July 26 Day 56 Foster City, Michigan 73 miles 6:20 riding

Our friends Larry and Lisa from the Green Bay area have been planning to join us for a day or two of riding. They were held up waiting for the arrival of a baby granddaughter (44 hours of labor for the poor mother). We finally got together at a cafe outside Nelma. They alternated with each other, cycling with us and driving their car. Larry parked ahead of us at one point and pedaled back to meet us. Dogs intercepted him and chased him back to the car! Fortunately, the dogs were distracted by the time the rest of arrived.

Larry and Lisa had to leave us at Alpha, home of the "humongous fungus". We pedaled on to Crystal Falls. Terrific lunch at O'Malley's. We had blithely assumed that we would take a motel room at Sagola, a few miles further on. A thunderstorm caught up with us at Crystal Falls, leading us to call ahead for a reservation. It turned out that there is some sort of fireman's competition at Amazon and there are no motel rooms to be had short of a B&B 37 miles away, including ten miles of road construction. It was a long day.

It turned out to be a blessing. The Mill Town Inn is a two-room B&B over a teeny restaurant known for its Swedish pancakes. There are seven sisters who seems to share the work. The farmers start gathering for coffee about 5:30 in the morning. Amazing pie!