Battle Creek Michigan

Currently in Battle Creek Michigan. Today marked two major milestones for me. First, Claudia and I celebrated our 35th anniversary. She is clearly a saint for putting up with me for all those years including indulging me on this trip. Second, I crossed the 5000 mile mark of the trip late this morning and am now at least half way done with the trip having ridden a total of 5060 miles through today. I've been on the road a little over 2 and 1/2 months and am thinking that I will likely be in Key West late this year rather than in early 2009. No matter when I finish I still plan on riding at least 10,000 miles in total.

Went off my regular route today and rode on a major state highway. There are only so many small communities, county roads and farms that one can take! I will rejoin the route tomorrow afternoon in Indiana.

More farm country as noted in the pictures of barns and corn fields. As I have mentioned in the past, one of the real joys of riding is you see things you just wouldn't notice while driving. For example, note the person on the tower in the picture above. I took a close up and a expanded view to give a prospective on just how high the person was on the tower. At first I thought it was a dummy hanging on the tower and then to my surprise it began moving and became clear it was a person working on the tower. Not sure you would get me up there! Lastly, rode by a Detroit Lion football fan's yard. They take their football seriously in Michigan!

A little history of Battle Creek. It started out as a village over 150 years ago and was named for a dispute between a land surveyor and two Native Americans. It started out as a trading community for wood and agriculture products, evolved into a manufacturing city making everything from violin strings to threshing machines and is probably best known for being the cereal capital of the world. The cereal business has it's roots in a sanitarium ran by Dr. John Kellogg in the late 1800's. Dr. Kellogg prescribed a diet of vegetables and grains for those with digestive problems. In the 1980's C.W. Post visited Dr. Kellog's sanitarium for health issues and ultimately formed his own clinic and developed Post Grape Nuts. Dr. Kellogg's brother than founded Kellog's cereal in the early 1900's after working at the sanitarium. At one time, there were over 80 cereal companies in Battle Creek with Post and Kellogg remaining as the two dominate players in the business today.

Battle Creek was also home to Sojourner Truth, a nationally known ex-slave who traveled the country speaking out on women's rights in the late 1800's.