John & Barb
Jonathan & Betty
Stats about Tandem Bike Trip - Jonathan and I with friends Barb and John who have a recumbent tandem. For my friends and cousin who think biking means those machines with the motors, um no! I am talking about REAL biking where you actually pedal the bike to get where you want to go!
Start to Finish - New Paris, Indiana to Kirk Park, north of Holland, MI and back to New Paris
Miles traveled - 330
Temperatures were in the 90's with heat indexes over 100 many days. I coped by wearing a camelbak, filled with ice water, plus dumping water on my head and misting myself with a spray bottle. Yeah, when you go biking, you really don't care what you look like!
Gasoline used - none
Three nights in tent, three nights in hotel/motels
vehicles used - Burley Tandem with Burley trailer
Our tandem semis...
Most beautiful sight - Lake Michigan!
Kirk Park, south of Grand Haven, Michigan
Most interesting mailbox:
You've heard of snail mail, email, and now there is nail mail!
Most challenging experience on the trip - first night camping. After riding close to 60 miles in 100-degree heat indexes, we camped at our first campground, close to the lake. Problem was, there was not a breeze to be had and our tents were pitched down in a gully between two tree-covered sand dunes. As exhausted as I was, I could not fall asleep and of course since I drank gallons (almost) of water during the day, I had to trudge to the restroom (uphill and a little distance away) EVERY two hours. At 4:00 am, as Jonathan and I were coming back from yet another bathroom trip, the heavens opened and it POURED! Needless to say, everything got soaked and our tents were basically sitting in water. At 6:00 am, we packed up all our sopping wet stuff, and off we went about 40 miles to South Haven. Alas, all campgrounds were full so we HAD to get a hotel! Comfort Inn seemed like a 5-star luxury hotel. A good night's sleep in air conditioning does wonders for the body and soul!
Favorite campground of the trip - Dutch Treat Family Campground near Holland, MI. Had a great big solar heated pool and groves of shade trees with a breeze! Plus there were fun mom and pop restaurants that were within biking distance.
Favorite restaurants on the trip - The Biscuit in Holland (for breakfast), The Pumpernickel in Saugatuck for lunch, and The Thirsty Perch in South Haven.
Best part of the trip--there were so many! bicycling with Jonathan and working on being respectful of each other's needs on the tandem, getting to know John and Barb in a new way (you learn a lot about each other when you spend a week together!), the excellent food and all the quaint little restaurants we ate at, watching the Tour de France our last night in a hotel, and beating thunderstorms to the motel twice!!
Lessons learned - It's funny how your perception changes, depending on the circumstances. It was good to have a challenging first night to measure the rest of the trip by. And by the end of the week a cheap $60 hotel seemed like luxury--not something I would normally consider a treat!
Observation - there were two kinds of people we met. Ones who looked at you with a look of "you are out of your friggin' minds" and ones who looked at you like "cool!" One teenager yelled to Barb and John as we biked through Niles, "that is a bad-ass bike!" We took that as a compliment!
Would I do it again? Absolutely! It was one of the most memorable vacations I have had.
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