Birch Trees and Squeaky Cheese

After the rider pack left Minneapolis on Monday, we’ve watched the ebb and flow of Spot Trackers move, literally, to all points of the U.S. and part of Canada.  If you’ve been playing along at home (and I know many of you are because the Public Spotwalla link on the IBR site keeps blinking out), you’ve watched this movement and thought – what are they seeing?  For those who headed east and north from MN, like I did, wonderful signs of the delicacies abound – pasties, cranberry wine, and my favorite ~

The weather was also nice and cool, with a few rain sprinkles.  The national weather map over the past 36 hours has shown severe storms and brutal heat in other areas where our riders are.  Among the birch trees in the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan), rally dogs Bela and Riley were proud to sniff out a hotel with a large concrete moose!  Safari bonus points for us! (I’m sure you too are collecting rally watcher bonus points by photographing huge roadside animals where you live. Admit it. You know you're seeing them everywhere now.)

 

At the moment, we are about 60 minutes away from penalty points for the end of Leg 1.  All the Spots not already parked at Rally HQ – Texas are lined up on the approach.  Kirsten (as usual) is cutting it very close.  So tune in and watch as they descend, or read today’s official rally report.  Because really, what else do you have to do in the next hour on a Wednesday night?

The Straights of Mackinac, and Mighty Mac!  (The Mackinac Bridge)