Friends,

Tuesday promised to be a nice day, so we decided that we would drive up to Mackinaw City and take our bikes on the ferry to Mackinac Island to ride. We took the Arnold Ferry and had a nice fast trip over to the Island. We only had to wait for the ferry a few minutes each way. We rode our bikes and Mary rode in her cart. We went all the way around the island once and stopped back in town. Mary and I had some great pizza and we made our rounds to all the stores in town. We didn’t go in all the stores, but we never missed a fudge store for free samples. By then the others were hungry, so Mary and I rested while the others went to a pizza place to eat. When they were done we rode a little more and then made one last stop at the JoAnn’s fudge shop, which we had determined by the many samples we had eaten, had the best fudge and best selection on the island. We all bought fudge. I had a hard time just narrowing my choices to five kinds - butterfinger, dark chocolate, raspberry, mint chocolate, and vanilla pecan. Hope I have some left when I get home, but I don’t know. It is really good.

On Wednesday morning we (minus Queen Mary) rode the Grayling Bicycle Turnpike from Grayling to Hartwick Pines State Park. When we got to the park, Doug suggested that we try to see some of the large pine trees in the park. His grandfather and father had logged up in this area of Michigan. When we got to the entrance station, the ranger on duty said we could ride in free to the visitor’s center. To get there we had to ride up a fairly long hill, and the ride down the other side was great. At the visitor’s center we learned of a short hike that would take us through some of the old growth forest and allow us to see some of the large pines. Near the end of the walk was a logging camp where we talked to and listened to rangers describing the early logging operations. It was interesting to hear how early logging was done and how it changed over time. The bike trail was only 6.5 miles one way and was mostly in town or along roads, but did have nice ups and downs and curves that the rail-to-trail trails don’t have.

Since Andersons were planning to leave on Thursday, we decided to celebrate Sharon’s birthday on Wednesday night. We went to down town Grayling and, while looking for a restaurant that had something all could eat, found a bike shop. Doug was able to get some riding shorts with padding in the right places. We ate in a 50’s type restaurant that had a huge Coca-Cola collection. One of the workers told me that only a small part of the 4000+ items in the collection were on display in the restaurant. There were so many items in the restaurant it was hard to believe.

I should report that the Bruckners and not doing too well in our Rook games with the Diamonds. Hopefully our luck will change soon.

That all for tonight. More latter…

Jared