We got started from our motel in Grand Rapids about 7:45, and had a much less exciting 2-mile ride down what we heard is the busiest street in the city than we had on that same stretch getting to the motel the day before. That was an adrenaline producing experience, although ironically the scariest thing that happened was in a parking lot when a car that I was standing behind with my bike asking someone for directions started backing up. For a split second I thought I was going to be run over. Luckily I managed to get out of the way, AND the car stopped because I think I let out a yell! Anyway, we had a pleasant ride through Grand Rapids to the start of the bike trail that we took to Muskegon. The first half of the trail had lots of trees on both sides and therefore lots of shade. At the halfway point there was a little town that had an ice cream shop about a half mile off the trail, so we went there and had a rootbeer float. There's nothing like a rootbeer float when you're miserably hot! The second half had lots less shade, and the heat and humidity got almost unbearable for the last couple of hours. We actually got off the trail about 4 miles befoe the end of it, and biked another 6 miles or so on the streets to our motel. We made two stops to cool off and one stop to eat dinner during that six miles.
This morning we left early again and biked a mile to an unimposing looking restaurant with one woman doing all the work, and the food was great. It felt like sitting in someone's kitchen at a tables with oilcloth tablecloths waiting for the owner to fix breakfast. I had a breakfast pita bread sandwich which was yummy. Then we headed north through the city of Muskegon and out into the countryside on a very nice road with a wide shoulder andlLight to moderate traffic. Beautiful day today. Humidity was down and it wasn't too hot. Apparentely it will be back tomorrow or Tuesday. We had a short day today - only 21 miles, and we got a very good deal ar a place by the lake and a marina. We were just sitting out in a gazebo at the end of a dock this evening surrounded by water and boats, and watched the sun go down. Gorgeous evening in a very pretty place.
Big change of plans this evening. We had to think seriously about what to do about our situation, being that we are considerably behind schedule, and probably wouldn't be home until the end of August if we biked all the way from here. We want to be home by the end of July for several reasons, so we considered our options - none of which seemed practical or possible without a great deal of hassle,or at all except for one, which was to call our friend Margit who left Durham, N.C. in her little RV on June 1st also headed for Seattle and doing some sightseeing on the way. She had jokingly (but seriously) offered to pick us up on her way if we needed a ride as we were going pretty much on the same route from Wisconsin on west. Well after several phone conversations with her, and one with my friend Joanne and her husband Bob in Minneapolis, whom we had planned to see, we made a new plan. We are not taking the ferry across Lake Michigan, but are going to continue to bike north along the Michigan coast until Margit catches up with us on Wednesday night. We are then going to put ourselves and our bikes into her RV and travel with her through the upper peninsula of Michigan and just across the border into Wisconsin to Hurley, which is my hometown. In the meantime Joanne and Bob are going to drive up there from Minneapolis and we will be able to get together with them there. Joanne and her brothers now own their parents' house there and stay in it during their forays up there, so we will stay there with them for a couple days, and then back in Margit's RV headed west through Minnesota and North Dakota, and maybe a small section of Montana. Then Margit is going to go into Canada, and we are going to get back on our bikes and pedal the rest of the way to Seattle, which will still be about a thousand miles. This should enable us to arrive home by the end of July.
So far according to my bike computer we have biked 800 miles, so when we finish we will have biked close to 2000 miles. This is about 1000 miles short of biking across the U.S., and we're a little disappointed about that, but due to sightseeing, weather, increasing age, and unrealistic expectations on our part, this is the best we could do. But we won't let this spoil our enjoyment of our trip by any means. We're having a great time, even through the occasional hard parts, and we'll go with the flow.
So tomorrow it's on to Ludington mostly by another bike trail, and then two more days biking north from there along the lake until we join Margit - our knight on a white horse.
I'll try to add some pictures again.
Riding on.....
Carol & Bill
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