Church camping

Today was another 70 mile day with near perfect weather, generally fine roads and another nice trail.  We did encounter some unexpected road construction which took away the road shoulder on a highway.  Things looked grim and scary until a nice trucker motioned us on to the road and drove behind us for two miles, protecting us from all the traffic.  All we could give him were big waves and smiles when we turned off.  Maybe he is a biker, too.

Several times on the trip, we are camping at churches.  We have sleeping bags and pads with us, and when we arrive we all find a place to settle in for the night, usually in a Sunday School room.  Tonight we are in a UCC church in Armada, Michigan, which has received us with wonderful friendliness.  About 25 church members of all ages joined us for dinner, another fine potluck banquet.  Tomorrow morning some are returning to prepare breakfast for us before we depart.  They definitely rank first in hospitality in our book.

Tomorrow we cross into Canada, to follow the north shore of Lake Erie to Niagara Fall.  We re-enter the States August 2.  My postings may be less frequent, as we are not sure if my friend Susan's hotspot, linked to her Verizon phone, will work in Canada, and we may not have other Internet at all of our stops.

  A friendly greeting makes for a nice arrival.

We set up a shower cabana in the church yard.  Ken, one of the trip leaders, connects a hose to an inside faucet, and we have a hand held shower nozzle in the cabana.  Church hot water heaters are not usually designed for 16 or so showers in quick succession, so early comers have a better chance of hot water.

    Susan playing with toys in a church nursery,

Lined up for good Michigan food.

Two of our group giving a geography lesson.  Our trip shirts have a map of our route on the front and all the places we overnight on the back.  We do a lot of reading each other's backs to check dates and places.