August 18 - day 54 Thursday

August 18 - day 54 Thursday
Start - Mackinaw City, MI
End - Gaylord, MI
Miles - 62 (Larry 49.8, Marcee 12.4)
Start Time - 930am
End Time- 820pm
Miles driven not ridden (about 10)

Today we rode the North Central Trail the entire way.  It is a Rails to Trails route that runs north and south.  It was a nice break from the road but it was a little more difficult to follow in spots.  After sleeping at the Cheboygan, MI Walmart parking lot and getting breakfast at McDonald's we headed out of the parking lot and ran into a guy (not literally) walking his dog who had given us information about the trail the previous day.  His name is Pat.  He was nice enough to answer a few more questions and we gave him one of our cards.  Then it was off to Mackinaw City about 16 miles north after a brief stop at the police station to pickup the police report from the day before.

I rode the first 16 mile stretch to Cheboygan.  The trail was active with bikers a couple of runners and one person walking their dog.  I met Marty and Joelle who were biking part of the trail and chatted with them a little while.  They are from Detroit and Marty has a dream of biking across country like we are doing.

Marcee was all set to start biking from Cheboygan but when we pulled her bike down it had a flat in the back.  We tested it last night after we dinged the door at the car wash and it was fine.  We put in a new tube and Marcee rode less than two miles and had another flat in the back.  At this point we switched and I rode the next couple of stretches.  We also saw Pat in the Cheboygan parking lot.  He was getting ready to ride.

Marcee rode again later in the day, what we did was to switch out the rear tire on my bike for the one on her bike so she was able to ride.  Time to get more tubes in Ann Arbor.  My sister setup a newspaper interview for us so I spoke to Dennis from the Daily Telegram in Adrian, Michigan for about 10 minutes. 

Tomorrow we plan to ride for a while and then pickup the bike and head to Ann Arbor!