Cadillac to Saginaw, MI

We drifted south through wonderful farm land and saw lots of Amish buggies near LeRoy and Tustin. Our travel took us on the 'quilt road', a collection of buildings and barns with painted quilt patterns mounted on their sides.  This was started by two women in the area and it has expanded every year with tour buses now wandering the rural landscape.  It felt like a treasure hunt and it made for a good exploration of the farm land and small towns.





From Reed City to Evart and then to Clare we enjoyed a variety of landscapes and happily discovered Dairy DOO - a composted cow manure at Morgan Composting outside of Evart. They sell bags of compost - one of which is now in the back of our car, along with the beer and wine.  Very clever marketing and good products besides. Kate turned her gaze away from the beautiful potted and hanging flower baskets - just no room in our Prius for all the tempting botanicals.

As if Dairy Doo was not enough excitement for one day, we stopped in Clare and had lunch (and donuts) at Cops and Doughnuts - a bakery that was purchased by the cops when it was threatening to go out of business.

It not only great donuts, but also excellent sandwiches. Kate's eyes  lit up when she saw the ground bologna sandwich on the menu (if you followed our journey around Lake Superior - there's a story behind the bologna sandwiches. I had their fresh cut French fries.


A rain cloud moved in and we thought we would not get our afternoon exercise, but luckily we were able to walk the Dow Gardens in Midland, and see the most spectacular city hall we've ever encountered.

The sun actually came out while we walked in the Gardens, so we got on our bikes and rode a portion of the Pere Marquette rail trail.

This section has the Tridge - a three way bridge - a fascinating structure that traversed as we made our 12 circuit.


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