Caro, MI

I slept on the most comfortable couch ever last night. It felt so good. Until I got woken up at six in the morning that is. We were all in deep sleep when Gwen had to wake us up after her alarm went off unnoticed by the rest of us. Outside, it was rainy, gray, and awful. My couch looked so good. Luckily, Mark suggested that we wait out the storm for half an hour because the forecast was promising sunshine later in the morning. The little sleep-in was very much appreciated, even though falling back to sleep after an early wake up is always tough. You know how that is.

Anyways, we got on the road at 8:30, a little later than usual, but with sunny skies above us, and warm air pushing us forward. Fortunately for us, there was a twenty-mile bike trail that ran alongside our route. As soon as we hit the trail, we slammed on the pedals, cruising through some really nice, flat, and smooth road.

This took us right into a local farmer’s market in downtown Midland. Knowing us, we stopped and enjoyed some delicious strawberries, kettle corn, and apple cider slushees. It definitely hit the spot.
Afterwards, as we were getting to lunch, we got a little lost. Seeking directions, we went into a Seven Eleven. Little did we know what was going down in there. The place was packed with customers. It turns out that today was 7/11, otherwise known as “Seven Eleven Day”. And what did that mean? Free slushees for everyone! Again, knowing us, we hit that up.
By lunchtime, our unexpected stops were catching up with us. We left our lunch stop at 5:00 pm, a little late for our liking. Just as we were finding our way back onto the main road, I remember seeing Sarah just come off her bike and fall onto the ground. We all saw it since she was in front, and we were all pretty worried. Distraught, we all rushed over to see if she was okay. Just as we did so, she burst into poem. Line after line, she gave us a beautifully prepared rhyming poem. We were all perplexed until we figured it out from her words. It was her first flat tire of the trip. She was the only one of us to not get a flat tire yet and apparently, she had been thinking the moment over in her head a million times, or at least enough times to work up a speech. Oh Brockett…

Later, Parker got two more flat tires. Considering the fact that we had not had a single flat tire for about a week, we just took them like champs. Oh well, we had a good streak going.
Finally, at 7:15 pm, we pulled into our destination: Caro, Michigan. It turns out that this campground is packed with people. I bet there are more people in this place than in most towns in Montana.

After a long day, it sure feels good to go to bed. Even if it’s on a sleeping pad rather than on a couch, and even if there’s a woman somewhere nearby screaming her heart out singing the song from Titanic on a karaoke machine.

by Renzo