11 August Wednesday North Branch, MI – Capac, MI

Starting Point: North Branch, MI
Ending Point: Capac, MI
Via: Brown City
Mileage: 43.2   
Time: 4:10   
Mph: 10.2
Terrain: gentle hills
Vertical climbing: 275
Temperature High: 84
Temperature Low: 77
Lunch: turkey/cheese/and PB&J sandwiches
Dinner: pasta with sausage and sauce, salad and pie
Weather: overcast, humid
Lodging: Emmett KOA (camping)
Cumulative Mileage: 3,194
Miles to Go: 906
Projected Distance: 4,100
Days completed: 66 (including 7 rest days)
Distance Completed: 78%
Days to Go: 21

To pledge: http://pledgejohn.lungne.org

     Today felt like a fairly short day. The terrain was mostly flat and we passed by farm after farm of corn and soybeans. Those were the only two crops I could identify, though I’m sure there were others.

Eastern Michigan Farmland

     Dolores and I were slated to be the cooks so we planned on meeting at the IGA supermarket in Capac at 4pm. It took a while to find it because it was no longer called IGA. I stopped at the library first to check email and, of course, got into conversation with the librarians who were curious about my tour. I remembered 2 of them from 3 years ago, but they didn’t remember me. As I was talking about the difficulties of dealing with obtaining groceries today (because of the distance between the campground and the store), a woman standing by the librarians said, “Would you like me to make you some potato salad?” This lead to a long conversation to try to figure out how Mary could help us. At first she offered to go shopping for us 8 miles away and then bring the groceries to the campsite. That would have been challenging because the list of things we needed was in my head and not on paper. Finally we settled on a plan: she would come to the supermarket (formerly known as IGA) where Dolores and I would shop and she would take our groceries to camp. This was just an incredible offer. So often we’ve been aided immeasurably by the wonderful generosity of strangers; this was another outstanding example of that for sure.
     When Dolores and I arrived at camp, Mary drove in not long after to check on us. She asked if we found everything we needed. Dolores mentioned that we did except for a dessert. Mary then drove away and a little while later came back with a homemade pie! We had a storm at dinnertime, but that pie should made it less noticeable!
     From the moment I arrived at camp I began making the preparations for dinner and so didn’t have time to set up my tent and get cleaned up. By the time dinner was finished it was still raining and I was able to set up under the pavilion where we ate – this was a good bit of luck.