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Barry

Barry County

Barry County Run

County Complete

Barry was the second county of the day. I had just completed Allegan County about 35 minutes before taking on this county. I had worn my jacket for the first run and regretted it halfway through that run. So I left it in the car for this run. Glad I did.

I think I was facing northwest for this picture on the top west side of the map. I believe there were cornfields all around here.

The first glimpse of Shelp Lake while heading south on Lindsey Rd.

Here is a little better look.

Farther down the road, you could see the lake over the curb.

Looking South at Pine Lake. I almost thought I would run around that lake until I looked at the map. That would have been a MUCH longer run.

Once I turned the corner, it was a dirt road heading southeast, but you could get a good look at the lake at this point.

Cool little bridge that went over the water.

What a fantastic view of the road; this was a great start to the run.

I met two dogs at the southernmost point of the run. The little one made it clear that I wasn’t welcome there. The large dog came close to me and just wanted me to pet him. He came right up to my hand and leaned into me. I wish I had petted him but was concerned that I might get bit if I did. Probably the best part of this run was meeting these two. However, I liked the big guy much better.

I think I bummed him out that I didn’t acknowledge him.

Pretty sure this is where I started heading east.

I was facing the east side of the road; there was some more water.

Here I was looking north at the southern side of lake Shelp.

I was back on the main road heading north.

I found this dirt road marked on my map, which made it clear that it went up the lake. A chain across the road was about 400 yards up this road marked “private property. I didn’t want to turn around, so I pretended that I didn’t see the sign. Sorry to whoever owns the land that I trespassed on.

More beautiful views of the lake looking West.

I think this photo was taken at the northernmost of the Lake off from Pine Lake Rd. I am almost done with my run. What a cool place to run!!

I left this place and headed to Kalamazoo (about 35 minutes away). I called my nephew Cody and made plans to meet him for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was SOO good. Then we went to his apartment; so lucky to have a place to stay. Thanks, Cody James!

Here is audio of him and I trying to figure out a Eric Church song… The recording is not good but it was so nice to get time to jam with him and visit. 

Great Design Plan to run the county for this website

The run was pretty darn close to exactly what I planned. I didn’t do the venture off W Pine lake Road like the plan, and I had to add a bit to the end of the run to make it a 5k. But a great second run.

Barry County

Barry County
Assyria
Baltimore
Barry
Carlton
Castleton
Freeport
Hastings
Hope
Irving
Johnstown
Maple Grove
Middleville
Nashville
Orangeville
Prairieville
Rutland
Thornapple
Woodland
Yankee Springs

Any place in Bold and Red are townships / towns /cities I’ve run a 5k for the county run (or the closest city to my county run)

Any place in Bold and Blue are townships / towns / cities I’ve run anytime in the past.

Any place in Bold and Green are townships / towns / cities I’ve done website / hosting / design work – best website builder for small business – WordPress design hosting and search engine optimization. I’m a small business website builder – contact me to get a website that works! If no Green color is on this page, please talk with me (Click Here). I’ll be encouraged to change one to Green!

Cheboygan

Cheboygan County

Cheboygan County Run

County Complete

December 18th first thing in the morning. I planned to get to Cheboygan County at daylight so I could take pictures of my run. Was heading north to the cabin to have Christmas with my family.

I have not been in this area much before this time of year…. Usually December 18th there would be tons of snow on the ground. But it was odd to see all the picnic table all stacked away for the winter.

A look at the mighty Mac!

It was 28°, but honestly it felt SOO much colder with the wind coming off the water. At first I ran alongside the lake, but later cut through town and it was SO much warmer away from the water.

Amazing the the sidewalks were mostly clear of snow!

Another look back at the bridge!

Here are two pics of the water tower!

Amazing with nothing in the background.

A look at some of the businesses with a very empty street. In the summertime this place is packed!

Whole bunch of empty boat docks! Some bigger boats in the background.

Another look at empty businesses.

Such a cold run! This town looks so much different this time of year!

Decided to run in a residential area on the way back.

Very cool looking place you’d never guess where I am from the looks of this photo.

Back to the water. It was a very cold run and I was just getting over a cold. So this is one of my slowest MI runs for sure. I also stopped a lot to take photos that didn’t turn out. I had over a dozen blurry photos.

Was so happy to see the potential warmth of my car!

Loved seeing the snow moving across the mac!

About halfway over the bridge!

Post run pic, wow my eyes look messed up. I was very sick earlier this week. So happy to have this one complete.

Great Design Plan to run the county for this website

9/3/21: Lisa and I went to Mackinaw City and hung out and ate dinner. I was in an undone County and didn’t knock it down… Uhhh!

12/18/21: Was heading up to the Cabin for a family Christmas Party. Decided to knock a couple counties down while at it!

Cheboygan County

Aloha
Beaugrand
Benton
Burt
Cheboygan
Ellis
Forest
Grant
Hebron
Inverness
Koehler
Mackinaw Mackinaw City
Mentor
Mullett
Munro
Nunda
Tuscarora
Walker
Waverly
Wilmot
Wolverine

Any place in Bold and Red are townships / towns /cities I’ve run a 5k for the county run (or the closest city to my county run)

Any place in Bold and Blue are townships / towns / cities I’ve run anytime in the past.

Any place in Bold and Green are townships / towns / cities I’ve done website / hosting / design work – best website builder for small business – WordPress design hosting and search engine optimization. I’m a small business website builder – contact me to get a website that works! If no Green color is on this page, please talk with me (Click Here). I’ll be encouraged to change one to Green!

Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo County

Kalamazoo County Run

County Complete
At the start of this run, I was shocked to see this view – there were houses and apartments all around. Kalamazoo is a superpopulated area. Shocking.
I was running east, and although this picture doesn't show it, I was surprised at how hilly (small hills) the area had.
I was running east, and although this picture doesn't show it, I was surprised at how hilly (small hills) the area had.
I ran by two large churches that were a block apart from one another.
Several homes had fantastic landscaping around this area. I loved this little scrub.
Also, I was impressed by the base of this tree. Pretty big boy!
I ran out of sidewalks at some points in this run. And although it looks quiet and empty in this picture, it was pretty frequent to see cars this early.
I was a little more than the halfway point. It was amazing that I felt great at this point.
Again, the sidewalks here are half the size of other cities.
Another excellent flower garden!
Back on the main road and heading back to Cody's apartment to get a shower before work.
This hill doesn't seem big. But, after running 9 miles in the last 24 hours, this was noticeable.
Here is a photo I took driving the night before heading towards Kalamazoo. But this photo reminds me of the trip home. There was an accident on the way back that had traffic at a standstill. But what a huge accomplishment these last two days were. Thank you SO much, Cody, for making this possible for me!
Great Design Plan to run the county for this website

The plan for this county was to run a 5k from my nephew Cody Jame’s Apartment after the two 5k’s the previous night. It was so great to see him again, and it was so cool to hear about his job and explain my new job to him; catch up. He makes me so proud, and his career is super impressive! Also good to see Rizzo, his dog!

Thank you so much Cody James! I will remember this weekend for the rest of my life.

Kalamazoo County

Alamo
Augusta
Brady
Charleston
Climax
Comstock
Cooper
Galesburg
Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo
Oshtemo
Parchment
Pavilion
Portage
Prairie Ronde
Richland
Ross
Texas
Vicksburg
Wakeshma

Any place in Bold and Red are townships / towns /cities I’ve run a 5k for the county run (or the closest city to my county run)

Any place in Bold and Blue are townships / towns / cities I’ve run anytime in the past.

Any place in Bold and Green are townships / towns / cities I’ve done website / hosting / design work – best website builder for small business – WordPress design hosting and search engine optimization. I’m a small business website builder – contact me to get a website that works! If no Green color is on this page, please talk with me (Click Here). I’ll be encouraged to change one to Green!

St. Joseph

St. Joesph County

St. Joseph County Run

County Complete
This first photo was one I took because I thought this might be like other lakes I've run around: no view except for the back of homes. So glad I was wrong.
Here is a photo not far from the first home on Fishers Lake.
Here is a view down the road—what a great little place. I was shocked at the quality of homes/landscaping around this little lake.
This photo looks like a much later shot, but it looks dark because I loved the view. Although the view in this picture looks cool, too, it's not quite what I saw that night.
A second shot towards the sun, the view was amazing.
The road opened up a little bit, and there were nice homes on both sides of the road.
Here is another shot with the sun that looks nothing like what I remember but still very cool.
Here is a little over the halfway point; I was heading back. It was getting late, and I was worried about having to get another run-in.
Here is a photo with more of the views I remember this night. It was a very cool little neighborhood.
There was one point on the run where the other side of the road opened up to a HUGE yard. Wow, what a cool house with property!
Running back looked very much like running out. I hate out and backs for runs.
This was the home stretch, and I was trying to hurry to get this run done to get to the start of the next run before sundown. It was about 7:20 pm.
Here was my last view of the lake before I turned the corner.
Once I turned the corner, I could see where I gassed up, and my run was mostly complete!
Great Design Plan to run the county for this website

I am driving downstate to knock this and two other counties off the map! Traffic was heavy on the way down through Grand Rapids. I was going through about 5:30 pm.

So the plan for this County didn’t work out. I was trying to get to this County after work on Tuesday. St Joseph is south of Kalamazoo County, and I figured it would take about 2 hours to get there from work. It took a little more than that. When I got into this County, I realized that I was running on empty. So I looked for a gas station on my phone, and the closest one was 9 miles south! UHHHHG! When I arrived at the gas station, I looked at a map of the area and decided to just run right there, halfway around Fishers Lake.

St. Joseph County

Burr Oak
Centreville
Colon
Constantine
Constantine
Fabius
Fawn River
Florence
Flowerfield
Leonidas
Lockport
Mendon
Mottville
Nottawa
Park
Sherman
Sturgis
Three Rivers
White Pigeon
Any place in Bold and Red are townships / towns /cities I’ve run a 5k for the county run (or the closest city to my county run) Any place in Bold and Blue are townships / towns / cities I’ve run anytime in the past. Any place in Bold and Green are townships / towns / cities I’ve done website / hosting / design work – best website builder for small business – WordPress design hosting and search engine optimization. I’m a small business website builder – contact me to get a website that works! If no Green color is on this page, please talk with me (Click Here). I’ll be encouraged to change one to Green!

Branch

Branch County

Branch County Run 

County Complete
Here I parked my car at 7:54 pm, and the sun was going down. So glad I was able to fit this run in!
Here I am heading east towards the lake. My car is at the end of this road in the opposite direction.
Once I arrived at the lake, it was a great view and the perfect running temperature.
The sky looked very much like the sky during the last run. This photo is more like what I saw with the sun in the background of the run in St. Joseph.
Here is another shot of the lake, but the white thing you see in the middle of the picture is what I think is a water slide that goes all the way from the top of the hill into the lake. The grandkids must love this place!
Here was the first spot I could see both lakes.
I noticed a few dogs barking at me during this run. I tried taking a photo of him, but it turned out blurry.
Another shot of that amazing sky!
Here's another view of that second lake.
Such an early part of this run, and the sky is getting dark.
Houses are spaced out pretty far apart on this lake. Look at the size of that yard.
I'm back on the main road.
I think this was a photo looking down what might be a boat launch. At the end of this road, the people came up to the spot that I took this photograph from and just sat there for like 4 minutes. I'm not sure why.
What beautiful swamp land between the road and the lake! WOW!
There was also a whole field that had just got plowed. I don't know why they would do this in August, but it looked extremely fresh.
Somewhere around here was my turn around for heading back. Again it's getting late.
Here was a huge field with something planted, but I'm not sure what it was.
I loved some of the trees along the side of the road.
Here is the last stretch of this run. I think you can see my car at the top of the hill on the left.
Once I got back towards the car the sun had set.
Great Design Plan to run the county for this website

The plan for this run was much better than the first. I did exactly what was planned on these maps. I figured out the halfway point heading south was at 1.73 miles, and I was amazed when I arrived back at my car at exactly 3.10 miles. When I jumped in my car, I looked up how long it would take me to get to my nephew Cody’s apartment in Kalamazoo, and it said 45 minutes. The time estimate was disappointing in many ways: I was super tired because I was up since 5 am, I’ve worked a full day, I’ve driven for more than 4 hours that day, I so wanted time to visit with my nephew. And there were only a couple of hours before I would need to go to bed. When I arrived at Cody’s home, he had made a chicken and rice dish that was amazing! We had a great visit, and we probably stayed up past 11:30 pm.

Branch County

Algansee
Batavia
Bethel
Bronson
Butler
California
Coldwater
Gilead
Girard
Kinderhook
Matteson
Noble
Ovid
Quincy
Sherwood
Union
Union City
Any place in Bold and Red are townships / towns /cities I’ve run a 5k for the county run (or the closest city to my county run) Any place in Bold and Blue are townships / towns / cities I’ve run anytime in the past. Any place in Bold and Green are townships / towns / cities I’ve done website / hosting / design work – best website builder for small business – WordPress design hosting and search engine optimization. I’m a small business website builder – contact me to get a website that works! If no Green color is on this page, please talk with me (Click Here). I’ll be encouraged to change one to Green!

Contact

If you have some ideas about a county please share them on that counties comments section. I would like others to see what makes the county great.  If you would like to contact me privately you can do so here:                                   thanks. m