Written by Nancy

Day 64 – July 31 – 81 Miles, 1,040 feet climbing (Frankenmuth to Port Huron KOA)

Today was a long hot day, though thankfully pretty flat (hence the title).  We left our little motel room about 7:30, after taking advantage of the complimentary continental breakfast.  Chris ate the rest of the liver pate from dinner on a bagel for breakfast – Dave and I had to look the other way to avoid any breakfast mishaps.

The temp was actually pretty comfortable when we hit the road, though you could see the humidity in the air making things appear foggy across the fields.  Right near our hotel we passed the ‘famous’ Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland store, one of the other big attractions in Frankenmuth.  Unfortunately it wasn’t open yet, but they had a massive parking lot so it must get busy.

The ride today wasn’t overly scenic, though the farmland riding this morning was nice.  It reminded us a little bit of the Minnesota landscape, though the stalks of corn are higher, we are seeing lots of signs of sweet corn for sale, and the area seems a bit more populated.  By mid-morning the temperature and the humidity were rising, and it was uncomfortably sticky when we stopped riding.  We passed Otter Village, where we intended to stop last night and then made our way to North Branch, where we made a quick stop for cold drinks, and to ask about a road closure that we’d seen signs about.  A local in the store gave us directions for a different road that would take us around any potential closure.

We stopped for lunch in the small village of Yale, at an old-fashioned A&W.  An icy cold root beer hit the spot, and for once the inside wasn’t arctic chill from the air-conditioning.  About 5 miles after leaving the A&W we got on the Wadhams to Avoca Trail, an unpaved trail that we rode for over 9 miles and that took us close to our home for the night.  I was a bit concerned that the trail would be thick gravel and slow us down a lot, but it was pretty compacted and the last 3 miles or so turned into pavement – yeah!

A quick stop a grocery store for dinner supplies and we were shortly at the Port Huron KOA, our destination for the night.  I know we said no more KOAs after the last experience but this time we are here mid-week, and we got a little cabin with air-conditioning.  It is much quieter than the other KOA we stayed in so perhaps the reputation of KOA is salvageable. 

Tomorrow we head into Canada, where we will spend 3 nights making our way to Niagara Falls.  After spending a night on the Ontario side we will cross back over into the US.  I think we are in for a few more days of humid hot days and maybe some thundershowers.  We are camping for the next three nights, so it might get interesting.

Finally, happy birthday to Dave today!  No cake this year but maybe I can get him an ice cream cone or something over at the store as a substitute.