45 miles, 929′ of climbing – to read from the beginning, click here.
We awoke to a little bit of rain on the camper, but went inside to be treated to a filling breakfast of pancakes, granola, & yogurt. Today we are heading up to Muskegon to get the ferry over to Milwaukee. Dana wanted to do the UP (Upper Peninsula of MI) like EVERYONE who we talked to said we should do. I had to be the voice of reason and point out that adding 700+ miles to this trip wouldn’t get us to any of our original goals and leave us without a chance to finish. So, we’re off to Milwaukee.
But first, after breakfast, the entire Folger family wanted to escort us to the ferry and we happily agreed. Isla was on the back of her mom’s cargo bike, Mackenzie, Wallace, & Craig on mountain bikes, and Rowan on his road bike. They road with us the whole 6 miles to the ferry terminal, and we said our good-byes and thanks to the whole family and they were off for a Sunday donut treat!
We weren’t done, though, as it was barely 11am and the ferry didn’t leave until 4:45. So we rode the trail around Muskegon Lake around to the state park. On the way, a retired Sheriff rode up alongside us and asked about our trip, then escorted us the “Dave” way (off the main road) which included a stop at his house to see his ducks — well, wild ducks, but trained to respond to his shaking the corn can and coming right up to be fed. I’ll include a video of the parade below.
After we said goodbye to Dave, we were riding to the shore at the state park and a SUV stopped behind us and the driver called out to us. Dale was a Kona salesman and saw that we were both riding Konas and he just had to talk to us. One more iteration of our story, and some of his riding through central Australia. And he knew of Freeze Thaw Cycles, and thinks he met Justin at a Kona function.
After a quick tour of the park, we parked and Dana went off for a walk on the beach where she met Dale again, and inspired by his running on the beach, did some herself. After all that, we made our way back to the freely and loaded up our bikes and ourselves for the trip to Wisconsin. It was a 2 1/2 hr trip and one of the smoothest ferries either of us have been on — we both had good naps.
After getting off the ferry, we had a 10 mile trip to our Warmshowers hosts, Chris, Liz & Toby. They were at a Brewer’s game, but left the door open and we had refreshing showers and walked down to the neighboorhood “strip” to grab a beer and a bite. We had the beer, but bypassed the bites and opted for DQ twist cone instead. That was indeed a treat. Back at the house, we met Chris, Liz, and their son Toby, exchanged our touring stories and then headed off for another comfortable sleep.
