5th Day on the Road: Albion to Ionia, MI (61 miles)

(This is the second post of the day - see the 4th Day on the Road post below before this one!)

I left at 8 in the morning and arrived in Ionia at 3:45 in the afternoon... It was a very slow day. This morning I was off by myself since Suzanne and Pete left last night. The forecast was for showers, so I was a little wary. There was some rain along the way, and I had to use my rain jacket at times, but it wasn't terribly bad.

I rode to Charlotte (Char-LOT) by a back road that Pete identified. It worked very well but got a little confusing around Duck Lake. Secondary road maps are not always clear; neither are road signs on these roads, and they are often non-existant. Getting around Duck Lake to Charlotte entailed me talking to 3 different sets of people to finally find the correct way. Again, the kindness of strangers, though they don't always have the right information.

I arrived in Charlotte at around 11:00 and had lunch at the Gavel. I then hit 50 west, which had LOTS of hills, long grades, a counter-wind, and rain. What a combination. It was very difficult, to say the least, and I was often doing only about 8 miles an hour, slogging it through. My Camelback backpack, which carries 3 liters of water and some of my other things, was too heavy for me today and I had to strap it onto the back of my bike, which seemed to work fairly well. I connected with 60 north using 43 west and traveled into Ionia along with many tractor trailers. It reminded me of 127, sort of, back in Ohio.

I saw a UPS driver at the connection between 50 and 66 just at it was starting to rain and went to talk to him for a bit. It turns out that he is from St. Ignace, MI (just as you cross into the UP) and he knows St. Joseph Island really well. His name is Ken Belanger. He was returning to St. Ignace and I was wondering if I could put my bike in his UPS truck and ride with him, to which he responded "Isn't the rain and all this a part of your trip?"

About 10 miles south of Ionia, I stopped and called Brian from my bike shop to give him a report that all was well. I called Mark, from the Fenton Boat Shop and left him a message about Lynn picking up our new boat. I gave both of them the blog address as they seem interested to follow along.

I found a room at the Amerihost, a very nice motel, and right in town. Rob Harris, the clerk, is very helpful! He googled information for me and even is washing my clothes in the motel wash so I'll finally have some better smelling clothes. There is even a bike shop in town, which was very nice to find. They helped look up some motel possibilities for tomorrow night.

Doug arrived at 5:00, and we will have dinner and catch up with each other later tonight. Chuck, Mary and Lynn arrive to meet me whereever I end up tomorrow night, probably in Barryton.

Finally, my PMR still seems to be ok. The best its been. I have no idea why, maybe heavy bike riding is the answer. Not much else to report today. It was a tough ride, so not much time to meet people. I hear that the weather should be nice tomorrow, let's hope so! One last tidbit from today's trip: My chain came off at one point during the day, and even I, Mr. Mechanical (not), managed to get it back on successfully. I was so proud of myself!