For the most part, the roads were good, decent shoulders, not overwhelming traffic, and often I got to be near the lake. I took my time today. I stopped in Douglas and restocked on groceries (precious granola bars), and I took a little while to appreciate Saugatuck and see its art gallery. There was an exhibit just freshly finished being set up, in which the artist had painted a picture from a photograph she'd taken in each of the fifty states. She was there working on the completion of the exhibit, and I chatted with her a bit. She asked if I recognized where the Nebraska picture was taken, then told me it was in Cure-nee. I asked, "Kearney?" and she responded with surprise that was how it was pronounced. I realized from that, and her general attitude, that her approach to travel was not at all like mine. She was hitting places just to mark them off a list, just passing through by car, not experiencing them, not even learning their damn names. She was nice and her artwork was cool, but it reaffirmed to me why I travel the way I do. I took my time today.
I had a headwind and that slowed me down quite a bit even on the flat terrain, but it wasn't anything I'm unaccustomed to at this point. After navigating Holland, I got to be on bike trail basically all the way. It was an interesting trail, perfectly paralleling the road through town and countryside, never getting more than thirty feet from it, with at most a few trees partially obscuring it from sight, sometimes seeming more like a big sidewalk than a trail. I passed by a sizeable stretch of construction at one point and it was a good feeling to be able to just bike along the trail as the cars a few feet away had to be stopped and directed. ...Though admittedly there was also a period later in town where I was tempted to jump on the road as the trail turned bumpy and full of cracks. It vanished at a certain point, dumping me onto regular sidewalk, and then I had to get back on the street. Then the official bike route over the drawbridge, the only way across the Grand River for miles is taking sidewalk up to a narrow path one bike wide where you're supposed to "walk your bike", and anyone crossing the other way has to wait on you. I stopped and took a couple pictures, before I realized there was an old man with a basket full of groceries on his bike waiting on the other side for me to cross and I felt bad for delaying him. After the bridge though, there was a nice bike path and easy going to my destination.
My stay was with Roger, who thanks to the networking done by the Cains, I've known I was going to be staying with for almost the whole trip, since Dakota City. That seems so long ago now. Over a month on the road feels longer than it does when sitting at home. His wife, Gail, and daughter, Anna, greeted me on arrival, and after I got my bike maintenance done they made me feel right at home. By the time I had finished my shower Roger was home. They all had a meeting to go to at church, but Roger was kind enough to stick with me instead while Gail and Anna went (or had me as a solid excuse not to go, either or). We went and walked the dog through a very tiny section of a vast network of trails that extends from a county park to a state one. Then we briefly stopped back home before heading out and checking out the pier and a large coal barge coming in. Grand Haven is a huge tourist destination and there are lots of seasonal businesses on the water, only open in Summer for the tourists. We met Gail and Anna at a local restaurant on the waterfront, Roger buying us all dinner. Then we made another quick stop home to get warm clothes, including a blanket for Gail, before heading back to see Grand Haven's "Musical Fountain". It's a fountain up on the hill across the water that can be lit with a full complement of colored lights to create a choreographed display to (mostly pop) music played by speakers. It's a neat concept, but as Anna said, you see it once and that's good for the season, and by the end of the twenty minute display, started at 10, I was just about asleep. We got ice cream at Culver's, then by the time we got back to the house, it was off to bed for me. It was a good day. I feel lucky happenstance brought me to meet Roger and his family.
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