25-Luther-Manistee: Lake Michigan!

54.3 miles/ +979.5 ft/ Total miles 1141.4

* I think the Garmin GPS skipped 7 miles. Operator error. Should be 61 miles, but I will go with the GPS data. 

View from where I am staying:

Stopped in Peacock about 8:30 at the Sweetfern Cafe and Emporium , hoping for breakfast. No food, but I had a nice cup of coffee and some oatmeal bars. And I had a nice time talking with the owner. Lake County is one of the poorest counties in Michigan, and the Peacock area has a mix of year-round residents and summer people, as well as people who have retired and moved here, many from Minnesota. In the days of segregation, resorts that allowed African-Americans were located here, and there are many African-American residents here today. 

My ride continued north and west, almost to Ludington, where I turned north toward Manistee, which is located on Lake Michigan. What a difference! It’s a pretty town, lots of antique shops and restaurants along the river. I stopped at a pub for another lunch (no breakfast today, two lunches instead). I sat down where I could keep an eye on my bike parked on the sidewalk, and two women sitting next to me struck up a conversation with all the usual questions: how far did you ride? Where did you start? Where are you headed? which eventually leads to: Why do you want to ride across the country? 

The next thing I know, they offer to buy my lunch and a few minutes later offer to put me up at their house, which is on the lake close to town. So here I am – same view as from the campground but I don’t need to put up my tent!

A few years ago I joined the Vancouver (Wash.) Bike Club so I could ride the Columbia Gorge Explorer with them – a 4-day self-supported tour every Memorial Day weekend, up the gorge for 2 days in Washington and then back down river (into the wind) on the Oregon side. On the first day I met a woman who was also riding a Rodriguez and struck up a conversation that has become a friendship and an inspiration. She had ridden cross-country solo, east to west, about five years earlier. Her advice was to do it alone. As a solo traveler, your trip is about the people you meet along the way, whereas if you travel with even one companion or a group, the trip is about the group more than the local people. Both kinds of trips are good. For the cross-country trip, I wanted to be able to see all the various landscapes, towns, farms, water bodies, etc. of the country, and also to meet the people that live in these places. So solo travel is my choice  

Every place I go, people talk to me. I get to talk about my trip, and I also get a chance to find out about what goes on in their part of the world. That is a big part of what makes the trip interesting and fun.