Today was much, much, much more low key than our past several days. But first on our agenda - laundry! We were so close to making it through our vacation without having to do laundry, but 2 of us ran out of underwear. Fortunately, the campground had several washers and dryers and in less than 90 minutes, we had 3 loads of laundry done. Note to self - next time, just wash what you ran out of! When we got home, EVERYTHING smelled like our campfires, so I had to re-wash it all!
Anyway, today we hit the North Central State Trail for a little more biking. The trail is 62 miles long from Gaylord to Mackinaw City. We planned on picking up the trail in Indian River, but after talking to a lady at the Chamber of Commerce, she suggested driving to Topinabee (5 miles away) and taking the trail there and bike along Mullet Lake.
Once again we were blessed with beautiful weather and beautiful views of the lake.
Amaya
The trail was all gravel, so it was a little more challenging maneuvering, but after awhile we got the hang of it. We biked all along Mullet Lake to the next town and then headed back. We're unsure of the exact mileage only because the map says we biked 13 miles round trip, but we didn't "feel" like we had biked that long. When Steve drove it out, it was only 6 miles round trip. Who knows?
I could very easily be persuaded to live on a lake. There's just something about that crystal blue water that draws me to it! We saw some pretty amazing lake homes along our ride as well!
Guess we must have worn this little girl out!
After biking, we stopped in Indian River to pick up a few groceries for dinner. I was hoping to do a lot more cooking on vacation than I actually did. It was difficult keeping all of our food cold enough to eat safely (an electric cooler will be in our future soon) and with all of our sight-seeing, we weren't home very often in the evenings. I was disappointed and discouraged at times because I had so many great meals planned, but there's always another time. But, tonight - we had barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and smores for dessert. DELISH!
We all got to bed at a reasonable hour - our neighbors have been very, very quiet and for that, we are grateful. However, around 4am, Steve heard some rustling and scratching outside. When he got out his flashlight, there was a RACCOON in our screened in tent (where we had the picnic table set up) trying to get into our Rubbermaid containers with food in them! The raccoon wasn't scared of Steve's flashlight and he finally ran away once Steve had unzipped the zipper to our tent. Good grief! I thought our food would be safe in sealed containers! Guess those little guys have pretty good sniffers! Needless to say, the next middle-of-the-night trip to the bathroom was a little scary for me!
Amaya slept through all the commotion and once we got settled down and the 5am woodpecker stopped pecking, we got a few more hours of sleep. This was the coldest night of our vacation - about 48 degrees! Snuggle, snuggle!
Amaya slept through all the commotion and once we got settled down and the 5am woodpecker stopped pecking, we got a few more hours of sleep. This was the coldest night of our vacation - about 48 degrees! Snuggle, snuggle!