, Michigan. Only one was listed, so we called the number that was advertised. The lady who answered said the hotel hadn't been operating for several years now, and we had reached the bar that used to be attached to it.. Tino asked if there was a campground in the area, and she said she didn't know but she handed the phone to a guy named Ed at the bar, who said we could probably stay in the city park. When we got to the town, we stopped at the bar and asked for Ed, and bought him a beer while he told us that he forgot there was a blues festival in town, but if we wanted we could stay at his parents' place in the gazebo by the lake, to which he gave us directions.  We arrived completely unannounced at Ed's parents' place, introducing ourselves by saying, "Ed said we might be able to set a tent up here for the night."  Without even raising an eyebrow, Clyde, Ed's dad, simply nodded, and showed us around the place to the bathrooms, showers, and chicken coop, from which came the fresh eggs we ate the next morning.  Sweet!!!

     We had heard that the Sarnia Crossing into Canada was busy and could be a bit sketchy for cyclists, so we decided to take a 40 mile detour and cross at Marine City with a ferry going across the St Clare River. We stopped at a pub for burgers and drinks before a short ride on the car ferry into a quaint, small town called Sombra, Ontario.  The second half of the day was more difficult, as we headed north again to Sarnia, since we had a pretty heavy headwind, along with bad smelly air from the refinery, making it unpleasant.  But after a good night's sleep at our host's house we woke refreshed and pushed on to a campground that night, then to Rob and Rhonda's place, old friends and welcome faces as we rolled into Cambridge. Enjoying some much needed r&r with good friends before we head out for the last leg of our trip.

Our ride across Lake Michigan, The Badger.

Oh yeah.....

Another state line!

Beautiful rail trails.

Almost impossible roads..trying to share this with traffic on a loaded bike was an adventure, for sure...

A chance encounter leading to a beautiful place to pitch our tent for the night!

Happy to be "home".... For a few days, anyway.