Monday, July 28, 2014

July 28 2014 Ludington to Farwell MI







It was cold last night (50F) with a nasty cold north wind blowing pretty much all night.  The wind kept the tent flapping almost constantly the entire night.  Then at 12:00 AM the metal casting company which was across the road from the school started up. They were grinding up scrap metal and making new castings so there was an on going grinding noise and being on the north side of the school there was a kind of acidy smell spread across the school grounds where we were camped.  This was in residential neighbourhood.  I can’t imagine living across from it. 

I dressed warm for the day as it was only going to reach 61 F and with the north wind blowing it was going to be a cold day.  I also put on my winter work gloves as cycling gloves were not going to cut it.  I was glad I had them as it was cold on the bike even after I got rolling. 

Ed W and I started out together and rode down to picnic which was at mile 42 in the historic town of Idlewild which was a African American resort town while there was still segregation in the US. Idlewild also had the Flamingo Club there and it was a place for African Americans to perform.  The Flamingo club is closed now and the resorts are pretty much empty as there is no more segregation in the US. 

Ken C joined the two of us at lunch and the three of us rode on.  We still had 52 miles to go so we hurried along and picked up Earnie who joined us.  At mile 58 we started down the Pare Marquette Trail where John joined us.  This trail is a paved rails to trail path and is very nice.  It is heavily wooded so we were happy to be out of the north wind.  With 5 of us in a line we made great time and were down to Farwell in no time flat.  We had a great time together and just gobbled up the miles.

After we got to town Ed and I broke off from the group and found an ice cream shop where we enjoyed some locally made ice cream. It was wonderful.

Terry

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