Transfixus Sed Non Mortuus

(backdated)
I woke up at 8:30am with a growl in my stomach. As my stomach growled, I remembered that the free continental breakfast lasted till 9am. Naturally, I had the desire to run out of the room to get some food! The night before, John and I had decided that we would leave sometime towards the midmorning, so I really didn’t want to wake him. I tiptoed around the room, gently getting ready. I made my way to the door of the room, and pulled the handle downwards. It made a small click and I softly tugged on the handle to open the door. It wouldn’t budge. Finally I gave it a hard pull, and it opened at last with a very loud squeaking sound. Undeterred, I stepped out in the hallway and tried my best to shut the door quietly behind me. However, I had to pull it hard until it slammed. “John is probably up now,” I said to myself. Oops.

I made my way down the hall and into the dining room. As the breakfasty smells hit my little nostrils, my Pavlovian response was nothing to be scoffed at. I was hungry! I nearly skipped to the counter and began to make a waffle forthwith. While the first waffle was cooking, I grabbed a glass of orange juice and downed it. I grabbed some fruit from a nearby counter as well. Then, my eyes settled on some bite-sized doughnuts. I popped a couple of those in my mouth. By then, the waffle was done and I decided to make another. Sliding away from the counter, I made my way to my seat at a table nearby and began to eat (more). It all was quite tasty.

Meanwhile, John sauntered in and we wished each other good morning. I hoped that I didn’t disturb him too greatly with my slamming of the door. He said that he was glad he made it for breakfast, so I didn’t feel horribly bad about it.

After breakfast, we went back to our room to get ready for the last bike ride of the trip. We took about an hour or so to let our food settle. We then filled up or camelbaks and waterbottles from the sink in the room, packed up, and checked out. We were on our way on this, our last day!

As soon as we got on the road, I took a sip of my camelbak. “I’ve got to stay hydrated,” I thought to myself. As I took a sip, an awful taste filled my mouth. It was semi-metallic tasting, but with hints of something else that my taste buds definitely did not like. It was a bit of a shock to me as I was expecting some nice refreshing water.

I tried not to let the bad tasting water dampen my mood, but driving through downtown Toledo did! Toledo is not set up very well for biking (or at least the parts that we rode), and after riding through Chicago, where it’s busy but with plenty of bike lanes, I think I was a bit shocked at the lack of biking ability. Aside from the lack of bicycling infrastructure, I found the residents of Toledo to not be very friendly either. For instance, at one point on Cherry Street, we were waiting to cross an intersection on the crosswalk. When the light turned green and the “walk” light came on, a truck that was making a right turn cut in front of us. The gentleman riding shotgun just stared at me with a menacing look. So, I just smiled and nodded my head in order to not have any provocation for these two to be upset.

We had rode about five miles that seemed like ten when we found that the connecting road out of town was under construction and completely closed. After a few minutes of figuring a new route, we were on our way again. I was sipping the “bad tasting” tasting water all the while, and though I soon got used to the taste, I noticed that my stomach was becoming less and less happy with me.

At last we reached Douglas Street, which would take us out of town. I was really happy to be on it! We rode for a while longer and then took a break. During the break, John informed me that he had stopped drinking the water entirely because it was so bad tasting. For a second, I thought about getting out my water filtration system, but we didn’t have enough containers to make it feasible. I decided to follow John’s lead and not take any water until we reached a gas station or some place where we could fill up with fresh water. My stomach was not feeling good at all, and every time I took a sip, it seemed to aggravate it. I wish I had thought to stop at a gas station while we were driving through downtown, but I was far too concentrated on getting out of that zaniness.

I didn’t know that the nearest gas station on our route from our current location was in Dundee. The heavily populated outskirts of Toledo soon gave way to farms, and the road was ringed with corn and soybeans. It was a very welcome sight after the craziness of riding through Toledo. However, I became more and more thirsty as the minutes and miles dragged on. I even thought a truck parts store was a party store for a minute. John and I laughed about how it was a mirage!

At last we made it to Dundee. We stopped to take a rest and decided to stay in Dundee for lunch. We ended up eating at La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant. The food and service were stellar, especially considering they were serving two raggedy, dirty, and sweaty gentlemen.

La Fiesta Lizard

La Fiesta Second Floor

After lunch we hung out in front of the establishment to let the food digest a bit. Then we headed on to a gas station to change out the nasty water for some fresh stuff. That water tasted as sweet as morning dew on wood sorrel! We also bought a bottle of vitamin water to replenish our electrolytes. Then, we were off again.

Alas, we were not off again for very long. I chose…poorly in terms of our route. Not being familiar with the area, I chose to head up Platt Road. Little did I know that Platt was completely filled with gravel, and not the small smooth-cut kind, either. After about twenty feet of bumping and almost falling, we decided to get off and walk our bikes. I really hated that idea because I had an open blister on my heel that got really aggravated by the walk. Nonetheless, we pressed onward.

After about a mile and a half, we hit Milwaukee Road. It was paved, so we took that and just headed west. We cut up a couple of different streets, and I must say that I was starting to run out of juice. John had also started falling back a bit as well. So, we stopped at the Washtenaw County Line for a break.

Washtenaw County Line

After our break, we got up into Mooreville and then took Saline-Milan Road up towards Saline. Of course, the hills started again, and those were challenging. When we got to Saline, I saw that John was nearly done. I certainly didn’t feel much better, but I felt the need to press on while I still had any kind of energy at all. It was only ten miles or so to our destination. “We are almost there,” I kept telling myself.

While we were sitting there trying to recoup enough energy to ride the remainder, a really nice young lady by the name of Michelle came up and spoke to us. She was looking to ride a century in the next couple of years, and wanted to know more about our bikes and what we did. Like an answer to an unsaid prayer, talking to her about biking for about forty five minutes helped us to (mostly) forget how tired we were!

After we bade Michelle goodbye, we started again, and rode back to Ann Arbor without incident. We were incredibly tired as we reached Ann Arbor, but I know that I was soon excited as we neared our destination! When we pulled up into John’s driveway, I couldn’t believe how good I felt. I felt almost as good as I felt when we got to Chicago. Once again, we had overcome quite a few obstacles and challenges to arrive safely at our destination!

We Made It!

We toasted to our success with some Recoverite, took a picture of our triumph, and then parted ways. When I reached my apartment, that same feeling of having accomplished something worthwhile swept over me again.

As the time between me and this trip fade, I wonder how it will change me. I feel another piece of me has changed and grown in the process of this trip, but I wonder if that will transfer somehow into the every-day process of living. Only time will tell, but I can tell you one thing: this trip was amazing!

Navigate to the other days’ stories:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

(backdated)

We awoke early to start the day. We had debated the finer points of two routes to take the night before. One route completely avoided Gary (which is fairly notorious for its crime rate) and ran on a lot of trails. The big drawback was there was a lot of intricate turns in the route and we weren’t sure we could follow them. The other route we had seemed far more direct and seemed easier to follow, but it went through Gary and was on some pretty busy roads. We eventually settled on the more direct route, but decided it would be a good idea to get an early start.

We packed up our bags and got ready for the hard ride ahead. However, not even the previous three days had prepared us for the challenges yet in store!

I can’t say we started in exactly the best way. As we left the campground, I led us up Broadway drive towards the Lake. I was looking down at the map and trying to memorize some of the turns further down the road and I guess I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have. We overshot our first major turn by about 3/4 of a mile!

When I realized that I had passed our turn, I felt a little sheepish. We stopped for a moment while I looked at the map to confirm my mistake. Then, I saw that we would be able to cut down a road called Beverly and save us a good bit of backtracking. Proud of my navigation skills, I led us down Beverly. We rode for about a half mile when ahead of us loomed a large pile of dirt that stood about five feet high and ran the width of the street. There were construction-orange road barrels in front of the large dirt mound as well. My heart sank when I saw it, but I rode up to the base of the mound to see if there might be a navigable strip of pavement on the other side. I’m sad to say that the situation on the other side was not so good. In the end, we had to backtrack almost to our starting point before we were on our way in the right direction!

We rode for about an hour or so before it was time to take a break. It had been a rough hour because there wasn’t much of a shoulder to ride on and cars and semi trucks seemed to be just whizzing past us.

After deciding that we probably could use a break, there didn’t appear to be any great places to stop off. We rode for another three or four minutes before we finally just decided to get a little off the road between the pavement and some railroad tracks. We stopped and snacked there for a bit. Though it wasn’t the prettiest place we’ve stopped to take the break, it was pretty cool when an amtrak went by.

This was not quite as pretty as other areas we rested in

It's good to take a break and relax a little.

After our break, we started getting into the outskirts of Gary, Indiana. Gary has a lot of remnants of industry, but also has a high crime rate. We had planned on riding on US-12 through Gary to hopefully avoid some of the seedier parts of the city. However, traffic was just too heavy on US-12, and since there was no shoulder/sidewalk to speak of, we stopped for a few minutes across from Gary’s city hall while I rerouted us through downtown.

Gary City Hall is quite beautiful

I tried my best to keep a positive attitude, but since I didn’t know much about the city, I was a little afraid that I might lead us on a worse route than the one we had been struggling on. I finally decided on a route that didn’t take us too far out of our way. It did take us through some of the neighborhoods of Gary, so that was interesting. It wasn’t much different than riding through Detroit, in my opinion. The only difference was that we stuck out like a couple of bulbous sore thumbs with our fancy pannier bags and gear.

I was happy when we got back out onto US 12 and outside the Gary neighborhoods, but only for a little while as the traffic was still pretty heavy. There also were some deep and large potholes to dodge. Because I was always looking around and trying to pay attention to traffic, every once in a while I would miss one and feel like my entire bike was going to bounce to the moon (or more likely pop a tire)!

I was happy when we turned off the main drag (US-12) as we got into the southeastern outskirts of Chicago. However, our problems were not yet over. The road we were going to take north to catch South Shore Drive had a bridge under construction. So, once again, I had to take some time and reroute us.

It just so happened that as we rode a little ways further, John got a flat tire. I had heard him hit a pothole really hard. “Are you all right?” I had called back to him. He replied, “I think so.” Sadly, within a few hundred yards, he saw that his tire was going flat. So, we pulled in behind the storefront to Crowley’s Yacht Yard on 95th Avenue to change the flat. It began to rain about the same time. Though the rain didn’t last long, it was a bit disheartening.

While John changed his tire, I went inside Crowley’s. They seemed like nice people and didn’t say a word about the fact that we were hanging out in their yard changing a tire. One of their customers came out a short while later and talked to us about the trip. He left us with a word of warning to be careful “around here.” I think he saw that we were unaccustomed to the big city, and he might have meant the “south side of Chicago” when he said “around here.” I thanked him and waved as he pulled out of the parking lot.

In a short while, John had the inner tube changed. We rested for a very short time and then began our trip yet again. Within a mile, he had another flat! This time, I examined his tube and noticed a hole that was probably caused by the tire irons. It looked like the inner tube had gotten rubbed to the point of failure in those spots. So, while he was replacing the tire, I tried to patch up the bad tube as best as I could since he didn’t have any more spares. He had a really hard time pumping up the tube that he had just installed. I took a look and saw that the nozzle on the pump had come unscrewed a little bit, so it was leaking air. After I screwed it back in, we were able to pump it up to a more usable pressure.

We rode for about ten more minutes and found the entrance to the Lake Shore Trail. This is a great paved multi-use trail that runs along Lake Michigan from 71st street to Roosevelt (and it might even extend beyond that). Right before we got on that trail, we got our first full view of the Chicago skyline.

First Full View of the Chicago Skyline

After all the issues we’d been having, I was filled once again with elation to see that we were so close to our destination!

We rode a bit longer on the trail before John said that he might be getting ANOTHER flat. I rode behind him and saw that the pressure didn’t look all that bad. It is sometimes hard to tell such things, especially with a loaded bike. So, I let him lead the way for a while until I told him that I could see that he was indeed losing air.

We stopped again, and then tried to just fill up the air instead of changing the tube, since it was apparently a slow leak and we were so close to our destination. We rode for a mile or so and it was flat again. This time, we stopped right around Promontory Point Park. John took the inner tube out and I examined what had happened. There was a very small puncture on the tube, so I told him to wait before installing the patched tube. I felt the inside of the tire and found a small staple-looking thing embedded in the tire. That tiny shard of metal had cost us a lot of time!

After fixing the flat, we continued on our way. We both were very tired and were really wishing we could have been at the hotel already. We took the Lake Shore Trail all the way up around the aquarium. It is a beautiful stretch of trail and I was very glad for the break from the craziness of biking in the streets.

Soon, we reached our turn off from the trail. Once on the streets, I found that there were lots of wide bike lanes. However, since I am not from the area, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the traffic in and around me. Some bike lanes ended and others just had the biker symbol in the middle of the right lane. I felt a little scared, but also a little thrilled. Before long, we found our way to Halsted and took that up to Madison. Our hotel was the Crowne Plaza right on the corner.

The valet at the door started asking us a few questions and was absolutely impressed that we had ridden all the way from Michigan. He told his friend, and they talked to us for a little while. I then ran inside and checked us in. I asked if it would be okay if we bring our bikes to our room, and they said that it was fine! I was very glad of that because I was a bit concerned about theft.

We walked our bikes into the elevator, pushed the button for floor 6, and I immediately felt my body relax a bit.

They let us take our bikes up to our rooms

View from the Hotel Room

As soon as we got in the room, we unpacked and John took a shower while I unpacked some of my stuff. I then took my turn after he was done, and that water felt simply magnificent! I took my time shampooing and washing the dirt and dust from the day’s ride away.

After we got cleaned up, I lay down on my soft bed and decided that a nap would be a good idea. John thought the same thing, so we slept for a few hours. The time was about 2:30 CST. We had made plans to meet up with some people at 7:30, and then we were going to meet up with my friend Laura around 8:30 or 9pm. I woke back up about 6:00, and woke John up so that we could go down and get dinner.

We decided to dine in the restaurant connected to the hotel called “Dine.” It was a pretty fancy place, and though we were clean, we weren’t very fancily dressed. Roxanne, our waitress was very professional and friendly anyway. John wasn’t feeling very good, so he ordered a couple of appetizers. I ordered a shrimp scampi dish. For reasons beyond our control, we didn’t get our food till about 7:15. This meant that we couldn’t meet our friends at 7:30. I was disappointed, but we made plans to meet with them the next evening (as we were planning on staying two nights).

After dinner, John didn’t feel well and was too tired to go meet my friend Laura. So, I went and explored a bit of the city before I met up with her. Here’s a few of the pictures:

This is a giant water fountain!

Millenium Park - The Promenade

After exploring for a short while, I met my friend Laura at the Great Park in Millenium Park. It’s this grass-covered field that has a network of speakers overhead with a bandshell and pavillion at the north end of the field. It is a very beautiful place.

When I arrived, Laura’s friend Jon was serving cupcakes from a little fold-up table. I got a vanilla one with this amazing strawberry buttercream-type icing. I had it gone in about three bites!

Jon and His Cupcakes

Laura and I

I also met Laura’s friend Mary Luce and a few other people whose names I’ve forgotten. It was a very nice time hanging out with her group of friends and acquaintances. About 10:30 or so, we headed to her apartment. This was the first time I’ve been able to visit Laura since she moved to Chicago, so it was great to see where she was living. Her and I have been friends since we were five years old, and went to school together from grade school all the way up through college, so she is one of my oldest and dearest friends.

After arriving at her apartment, I realized that I was incredibly thirsty. So, I had about three glasses of water while we caught up on all the great and terrible (just kidding) things we’ve done over the past few years. We also hung out on her balcony for a while. The view from her apartment was amazing! A storm blew in and it was really cool to watch until the wind was blowing the rain onto the balcony (and us). It was a really crazy storm with lots of lightning and it downpoured for an hour or two.

Her friend Paul offered to give me a ride back to my hotel after the storm had subsided a bit. By that time, I was starting to get very tired and looking forward to a good night’s rest. I certainly did not feel like walking back to the hotel at all and was very glad for the lift! When they dropped me off, I said goodbye to Laura and Paul, and trudged inside. Within a few minutes, I was underneath the lovely covers of my bed and I fell into a deep and glorious sleep!

Navigate to the other days’ stories:

Day 5
Day 6
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

The sun rising was pretty awesome

The morning light shone through the trees as we groggily started to wake up and get around. I felt exhausted from doing battle with the raccoons throughout the previous night. The two previous days of biking probably didn’t help the situation either. Nonetheless, as the sun rose above the horizon, my spirits began to rise again while I also tried to mentally prepare myself for the ride ahead.

Mentally Preparing for Another Day's Ride

As John woke up and got our supplies from the tent, he found that the raccoons had done a dastardly deed! They had sliced a hole about seven inches long into his tent! What made the matter much worse was that it was a hiking tent that he had borrowed from a friend. Those dirty scoundrels!

We decided to not let that situation drain our spirits too much because we figured the road may just destroy our spirits anyway. So, we got our things together, and walked out of the campsite.

I'm a frog! John's a turtle!

We set forth down the road and after about an hour and a quarter of riding we rolled up under the shade of a few trees right around 18 miles from our starting point. There, we took a thirteen minute break, stopping to chow down on jerky, chia seeds, and honey. I also had little packets of country time lemonade mix, which I added to one of my water bottles to replenish some electrolytes.

We set off yet again and stopped for a few minutes while we tried to cross M-60. As we crossed into the median, we stopped for a short while again while traffic passed. While we were stopped, we saw a truck almost hit a car that pulled out too slowly less than fifty feet from us. That made us take extra caution to cross when the traffic was FULLY cleared.

We continued on and after another hour or so of riding (mile 33), we stopped in the shade of some more trees to take another ten minute rest. As we stopped, a dog started barking at us. It didn’t stop barking till we continued on our way. It was a good watch dog, in my opinion.

As we continued on our way, we saw quite a few of the Amish and Mennonites in the fields. In a lot of ways, it felt like we had entered another country, where people dress a little differently and work in the cornfields all day long. There were school buses parked up alongside some of the fields with tons of people working. I couldn’t tell exactly what they were doing, but it certainly looked interesting.

Very soon, we reached Olive Branch Road, which was a very hilly and rolling road (or at least it seemed that way). With a name like Olive Branch, we thought it would make a far better sign of peace if it wasn’t quite so hilly. Nonetheless, we made our way at a pretty good clip.

We started to run mighty low on water a little further down the road. We hadn’t seen any good watering holes, nor did we see any stores where we could buy some. John completely ran out of water at our next stopping place (mile 48), though I had a couple of ounces left. Looking at the map, we were about three or four miles from where La Porte Road intersects I-94. We decided that we could probably make it there, and there had to be a place near that intersection where we could fill up.

We rested there for about a half hour after we decided we could make it to La Porte Road. I just collapsed on the ground while John took a look around at a swamp nearby. I noticed that we were directly across the street from a landfill. It was interesting to see all the pipes coming out at intervals along the road, which I assume was to take samples of the methane levels.

After our thirty minutes were up, we packed up and went on our way. We rode at a little slower pace (I think), trying to conserve our energy since we were so low on water. We reached La Porte Road in a little under twenty minutes. John and I went into the gas station where he bought a gallon of water, which we shared.

We knew we were only five miles from Lake Michigan, so we set off once again with water in our bellies and our camelbaks. 24 minutes later, we crested a sharp hill and I literally gasped as I realized that I was seeing Lake Michigan! Though we hadn’t reached Chicago yet, the feeling of reaching Lake Michigan at last really made me feel like we had accomplished something great.

This was our first glimpse of Lake Michigan

Within a minute or two, we found a public beach. We changed into our swimsuits and though our legs were still burning from the ride, we practically ran across the hot sand to the edge of the water. We dropped our bags a short distance from the water’s edge, and got ready to enter the lake. Stepping carefully among the large rocks and stones, we slowly waded into the water. As I got past the large pebbles and into a little deeper water, I dove right in. Oh, what a feeling that was! If I could bottle that pure elation and save it for other times in my life, I definitely would!

We made it to Lake Michigan!

After swimming in the cool water for a while, we went back to the beach and laid out to bake in the warm afternoon sun. Within minutes, both of us were napping. John woke up once to say that if we stay too long out here, we might get sunburned, but he promptly fell asleep again, and so did I.

We were so tired

I woke up a little while later and noticed that it was getting close to 4:30 (EST). I woke John up, and we packed our things and got ready for the remaining ten or eleven miles of our trip. In truth, I really didn’t want to leave the beach, but I knew that if we didn’t leave soon, Michigan City’s rush hour might cause problems for us. Also, it was a pretty good bet that I could fall asleep and sleep till the next morning!

I think John and I both were still pretty tired, but we got ready to go anyway. We talked to quite a few people about our trip while we were preparing to go. We got our picture taken with someone’s granddaughter as well. It was all a bit strange to me that all these strangers wanted to talk to us, but I didn’t mind at all. To use an old cliche, we met a few strangers, but soon found them to be friends.

As we set off, a gentleman rode alongside John and struck up a conversation. His name was Jim, and he asked us some of the usual questions like where we were headed and all that. We found out that he was a mechanical engineer and knew the area pretty good. He talked to me a bit about how to get to Dunewood Campground (our destination), and after a bit of talking, he decided that he would take us there via a fairly scenic route that wasn’t too far out of the way. Since I was fairly familiar with the map of the area, I knew it wouldn’t add more than a few miles to our trip, and it probably was a better way to go through Michigan City. So, the three of us continued onward into Michigan City.

We stopped for a few minutes to take in the majesty of the power plant, and a nice lady riding by stopped and asked if we wanted our picture taken. We asked Jim to be in the picture as well.

John, Jim, and I at a bridge in Michigan City

We talked the remainder of the ride about Jim’s life, our lives, and generally bantered back and forth where traffic would allow. Before we knew it, it was time for us to part ways. We didn’t shake hands, but we did give each other a bikers’ wave as he veered away while we continued on the remaining half mile or so to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Dunewood Campground.

We rode up to the ranger station, but there was no one inside. That’s when I caught sight of a young lady waving to us from out of a toll booth up the road a little ways. So, we rode our bikes up there, and found out that that is where we needed to go to check into the campground. We paid for our campsite, and rode up into our area.

We found our campsite without any trouble, and I quickly started unloading bags. I wrapped my helmet on the handlebars, but somehow it fell down and hit the ground below. When I picked it up, I found that the helmet had been cracked into the shape of a quarter-inch pebble. “Whoops,” I said to myself, and made a note to buy a new one at some later date.

Here we are as we started the unpacking process

After we unloaded our bags, we decided to ride a little ways back out of the campground to a party store to get firewood. We got in the store, and my mind immediately went to the ice cream freezer. We got a few supplies like milk (since we didn’t have to ride a long ways further like the previous day) and firewood. I also got a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar. John got a chocolate ice cream bar of some sort. Nick, one of the owners talked to us and asked about our bike ride. He was a bit more than impressed. He cursed a bit and couldn’t believe that we had ridden all this way. He told us that we were crazy. Then he invited us down below the shop for a drink. Apparently, the bar downstairs is made from an old ship’s hull. I thanked him for his hospitality and told him that I needed to just get back to the campsite, eat some food, and fall asleep.

After that, we headed back to our campsite, where we met Kyle. He was biking from Oregon to Brooklyn, NY and serendipitously had a campsite directly across the road from us! We went over there and heard all about some of his adventures going over the Rockies and his current daily mileage. The most impressive thing about Kyle (in my humble opinion) was his bike.

This is a side view of Kyle's cool bike

He had moved to Oregon to learn how to build a special type of bike that had a large area in front of the handlebars to carry a load. He built the bike that he was riding himself! He was riding to Brooklyn to start a nonprofit where he would be able to teach kids to build and ride bikes.

That bike can easily handle a load of 80lbs (not including the driver)

We became fast friends with Kyle since he was a kindred spirit of the road. We invited Kyle over to partake in some of our jalapeno, corn, and chicken-rice mixture. While the three of us were talking, the ladies in the campsite next to ours overheard us and got curious. One them, whose name was Dakota, came over to talk with us. She also brought over some leftovers from their dinner. At first she brought over some veggie burgers and buns. We talked to her for a few minutes and began our meal. Then, one of their party brought over some lentils and rice for us, far more than we could eat. Kyle, John, and I just chowed down on all this extra food, though I must say that we couldn’t even finish it all!

After dinner, we just hung around the campsite. John started a campfire, so we let that burn for a little while.

A dragonfly immediately became friends with John

Before long, I realized that I was getting VERY tired. I started cleaning up the site and was most of the way done when a deep exhaustion took over. Because of the previous night’s fight with the raccoons, we gathered our food in a bag and hung it from a tree. I cleaned up and washed quite a few of the dishes, but I felt my body beginning to slow down. I asked John if he could finish cleaning up because I didn’t think I could do much more. He said he could, so I trudged off to bed.

One thing I noticed (actually when we arrived) was that the campsite was entirely covered in gravel. I’m sure this made cleanup easy for the rangers, but it did make for a bit of uncomfortable sleep in the nighttime. With nothing but a sheet and a bit of tarp between me and the gravel, I curled up into bed, and very soon, I had nodded off. I think I slept fairly good, considering the rocky terrain, and before long, my alarm went off.

Navigate to the other days’ stories:
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 1
Day 2

(backdated)

We awoke around 7:30am, and we prepared for the day by cooking some oatmeal with dried cranberries. Sometime in the night, John had been awakened by the fire roaring and had thought the entire campsite was on fire. I too had been awoken, but it was by Gary. After we had gone to bed, I saw him come up to our campsite breathing heavily. I pretended to be asleep to see what he would do. He just stood at the edge of our campsite for a while and then he left. What I imagine happened was that he might have added some wood to our fire for some reason and then wandered off. I had also awoken to a raccoon sniffing at my head as well, but as soon as I moved, he/she scampered off. All of these things were the topic of conversation over breakfast.

Now this is camping: Lay-Z-Boy and a field...

After breakfast, we cleaned and packed up, getting back on the road about 8:50am. The road skirted a bit of Coldwater Lake and a gentle breeze was blowing. While my legs seemed a bit sore, I felt pretty refreshed while we rode around the lake and onto Centennial Drive. However, once we got on Centennial Drive, I noticed that my legs felt very sluggish and the sun seemed to already be beating down on us. “Uh oh,” I thought to myself.

About a half hour or so later, we arrived in downtown Coldwater. It is a pretty city overall, with decently well-kept streets (at least the streets we rode on). There were industrial-looking buildings, but it didn’t have the air of the classic “dirty” town. In fact, it seemed pretty nice.

We got out of Coldwater on M-86 (Colon Road), and we were about five miles from Coldwater when John informed me that he had a flat tire. So, we stopped in front of a little farmhouse and John got to work replacing the tube of his tire.

John works diligently at fixing his flat tire

When that was done, we headed on. After a few minutes of riding, John realized that he had left his tire irons at the place where he changed his tires. He tried calling out to me to tell me this, but for some reason, I could not hear him. He turned around and went back for them, while I continued riding merrily along.

At some point, I looked back and saw that he was out of sight. With all the hills, I just assumed that he had fallen a bit behind, though that’s not like him. I slowed down a lot and looked back again. No John appeared. Finally I stopped and waited for what seemed like minutes (but was probably on the order of seconds). I then turned around and headed back towards the spot where I had last seen him. I pedaled hard, thinking of all the possible things that could have happened to him. Finally, a figure appeared at the top of a hill. I continued pedaling for a while until I could verify that it was indeed our man John. A wave of relief swept over me, and I turned around to wait for him to catch up. He explained what had happened, and I told him that I was glad that he was all right.

Because of the unexpected delays, we pushed hard for another two hours or so until we arrived at the city of Three Rivers, which consequently is where three different rivers join together. The town itself has a fairly bustling downtown, but a lot of vacant storefronts. We decided to stop at this town for lunch.

We rode around looking for a nice park to take our lunch. Along the way, we saw a party store, so we stopped in there and since we didn’t get any milk the previous night, we decided to buy a half gallon of the stuff. Sweaty and dirty from the road, we strode up to the counter where the cashier was waiting. After paying for our delicious drink, the cashier told us, “I would tell you to keep cool, but I saw what you are doing.” We laughed and said thanks anyway.

After walking outside, I tried to strap the half gallon of milk in the netting that held my backpack to the top of the rack. Telling John to “watch the milk,” we set off for Memory Isle Park nearby. After traveling about 20 feet, I heard something fall behind me, and lo, the milk jug was laying in the middle of the street! I couldn’t hold back a gasp, but after seeing that the jug was not damaged or leaking its precious cargo, we both started laughing. I then carried the milk in my hand since we didn’t have very far to go.

We circled around Memory Isle Park for a while and then found the entrance on an unexpected street. I saw a pavillion next to the river that looked perfect. So we rode into the shade of the pavillion and prepared for lunch.

We noticed a group of people across the river, and I jokingly said that it must be a wedding. Though I had been joking, I was not mistaken. It actually was a wedding. I was very surprised because there aren’t usually weddings on Mondays.

Some people across the river having a wedding

John went into the river and drew out some water for our meal and to fill our water bottles with while I prepared the meal.

Preparing Our Meal

John getting water from the river for our meal

Lunch itself was a lovely dinner of baked beans and macaroni and cheese. The milk washed it all down so very nicely. A girl and her dog walked by and we got to meet the dog, though I’ve forgotten its name. Other than that and a few bikers, no one came into our area of the park while we ate.

I was feeling fat, sassy, and happy as we cleaned up and prepared to ride onward. However, I did not yet know that all the milk I drank would settle into my gut and feel like it was beating my stomach with a lead pipe. We started off going through the rest of Three Rivers at a decently slow speed, however as we continued out of town and into the heat of the day, I felt worse and worse.

Finally, I told John we would have to stop after about 32 minutes of riding. The hills heretofore had seemed tortuous to me, and I saw more hills on the horizon. So, we stopped for about eight minutes while I caught my breath and cooled down a little.

I had been leading the ride up that point but John was willing to lead, and I wanted to stay back a bit. So he then led us up to Dutch Settlement Road, which would take us to within a few miles of our destination. The hills on Dutch Settlement Road seemed never-ending. Up we would ride, hoping and praying for a nice downhill to follow. Down we would ride, hoping to have enough energy to make it through the next uphill without slowing down too much. Over and over, this continued. I imagined that a huge rubber band was attached to John’s bike, and that if I got too far behind John, it would snap. This trick of the mind helped me keep up with him in spite of how bad I was feeling.

We stopped in the shade of some trees near an old farmhouse after another half hour of riding. I sipped on water, ate a little beef jerky, and took a shot of honey. I was starting to feel a bit better, though I was nowhere near perfect.

After a short break, we continued our journey. John led the way like a champ while I tried my best to keep up. A little over an hour later, we had arrived at our destination: Cool Springs Campground.

Along the way, I had been worried because I had left messages for the proprietors of the campground both before and during the trip, but they had not returned my calls. I had called them during the now-infamous “milk lunch” as well, and that time, it had said that the voice mailbox was full. So, we were not sure what we were getting ourselves into or if we would be able to stay there. I figured that I would be happy to just camp in a field somewhere if it didn’t work out.

When we arrived, I walked up to the office, a small log-cabin-type building with two rocking chairs on the deck. No one was at the office, but I did see a drop box for choosing a campsite and paying. So, I grabbed one of the envelopes and we went off to choose a site. After pondering over the map for a minute, we came to see that there were two areas, one filled with walk-in sites and another for rv-type camping. We choose the former and walked back to take a look at the sites. We didn’t see a single soul during our entire exploration. That made me feel a bit silly for thinking that we might not be able to get a site.

All of the walk-in sites were quite pretty and we eventually settled on a site that topped a bluff overlooking a small stream. We unpacked and relaxed for a few minutes before dropping off the envelope to pay for the night. While we were there, we also picked up a load of wood (again, there was a drop box) and explored a bit more of the campground.

This was our campsite

This little guy was really attracted to my map

The entire campground seemed to be deserted, but the campground itself was really cool. There was a pond with a water trampoline. A large recreation building with a nice-sized deck was nearby. There were beautiful gazebos and a couple of waterfalls.

There was a nice-sized bass that was cruising the shallows for minnows

One thing that piqued my interest was the petting zoo. John and I met Osama Bin Llama and joked about finding his hideout.

This llama's name is Osama

There were a couple of cute miniature goats as well. The little black goat would come up and bite the edge of your shorts until you noticed, and then he’d prance away.

This little guy liked to eat clothes. I think he wanted attention.

This goat always wanted to kneel on its front legs...kind of weird in my opinion!

We stayed in the petting zoo area for quite a while hanging out with the animals, but by now my stomach was feeling better, and it was starting to gurgle with hunger.

We cooked a vegetable goulash and snacked on sardines and crackers. Though in normal surroundings, it might not have tasted all that great, in my mind it tasted amazingly delicious.

Trying to get a fire going

After dinner, we took a walk back to the ponds, and rested for a little while. After a completely crazy and hard day, I was ready to just relax. It felt amazing to sit at the edge of the water and cool my tired feet while the pond’s gentle waves lapped at my ankles. It was then that I noticed a blister developing on my heel, but that point, I didn’t care. I felt like I was in heaven.

It felt like a little slice of heaven

We hung out and watched the sunset at the pond, and then we headed back to our campsite and prepared for bed.

Sunset at Cool Springs Campground

Given the nature of the place with lots of animals, we packed everything up good and tight. Then, we lumbered off to bed not aware of the battle we were about to wage.

In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of one our pannier bags getting dragged away! I grabbed my camera as I couldn’t find my flashlight and hit the flash. Lo and behold, there was a raccoon trying to drag a bag into the woods. I scared it off, and gathered all the bags together next to me.

This raccoon kept trying to steal our stuff

I then started nodding off to sleep. A short while later, the raccoon was back, but this time I think he brought a friend or two.

You're NOT getting our panniers!

I scared them off for about a minute this time, and heard them sneaking back towards us. We repulsed another wave, and John volunteered to put the bags in his tent. We did this, and I fell back asleep. This time, I slept soundly till daybreak.

Navigate to the other days’ stories:
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 1

(backdated)

I woke up before the sun had risen, for today my friend John and I were about to sally forth into a new and amazing adventure: a bicycling trip from Ann Arbor, MI to Chicago, IL.

The night before, I had frantically packed and repacked everything into my panniers. I had reorganized everything at least three times to try to distribute the weight evenly on both sides of my bike.

While weight distribution was a big issue, my biggest concern was our food and water supplies. I wanted to carry enough water for at least half of a day of biking and I believed that I had achieved that with a 2L camelbak, a 32oz Nalgene bottle, and a 20oz bicycling bottle. I also made sure to carry quite a few days worth of food just in case we couldn’t make it to the campground we had chosen.

I was only able to sleep fitfully the evening before, and was able to wake up before my alarm clock went off. I did one last check to make sure I had everything I had planned to take, and then I brought my bicycle and bags down to where I was going to meet John. I carried a backpack on top of my rear rack, and two panniers each for my front and rear racks.

John was punctual as always, and I noticed that he had two panniers and a large dry sack strapped down to his bike. I asked if he was “ready for this.” He gave me a smirk and said, “Not really.” We laughed for a moment together because we knew it was probably true. I had never ridden that many days in a row before and neither had he. We had very little idea of what was in store, but we had prepared as best as we could.

The first thing I noticed as we began our journey from Veteran’s Park was that having a good deal of weight on the front rack really changes how to steer the bike. It required a great deal more leaning into turns and less actual turning of the handlebars. If I turned the handlebars too sharply, the whole bike would veer far more quickly than I was used to. It seemed the bike would jump in that direction in an almost dangerous way. Looking back on it, I probably overloaded my bike for this trip.

Nonetheless, we set out around 7:10AM with the sun barely clutching to the tops of the trees, heading south towards Saline, MI. We talked and laughed lightheartedly about the trip ahead with excitement filling our bones. I remember stopping at one point for a red light and remarking at how beautiful the morning light shone over a field off to our left. We started off again and before we knew it, we were in Saline. We saw a breakfast/pancake place and John said that maybe we should stop, but since we were still so close to home, we decided it would be better to keep on going. The fields of corn, soybeans and wheat were bathed in a golden glow as the sun rose higher and higher at our backs while we rode the large and spacious shoulder of highway US-12. Though the temperature was rising, I hardly noticed as we rode down the gently rolling hills towards the town of Clinton.

When we reached Clinton, we decided to take a quick rest stop. We had been riding for almost an hour and a half, only stopping for traffic and lights. A lady was remodeling the marquee of a theater right in the middle of downtown, so while we rested, we watched her work. I took a quick check of myself and began to stretch a little. I felt pretty good. John shared some rye bread with me and I shared a fruit strip with him. John then went to a station to fill up some water, but there was no public restroom for him to use the sink in. We rested for a little over twenty minutes and then we continued onward.

We rode fairly hard until we reached the gas station across the street from Hayes State Park. There we were able to replenish our water bottles from the fountain machine. I noticed while I waited for John outside that there were quite a few people looking at us. I guess a couple of guys with loaded-down bikes was a strange sight to see.

This was where the stagecoach would stop on its way to Chicago

We then headed for the hills, literally. The Irish Hills held some challenges for us, and I began to really feel the extra weight of the load I had chosen to take with me. A biker rode alongside us and talked with us for a few minutes and that helped break up some of the monotony of the ride, though I must say that it didn’t seem all that monotonous as we pushed hard up the hills and coasted down them. One thing I began to realize along the way was that John’s bike was better equipped to coast downhill than mine was. I assume it was because of the weight I was carrying, but it’s hard to say. In either case, I had to pedal fairly vigorously in order to keep up with his coasting speed, so I was scared that situation would make me tired towards the end of the day. Nonetheless, we pressed onward.

We found ourselves at McCourtie Park which was a little over 44 miles into our ride. Stopping for lunch seemed like a great idea!

We packed pretty lightly for the trip, eh?

We stopped in a little picnic shelter and I cooked up some freeze-dried macaroni and cheese (for John) and some spaghetti and meatballs (for myself). A couple with three children came up and talked to us. They asked where we were going and were surprised at our answer. They seemed duly impressed and talked to us about how we were carrying our food, getting water, cooking meals, etc. A few minutes later a couple of young ladies came up to speak with us. I believe they were from Chicago and the couple that had stopped to talk to us had told them about us. So, we talked to them for a while, and they adamantly suggested we check out “Orange With a Peel,” which is a frushi restaurant downtown. We thanked them for their advice, and we continued our meal.

One of the many cool bridges at McCourtie Park

After letting our food digest and wandering around McCourtie Park, we rode for a bit longer to a gas station where we stopped to fill up on water. The gas station was in a valley and for a moment I contemplated not stopping so that we wouldn’t lose our momentum on the large uphill that loomed before us. The only reason I could see to stop was that I had no idea how much further it was till the next gas station. We only stopped long enough for me to use the restroom and to fill up our waters, and then we were off again!

We stopped twice more before we reached our destination. One time we stopped in Jonesville at a park for a brief break.

Honey provided some quick fuel to get us going after breaks

Then, we headed on to Quincy, where we stopped for a few minutes and then decided on getting some Dairy Queen.

The Dairy Queen was so close, so we decided to stop in

I got a large Strawberry Shortcake Blizzard and that tasted like heaven. We rested for a while longer, and then prepared ourselves for the last eleven (or so) miles from Quincy to our day’s destination: Coldwater Lake Campground.

While those miles weren’t effortless, the fact that our destination was so near did seem to lend wings to my legs, and we made it to Coldwater Lake Campground in a decent amount of time, considering how tired we both were.

Coldwater Lake Campground is a very nice campground, though it seems to be set up mostly for RV-style camping. There were lots of RV’s that probably stayed there all summer long. A friendly and cozy feel had settled on the place, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Bill, the owner, gave us a quick overview of the rules and what he expected of us. He was very friendly, though I must say that I was so tired, I hardly paid attention to what he was saying.

One thing I did pay attention to was how to get to the lake across the street. After running across the street to jump in the lake, the cool water hit my tired muscles and they felt invigorated! Then, they felt almost too tight, but I didn’t care. I was cooled off! We stayed in the water for a while, and then headed back to finish getting ready to camp.

After setting up camp, we walked down to a little party store a few hundred yards from the campground, where we bought a few groceries and snacks. We debated buying a gallon of milk to share. Though it sounded quite good, we weren’t sure if each of us would be able to finish a half gallon by ourselves. We settled on a gallon of iced tea instead. We then unpacked our goods and cooked up some dinner.

After dinner, we were cleaning up and getting ready to start a fire when a man clad only in shorts and flip flops came up to us yelling, “Drop your socks, grab your [rocks], and follow me.” He said something about it being his wife’s birthday and how after biking all that way, we could use some cake. Then he said, “You can follow me or not. I don’t give a [hoot].” Curious, we decided to follow him.

I believe his name was Gary and his wife’s name was Tammy, but I’m not completely sure of that. He led us to the recreation building of the campground, and talked to us all about the campground, his life, his wife, and the community around the area. We were introduced to his wife and their two dogs, and they gave us some delicious cake. We talked with them for a while and they were amazingly nice people. They let us borrow their cart to haul firewood to our campsite and they told us where a great spot was to pick up kindling.

Gary, Tammy, Us, and the dogs in the rec building

Soon, I felt pretty tired and thought it would be a good idea to return to the campsite and get a fire going in order to get to sleep. We thanked Gary and Tammy for their kind hospitality and returned to our campsite. On the edge of our campsite was a fence, and when we returned, we found a mule, a donkey, and a horse grazing nearby! We fed them some grass for a bit, and the donkey almost bit me. It did end up biting John later, so we decided to stop feeding them.

These animals hung out right next to our campsite

They really liked the fresh grass from the other side of the fence

We built a fire, talked for a little while, and then I was more than ready for bed. I crashed hard and slept very very soundly.

The fire

Navigate to the other days’ stories:
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6