Clare to Bay City
54 miles / 332ft climb
While Caroline and Paul set off at some unearthly hour and cycled hard to reach the bike shop in Bay City in time to have the new gear shifter replaced, John and I took a more leisurely pace.
The bike trail, a continuation from yesterday, lasted another 40 miles and was lovely. We met a few other cyclists along the way and exchanged our respective cycling stories. Thanks to Art and Crystal who we met for a second time at lunch and who kindly bought us ice creams while we exchanged a few life stories. Lovely company and lovely ice cream!
The sky was getting dark and continued to grow darker over the next couple of hours. A few spots of rain gradually got a little heavier and when we were within half a mile of our accommodation for the evening, we heard a clap of thunder directly overhead, immediately followed by a torrential downpour, too severe for us to reach our destination. We had to take shelter and eventually made it, soaking wet to the pub nearby where Caroline and Paul were sheltering from the rain and celebrating a successful bike fix. We finally made it to our ‘Lucky Star’ central Bay City apartment, named after one of Madonna’s records to remind us all that this was Madonna’s home town.
A lovely dinner and an outdoor beach boy tribute band concert rounded off the evening.
I think tomorrow, we’ll tackle another 70 miles …….
Challenging Times 
Sounds like an eventful day! Glad the bike fix was successful xx
Was she home? 😂