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The First Letter From the Road

I'm now in Otter Lake, Michigan, staying the night in a bicycle hospitality home. This is a program where people take in weary cyclists for the night. I have met wonderful people through this program, and this time is no different. It is a reciprocal program, and I do the same when I am home.

So...how did I get to Otter Lake? I left Plymouth Rock on 26 June, came through Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and all the way across Connecticut, which was truly lovely. I fell in love with the village of Chester, and visited friends in Westport. Then on to my niece's wedding in the Hudson River Valley, which was a knock-out affair if ever there was one. I crossed the Hudson below Albany on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge (no kidding!), and proceeded west along the top of the Catskills and through the lovely upper Finger Lakes region to a friend in Rochester. Then on to Niagara, where the falls fell just for me, and into southern Canada. Canadian roads were narrow, but the drivers were just wonderful, especially the truckers. Southern Ontario is the Canadian Sunbelt---no, this is not an oxymoron. Ontario grows a huge TOBACCO crop, and uses YUCCA as a residential landscape plant. Tobacco and yucca in Canada??? Whooda thunkit??? Ferried back into the US across the St. Clair River above Detroit, and am now heading northwest across Michigan to Ludington, where I will pick up a BIG ferry across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. The weather so far has been fine. Low humidity, mild temperatures, and little rain. Got drenched my last day in NY, but that's all so far. Today I beat a giant thunderstorm by about 10 minutes, but I did beat it, and that's all that counts. So far I am riding alone, since my intended companion bowed out the week before departure. Travelling alone has not been a problem, except at mealtime. Eating along day after day is a bummer; I take in my maps and my book and just keep busy. Oddly, many people seem to be threatened by a solo woman. Guess I am an oddity.

© 2000 BFZ

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