Forget about the raccoons and bears. Beware of the birds!

We left Petoskey early, even though it was in the 40's out. Sometimes you just have to bundle up because you've got someplace to be. It was a beautiful day for riding, and the fact that much of the route was downhill made it a fast day as well. Once we were out of Petoskey, we were also out of traffic, and the quietness of riding through the tunnel of trees and farm country was a welcome change.

I was looking forward to a nice Polish lunch at the Legg's Inn in Cross Village, which is located just as you emerge from the tunnel of trees, but when we arrived, we found that they didn't open until noon, so we bought some juice at a gas station, found a picnic table, and settled for some PBJ. The tunnel of trees kept us in heavy shade most of the time, so it felt good to be in the sun again.

A beautiful ride through the tunnel of trees

David and Alex, just before they jumped into the water and towed the bikes to the U.P.

Once we arrived in Mackinaw City, we found the Mackinaw Bridge Authority booth and obtained a ride for ourselves and our bikes across the bridge (bicycles are not allowed on the bridge, and I'm not in to being terrified anyway) for $5 each. Once we were across, it was only 2 or 3 more miles to the campground. So far we've been pretty lucky, and the campgrounds have all had clean, hot showers, although Alex said one of the shower stalls at the first campground had a spider in it which wouldn't let him take a shower.

We were assured here that they have had no problems with raccoons or bears, but after we visited the rocky beach for a bit, we returned to find our camp had been invaded by Blackbirds. They tore into a mostly  empty box of pasta, ripped open our box of matches, which was also in a ziploc bag, and dumped some of those out, and generally poked holes into and tore up whatever we had left out. I guess we won't be hanging the trailer up in the trees tonight.

Tomorrow we ride to Newberry, where we will get another hotel room, which is good because thunderstorms are predicted for tomorrow night.