The ferry ride was smooooooooth and after a four hour ride we landed in Ludington at 7:00EST. A new time zone!!! We moteled it in Ludington and went out to eat at the ‘House of Flavors’!!!!

The following morning as we were getting ready to leave Wade noticed a bulge in hiss back tire. He has Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires just line Denise and many of the rest of us. Denise has had two side wall blow outs and now it looks like Wade is the next in line. He bought a new tire today.

Mark, our resident engineer, thinks low inflation may be causing too much pressure on the sidewall and causing them to weaken. We rarely check our tire pressure!!!!!

. . . oh it looks like there are pipeline issues in MI too!!!

. . . this sign will get your attention, it got mine. I had seen LOTS of groups of deer crossing the roads between corn fields, especially early in the morning. The fawns are so cute as they scamper behind and between their mothers.

The ACA Northern Tier route is part of the nationwide bicycle trail system. Two of the trails go through MI. We will be following Route 20 and it is WELL signed. Almost every intersection!!!

. . . saw this grasshoppa’ only 10 miles into the MI heartland.

. . .’more Midwest nice’ filling in of rumbles strips. I am beginning to think maybe stop sign rumble strips have fallen out of vogue!!!

. . .Smoochie . . . if I can find about 20 more of these there might be a nice waist length jacket in the making for you!!!

Right outside of Free Soil there was this memorial to a fallen State Trooper . . .

Ron told me Trooper Butterfield was shot during a routine cars top by a ‘young punk’. They authorities eventually caught up with him up around Dudley, there was a shoot out, he was wounded and arrested. Sentenced to life in prison, he hanged himself in prison,  a year later . . .

. . . what a name????

. . .Ron, the local historian, (Kim the C-store owner not shown by choice) told me his mother appeared on Channel 9 about 10 years ago and stated the town is named after a defunct political party named Free Soil. Going to need to look that one up!!!!

. . .the MIchiganders are looking out for you . . .

. . . living the good life in MI!!!

LOTS of gun and no trespassing signs in MI … more so far than we have seen in any other state . . . why???

Pabst . . .my old time favorite brew . . .not sure I would stop in here though unless I was specifically invited . . .Second Amendment Security!!!!!

. . .this is funny . . if you look close enough where the arrows are pointing you can see two guy wires holding the barn from falling over!!!!

. . .this must be the latest ‘get rich quick’ scheme because we have seen signs like this all over north WI and now MI. You can only get so much bandwitdh through a twisted copper cables that most folks in rural areas have coming into their house, their phone line. Must be talking satellite!!!!

They say it taste like chicken . . .should have bought some.

We are staying in a State Forest Campground out in the middle of nowhere, pit toilets a pump for a water source, no showers and the nearest two ‘convenience stores’ are 2 miles away, each way. Bernie and I are on chef duty tonight and for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. It was slim pickens with the pasta sausage dish we whipped up.

But three of Denise’s work buddies came to visit and brought beer, wine and ice cream!!! FUN !!!