Dear Friends,

We are now up to Thursday September 1. We all drove to Gaylord and left Jane and Sharon with the bikes and Mary’s chariot, and the rest of us drove up the road to Indian River where we left two vehicles and took one back to Gaylord. We rode the North Central State Trail (formerly the Gaylord to Mackinaw City Rail-Trail) to Indian River a distance of 28 miles! The new thing about this trail is it is not paved. The surface was crushed limestone, and it was not as easy to ride on as a paved trail. But we all made it to Indian River a distance of 28.1 miles!

We even got back soon enough for Andersons to get on their way over to Kari and Mark’s place near Westfield, WI. They made it as far as Escanaba, MI on Thursday and drove the rest of the way on Friday.

The Bruckners and Diamonds hadn’t had enough of the crushed limestone of the North Central State Trail, so on Friday we took both vehicles to Cheboygan and left one there then drove back to Indian River were we got on the trail again. It was hot, about 87 degrees, but to begin with we had a nice strong tail wind. It was only 17.5 miles, but we had to hurry a bit because it was threatening to rain, which it did shortly after we arrived in Cheboygan and got into the van. By the time we got to Cheboygan at least one of us declared “No more unpaved trails ever.” It certainly was a workout for the “slave” and Jane. Mary’s only complaint was that she found a couple of small limestone stones in her bra when she undressed for the night. She didn’t even seem to break a sweat.

Well, I am almost up to date. Two more installments and I should be current. There is lots of good stuff to come too.

Jared