Day 66: North Muskegon to Holland

August 5, 2021

A change of plans

“Where can we get the best ice cream?” Patrick asks the local cyclist in Grand Haven, USA Coast guard Capital. There’s a coast guard festival going on, and he leads us to the waterfront to an ice cream place. There’s quite a crowd, and houses decorated with coast guard flags.

Once again we are up at our regular time of 0600, only haven’t yet adjusted that it’s really 0700. We are packed up, Tim and Karen arrive, and the six of us are off. Rick and Sandy on a tandem lead the way to the bike path off River Road to Muskegon and Carmen’s restaurant for breakfast.

We say goodbye to new friends, and Patrick navigates us through back roads out of Muskegon and eventually back to the US31 bike route and a bike path. At Grand Haven we take a break for ice cream. It is still another 20 miles to Holland, there is a bike path most of the way, but it gets bumpy at times. The advantage of being away from traffic makes it worth it though.

We visited Holland Michigan in 1995 before we married. We went to the theme park and saw the Zwaan windmill and a klompendans. Patrick said then, “This is the first time I’ve seen one of these dances.” Today we probably saw the uglier side of town….. We ride along the river on a bike path and can see the windmill across the water. Other than that Holland does not impress us. We head for the budget motel we made a reservation at and get there at about 3:00. Today was again not too hot, but the humidity seems to be rising. There are several restaurants nearby so we don’t have to go far for dinner.

We decide instead of heading further south to South Haven and then picking up a Kal-Haven trail east towards Kalamazoo rather to head southeast tomorrow to Richland. Friends of ours are house sitting just north of Kalamazoo until Sunday. If we get there tomorrow we can take a day off with them to visit.

The Hackley (left) and Hume Houses in Grand Haven

Of course we follow the rules and walk our bikes (wink wink)

A local cyclist shows to the ice cream place

Houses are decorated with coast guard flags

Tom and Kim local cyclists we meet on the trail.

The bike path has many boardwalk bridges over the marshes

The last Holland windmill exported out of the country.

Heart

Comment

Link

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 2,723 miles (4,382 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0