Two Great Lakes

Day 112, July 22, 2011, Two Great Lakes!

Route from Bay Harbor to Tee Pee Campground Mackinaw City, MI

58 miles, averaging 13.5 mph

Worst Moment – It’s the mosquito coast here. No matter how much Bull Frog I’ve got on they keep swarming.  

Best Moment – There was a bicycle path all of the way from the RV park to north of Petoskey with great views of Lake Michigan and absolutely no cars to worry about.  A cyclist’s dream!  And it was cool – the mid 70’s.

As of the completion of today’s ride, I’ve cycled 8,000 miles.  (Actually it is 7999.2 – so that’s close enough to boast that I’ve cycled 8000 especially considering that I don’t always start the bike computer when I start riding so I’ve lost a few miles here and there.)  Today’s ride was mostly along the water, with only a little climbing.  It was relatively short and I got to the RV by about 1 pm.

Harbor Springs is a wonderful waterfront town.  The bicycle path along Beach Drive gave me the chance to see some fantastic beautiful mansions that have been converted to bed & breakfasts.  Next time we’ll have to do the B&B tour and make this one of our stops.

One of the really interesting places that I saw today was Legs Inn.  It is a Michigan Historical Site.  Located in Cross Village, the inn was built by a Polish immigrant in the 1920’s and gets its name from the inverted cast iron stove legs that are used on the roofline.  It is still owned by the same family (third generation) and is supposed to be a fairly good place to eat.  (Though, there wasn’t anyone around when I cycled past.)

Mackinaw City is a perfect summer place with all kinds of things to do and more motels per block than just about any place I’ve seen.  (An amazing thing is that when Neita and I returned from dinner, many of them were filled.) The town lists fudge as one of its industries along with tourism.  We counted more than 15 fudge stores and am certain that we missed a few.  (This was on the, not more than 8 block areas of main street – more fudge shops than Seattle has Starbucks.)

The campground is located on Lake Huron and looks at the Mackinaw Bridge.  I’ve now seen 4 out of 5 Great Lakes.  Guess Lake Superior will have to wait for another time.

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.