A frigid blast of wind from the north hit us as we stepped outside this morning. It was 45°, but the wind chill felt like minus 2°. We biked for a couple of miles along our Rail Trail hoping to warm up, but had to stop to put on more clothes. Took about an hour for the feeling in our fingers to return and we settled into the beautiful ride.

Thankfully, we were traveling east, so the strong north wind was just off our shoulder until an occasional gust hit us head on. Lots of barns, one with our initials. We enjoyed our trailfilled with beautiful flowers for 31 miles until we reached Midland, a delightful college townthat took us seven miles to weave through then back on straight, flat roads; though Jerry did want to stop and watch some curling.  Christmas tree farms abound in this areaNot saying it was freezing, but we still had ice in our frozen water bottles at 1:00.

We reached the outskirts of our destination, Bay City, by noon and began our quest for lunch. We followed the course weaving in and out along the Saginaw River finally stopping at 1:30 for lunch, the first place we found.

We have no idea what possessed us to even consider going further having already completed 58 miles. Maybe it was the disenchantment with the city from our ride in, cool weather keeping us comfortable or the fact that our course past Bay City turned south, putting the wind at our back. Whatever the reason, by 2:00 we were back on course. It was truly a beautiful day and great ride; have we mentioned how much we like the wind at our back?

What a surprise our final destination was.  Frankenmuth, the church and town founded in 1846, is called Michigan’s Little Bravaria, filled with all the charm (and flowers) we remember from our northern Europe ride. Albeit, hokey  and extremely touristy,it was a wonderful surprise. We arrived in town by 4:14, but chatted with Bill and Pearl from Ontario for so long we didn’t get checked in until 5:00. We were back out of the door by six.

Ironically or coincidentally there was a Brew Pub right next door and next to them a Wine and Chocolate tasting….so all was worth it.  We ate and drank down the pretty street and found dinner with waiters in full dress.Dinner was a smorgasbord of German food. We each ordered a plate, but the side dishes just kept coming, much like a buffet, except it was all served tableside.  A good thing we did 83 miles today.