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> 6/30 - 7/5
> We spent these days hanging out in Appleton, WI with Daynes sweet grandma and cousins. Talk about two crazy boys.( we mean the two young ones Billy) Dayne was always busy doing something with them. Either jumping on the tramp, jumping on the tramp with sprinkler below, playing kick ball, baseball, basketball, board games galore, slip n slide, and other crazy things! Being able to spend time with grandma was really the best. We are so glad we were able to make it here and will cherish the time spent with her! Sitting together in the morning having a bowl of cereal and some quiet time to talk was priceless. The stories and family history she told kept is entertained for hours. Who knew one person could remember so many names of distant and gone family members. We had a great time and really hated that we had to leave, but the road was calling.
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> 7/6
> We had an easy 50 miles to get to the ferry at Manitowok, WI. but it was hard to say good bye to the family so we left way late and had to really hustle. About 25 miles out Daynes knees started hurting and we had to stop a couple times to stretch and loosen up. Being that we were already too late to catch the ferry today, we decided to follow a sign that said "you pick fresh strawberry's." It was a mile ride up a dirt road but so worth it. We picked about 3 pounds of melt in your mouth fresh strawberry's, and it only cost us 5 bucks! We headed to the town just north called Twin Rivers. There is a beautiful state park right on Lake Michigan and we camped there. What we didn't know was that the park is filled with thieves. Ones that steal all your food in the middle of the night and leave the muffin paper placed nicely a foot away from where you are soundly sleeping! I think they were just saying thanks for all the good stuff by making us clean up after them.
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> 7/8
> We decided it would be cool to wake up and watch the sun rise over the lake. That would be 4:30 AM due to the fact that once you cross the lake, the time changes to Eastern. Anyway, it was crazy beautiful and so worth it. The Ferry didn't leave till 12:30 so we hung out at the beach. We rode the trail that goes for miles through rain forest type vegetation and has such beautiful views of the vast lake that looks like the ocean its so big. We boarded the Ferry called the Badger and set sail for a 4 hour boat ride, 5 hours if you count the time change. The ship had a theater, two restaurants, gift shop, museum, and many places to sit and enjoy the view. We met a couple of super nice people who all thought we were half crazy but were very interested about the journey. One guy even gave us his number and said if we meet any trouble in Michigan that its only tops 3 hours drive and he would help us anytime. We got ashore at about 8:30 PM and decided we should find our temporary home for the night instead of riding for another hour. We set up camp at a animal pound that had some soft green grass, which should have been a sign not to set up there. First off, after getting eaten by mosquitoes for hours which kept us from being able to stay asleep, we finally set up the tent at 1:30 AM. We were away from the mosquitoes but it was so hot! we lay on top of our sleeping bags and finally slept. Just three hours later we were awakened by sprinklers hitting the tent and us, so we got a free shower! We quickly moved everything over to a dry patch on the side of a road. After all that were so tired that climbing into wet sleeping bags didn't stop us from falling asleep.
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> 7/9
> We quickly learned why you don't set up camp behind a dog pound. At 7AM the dogs are let out to their outside kennels and they barked at us continuously until we packed and left. Traveling through Michigan was better then we thought. It is super wooded with lot's of pine and other trees. The further inland we got, the better the scenery. The forest goes right down to the lake shore. As we were flying down the road Dayne spotted a phone and had to stop and check it out.The htc google phone was in perfect shape except for the totally cracked screen. But it was a good excuse to stop riding in the crazy heat and humidity for a bit. After taking a short cut off the highway and getting sort of lost, we discovered that two spokes had broken so we had to stop to fix them. It was perfect timing because it caught the attention of the Ed and Mary. They asked if everything was alright and invited us to stay in their guest loft. Once we arrived at their place, we got a taste of what living in beautiful Michigan would be like. Their summer house sits right on a clear stream with a deck built right next to it. And just a 5 minutes walk takes you to a private lake. They put us up in an awesome loft with at least 6 beds in it to choose from, they have a lot of grand kids we found out. After a refreshing swim in the stream and then a shower we slept like royalty in our own private loft.
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> 7/10
> Being so used to the sun waking us up, we had to have a wake up call from Mary. But who can complain when there's biscuits and an amazing bowl of out meal with brown sugar, butter, and raisins all mixed together to make a mouth watering concoction. After breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed for Port Huron on the border of Canada. If we thought the day before was hot we had no freaking idea! The next day was Chars B-day so we had to make it so we could spend that day hanging out on the beaches of Lake Huron. The only problem was that the heat was trying to kill us! It was 95 degrees with 85 percent humidity, oh and little to no wind. Since we are so used to the dry Utah heat, we felt as though we were cooking alive. After a way way too long day we finally made it to Bonnie's house in Port Huron. Char was sick from the day of heat and could barely choke down some food. There is only one thing you need when you've put your body through so much, needles to say we slept very well!
> 7/11
> Today was Chars B day and I had promised her we wouldn't bike on her birthday. The problem is that is our means of transportation, so we had to, but just enough to get us to a few places. It was a great day. We ate fresh made donuts by the river while watching the giant 1000 ft ships go by. We skipped rocks on Lake Huron, saw the movie Horrible Bosses and laughed our butts off, and we ate at a few awesome local restaurants. The best part though, was we only biked like 15 miles that day hurray!!
> Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Follow along as we venture the US on a Tandem Bike. As this is our first time, I am sure there will be many challenges and interesting events happening.
