Northward!

Northward to Traverse Bay by way of Beulah.

Bill's daughters wrapped up their Chicago sight-seeing in time to meet him in Beulah Tuesday about 5:00. They would need to be in Jackson, MS ready to go to work by Thursday morning--about a 1,000 mile car trip on top of some big rides.

Tuesday to Beulah was a hilly day, at least 3 teener climbs (climbs where the grade was in the teens). But oh, the glorious view from atop those climbs, especially the one in Blaine.

Today Mark and Jeff were riding partners as were Michelle and Bill. We were beginning to find our SAGGING groove--reading in our room for a couple of hours before leaving to follow the riders' route, passing them a couple of times during the day to fill up bottles as needed, which wasn't often as there were plenty of services or little towns along the way.

Our family has had a lifetime of pleasure with words, names, and being playful with both. Why else would my bikes be named Fern, Tilda, and Chamella and my iPhone be named Beverly? Well, the games continued as we learned Michelle's GPS is named Jackson which inspired us to name Jeff's phone Rutherford, in honor of Rutherford B. Hayes, our uninspiring 19th President. Mark, feeling left out, announced his phone's name was Peach Pit. So, it made only good sense that we ate dinner at the Cherry Hut (which has been demeaned and renamed in our company to the Cherry Pit).

Jeff, Kirk, Michelle, and Mark

Laughter really is great medicine; but we also spent some of each of our dinner meals with some pretty awesome sharing about such topics as books read that continue to impact our lives, memories of the place where we grew up, what is it about our life work that has given purpose and meaning to our lives and how did we find this career path, etc.

Michelle headed out Wednesday for Traverse City an hour or so ahead of Mark and Jeff. They all hooked up in Glen Arbor for lunch, browsing, and enjoying the glorious azure of sky and lake and the plush of cardamon sand. Kirk and I were hoping for lunch in Leland, but alas, while the town was teeming with tourists, there was nary a restaurant that could accommodate a gluten free, egg free, dairy free, corn free diet. So, it was a roadside rice cake with sunflower seed butter and a bowl of non-allergenic cereal with soy milk from the ice cooler in the car. Dinner in Traverse City had to be better, and it was. Thank you Red Mesa Grill.