The Dakotas – Day 8 Kalamazoo

70 miles, 2315′ of climbing – to read from the beginning, click here.

Waking up in a campground while touring is its own little adventure. Get out of the tent (as quietly as you can), head to the restrooms (or closest trees that block the other campers’ view), maybe crawl back in the tent for another few minutes, heat water for coffee, make something that resembles breakfast (never cooked in our campground), and then start gathering and repacking. We’ve done it in a half hour or so when there’s a tight schedule, but usually it’s an hour and a half or more. Today was about that 1 1/2 hour before we rolled out of the campground.

We headed back into town to borrow the Cadet Tavern’s wi-fi on our way to Kalamazoo. (Oh, yeah, forgot this info: Last night we rode in from our camp to have a delicious, hand-made pizza (and beer, of course) at the Cadet.) Well, while we were standing there with our bikes surfing the web, two older women came up behind us. “Where are you from?” “Pennsylvania.” “I knew it! I saw ‘Penns’ on your shirt. Where in PA?” “State College, home of Penn State U”.

“Awesome! My husband (he’s gone now) was the Nittany Lion Mascot in 1956 & 1957. You can read about him in the book, The Men Who Wore the Suit. I am a HUGE Penn State fan. They’re going to win the national championship this year — that’s my prediction. I follow all the sports news and that’s what I think is going to happen!”

Maryanne and Paula would ride their bikes from Jackson to Concord every week or so, and pointed out the coffee shop and breakfast place and much more. They were impressed with our tour and Paula said, “You are doing what we wish we could do.” We told them about Warmshowers and suggested a small tour to get started, but there wasn’t any reason why they couldn’t. They’ll think about it! For us, two PSU connections in two days was uncanny.

After leaving Concord, we headed onward to our hosts for the night, Jane and Steve in Kalamazoo. Steve is Dana’s neighbor Hugh’s step-nephew. We had met Steve and Jane at Hugh’s and Janyce’s when they were in SC for a visit. They told us if we were ever in Kalamazoo to look them up. We took them up at that and were treated to a warm welcome and a hearty meal and conversation.