Smelly Things

Something smelled funky in the tent last night, but I couldn't figure it out. We all took showers. I did the laundry... I sniffed my shirt. I sniffed David. Huh... This morning I put on my cycling jacket. Problem solved. I didn't wash that, and I'm pretty offensive after a few dozen miles of riding.

Early on our ride today from Alpena to Rogers City, Alex and David had a close encounter with a skunk. They won, and I wondered if the skunk might have smelled my jacket and decided it didn't want the competition. After riding for 94 miles in the same pair of shorts, it's really bad when you walk in to a camp store (at a campground that may or may not be a leper colony) and you notice how badly someone else smells.

Anyway, it was disappointing to make it to the campground today and discover they had no laundry facilities. This is why we carry a clothesline and pins with us - just in case we need to wash things by hand.

The ride today was tougher than it should have been. It felt like the wind was putting its palms on our foreheads to keep  us back. We practically crawled to Rogers City.

In between Alpena and RC, there wasn't much but farmland. But the village of Posen, proud home of the Potato Festival, was hopping. As we passed a huge Catholic Church, a man in the parking lot tried to wave us in. "Come on in to church!"  Had he gotten a whiff of us, he wouldn't have spoken. On the bright side, I now know that stretchy pants are allowed in church. So if you ever find yourself  in Posen, pull on your stretchies and visit the Catholic Church.

Once we got to Rogers City, we rode through town hoping to find lunch. David asked a lady walking with her two kids for directions to food, and before we left them, her daughter asked David if she could have his bike before his funeral. She liked that it held a lot of drinks. Small children can be so insensitive sometimes.

Our hard work was rewarded when we came upon an unexpected paved bike trail that took us along the shores of Lake Huron straight to our campground. We're looking forward to a dry night after last night's rainstorms. Perhaps nature wanted to give that other camp a good cleansing.