Week 10 Highlights and Route Oveview

Week 10: 339 miles and 6,226 elevation

Highlights: At South Haven Michigan we rode our bikes down the pier to the lighthouse. This was our last time to see Lake Michigan, so we spent some time there. It is so impressive. We accidentally called it an ocean at least 10 times. We are going to miss seeing it along our ride. Along that line, we have left Michigan and are in Indiana. We have been riding for a long time and the end seemed so far away, but now that we’ve gotten through Michigan we can really see the end coming. 

We were both feeling a little wonky in the belly, so we decided to stay at a campground to be near a toilet. The campground was $55 dollars. Wow! Side note, the Warmshowers website is down so we’ve lost that source for free housing for a while. Bliss was talking with the camp hosts Tim and Lynn, telling them that we were doing this for charity and asking if we could get a discount. After a while they said they would cover it. Bigger Wow! To top it off, Tim came by later and gave us $50 to donate to the charities.

Thanks to Craig and Kelsey for letting us stay in their camper trailer ahead of a big rain storm. We have been very lucky on this trip to avoid very much rain (instead there is heat and humidity). It seems to rain mainly overnight. Saturday as we were getting ready to leave the rain started to pour. Luckily there was a workshop at the campground so we were able to wait out the 15 minute down pour. 

In South Bend Indiana we had a rest day with some incredible people. Bliss’ friend Karen Deis arranged for us to stay with her friends Paul and Patty. They took us on a tour of Amish country and took us out for some great food. They took us on a tour of Notre Dame to see the Grotto, the Cathedral, the golden dome, touchdown Jesus and of course the football stadium. We went up to the 7th floor of the student center to take a look inside the stadium. We were soon kicked out because it was a closed practice. 

Riding on a bike trail near Shipshewana we were joined by a young Amish man named Kyle. We talked about cycling, and little about Amish life. We talked to a few more Amish people along the way, it is so great to interact with so many different types of people on this trip. Lastly, we stayed at a campground on a Mennonite farm (we found it on Hip Camp). We stayed in a little shepherd's hut, and took a slide into the pond, lots of fun.

P.S. We passed a kid about 14 years old that was waiting to cross the street with his bike. As we rode by he yelled “pop a wheelie”. Sadly, we did not.

Week 10 Route Overview: From the Platte River campground we rode south mostly on US 22, then Lakeshore Drive into Manistee. We basically stayed on US cycle route 35 (which consists of highways, side roads, and multi use trails) through Luddington, Muskegon, Holland, and South Haven Michigan. That is where we diverted and went down Mi-140 through Covert, then a bunch of county roads to Indian Lake, some dirt roads and side roads into Niles Mi. We then rode the Indiana-Michigan River Valley trail into Indiana, through the campus of Notre Dame, and to our rest break in South Bend. The last leg started on the Northern trail along the St. Joseph River, then county roads to Goshen where we picked up the Pumpkin Vine trail to Shipshewana, and county roads to a campground near LaGrange Indiana.