I am writing this post from Luddington, Michigan, a beach town on the shores of Lake Michigan.\u00a0 I am now two-thirds of way through the trip!<\/p>\n
This morning I was in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.\u00a0 I needed to pedal 57 miles before 1 pm in order to get to the ferry that would take me across the lake.<\/p>\n
At home I try to cram as many things into each day as possible and don’t leave much slack in my schedule.\u00a0 On this bike trip lots of unexpected things have happened so I decided that I needed to leave extra early in case something unforeseen occurred.<\/p>\n
I left the window shapes in my motel open so that the rising sun would get me up.\u00a0 During the night I was treated to a spectacular lightening and thunderstorm that lasted a long time. With the storm came a torrential rain.\u00a0 I was quite glad the storm was happening while I was safe in the motel.<\/p>\n
I was on the road at 6:30 am.\u00a0 My goal was to be at the ferry by 11 am, which would give me two hours in case anything went wrong.<\/p>\n
Fond Du Lac has a large number of bike trails.\u00a0 The streets had puddles but the bike trails\u00a0 were dry.\u00a0 I was pedaling along nicely, making good time on a trail when Google maps told me I needed to get off the bike trail and turn right.\u00a0 The bike trail ended, however, with a left hand turn.<\/p>\n
I decided to peddle along the sidewalk for a few feet and take the first driveway on the right.\u00a0 There was a puddle at the end of the driveway but I was more concerned with looking for cars driving down the road I was merging onto than splashing through a puddle.<\/p>\n
The puddle, however, was not what I expected.\u00a0 It was actually a huge pothole.\u00a0 My front tire went into the pothole and I ended up on the ground.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 That was unexpected.\u00a0 Luckily, I was going very slowly.<\/p>\n
Another bicyclist was there within one minute, asking if I was okay.\u00a0 I checked the bike.\u00a0 It looked fine.\u00a0 I checked myself. I felt okay.\u00a0 So there was only one thing to do.\u00a0 Get back on the bike and continue pedaling to the ferry.<\/p>\n
I spent a lot of time thinking about why I didn’t have a bike crash for the past 30 years and then crashed twice this trip.\u00a0 My conclusion is that I am not getting enough rest and pushing myself each day to my physical limit.\u00a0 Being over-tired and sore is making me sloppy.<\/p>\n
The rest of the ride to the ferry was uneventful.\u00a0 I went past numerous dairy farms, many proudly advertising that they provide milk for “Land o’Lakes” products.<\/p>\n
I pulled into the ferry terminal at 11 am, which was two hours before when I needed to be there.\u00a0 The boat had very nice lounge chairs on the bow.\u00a0 I took one and then had a long nap in the sun.\u00a0 The boat ride across Lake Michigan was uneventful.\u00a0 The lake was calm and peaceful.<\/p>\n
Luddington, Michigan seems like a nice town, but I will not have a long time to explore it since tomorrow I am back on the road to complete the last third of the journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am writing this post from Luddington, Michigan, a beach town on the shores of Lake Michigan.\u00a0 I am now two-thirds of way through the trip! This morning I was in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.\u00a0 I needed to pedal 57 miles before 1 pm in order to get to the ferry that would take me … Continue reading Day 28: Two thirds of the country done<\/span>