July 25th, Day 37: Ludington, MI to Mount Pleasant, MI: 112 miles, 2387 ft. ascent

As we disembarked from the ferry crossing of Lake Michigan yesterday evening we entered Michigan, our 7^th state of the transamerica ride and also entered Eastern Daylight Time – i.e. the timezone that we will be on for the rest of the journey.

James and Chris at the border crossing from Wisconsin into Michigan (at Ludington)

It really is starting to feel as though we have broken the back of this journey now, although with 2,719 miles done, we still have 934 miles to go. And that remaining 934 miles is still slightly longer than the standard Lands End to John o’Groats End To End ride across the UK.

Today’s 112 mile ride was our last century of the journey. It felt quite hard with lots of rollers and a not particularly friendly wind. So we were reasonably content to average 15.7 mph.

We are now starting to enter more populous states, with the Michigan population of around 10 million being twice as much as any other state crossed so far. Michigan is probably most famous for The Motor City, although that is in a terrible state of decline, with the Detroit population now the same as it was in 1910, before the start of the automotive boom. However, today’s ride through Michigan was marvelously rural, passing through small towns and fruit farms on wonderfully quiet roads. The landscape and climate was quite European and we could almost have been in Northern France, except for the cuisine. Once again, for emphasis, except for the cuisine. I’ll blog shortly about the joys of 7 weeks consuming American chain restaurant food. But only after I study a few reviews by the legendary A.A. Gill to hone the savage critique that this particular abomination and affront to gastronomy merits and needs.

Chris 'helps' to unpack the bags in Ludington

Michigan looking rural and quite European.