Top Memories -- Local Public Libraries

How did I spend my summer sabbatical?   Blogging and biking (but mostly biking).  
The thing is is that I didn't have a computer along the ride.  So I was completely dependent on local libaries along way -- at the mercy of their hours and general availability  (i.e. how close was it to where we were camping).   On the whole I think I was able to blog just over three times a week.   Like biking, blogging was a very new adventure.  It started as an idea that my wife, Cindy, and I would do together.  She set up the blog and then I would call in each night for her to post something interesting about the ride.  We often did this -- but in a short time she helped me figure out some of the ins and outs of it all and it became great fun for me and some of the other riders who blogged along the way.  One a bloger rider rolled into town, the first question always became, "Where is the public library?"  It became a slight addiction. 

It was common for us to talk about who was blogging about what and even ponder, "What should we blog about today?"   And, the funny thing is that generally we would only have about 15-20 minutes to post a blog depending on our available time and how long we could stay on the computer at the library.  Libraries varied in how long you could use their computers.   We also became quite the evaluators of each library.  One winner was the James E. Wickson Memorial Library.  

The James E. Wickson Memorial Library was located in a fun and funky tourist town of Frankenwuth, Michigan.    The town has a complete Bavarian theme and lots of tourist coming and going. Even the local oil change garage has a Bavarian look to it.   But what caught our attention was the fun little coffee machine they had for us as we took turns on the computers to blog. 

Writing from home this seems like such a little thing -- so what, a coffee machine in a library!   But we embraced fun little things when we were on the road -- like stopping under the shade of a tree or finding a place that would let us put ice into our water bottles.  This trip brought out the simple things in life for each of us.   Having coffee in an air conditioned library in a little Bavarian tourist trap of a town was just wonderful.  Thank you very much!