I did a terrible job of photo documenting this day, I took 4 pictures. This is the only one that is worth including in the blog.
At Sarkozy Bakery in Kalamazoo, once again I found the choices too hard to make and got both pastries.
It was a hot day and the riding conditions were not the best. But when I got to Concord, MI I picked up the Falling Waters Rail trail ( recommended by my friend Eddie) which was marvelous for 12 miles then it was a construction site in Jackson where I was riding over newly poured concrete that had the plastic cover on it still. I met a woman who was out for a multi day bike packing trip.
I was running out of water. It seemed like it should be easy to find somewhere to fill my bottles in a city but it wasn’t. I came to a convenience store and locked my bike up and went in with my bottles. No soda machine to fill my bottles with ice and water. I figured there would be another convenient convenience store on the edge of town but all I found were car dealerships.
Just before I hit the 90 mile mark for the day I was leaving civilization and passed a guy working on his motor boat in his driveway. I stopped and asked if he could help me out by filling my water bottles. Turned out it wasn’t his house but it was his brother’s. He ran inside and got him. His name was Tom and after a few minutes of conversation he filled my water bottles and asked me where I was going to camp tonight. I was planning on riding another 8.4 miles and camping at a state park. It was going to take me off my route a bit, cost me money and add up to a 97 mile day of riding. He said well if you want, you can camp in my yard. So I set up camp and he brought out a beer for me. He offered some dinner but I told him I really needed to eat the food on my bike so it was lighter. Later he and his wife were going for ice cream and brought some back for me. My body really must of needed the calories because that ice cream really hit the spot. Thank you Tom for your kindness to a stranger.
Slow and Steady 
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