Ann Arbor, MI to Rochester Hills, MI 72 miles

I managed another early start so I could get to Detroit and meet my friend Eddie. I had to be extra careful on the sections of road where the rising sun was lined up with the road.

I rode past a flock of turkey grazing in a road side graveyard. These were the first turkey I encountered that were not very scared and were easy to take a photo of. The turkey where I live would never let you get this close. I would run into many more tame flocks in the Northeastern states.

I first met my friend Eddie through Warmshowers 3 or 4 years ago. He was on a tour and contacted me asking to be hosted. My wife and I had a great time hosting Eddie. It was probably a year and a half later that Eddie called and said he was planning a bike tour down my way again and asked if I would like to join him. So that spring we rode rail trails for the better part of a week in Pennsylvania. And when I was planning my cross country bike tour, I made my route go close to Detroit so I could visit him. I was excited to get to see my friend Eddie again. He had been able to get a few days off work to ride with me.

Eddie has an encyclopedic knowledge of rail trails, loves travel and finding places to visit on Google Maps. He had been helping me on my trip so far finding campsites, Warmshowers hosts and places I should see along my route.

Tonight he had lined up a Warmshowers host for us to stay with and a good route to get there that had us on trails a good bit of the way. When we arrived, Pavan, the Warmshowers host, greeted us and showed us around his beautiful home. He had recently toured along Route 66 from Chicago to California and he has plans for another more extensive US tour. He kept a blog about his Route 66 tour, you can check it out Here. We enjoyed talking to Pavan about bike touring and life. Being hosted by Pavan and his family was a joy. We were very comfortable and thankful.