Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Dunelands and Michigan Wine Country

We've been talking about this trip for a year, and you're all waiting for results! Hopefully our first week won't disappoint. It's been hard and exciting, and we took pictures.

The first night was at the Indiana Dunes at Beverly Shores. It rained a little and we ate a lot of eggs. The lake was beautiful the next morning.



The gas station where we bought the wood and eggs has the best softserv ice cream anywhere.

Here's the lake. All along the Indiana shore there are beautiful cottages. If you are rich and from Chicago, you may have one.



Wow, huge cooling tower. The mist made this look very ominous. It is some sort of power plant with water cascading out of the base. We got lost here and a guy in a pickup guided us down a dirt road to a village of pastel houses that looked like Loompa Land.



Andrea loves Michigan. This is the border. Shortly after we stopped for beers at the American Legion and watched a one-armed badass shoot pool. The tab was two fifty for both beers and they served us even though we are not vetrans.



This whole area was super pretty. There are so many old cottages and vacation homes. It is a little get-away for anyone who can afford it- I had fantasies about living in one of these places and zipping around in a antique British roadster. This fence is ancient and the house behind it is almost too far back to see.



We've been camping out for the past three nights. This is one of the nice moments. The a raccoon stole our trailmix this night and we fought over how I lost Andrea's flashlight.



I had no idea that Michigan had so many vineyards. It looks like France or something, there are some hilltops where grape vines are all you can see in every direction. It makes my feel justified in wearing my euro cycling cap.



This place was full of old people and the menu was super cheap. The party at the rear table were talking about all of the animals they had seen, and what was required to kill them. Standard small town fair, growing up in Northern Wisconsin I am used to this, except these old ladies were talking about totally innocuous creatures like squirrels, and the way to take care of them was "find a guy who's got a gun". I had an awesome chocolate malt that cost a dollar twenty-five.



I'm smiling cause there's no rain, I'm surrounded by grape vines, and I've only been riding thirty miles so my shoulders don't feel like someone's been stabbing them with a screwdriver yet. We've been averaging sixty mile days, which some people may think is pansy, but look at all of the stuff we are carrying. Try putting all of the stuff in you car, bedroom, dresser, and kitchen in a bag and dragging it up hills. It's actually more fun than it sounds.



Cheers, we will be in Flint soon and you will get another update!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay Ira and Andrea! I will be a dedicated reader of your blog and many adventures.

I'm jealous of the malt.

Extremely jealous.

Josh said...

Hey you two -
I am inspired. Hope all continues to go well. Thanks for the update!
J

ps> lousy raccoon.

Ezra Hozinsky said...

You guys are so awesome. You'd have to be a creep not to be inspired by what y'all are doing. Rubber side down, and maybe I'll see you guys soon. Like maybe when you're in Wisconsin.

Anonymous said...

I see your sportin' treks huh........old skool too


good luck

shawn khoury

Anonymous said...

hey ira, its set feldspar from bco.
good luck on this trip dude, im pretty fucking amazed, jealous of this...how are you guys going to get by?

and i think thats a nuclear power plant? i dont know, i swear that there's one in the dunes area that i drove by with my girlfriend, but maybe it wasn't nuclear and we were just feeling conspiracy-theoryish.

Anonymous said...

Awesome -- glad the first part is going well. You guys look insanely happy. Truly awesome.

justacoolcat said...

Looks like I found your blog at just the right time. Good luck on your travels.

~ a fellow biker

Anonymous said...

congradulations! hopefully this will be me next summer. let me know if you are passing through ohio, i will buy you guys some beerzzz

sincerely,

poester foesten

photoshopabuser said...

After reading your story so far I have bookmarked your blog and will check regularly for updates. I wish you guys all the luck and hope for nothing but fun and dry roads in your future. And maybe some fruits and vegetables too.... ;)

Anonymous said...

Wow, you're carrying a lot of stuff there, Ira! Why didn't you guys just drive?