masi61

I’m from the Dayton/Xenia, Ohio area and would highly recommend our extensive bikeway system here in southwest Ohio. You can connect to lots of great towns like Yellow Springs, Waynesville, Morrow, Loveland, Cedarville, London - basically all the way up to Columbus or south to Cincinnati.

I do have a question about Michigan and Ann Arbor specifically: is it OK for me to travel there right now? I thought I heard something about the Michigan governor enacting more stringent quarantines there compared to Ohio. I’m just asking what the situation is there since my other hobby is my 2 channel audio “stereo”. I’m trying to get up to Overture Audio in Ann Arbor to have my Scottish Linn turntable get some upgrades. I have been looking forward to making this trip for a while.

I haven’t been on a bike trip in Michigan for quite a few years but have great memories of riding from Dayton to St. Ignace state park (1,200 miles round trip) back in the late 70’s when me and my buddy were teenagers. I especially enjoyed riding out to Muskegon from Battle Creek then up along Lake Michigan and staying in Hart, Ludington, Frankfort, Traverse City, Petoskey, Charlevoix, etc... one of my happiest memories is where we camped at a private campground on Torch Lake after a hot summer day and took an early evening bath/shampoo in the lake. That sandy bottom and how far you can walk out before the “dropoff” is something I always remember.

Another time (when I was about 22 and still single) I took a circuitous route from Dayton, Ohio to Halifax, NS via Detroit/Windsor, Ontario. I got stopped in customs on the Peace Bridge in early October and had no passport so I got a full shakedown. I removed all my items from my panniers, handlebar bag, tool bags and laid them out for the agents. They let me pass eventually so I proceeded down to London, Ontario to the Via Rail station where I purchased an inexpensive train ticket for an overnight trip up through Toronto then onward passing into Vermont then back into New Brunswick and eventually getting dropped off at midnight near a dock in Halifax. This was before cell phones or digital photography. The vision of the sun rising as the train made its way through New Brunswick and the sense of awe at the vistas that unveiled themselves as we exited numerous tunnels to view all the lakes and pine trees was like I went to heaven for a bit!