I'm huddling against a wall in a shelter in the hard-to-find but very nice city park in Millersburg, Indiana - trying to get out of the 15-20mph NW wind. At least the wind is dry now.
Before I get ahead of myself, my rest day in Kalamazoo / Portage (really Portage) with Andrew, Liz, and Mark (from Eugene) was great! We went on a tour of Bell's Brewery, drank lots of great beer, grilled out, and had fun. Even though I stayed up late, I woke well rested today.
I got on the rode around 8:45 (a bit later than I like) with the expectation of being rained on from the forecast and the weather the day before. I didn't really know where I was riding to. My general plan was to let Google Bike Directions get me south out of town on decent roads, then ride unmapped county roads south until I got to Indiana where I could by a map and make a plan.
This actually worked out pretty good. This is the part of the midwest where gravel roads aren't as common, so I stick to unmapped country roads that I know are between two mapped (and busier) county roads and just head the direction I want to go, zig-zagging left and right 1/4 mile to a mile as needed to stay on pavement. I got to Indiana about mile 40 and then had just enough Indiana on my Michigan map to find a town called Shipshewana where I bought an Indiana map.
Shipshewana is an Amish tourist town. For miles all around it are Amish farms and horses and buggies. The shoulders are paved but have deep grooves where the horses pull the buggies and a bit of poop. Cars are used to the slow moving traffic, which is good for me.
After Shipshewana I shared the road with Amish 15 more miles to I town I found on the map called Millersberg, for a 66 mile day with 4:36 on bike and arriving at 5:15pm. The town is looks to be a few thousand, but doesn't have anything for services besides a tiny rudely staffed gas station. Out west a town 1/4 this size would have a full grocery store because it would serve the surrounding ranchers. Here everyone just driver 15 minutes to the walmart in the town over.
Even though it was spitting rain off and on, most of the ride was great and all of it was beautiful. There was a strong NW wind that didn't other me much going south, but I had some longer west stretches later in the day and it kicked my butt then. I got into Millersberg toasted and pretty cold. I had real hard time finding this park (the only local I found to talk to didn't really speak English or care about me and was no help). I was about to leave and try another hour or two of pushing into the wind when I finally found a new little park on the outskirts of town.
So here I sit, with power and bathrooms, wearing lots of warm clothes and huddling against a wall until the wind goes away. I don't have permission to stay here, so I'll be sleeping between a bench and the wall trying to be discrete. I think with the weather the way it is I'll spend most of the night alone anyhow.
Tomorrow the weather should be similar, so riding will be tough as I go West almost the entire day. There is a reason you are supposed to tour west->east : the prevailing winds are usually out of the west. Whatever. I've had tons of east headwinds this trip, and now when I want one, I get what would have been the best west tailwind of my life?
Whatevs. I'm gonna eat M&Ms. ILYI
I need to keep this short because everyone already went to bed and I should be in bed too!
Today was great. So was last night. Last we checked in I was taking a break from the heat at Josh's house in Grand Rapids. Shortly after this Amy came back to their house, we chatted, and then rejoined the beerfest thingy in the cool of the night. Good beers were drank, good bands were listened too, and some band called "Love Fossil" played. Enough said.
Today Josh rode with me to Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo where we met with Mark (my good buddy and neighbor in Eugene) and Liz and Andrew, my buddies and hosts in Portage. Andrew works at the Bell's brewery, so we got some good inside scoop.
The ride to Bell's was 53 miles with 3:23 on bike and arrived at 2:41 pm. With Josh riding unloaded with me I was encouraged to ride faster than normal which increased my average speed by about a mile an hour. This kicked my butt a bit. After Bell's Josh headed back home (doing over 100 miles today) and I rode 8 more miles to their place in Portage.
The ride was fun and through a beautiful part of Michiigan. This state is maybe one of the best states I've ever toured in. The beer selection is definately on par with Oregon beers, and the ice cream is better. However, there is no place like home and I do miss home.
Today I did laundry for the first time since my rest day after RAGBRAI, about 1,000 miles ago. If I had done my original route I'd be 200 miles out of my end town in Vemont and done in about 3 days. With this loop route I have 400-500 miles left and will be done in about a week. It's crazy to think that. Also, Michigan is huge!
Today is day 53, day 4 of week 8. I've done 3,440ish miles. Tomorrow I'm taking a day off in Portage, and then I haul ass south and then west to loop back to iowa. Fun!
ILYI
