Overnight, the wind and temperature changed suddenly and the sky opened up. Thankfully, we had all of our gear and ourselves under the far reaching pavilion roof. There was no need to jump up and cover anything, so I just pulled my wubby closer and listened to the rain on the tin roof. Soon the sound of the rain had lulled me back to sleep.

Morning came and we packed up camp. I mentioned to Matt that there was a bulk food discount store “just off the trail in Bloomingdale.” I said this with a sparkle in my voice as if Rosie Sparkle Farts was adding her enthusiasm and excitement for great deals. I winked at Matt and assured him we needed a few things to get us through to our next mail drop.  We haven’t shipped a food box aka a “mail drop” yet. Mostly, because each box weighs about 25lbs. And frankly until my front panniers (the pantry) are almost empty both of us are waiting until I get back from my upcoming appointment in Tallahassee to take on the extra “budget friendly” weight.

We toodled over to the Bloomingdales Bulk Foods Bent and Dent store. With pep in our step we entered and started down the first aisle. Carefully selecting (date, weight, nutritional value and usefulness) as we went along. Matt found the absolute steal on instant coffee and left to get a cart. I hadn’t realized his arms were full before we reached the end of the aisle, so the cart was helpful. Only a “few” things lol.

We came out with enough food to get us through until August 20th. With the exception of eggs, fresh bread, milk and coffee creamer for $53. Now to pack it all on the bikes. It all fit! Matt’s big finds were 6lbs of Capicola for $7, beef summer sausage for .99, cheese and instant coffee 5 pk $1.49. Mine was high protein veggie noodles, easy mac n cheese, fire roasted veggie crackers, grass fed sliced ham, squeezy con queso, fresh butter and of course cheese. We both love to cook with each other and have a healthy appetite built up after riding. We rode away heavier but excited to have good provisions in our possession.

Our plans for the night hadn’t formulated as we rolled down the Kal-Haven trail towards South Haven. We had two Warmshowers messages out and were waiting on responses. Call that plan A and B. Plan C was to camp at the state park. We needed showers, a swim and laundry as you could probably smell us downwind from the trail. Joking, but our shirts were a little ripe.

We stopped at Grand Junction trailhead for second breakfast. As we were devouring another helping of lasagna, two couples rolled up on bikes to refill there water bottles. We had a great chat with them and were excited to hear about overnight trip on the Kal-Haven trail. Sisters Beverly, Brenda and their spouses Jack and Bill rode 70 miles in 2 days. Mind you there were severe storms that blew in with damaging effects such as downed trees and flooding along the trail their first day out. I can imagine it was like Dorothy riding her bike speedily to out run the storm and they lived tell about it! They are tougher than they give themselves credit for. Great job y’all!! Stay on adventure together and we hope there are more family adventures in the making!!

Matt and I finished our second breakfast and finalized our overnight stay. Plan C, Van Buren State Park. Our two Warmshowers responded back unable to host us.

As we pedaled along the trail, I mentioned to Matt that we hadn’t seen any chicken of the woods mushrooms since the C&O trail. I still had a package of wild rice soup mix in my pannier. Almost as if we had entered a magical forest, mushrooms🍄 appeared everywhere along the trail. Mind you I rely on Matt’s mushroom knowledge. There are 4 edible ones that he can identify with confidence, the rest are too risky for our purposes.

Within less than a hour, an orange cluster appeared down a steep bank. I stopped and Matt went to investigate. It was cluster chicken of the woods! Matt broke off what we would need for soup and left the rest.

https://curativemushrooms.com/chicken-of-the-woods-identification-look-alike

We rolled into South Haven and stopped at a corner to check the map. Rosie swiped a flower from a bush along the sidewalk. A hardy pink hibiscus of course. One has to keep their eyes on that unicorn.😉

South Haven is a tourist town thriving during warmer months. We found a bakery downtown and Matt held my bike while I ran in to get fresh bread. I came back out with a fresh loaf of French bread. Matt wrapped up chatting with another cyclist as I packed the bread on my bike. Have bread and butter, will travel! Soon we were off to Van Buren State Park.

We pulled up to stop sign and there was a noise of steel breaking on Matt’s bike. He is very in tune with his bike, so he quickly determined it was the rear hub. Dang it again. He wobbled through the last 7 miles into the state park. Its all part of the process of being on tour.

We reached the state park and carefully selected a site suitable for hammocks. That really entailed riding through the entire campground once maybe twice. Matt is patient with me even riding on his wobbly wheel. Once at camp, we planned on eating a quick snack and going for a swim in Lake Michigan! The weather turned more gloomy and cloudy. We ate more than a quick snack and decided to hit the hammocks instead. The cooler weather was refreshing. Soon we were asleep.

The next day, we enjoyed our bargain instant coffee Cafe’ Bustelo Coffee Con Leche. May I have another? We should have bought more because its good coffee and it travels well on tour.

As I was getting ready to change clothes, knowing my clean clothes supply was near the end, I chose to recycle my rinsed and not quite dry clothes from the day before. Omgosh. I smelled like I had dipped myself in cat urine. It was rank. I immediately took off the clothes and changed into my cold weather riding clothes. Someday soon, I will invest in merino wool clothing, so laundry won’t be so frequent.

Matt determined we were in ketosis and that we needed to tweak our diet or continue to stank. Laundry was my mission for the day. Fixing the bike was Matt’s mission! We packed up and set out for the local bike shop.

The owner of the bike shop came out and began to help Matt. I rode away to the local laundromat with my back pannier full of fumes from the stankfest dirty laundry. Once I arrived at the local laundromat, I realized I had no cash. So off I went to Walgreens, returning with cash in hand, I got my quarters and to my astonishment one medium sized load of laundry would cost me well over $10. Alarmed, I began searching out a smaller washer. I managed to get out of this monopoly with clean clothes and only spent $5. Win! Win!

I let Matt know my mission was complete and he told me he was almost done. Wow!! I was excited to hear this!! I couldn’t wait to hear how it worked out. I stopped by the bakery and grabbed a deal on cookies for the bike shop, another loaf of french bread and a few chocolate eclairs. Donuts and coffee to celebrate! I came back out to my bike and was stopped by a gentleman by the name of Jim Reading. He was admiring my gear and we got to talking. Jim is 74 and has gone on tours most years. He has his grandsons stay with his wife while he is on tour. You have to go with what works. Best of luck on your next tour Jim!

I made my way to the bike shop to find Matt putting on his wheel. Exciting!!!! They had the hub he needed. I dropped off the cookies at the counter of the bike shop, Matt went in to settle up. What a great bike shop! Super helpful owner and Matt was back on the road!  More on this on his blog!

https://acrossthemapwithmatt.com/?p=2809

https://www.rocknroad.bike/

Matt and I rode over a the local coffee shop, The Bean Box. Neither of us had eaten since breakfast and were in need of coffee and a celebratory donut! The owner and her daughters of the coffee shop met Rosie while we were there. She was staring pathetically inside the store front from outside bench. As if to say, they forgot to get meeeeeee a coffee. I scooped her up and brought her in to say hello. Caffeinated and ready to go enjoy the rest of the day filled with sunshine and happiness we decided to go back to Van Buren State Park for the night. It was sunny and a little windy, but just right for a swim! We said our goodbyes to the ladies and headed south again.

Bean Box

225 Broadway St #3, South Haven, MI 49090
(269) 872-3272 https://g.co/kgs/W4BsuW

We got back to the state park, set up camp and walked to the beach. It was both our first time swimming in Lake Michigan. Massive sand dunes loomed in the distance as we approached the beach. It was breathtaking.

The beach was busy, but we walked further down to find a secluded spot. Rosie said she wanted to go swimming too. Who knew unicorns could swim? She didn’t have any floaties on (aka muscles)! so she stayed on my wrist the whole time. The water so beautiful and refreshing. Not too cold, not too warm, just right. We swam for an hour or so then headed back to camp. Rosie was tired from swimming and was drifting off to sleep as we walked back to camp so we dried her off and put her to bed early.

We got back to camp and started on dinner. Both of us were excited to cook the chicken of the woods mushrooms!

We retired early to the hammocks and counted our many blessings throughout the day. I was soon 😴 😴 😴.