bike extravaganza: part one

You will never influence the world by trying to be like it.

South Bend - Bridgman - South Haven - Holland - Montague   

Our first night was spent with Claire (one of my GREAT friends) and her family in South Bend, IN.  We decided to drive up there and cut out about 130 miles of biking through the monotony of corn fields.  Her family was just darling and we loved our time spent there.  

Biking to Bridgman was a great day full of sunshine.  Our first night of camping was very important because it was our opportunity to see if we forgot anything for the trip.  Luckily we did not! 

In Bridgman, the thing to do in the summer is to go drive to this park and watch the sunset.  The park was right by our campsite so we had to go and see why so many cars were passing by.  We now know why people did it.  The sunset was lovely.

The second day we biked to South Haven!  This town was so quaint and cute.  It had so much character that I just loved.  The campsite we stayed at that night was run by a very nice couple who drove north for the summer.  They kindly took us in and told us all about the downtown strip of South Haven.  This town had a great marina and boardwalk overlooking the lake.

During our trip we had to master rolling everything up.  If we did not do it right, then it simply did not fit into the bag.

After packing up from our night in South Haven we quickly biked to Holland which was a place I had been to before.  It was just as I had remembered it and more.  They definitely had built onto the main strip and it just was a perfect town for anyone.

On our way from Holland to Montague, we finally saw our first USBR 35 sign!!!  Trent had originally thought we would see these signs a lot more along the way...but about 150 miles in we finally saw one.

The biggest lesson I learned from this bike tour was that you need to be flexible.  Things do not always go as planned, especially when you go by bike.  Stay tuned for part two of the bike tour.