We woke up at just after 7am from the Best Western in Ludington. The staff was awesome enough to let us hide our bikes in the janitors store room. Sweet! The hour time loss, combined with the last few late nights, had us pretty wiped out so we slept in a bit. The continental breakfast was pretty huge, which for a group of 5 hungry cyclists warrants at least half the price of the hotel room. We love camping, but it certainly isn't cheaper than a hotel when you get the final bills.

The weather was 100% perfect. Overcast, 75F, nice breeze, perfect. We even missed a rainstorm in the night by having a hotel. Such luck!

We are in a pretty rural area. The towns are very small, but everyone is very nice. It just reminds me of Iowa everyday.

We had some excellent food at a nice place in Free Soil. Yes, that is the city name. We are all curious as to what the name stems from, but nobody we ask seems to know.

We tried to acquire a boat; everyone around here has a boat. Alas, it was slightly too heavy for my trike.

We would normally cover more miles than we did today, especially give the ideal conditions. We were going to stop at a campground, which looked awesome, but the owners couldn't open up this year due to the wife having cancer. Very sad. It looked to truly be a place they had taken great pride in.

When moving on to the next camping option, we stumbled upon a little cafe and grocery store called SweetFern. Amy, the owner, was just about the friendliest person on earth. Every cyclist on Northern Tier needs to stop at the SweetFern for supplies and ice cream! I tried to get a father-daughter picture with Laura and Roger, but Katie decided to make an impromptu appearance.

It all worked out in the end. We found a cabin (thanks Amy) at a place called Rivers Edge. Awesome! Theresa found room for us! Thank you Theresa. We then cooled off in the river going through the property.

We cooked some of the packed food we had been carrying for 200 miles, and are now showered up and well on our way to being asleep.