NORTHERN LAKE MICHIGAN LOOP, Part 3

South Bend, IN to Muskegon, MI

August 4, 2018

Although we had expected to be sleeping in a bed on the first night of our tour, we assumed it would be following a 58 mile bike ride through southwestern Michigan, and at the home of friends, not still in the city of South Bend in a hotel. Regardless, we enjoyed our complimentary breakfast, then grabbed the tandem to head out to pick up the rental car, about four miles away. Wait, you might be saying. The tandem does not work due to the timing chain not being connected. True enough, but by leaving all of our gear in the hotel room until after we pick up the rental car, we figured we could ride the bike on the fairly flat streets of South Bend with one of us in front steering and braking, and the other in back pedaling. I somehow got the coveted seat on the front (I guess it was for navigation purposes) and Laura became the engine. Immediately out in the parking lot, Laura's crank started hitting the chainstay tube on the bike as she pedaled. Turns out I had put the spacers on the wrong side of the crank when I had put the bike together, which shifted the crank more to the right side of the bike, causing the left crank to hit the bike. Luckily it was a quick fix of pulling the crank, swapping the spacers to the other side, reattaching the crank. We were off.

Our route took us through Notre Dame University, which was fortunate because I had wanted to see the campus of this well known institution, just out of curiosity. The campus was quite nice, but we quickly became disoriented due to a charity run that was working its way through the campus. We had to detour several times to avoid the throngs of people running, and find our way to the other side of campus. Eventually we made it, slightly off course, and worked our way to the rental car office. This added another two miles to the four, but Laura managed to get us there. Looking back on this little ride I find it rather ironic as the running joke with people as they pass us when we are riding normally is to inform me that "she is not pedaling on the back" (which of course is untrue). This time, with me on the front, it was truly a case of "he is not pedaling on the front". And to make it even more interesting, no one said a thing.

Arriving at the rental car office, we were able to procure a pickup with a club cab which made it much easier to carry the tandem as we did not have to break it down, just put it in the bed of the the pickup. We went back to the hotel, grabbed the cases, grabbed the panniers, got them in the pickup and off we went. First stop would be Niles, MI which had a bike shop so we could pick up the Powerlink for the timing chain. We bought a couple of the correct size Powerlinks along with a patch kit (to have fresh glue), and a couple more inner tubes. I put on the Powerlink and was done with the task in about 30 seconds. My previous attempt from the day before with the incorrect sized link lasted a good 30 minutes before I realized the problem. Goes to show you how much easier life can be with the right equipment and parts.

Niles was one of the towns we would have biked through had we been riding the bike, so, we decided to drive along our intended bicycle route to Mattawan, MI to see what we were missing. In general it would have been a nice ride, fairly flat, and I am confident we would have made the 58 miles in the original 8 hours allotted. but instead of arriving on our loaded tandem on Friday evening, we arrived on Saturday at noon at the house of friends John and Barbara Copperider. We had a lovely time with them as it had been about 15 years since I had last seen them. Laura and Barbara, both educators, had a lot to talk about. It is always interesting to hear about the status of education in other states, particularly from those who are directly involved. Leave it to say, there appears to be issues with the educational systems no matter what state you are in, but the teachers somehow do their best to make it work for the benefit of the students.

With friends John and Barbara Cooperider.

After our visit, we continuing driving towards the Lake to the west. When we rented the car, we decided on Muskegon, MI as the drop-off town, and the new starting point for this tour. This would put us slightly further north than we would have been if we were on the bike which would provide us with a little more time and a little less distance to cover to get to Mackinac Island, our make or break point. On the drive, we stopped first in Holland, MI, a very cute small city with a beautiful central park and the unusual appearance of narrow beds of flowers directly against the curb of the road on many of the streets. I found this odd because being a state that receives significant snowfall, I know they must use road salt to keep the roads clear of snow in the winter and this is typically not good for anything growing next to the road. We found out later, that being Holland, they have a very large tulip festival in the spring. The city plants thousands of tulip bulbs along the street edge during this time then come back later and dig up the bulbs. The house owners are allowed to plant their own flowers after the bulbs are taken up. I will say it looks very nice.

Flowers along streets of Holland, MI.

A little more driving and we finally made our way to the Lake shore. The vastness of Lake Michigan is impressive, and it is hard to image that it is a fresh water lake, not a salt water ocean. In many of the towns along the shore you will see tee-shirts being sold in stores explicitly stating no sharks, no salt, the Great Lakes (or something to that effect). We would also add no jelly fish and no clumps of seaweed, at least none that we ever saw.

Heading north along the Lake the next sizable town was Grand Haven. It became readily apparent that some festivities were underway as the streets and many houses were decorated patriotically and chairs were lining the streets with lots of people milling around. We knew not what was going on, but it was certainly the precursors to a parade. Turns out we had wandered into the end of a week long festival for the Coast Guard and this was the final day of festivities that ended with a parade, that we heard later lasted about two hours. They take their Coast Guard seriously in Grand Haven, as we all should, and it was evident. It also became quickly evident, that since we were just south of Muskegon and the drop off location for our rental vehicle, that no hotel rooms were available. Stopping at one hotel to inquire, we were informed that there would be no vacancies anywhere in the three county area. After some contemplation, we made the decision to head inland towards the city of Grand Rapids, MI. Being a sizable city we assumed there would be plenty of hotels, and we were hopeful it would be far enough from Grand Haven that some rooms would be available. we headed east on Interstate 96. After about 15 minutes of driving on the interstate, we saw a Rodeway Inn off an exit. We pulled off to give it a try. They had one room available, sort of. It was blocked off as not available because the air conditioner was not working. To us this sounded perfect because, 1) they had a room they were willing to rent us, 2) Rodeway Inns are a budget chain hotel, and 3) We should get a steep discount making this a cheap night. Wrong we were on two out of the three points. Yes, they were willing to rent us the room, but it was a $140 a night room. But, they could give us a generous 10 percent discount for the broken air conditioner. Seriously? Only 10 percent.? we took it anyway because we had no idea what we would find further up the road.

Maybe no AC, but the bike got it's own bed for the night.

Dinner at Arby's. I like their Beef n' Cheddar sandwiches.

After dinner we decided to take a walk around to see the area. The hotel was located in the typical commercial development of an interstate exit with a few gas stations and fast food restaurants scattered around. Further down the road we came across the typical small shopping center, past which was a large dairy processing facility behind chain linked fences and security booths. Even further down the road was the promise of a town center. Turns out we were on the outskirts of Coopersville. Walking into town we found it very quaint with a nice little Main St., historical museum, and a tourist railroad. Overall a nice place, and we were glad we made the effort to walk and explore a little bit.

Tomorrow, maybe this bicycle tour will actually begin?