Transfixus Sed Non Mortuus

(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