The next morning as the sun was rising, I started coffee and began to pack up. Matt is usually the first to be ready to go and I am usually trying to round up my squirrels, ducks and cats. #adhd. Today though, I tried really hard to be ready to go. I even had coffee made for him.

We rolled out of camp at a reasonable hour and headed into downtown South Haven to stop at the bakery. Mmmm. Fresh bread, donuts and their coffee.

As we rode out of town, I hadn’t realized we were low on water and ice. We stopped at a small convenience store in a little town North of South Haven. We will just call this the No No store. No ice. No cold gallons of water. No the store up the road doesn’t have any ice either. So my decision to spend my money there was inline with their answers. No. We got back on our bikes and rode away from all that negativity. Interesting how a cloud of negativity can loom and hang over you. Both Matt and I were feeling the effects of this that day. We pedaled forward and made it to a SuperValu in Saugatuck. Yes to ice, Yes to cold gallons of water. Now we are getting somewhere. We sat in the shade and refilled our water bottles and ice. A few people came up and asked us where we are going and we were able to share with them about our journey.

The day was nearing a close as we decided to head for a city park and make an early dinner. Once we arrived, we scoped out a decent stealth site (minus the interstate traffic) and made our way to a picnic table.

Matt needed to do some more work on his bike so I started dinner while he tended to the bikes. My first stop was Dollar General to pick up a few missing items. When I returned I began making the deliciousness!

Dinner preparations: capicola, eggs, chedder cheese, pepper jack cheese and our favorite squeezy cheese con queso!

We ate dinner and Matt went back to fixing bikes. As I was cleaning up, a huge dog came over for a visit. His owner and his doggo pals were off in the distance. His owner was calling his name and his word bubble was something like “Mom, I’ll be right there! Can’t you see I have to say hello to these new people? Gosh!” He proceeded to ignore her and stayed at our table for a few minutes. She circled back with her other 3 dogs and thanked us for being kind to her dog. She ask us a few questions about where we were going, headed and staying tonight. We do our best to remain vague if we are stealth camping. Then she circled back and ask if she could buy us a room for the night. We both said YES! As she was making the reservation, we both promptly packed up our bikes and gear.  We couldn’t believe the kindness and blessing she had shown us. We asked if we could take her picture, she declined and wanted to remain anonymous. She did let us take pics of the doggos though.

The doggos mom, Jackie said goodbye and told us where to find the hotel. We left shortly afterwards and headed there. She had booked us the honeymoon suite at a local hotel. Nice!

Once in the room, she called later to make sure we made it. Thanking her, she asked if we could come by her restaurant the next day for lunch. Since we never make it out early from a hotel stay, I said yes.

Our evening spent in the hotel was filled with Matt blogging and me writing a draft. Actually, I sloppily penned a rough draft of the previous days. I was rewriting it when my head fell onto the bed, with pen in hand. I didn’t poke my eye out, but Matt left me on the bed to sleep slumped over in a yoga position for hours. I guess I was tired and needed a good long stretch. Lol. I woke up and resumed writing. We went to actual bed at midnight.

After a restful night’s sleep in a comfortable bed, we grabbed hotel breakfast and took awhile to get going. Once we left the hotel we toodled through downtown Saugatuck and found our way to Wally’s Bar and Grill. We dined on delicious perch and fries in hopes of seeing and thanking Jackie again for her kindness. The food and wait staff deserve ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!

https://wallysbarandgrill.com/

We rolled out after lunch and stopped at a cute coffee shop. Basecamp Coffee and Waffles.  So fitting for Matt to get a coffee at Basecamp!  Fun facts about Matt. He hiked the AT North to South in 5 months 15 days. He hiked the Florida trail, Key West to Alabama State line. He solo canoed the Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi rivers from NY to LA in 78 days.😍😍😍😍😍❤❤❤❤❤⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

https://g.co/kgs/U2KBES

We rolled towards Holland, Michigan on roads, trails, boardwalks, bridges, bike lanes, sidewalks. Todays ride was a mix of everything with the exception of dirt track.

The boardwalk ended and the industrial port began. We rode by several junk yards recycling massive amounts of steel and metals. There was a vast assortment of artwork along the path made from huge pistons, steel flanges, springs and all sorts of recycled metal. Rosie had to get in on the action.

Once out of the industrial area, the wind blew against us as we made our way to Holland State Park. We were thinking since it wasn’t a weekend there would be an assortment of campsites available. Boy, were we sorely wrong. Only 5 sites available. No trees for hammocks and most in the full sun. We tried our best to find other alternatives, but to no avail. We reluctantly settled with campsite 210. All the good shady campsites backed up against the dunes were reserved, even the empty ones. 🙃 In the process of finding a campsite, we met two cyclists named Carol and Peter. They lived in the area and we had a good conversation with them. After paying the host, we made our way to our campsite and began to get settled in. Carol and Peter had finished their walk and circled back to ask us if we wanted a copy of their Michigan trails book. Absolutely! They returned with the book in hand!

With the wind finally winding down for the day, we started dinner.

Matt and I wrapped up dinner, grabbed showers and retired to the tent before the sun went down. We had our biggest mileage day in front of us. The following day our plan was to ride 76 miles to our Warmshowers hosts house in Hart, Michigan. So early to bed and early to rise. The wind finally calmed as the sun set and the temperature dropped. I was sure thankful to be out of the wind and snuggled up next to my love. Soon I was sound asleep.