Paul's Touring Blog

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Morning came, and except for a small part of the fly that the tarp didn’t cover, we were mostly dry. Damp, for sure, just from the 100% humidity, but nothing was sopping wet. Glad there were enough trees around to secure that tarp. While it wasn’t raining at the moment, the picnic table at the site was soaked, so we decided to head to the restrooms and then the ranger station to see what the weather was going to do and adjust our route if needed. The connections were very slow and we did get a “mostly cloudy, but no heavy rain” report.

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We didn’t linger on purpose, but it was hard to say good-bye to Pauly, and he made us kick-ass coffee in his variety of coffee machines (& yesterday, too; I forgot to mention that). I reviewed the route to our next target with him — Platte River National Park Campground — and he showed us a two-mile detour that would take us to a closed-for-business blueberry farm where you could have your fill of berries for the picking. I quickly added that to our route and Dana called to confirm a reservation in a rustic, walk-in site.

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“Rest” Day #2 (You’ll see why it’s quoted soon). Up early and at ’em, Pauly ordered us some great bagels and went and picked them up. You might have noted that Pauly doesn’t seem to cook — you’d be right, but as an airline pilot, he has a seventh sense for finding good, delicious, & healthy(ish) food. We sure enjoyed what he found and needed a good fill-up before starting today’s activities along M22 – as he explained it’s theme: “More than just a road, it’s a way of life!”

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I don’t remember much about leaving Barnes county Park campground except that it was a routine morning, save for getting water from a pump well. We did make coffee and had some breakfast, broke camp, etc. We rode back to the Torch Lake Inn’s coffee shop for another cuppa and some WiFi. Three of our four potential warm showers host in Traverse City had turned us down. I tried the remaining one who had indicated he traveled for work and might not be available. To our luck, we got an almost immediate response from Pauly accepting our request. Made for an easier day just knowing where we were going to be staying.

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We got up early to avoid the coming 8 AM rain. We woke up at 6:30 and started breaking down the tent and got on our way into Petoskey around 7:40. The rain did start, but it was a light drizzle, though we did eventually don our rain jackets. 

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Got up to a dry tent again. Our favorite thing; well, my favorite thing. Made coffee. Did our nature calls, broke camp, and in headed into St Ignace. 

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Ahh, warmth. Woke up in a nice warm bed, made coffee with a coffee maker, got our yogurt out of the refrigerator and had a nice breakfast while catching up on the weather. A cool start, but 9 degrees warmer today and not dipping below 60 tonight. We set our sites on St. Ignace and either Lakeshore RV Campground or the KOA.

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It was so nice to wake up and be able to just stand up without unzipping the tent door and crawling outside. It was a cool morning and we got our jackets on and went through the tent door to the bathroom. Made some coffee and breakfast, and greeted Mike again as he came to work and thanked him for all his help and the gracious use of his tent. 

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Another good night of rest, especially after the exertion of yesterday’s Grand Island loop. We had breakfast at the motel — coffee, yogurt, & pastries, and took our time getting going for our first ride where our GPS units actually list climbs — one at 289 ft and a second at 105 ft. Nothing compared to what we’re used to, but we’ve been very spoiled by flat rides so far.

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We woke up not really knowing what we were going to do today except that we were staying in Munising another day. The weather was iffy. It had rained last night, but just a couple of showers vs. the thunderstorms that were predicted. Today, rain was predicted at 4 and again later at 7. We (well, I) had decided last night to try to avoid camping in the wet. It was a busy weekend being one of the last of the summer before school starts, so everything was booked but I scored the one fairly inexpensive, relatively, hotel room left in town at the Superior Motel & Suites.