Grand Haven

June 23, 2021

Pickings are slim at breakfast this morning. Once again we’re staying at a motel with supply chain issues, and the cereal that was promised at check-in last night doesn’t actually exist this morning. It’s not clear why these places that are directly across the street from an open grocery store can’t cope with a missing cereal delivery. Don’t they have a petty cash fund for emergencies like this? There is milk though, and we have a bit of our own leftover muesli, so I make do with that.

The company at breakfast is great though. Carlos gets bored with harassing his coworker and comes over to chat. He’s interested in biking, bikes some himself, and is nearing retirement. We fill him up with ideas and exchange emails so I can send him a link to the blog later, and then turn back to the main topics for the day: the weather, and France.

Conditions are changing. After over three weeks of dry riding, it looks like the fun is over. There’s a chance we’ll see rain today for an hour or two, but we’re not so worried about that. With a short, easy stage today we can afford to window the riding around the hours in question. Tomorrow looks worse though, with a longer ride, fairly strong winds from the south (that is, in our faces) and significantly more chance of rain. Beyond that, the forecast indicates rain and scattered thunderstorms nearly every day for the next two weeks.

This prompts a lot of discussion. Should we consider changing any of our bookings? Should we look for alternate transportation? We’ve done a fair amount of research over the last day or two, but don’t really see any reasonable alternatives to just riding it out. We feel somewhat trapped into this itinerary at the moment, and don’t care for it so much.

Which blends into a related topic. What ever happened to that idea of getting a long-stay visa and spending a year in France? Is that still on the table? If not, why not? Huh? Huh?

A good question, but with not that much bearing on the immediate situation at hand. It makes a nice diversion though. It’s more uplifting to imagine sitting around somewhere in beautiful southwest France than wondering how wet and miserable we’ll be in the coming days. For now, we’ll just take things one day at a time.

And for the moment at least, things look OK. By the time we get ready to leave the motel at 10 the risk of rain has receded to late afternoon. The first half of the ride passes quickly and easily, on another bike path much like yesterday’s that takes us all the way to the outskirts of Muskegon.

Leaving Montague, biking through another twenty mile tunnel of green.

So what is this unsightly pile growing out of this rotting log? I’ve never seen a fungus quite like it. It must be a foot across.

Looks just like yesterday, but it’s not. Today there’s a lot of sassafras lining the trail in spots. I should have stopped to take a photo of it.

Through a gap in the trees we see a short segment of Shivering Timbers, a huge classic wooden roller coaster. It’s a mile-long ride, and claimed to be the longest and fastest in the state.

Rachael’s been growing increasingly discouraged by all of the alienating political flags and banners, but she took heart from these messages.

We emerge from the green tunnel at the outskirts of Muskegon, but the bike path continues along the shoreline for several more miles. We follow it, evading the city itself, but come away with a favorable impression. From the little we saw of it, Muskegon seems like it could be an attractive spot to squat for a spell.

On the wall of our motel last night I saw a photo of another attractive lighthouse. After snooping around a bit I concluded that it was the one at the mouth of Muskegon’s harbor. With a short day anyway and no apparent risk of getting wet after all, I talk Rachael into taking a detour of about a mile to take a look.

A mile turns into five somehow. And the stately red lighthouse I’d pictured turns into a fairly modest breakwater light. So those are both disappointments. It’s still a nice detour though, and takes us along an interesting stretch of shoreline - the winds out at the point must be around 25 mph, and they’re blowing sand down the road in waves. The most interesting miles of the day, really.

On the way out to the lighthouse we spotted these deer out in a field. So there’s another reason it was well worth lengthening the ride by five miles.

The Muskegon Breakwater Light. This wasn’t the one I was looking for actually. There’s a similar one nearby, the South Breakwater Light, that we didn’t manage to see.

For the rest of the way to Grand Haven we continued following uS Bike Route 35 (as we have for all of the last two days). These miles are less interesting, mostly passing one beach or ranch house after another.

We don’t see many appealing food options in Grand Haven, but we decide on Fricano’s Pizza Tavern because it claims to be the original and most famous pizzeria in Michigan. That certainly has the sound of a can’t miss attraction, doesn’t it? Well, perhaps not. In fact, I’ve never seen a pizza restaurant at all like this. If you don’t count drinks, it serves exactly one product, at one price - a 12 inch thin crust pizza, with your choice of any or all of the only five toppings available: pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers and anchovies. Nothing else - no salads, no chips, no breadsticks, no nothing. Very popular though, so it obviously works for them.

One pizza wasn’t really enough for us, but we didn’t want to order a second one either. Rachael generously let me eat part of her share, and later rounded off her meal by picking up a salad from Panera across the street from our motel.

All in all, not the most exciting day of the tour. But dry! We’ll take it.

Grand Haven has its black grey squirrels too.

We’re starting to see a lot of these colorful trees.

Probably looks just like they did when Fricano’s started serving them up in 1949.

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Kelly IniguezSince your report on Muskegon was favorable, you must not have noticed any odors?

During the debate between the slow ferry and the fast ferry, I was assured that I didn't want to go to Muskegon because of the bad odors. It's been long enough that I can't remember the source of the complaint, but google tells me their waste water plant has issues.

I am also looking at the weather forecast with trepidation. Wind is going to be a factor also. I was initially happy, because the wind appeared to be from the south. We have a 68 mile day from Ludington to Frankfort - at this moment a strong north wind is forecast. I am hoping that we are far enough out that the forecast will change.
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezNo, the odor in Muskegon didn’t bother me at all. But then, I can’t smell so it wasn’t too surprising.

Good luck with the weather when you get here. It looks pretty miserable for the coming days, but maybe this will all pass by the time you get here and it will be hot, humid and sticky instead!
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3 years ago

Ride stats today: 41 miles, 1,000’; for the tour: 953 miles, 27,700’

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 953 miles (1,534 km)

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Eva WaltersJust wondering where in France you were thinking of settling for a year.
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Eva WaltersIf we did this we would plan on exploring most of the country, staying in multiple places for extended periods - either as an isolated way to spend a year or possibly a first step in something longer term. One spot that really appeals to us though is Narbonne. I can imagine settling there someday.
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3 years ago