August 1 Day 62 Hoeft State Park 53 miles 3:55 riding
Hot and humid. The road follows the shore of Lake Huron. Views of the lake are rare because there is a thick growth of scrawny trees on either side of the road. We could be anywhere in Wisconsin or Michigan and have much the same view.
Discussion at lunch - how hard should we push to finish the ride sooner? Everyone agrees we want to finish before the end of the month.
Hoeft State Park has a sandy beach. We all went swimming. The rest room has a secure box for needle disposal - is this to accommodate diabetics? Corned beef hash for dinner. One of the other campers, John, is a custodian at a county jail. He says he made the coast-to-coast ride many years ago. He drove us into Rogers City to buy us a round of ice cream. He's an interesting individual. He's an avid reader, eager to check the facts he learns from one source against what others say. At the same time, he's into some sort of unorthodox spirituality and practices "energy healing". He knows his ice cream, though! Raccoons kept us awake much of the night. They got away with Roy's energy bars. Roy insists that the bars were in a zipped pocket and that the raccoons unzipped it.

A dog chased Roy. He turned and snarled at the dog, stopped the dog in its tracks.