Day 40: Chesteron, ID to South Haven, MI

WE ARE IN MICHIGAN! LAST STATE UNTIL CANADA!!!!

Actual kms: 138 kms

Overkill: 5 or so. There was a short detour and I headed into South Haven right after my shower so I could catch up on blogging and hopefully get some work done.

Quote: "Michigan! Michigan! I like to ride my bicycle, I like to ride to Michigan!" -Me singing to the "I Like to Ride My Bicycle" song by Queen...with varied lyrics of course. I was really excited to get to Michigan today. As you can tell.

Road Things: Dead fox, racoon and a live great blue heron.

Money Spent: $2 Taco Bell potatoes/soft taco, $7 Frappalatte and Chocolate Eclairs. How long has it been since you ate an éclair? I forgot that they were that delicious.

Most Interesting Person Pick: Jim. His name is easy to remember because it is my Dad's name. He is from N.Y and I think is one of the only people who did the Denver to G.R leg. He is heading back home because he has to work but he's a great cyclist with a beautiful black Cannondale bike. He looks like a dutch immigrant straight from the boat, but he's actually a long time New Yorker. Great accent. He always says hi and is encouraging on the road.

Favourite Part of the Day: Getting into Michigan. It made me realize that the weekend and having Bob on the ride is almost here. I really think the last two weeks with Bob are going to be the most enjoyable and memorable. I loved having him at the same college as me because you get to reflect on that experience for the rest of your lives. Same for Sea to Sea hopefully.

Worst Part of the Day: Today, getting up. Especially with not talking to Tim last night and having a "longer" day today with headwind. Tomorrow and Saturday are short so that is exciting.

Today I started off with not wanting to get out of bed. Then I thought to myself "It's less than a week until you get to see Tim and only a few days until you are in Grand Rapids and get to see Kelly and Jesi and Bob." And that convinced me to get up even though I couldn't find my clock to see what time it was. Later I found out it was before 6 am and I thought to myself "Next time, don't try to convince yourself." :)

I started off the ride with Josh (the "new" guy), Nathan B and Jim from N.Y. I asked them if I could be in their groups as they were leaving and I was heading to the washroom. I told them that I would catch up but Jim said he would be embarrassed if I did, so they would wait. :)

We set a good pace and were racing along some bigger/busier roads. We had a wind, so we took turns pulling in a pace line. They wanted to stop at the first SAG, so I left them and kept going until Michigan, where I took this picture...and one of Indiana (since I didn't have an official one).

We drove by many amazing homes along Lake MI today. I thought that you would really like that drive Mom. I could just imagine hearing you say "Oh Jim, look at that!"

Then after biking by myself for about 20 k, Reuben, Nathan, Jim, Josh, Josh Crabbe, and Pieter caught me and kinda scared me just as I was turning at a stop sign. Nathan invited me to join them and as I did, I realized that these guys were going full tilt. We were doing 35-45 kms up and down these windy, wooded roads and it was a lot of fun. I had to push myself to keep up in the pace line, but it was a beautiful 10 k. Plus, keeping up with the boys is pretty much expected of me now. Alas.

Lake Michigan.

We stopped at Julie's SAG and Eritia showed up so I decided to bike with her. We did the next 80 kms at a decent pace (averaging around 30 k) and were pretty quite as we went up and down the black topped empty road. It was pretty windy (welcome to Lake Michigan I guess) and so we pulled for each other the rest of the way. We got into camp just before the gear truck around 1 pm, but with the time change today that was 2 pm. The middle school we are staying at is nice but the showers were not great you had to press this button constantly to shower and it was really stiff. :( Probably should have taken a swim in the lake. I set up the tent and took off to find wireless and here I am.

Here are two pictures from Brian last Saturday in Madison. This is when we all drove into the church in one big peleton (group of bikers). There is Bill (who is excited to meet you and your bikes Mom and Dad) on the motorcycle. Can you spot me? Look for a red helmet.