– Champaign, Illinois to Beggs, Oklahoma – I didn’t get to run this morning, which makes me so very sad. I think we would’ve had the time, but hindsight is 20/20, and we were worried about getting back to Oklahoma early enough for the air conditioner to cool the house back down to a temperature…

– London, Ontario to Champaign, Illinois – Mark, Ripley and I started our morning with a run from Thames Park here in London along the Thames River. It’s funny how all of that sounds, isn’t it? We were in Ontario, of course, but given the names, you’d assume somewhere else, right? I wonder what possessed…

– Blind River, Ontario to London, Ontario – Oh, how I’ve missed Tim Hortons. I’m not sure what it so special about it, but it really makes my day. We started out this morning at 5am, and we drove quite a ways over to the spot where we thought we might run. It turned out…

– Houghton, Michigan to Blind River, Ontario – Well, I’ve got my baby back. We got up at 6am, with plans to get her by 7:30, as soon as the kennel opened. We were supposed to have time to run today, but since we were down a member of our crew, we had to scrap that…

– Houghton, Michigan to Isle Royale National Park– I’m really missing Ripley. We didn’t get her back today due to a scheduling error, and now I feel even more guilty and sad. She hated it in that kennel, but we didn’t make it back to this part of Michigan in time for us to pick…

– International Falls, Minnesota to Houghton, Michigan – We had to do some backtracking today, which you might recognize as being terribly boring. The day began with a 5am wakeup call and a run along the main road from International Falls down to the small town of Ranier, where we stopped in front of the…

– River Falls, Wisconsin to International Falls, Minnesota – Our run was rather boring today. It turns out that there really isn’t much in River Falls, and anything that even remotely resembles a decent running trail is half way back to St. Paul, which is much too far to drive just to get some exercise….

– Des Moines, Iowa to River Falls, Wisconsin – I actually exhausted little Ripley today. You wouldn’t think it was possible, but I did it. We got up at 5am and went out for a run on the Clive Greenbelt Trail. We’d planned to run four miles, but I didn’t follow the plan and ended…

– Beggs, Oklahoma to Des Moines, Iowa – Just like our previous trip to New Jersey, the Great Lakes trip began with a Day 0.5. We technically started with our rental car yesterday, in Denton, and drove to Mark’s parents’ house in Beggs, Oklahoma, last night to begin the real first day of our trip…