Are you a Mexican or a Mexican't

Day 5
I headed north from the vanfossen's up to a town about 12 miles through a bunch of farms. There is a bike trail that goes from behind the white hall town library all the way up to the town of Hart (home of the least mexican tasting food i've ever had, but i'll get to that). Now for the record the bike path seemed like a great idea it was straight and flat(i think, but could have been slightly up hill), and was surrounded by alot of trees and trees. It got a little borring though and I probably should have stopped in at the towns that i was passing along the way. the whole time on the trail i was so excited to go to this huge burger place up in Hart. We're talking the kind of burger place that Guy Fietti (sp?) goes into and they have a sign on the wall that says if you eat this whole burger its free...kinda place. Devastation hit when I got up to Hart and found out that the burger place was actually 5 miles back in Shelby GRRRRRR! But there was hope! The shop owner said there was a good mexican place in town that I could go to. He had me at Mexican...off I went and this is what brings us to the "La Fiesta Rule"

La Fiesta Rule: Just because it is made by Mexicans and is wraped in a tortilla doesn't mean its good mexican food.

This was the least satisfying meal of the trip and nearly ruined my day Fortunately down the way in Pentwater there was a campground with my name on it and a very clean set of showers and friendly people camping next to me that wanted to hang out. The town of Pentwater is like two blocks from the camp ground and the campground is right on the beach (see pic) but i still managed to get some shade which pretty much made my day. I went to Pentwater Pizza for dinner and had a few beers around town just to flush out the bad mexican. Jerry and Susan ( I think) were the bikers next to me in the camp ground and they invited me over for some jack and coke after i got back from town. (bikers drinking Jack thats a little predictable I thought it was funny too, or maybe that was only funny to me cause i'm alone alot and i'm getting alittle crazy) any who they asked me a ton of questions about what i sleep in and what i carry etc. Ok night sleep not great and I was off again in the morning.

Salvation is a Lake house and free booze

Day 3
I got a fairly early start from my favorite elementary school a power bar for breakfast and I was out of there. I only needed to get to muskegon which by way of many scenic bike trails was about 50miles. I had the unfortunate episode of two flat tires, one pass a puncture which I patched and the other was the valve breaking off, which for the record that really sucked because I had just bought the tube in grand haven an hour earlier and then it became useless. Anyway muskegon has a great trail that goes around the lake, very senic. The best part of the day was when I got to the Vanfossen's residence. Its on bear lake, they greeted me with beer in hand and took me for a boat ride. I decided to take the next day off because my right knee was a little swollen and because Jeff's son who couldn't be any older than 6 said that I "was just the awesome guy". There you have it folks good food, good drinks, and great company, why wouldn't I stay another day.

- The Awesome Guy

Turtles had the right idea.

So during my riding I have seen many animals it kind of reminds me of when we were little and we would go on these family camping trips. One of the activities was these hikes we would go on and mom would point out all the different plants that she knew and more importantly we would look for animals. When we got back on the road we would right in our travel journals what animals we saw. I honestly think that this was just my mom keeping me busy. Anyway in the 5 days that I have been going I have seen: snake, turtle, squirel, hedge hog, turkey, deer, etc... Some of them were road kill too. Only one of these animals though did I see someone stop get out of there car and help the turtle cross safely. Which brings me to the point of this whole thing. Of all the animals that I saw the turtles were the only ones that I haven't seen dead on the road or being shot at. Oddly enough the turtles also have the longest life expectancy of any of the other animals. Perhaps our slow, methodical friends the turles are on to something. The have decided to put more stock in the hard protective exterior and plug along across the road and we all seem to admire something about that. I guess this means that next time you are given an option of the fast way or the slow hard way you might consider that the slow hard way might not be so bad I know I'm enjoying it.

Haven't you ever just thought "I could camp there"

Day 2.
I left St. Joseph at a reasonable hour in the morning feeling refreshed from the night in a hotel. The goal here was to make it up to Muskegon by the end of the day but after further inspection of the map I realized that it was just to far so I decided to stay in Holland instead which turned out to be about 70miles anyway. on my way to Holland I stopped at an ice cream shop. I think it was called Earls there are a tone of these; pick your own strawberries, get some ice cream, buy a home made pie, kind of stations that i have passed on my rides. (see pic)

Holland is a cool town and I would have loved to stay for a little while and explore but the state park is further out of town and i had to get a move on. So I stopped at the store picked up some things for dinner, including water and moved on. I headed in the direction that I thought was going to the State camp ground. Turned out that i was not really going the right way and was about to take a very large detour. In the process found out that both of the state camp grounds were full and I was going to be out of luck when i got there....(are we noticing a theme to this trip so far?) so i litterally ended up camping in a grade school playground. Now this was interesting because this school was surrounded by a big park and right at dusk the cops came around to check and see if anyone was still in the park. luckily i was hidden close to the building in a little nook. About 30mins later the sprinkler system went on and i was jolted out of my slumber by a refreshing splash of water. I spent the rest of the night on the side walk next to the building, still out of sight. (see pic) Thank you Woodside Elementary School for your hospitality.




This blog was brought to you by:
White Lake community Library
Zaterans - red beans and rice (Dinner that night)
and Naproxen (because I have been taking it since that night for my knee that is hurting) :)

Why are all the dogs barking?

Well its day one and I am in bridgeman, MI public library. I happened to be passing it on my way to Warren Dunes to camp. I am very tired. I biked half the day in the rain and the other half in the sun so at least things dried out. So far Michigan is pretty fantastic great landscape and good people. Got to go library closing and my brain is dead. By the way I dropped your mom's fruit salad. hehe

So it turned out that the day wasn't over Warren dunes campground was full and so was the next one up the road wynet I think or something like that so on my way up the road for the third try I noticed that my bike was acting funny. So I pulled over at a gas station to take a look. Much to my dismay I found that I was missing one of four screws that holds my rack onto my bike. This created a bit of a panic since there is roughly 40 pounds of gear counting on that rack and it was already 5:45. Long story short I would like to thank the mechanic at Siemen's Car Dealership for his mad skills in finding junk bolts that would fit. So I'm back on the road and things are good. Before I left the dealership he also informed me of the insane storm that was headed our way. So I ended up crashing at a hotel tonight which I know is totally bogus. But I'm glad I did this cause trying to sleep through the tornado outside in a bivy sac would have been well let's just say stupid.

Test

Test Test Test.