Today is a layover day. The layover actually started last night. Dinner is not furnished on the first evening of the layover so the first thing to do is find a place to eat. This is not always easy in a small town.

Next job is to collect all your cloths. Most of them will be wet. This includes the ones you put on. Find a place to wash them and dry them. This may involve a 3 or 4 mile walk – or maybe it just seems like 3 or 4 miles. Then repack everything and throw away things that the rain has killed.

Clean and adjust the bike. Make any repairs required. Make any tent or clothing repairs. Some tents do not seem to do very well. They will not stay up in the wind. Some of the poles break. Some of the fabrics rip. Some of them leak. Some are hard to put up in the wind. Write letters.

After all the got-to’s you then can phone the people you need to contact, explore the local area and take pictures of anything interesting.

In the evening you attend the tour dinner and ride meeting. You meet the new people who are joining the tour and maybe have time for a little socializing before going back to your tent.

Once back at the tent you check that everything is ready for the next day. Once the week begins all you do is ride, eat and sleep; so you don’t want any surprises or problems.

One thing you learn on the bike is that this country of ours is not very uniform. Within fifty miles you can see major changes. Even crossing a state line is like entering another world.

We went through several small towns. Three deer were seen. Very few animals had been killed on the road. Ferns were growing along the side of all the roads. Trees or fields were past the ferns.

The farming is mostly hay. Most of the farms are operational. The farm buildings seem in fair condition. They do not match those in Minnesota or Wisconsin.

Farwell seems like a nice little village. The term township is starting to show up.

About 35 miles outside of Scottville we passed through an area that had developed in the 1950's. It had been a lake summer resort. Most of the buildings had been summer homes of working families. They would have middle class workers. With the decline of industry in the state, the economy of this resort went into depression. The buildings are all closed up and falling down. A few residents live there in complete poverty. The community structure has completely imploded. It was shocking to see an area so low. We have not seen an area this far down in other states.

Our meal tonight will be prepared by a local group. These meals are the best as we get the feel of the local area.

We went through towns that were doing well. The houses were well cared for and the yards looked nice. There are not a lot of new homes being built. We did see a new home going up that was being built with beams and wooden pegs. Rivers and lakes abound. We had lunch at lake Huron.

As we went from one county to the next it changed. In one county all the lawns were being mowed by men. In the next county women were the only ones mowing

The farming is soy beans and corm with a little hay. On the back roads logging trucks travel. The logs cut in the area look like they are for paper.

We are starting to see more people riding bicycles. The cars do not give us as much room as they did in SD. More cars honk at the riders. The roads have improved over the last several days.

The town we are staying in is just like a large Disneyland without the rides. It is a theme town. The theme is German. There are a lot of good restaurants here and a lot to see. Some of us will tourist around a bit after dinner

Hands and bottom are adjusting to every day riding very slowly. The roads have an effect. For several of us, a Diet Pepsi keeps us going to the end. When the tent is up and everything put away and ship shape, we go and get a diet Pepsi

Each day the country changes. We had had ferns along the roads yesterday. Today we have cattails. The lawns on the farms that were mowed were less then 1/2 acre. Today they are 4 to 5 acres.

We went though a very historic little town, Fostoria. Many of the nice buildings date back to 1840. There was also a newer development (early 1950) that copied the style of the 1920's. It is like the world stood still.

The raccoons in this area are dark brown with black rings. The western raccoons are gray/tan with dark brown accent. They also have white and black ring and a white accent face.

Richmond is a nice town with some new development. The only problem is that the drivers try to hit bicycle riders. A Richmond tow truck driver forced a rider off the road and told him he wished he had killed him. Not good for the tourist industry.

Tomorrow we enter Canada.