T1 Day 49 (Keelin)

 Day 49: 7/25/2023


I’m going to preface this by saying that we know not every day can be sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies (the butterflies gets an asterisk though because we very often do eat gummy butterflies). Today was one of those days where we knew we might not have a lot of fun, and that was just going to be the way the cookie crumbled. We did start off on a good note though with breakfast at our warmshowers consisting of fruit and local eggs with toast. We set off slightly later than we hoped but ended up making up some time by not taking many breaks in the morning. We stopped at a bicycle shop for Liz to get some new tires- she has had a few flats and the tread was really worn so thought it best to swap them out- and at a grocery store for a quick restock in Bay City. Interesting place. Don’t know if i would recommend especially considering we couldn’t decide if the smell of the town was closer to a dirty bathroom or wet garbage. If you have read this far and are from Bay City, I am so sorry…

Anywhooooo, we left Bay City as efficiently as possible and stopped a few miles down the road in the shade of a bike path for a side of the road lunch. These types have been very popular for us recently. As we got started again and the garmin was about to tell us how many dreary more miles we had, we started discussing the fact that often times we refer to our lives outside of this trip as “real life” and for now we are just not in real life. It’s sort of become a fun bit for us that gives us some chuckles when we’re in need of a pick me up. The afternoon just went downhill from the lunch break onward. The temperatures were skyrocketing and we quickly realized we were not drinking enough water or eating enough snacks. The most exciting thing that happened all afternoon was feeling like we were transported to the German section of Disney’s epcot park when we emerged out of no where in Frankenmuth. The whole town came as fast as it went and we moved onward. A gas station break down the line for electrolyte drinks and some shade was necessary and came at the perfect time. The last few miles were uneventful to the point that we were all singing to ourselves to stay awake. I simply did not know how much farming there was in rural michigan. When we got to the campground we immediately bought cold soda and ice cream from the camp store and went for a dip in the pond (?- not sure what you would call it… small man made looking reservoir??). The day ended with showers, dinner, and some nice chatting before the mosquitoes started to get to us and we all crawled into our tents. Successful day I would say… onto more pleasant things tomorrow (I think, hopefully) !

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