25th Anniversary Tour - Day 17

07/03/2006 04:01:55 by Administrator

From: Caro, Michigan
To: Clare, Michigan
Mileage: 91



We ate continental breakfast at the Woodyzzz hotel. This did not satisfy the Rear Admiral, she really needs her lumberjack special. So when we got to Bay City, we stopped at the 7-11 for a power bar. Our trip from Caro to Bay City was fantastic. Michigan did not wake up all morning, and we had the roads to ourselves. We rode along flat country roads passing lots of farmland. Blue herons and egrets took refuge in the drainage spillways on the side of the road, so we had quite a show. The Adventure Cycling map took us through the old part of Bay City Michigan, with older style homes and quiet streets. When we got downtown we started to follow the bike trail through town, but it really wasn't very good and we made our own route though town.

The next large city was Midland. This is the home of Dow Chemical, and has a population of 40,000. Dow Chemical is HUGE. We again found our own way through town. In Michigan most of the roads run north to south, or east to west; so it is very hard to get lost. We had lunch at a local diner, and got directions to the Pere Marquette Rail Trail from an elderly couple that was sitting next to us at the diner.

And then there was the Pere Marquette Rail Trail, WOW; this trail starts in Midland and ends 30+ miles in Clare. Smooth 8 foot paved trail all the way! Still in Midland and on the trail, we stopped at the Dow museum. The museum is closed on Mondays, but we were able to explore the outside area, time well spent. There was a lot of activity (bikers, walkers, and inline skaters) on the trail, which we LOVE to see! In downtown Colemen we stopped at Kay's ice cream shop(right off the trail) that set us back a whopping 2 dollars for two very large ice cream cones.

Tonight we walked the town of Clare, and had GREAT Chinese food at Panda's (downtown).