Day 47

Macelona,MI - Cadillac,MI (70 miles)

Today was hard. This morning we had to decide if we were going to go back to following the ACA (adventure cycling association) or go down the White Pine trail (rails to trails). The trail would take us on flat terrain for 90 miles, straight south. The only thing is that the trail is only half paved. So we called a few bike shops in the area to ask their opinion on if it would be suitable for loaded touring bikes. The general consensus was yes, so off we went to Cadillac.

Our route was slightly more direct than than yesterday, but the hills kicked our butts. We rolled into Cadillac and made a b-line to the nearest pizza place. It was there that we were told about the campground, but we were warned that it was quickly filling up.

After scarfing down our pizza we kicked it into high gear in hopes of reaching the campground before sunset and before it filled up. Just before we reached it we were flagged down by a guy on the side of the road.
"Where you guys heading? I did a cross country tour in '93."
"We are going to Maine, we started in Washington."
"Wow! I did the opposite, Maine to Washington. Are you heading to the campground tonight?"
"Yeah, hopefully we can find a spot, we were told it is filling up fast."
"Yeah, it's pretty full. Hey, if you can't get a spot you can put your tent on my front lawn, I'm just down the road."
"Sounds great, thank you so much!"
"Actually, why don't you just camp in my yard?" Sounded good to us, so we followed Dave to his house.

Little did we know, but Cadillac was about to get awesome! Dave invited us into his home, fed us, let us shower and sleep in real beds, AND showed us pictures and told us all about his trip across the country! It was amazing. The pictures and stories were priceless, especially the ones from Glacier National Park. In the middle of July Going-to-the-sun road was void of cars and a parking lot at Logan pass only had a handful of cars in it. What a huge difference from what we experienced at Glacier! However most of his stories were much like our own: The generous people who welcomed him and his friends into their homes, the unrelenting mosquitos, the beautiful landscapes, and the massive amounts of food consumed. And this made me smile, because it was something the three of us shared, even though our trips were 20 years apart.