51 miles. A hard day’s ride … With tons of vacation traffic,

We should have known that Sunday would be going home day for a lot of vacationers in Traverse City and Lake Michigan — not that there was a lot we could have done about it. We had an early morning thunderstorm so postponed our leaving until 9 when radar showed the rough stuff had passed us. We had two options for getting to Cadillac, one on small back roads which probably would have been hilly but with less traffic and another that rode the wide shoulder of highway 131. We started out on the back roads route but quickly changed our minds and turned around when we saw that there were many cars and RVs and no shoulder. Back we rode and started anew on the zig zag route over to 131. Again, traffic and again, no shoulder. The road itself was new and very smooth… and hilly! The first hill was the toughest we’ve had since crossing the continental divide at Glacier. To say we have lost the edge on hill climbing is putting it mildly.

After two hours on the no shoulder road we finally joined 131 with a 4′ shoulder! However, our enthusiasm was dampened by the sheer volume of traffic on the road. The ceaseless noise wore us down so when the 131 turned into 4 lanes and 70 mph speed limit, we took shelter on the old highway for the last 20 miles or so into Cadillac. That was no treat due to the deteriorated condition of the road and shoulder and then it started to rain!

OK. Enough of the kvetching. So it was a hard day but we made it and the next few days should be totally different as we ride on paved bike ways.

Maja’s note: This was one of the most nerve racking days of our trip. The traffic was horrendous in both directions so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for cars in our lane to move to the left to give us more room. I kept on pulling in my elbows, a totally meaningless gesture. And the traffic was never-ending. We also had an unnerving experience once we made it to the highway with the wider shoulders… One guy opened his window and flipped us off for absolutely no reason. I kept imagining that he was waiting for us at the next rest station. The weather also left something to be desired: a strong headwind at times, and then we also had some rain which made the conditions for the cars worse and consequently scarier for us. The upshot of all of this is that your photographer fell down on the job. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. We are hoping for a tailwind en route to Clare, where we will be staying at the Doherty Hotel–an Irish establishment. We also found out today while on the road from Traverse City that one of Brady’s friends, whom he considers more like a brother, was in Traverse City when we were there! Unfortunately, we learned about this too late to see him. Bummer. But we’ll see him and his parents, our very good friends, in Birmingham, MI in just 4 days. Yay!