by Jeff

Our stay at Straits State Park in St. Ignace was largely uneventful. Since our last two campgrounds did not have any showers, everyone was grateful to get clean again (well, maybe Caleb & David didn’t care). As much as possible, we have reserved our campsites close to playgrounds, so that David and Caleb would be able to hang out there while everyone else worked on the tent, dinner, water, etc. At Straits State Park, the playground was pretty much our back door, so the boys were plenty occupied.

We broke camp at 9am and were on the road by 11; our first stop was the Mackinac Bridge. To get there, we took a very short gravel path between our campground and the welcome center, where we were able to pedal another 50 yards to get to the Mackinac Bridge Authority, next to the tollbooths. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) bicyclists and pedestrians are not allowed on the bridge. So, for a total of $30, the Mackinac Bridge Authority loaded up our family, 5 bikes (plus 2 trail-a-bikes), and 4 trailers and shuttled us across the 5-mile span. It was so cool. David and Caleb named it as one of the best parts of the day, though I’m not sure if it’s because of the bridge or that they were able to travel in a car…

Here’s all our gear, all loaded up for transport across the Mackinac Bridge

In Mackinaw City, we re-assembled our gear and went into town with two missions: 1) Pick up a spare tire for the tandem, as we’re more concerned about wear; and 2) Buy some fudge. For some reason, the kids didn’t want to go with me to the hardware store to buy the tire; they all wanted to choose the fudge. They loved the samples, of course, and came back with not 2 packages, but 5 packages of fudge (“Dad, it was buy 3, get 2 free!”) Yum, I’m not complaining.

There was a bike trail out of Mackinaw City—an old railroad that had been converted into a hard-packed gravel path—so we took that for 16 miles to Cheboygan. Okay, when you’re pulling heavy trailers behind you, it’s pretty slow going; it seems like gravel absorbs all of your momentum. There was some grumbling, and we often questioned whether we should take the neighboring highway, but we chose the slower path for reasons of safety and shade.

Our next stop was to be a Laundromat, since we had very few clean clothes remaining.. There is one in the same parking lot as Wal-mart, and several other stores, so we quickly dumped our clothes into a 50-pound washer and ate “lunch” (yes, at 4pm). David loved the Laundromat. He was fascinated by the washer and dryer, and couldn’t wait to tell the others about how it went ‘round and ‘round. Hilarious.

Then came a very big discovery: there was a Dollar Tree store in the same parking lot. The Dollar Tree is special because EVERYTHING in the store is $1 or less. It is now my kids’ favorite store in the world. When Joshua found out about it, he actually ran to the store. The big purchase for us: sunglasses for everyone. Oh, yeah. Not only will we be able to stop squinting, but we’re gonna look so cool.

It was getting late, and our final destination was Mullett Lake, where Angela’s uncle owns a cottage. This cottage was first owned by her Grandparents, and it’s a place where she used to spend part of every summer as a kid. It was still 14 miles away, and it was getting late (6:30pm), so her uncle offered to come and pick up some of our gear with his pickup. We loaded our trailers into his truck—as well as the youngest 3 kids–and rode the last dozen miles free and unfettered. It was amazing! The gravel path that we had been struggling on became like an expressway. We had no idea the trailers were slowing us down so much—we were laughing and passing each other, barreling down this trail at speeds we had not seen for a long time. It was a huge highlight of the day.

Once at the cottage, our hosts Paul and Laurie totally spoiled us. We tweaked our original plans so that we could stay an extra day at the cottage, and we’re so glad we did. We ate heartily, slept in beds until the late morning, napped, and played in the water all day. We even watched TV for the first time in 16 days: we had to watch the movie Independence Day. We went for a boat ride, played games, built sandcastles, had some water fights, saw a couple of beautiful sunsets, enjoyed the various fireworks around the lake, and even lit some sparklers with the kids. We couldn’t be more thankful to Paul and Laurie; the rest has been amazing… and getting back on the bikes is going to be a little bit of a shock to the system.

Watching the sunset together at Mullett Lake

Our family with our hosts at Mullett Lake, Paul and Laurie

Unfortunately, as I write this in the early of hours of July 5, Elise has woken up with a stomachache, and she vomited as well. Fortunately, only 30 miles today, and she can ride in the cushy seat on the tandem (more work for me, but that’s fine). Hope she feels better soon… we’ll see what the day holds!

Our destination today: Petoskey State Park!

as written by Jeff

First, I’m sorry I haven’t written more down for our blog. Data coverage these last few days has been very sketchy, so we haven’t been able to post here. However, Brittany has been writing every day, and every page will be posted here, in the order it was written.

Second, we have completed nearly 1/2 of our mileage! We have traveled about 560 miles of our 1200 total… it’s truly incredible!  I’m so proud of my wife and kids for their perseverance and great attitudes!

Today we woke up in the beautiful–and rustic–Hog Island state forest campground. We were camped next to a beach on the northern short of Lake Michigan, and besides getting down to the 40s last night, it was a great stay. We got everything packed by 10am and were on the road shortly afterward… it’s amazing to see how routine some of the tasks have become: packing up bags each morning, taking down the tent, packing the bike trailers… the kids know what to do now, and they **usually** pitch in pretty well. Of course, we definitely have a lot of “moments” when things don’t go the way I just described…

Our trip today was 36 miles or so, our last mileage in the Upper Peninsula. We traveled along U.S. 2, and we saw so much of Lake Michigan along the way. At one point we stopped, took off our shoes, and played on the beach. That was definitely the highlight for most of us!

The beach along US-2 was gorgeous… I’ve always wanted to stop here to wade in the water, or take a swim!

One thing I’ve been wanting to share is the experience I am having with Caleb riding behind me. Caleb is, well, a talker, to say the least.  And he has questions about EVERYTHING, but especially about the natural world. We’ve actually nicknamed him “Radagast,” after the Brown wizard in Lord of the Rings who associates with all natural things. When we stop, even for a minute, he is off the bike picking flowers, catching grasshoppers, or looking for other interesting creatures. And then when he is on the bike, the questions never cease. This would not usually be a problem, of course, except that I can’t hear whatever words he says when a car passes me on the highway. So, for example, he may ask, “Daddy, do frogs eat moths?” But all I hear is “Daddy, do fr… [zoom] …sloths?  So I say, “Sorry, Caleb, I didn’t hear you… could you repeat that?” Okay, attempt 2: “Daddy, do [zoom… zoom…] socks?  Very confused, I ask him to repeat again… and this goes on and on and on. Because U.S. 2 is a busy highway on Fourth of July weekend, and Caleb always seems to time his questions perfectly with the next car passing by. Agghh!

Anyway, here are a few questions that I have been able to discern in the last few days:

“Is one-eighth one-half of one-quarter?”

“What do slugs eat?”

“Are grasshoppers protein?”

“Do birds eat moths?”

Caleb will definitely need to look into the biological sciences as he gets older.

Traffic was crazy on US-2, as folks from the Lower Peninsula arrived in droves for the July 4 weekend!

Well, on with the rest of the day. On the way we stopped at a store and picked up some Mackinac Island fudge, and we explored the Cut River Bridge–basically a bridge that spans a 157-foot gorge.  We arrived in St. Ignace around 4pm. Man, this town has some pretty stinkin’ big hills–we had to dismount our bikes to walk up a couple of them.

We got to Straits State Park at 5:00 and the kids and I set up the tent while Angela picked up food for Pioneer Pie–some of the yummiest food you’ll ever eat out of a dutch oven. We visited the beach while the Pioneer Pie was cooking, and took the bridge picture there–the kids were amazed at how huge it was. What a treat to be able to experience this with them.

Tomorrow we head to the cottage on Mullet Lake where Angela used to visit her grandparents during the summer, a lot of special memories there. I will blog more about our trip while we take a day to rest there (only our 2nd day off of riding!).

Stay tuned, more to come!

as written by Jeff

We woke up at one State Forest campground – Lake Milakokia – and ended our day at another one – Hog Island. These campgrounds are rustic – they don’t have electricity or showers, and only pit toilets – but they are in wonderful settings.

It rained last night, and this morning we praised God that we did not experience a repeat of the Day 8 flood. Our tent did great, in fact, and everyone was dry when they woke up. Hooray! Breakfast was a hearty pancakes and eggs, and then on the road at 11am, to meet Jeff’s friends Dan and Debbie Whitmer at our next destination.  Only 27 miles?  No sweat!

On the way I noticed a lot of “For Sale” signs for property in the Upper Peninsula. Makes me wonder if the economy downstate has affected people’s ability to own property here as well, or if property just doesn’t move very quickly here. At any rate, if you’re looking for waterfront property, the Upper Peninsula sure seems to have an abundance available. You may know that I grew up in rural Indiana until I was 12 years old, and a part of me longs for that kind of life again. But one thing that I’ve been contemplating a lot during this trip is the fact that as a follower of Christ, my life is not my own; I belong to Jesus, and therefore I really want to let Him make the decisions for where we will live and what we will do. It really is in surrendering – not claiming – my rights and desires where I will truly experience real life. That’s been my experience so far, and I trust it will continue to be so.

My prayer, in fact, for this entire trip has been that we would experience God in new and fresh ways. And we really have–especially in the case of every mechanical crisis we’ve experienced. First with the front fork, then with the new tire for our trailer; both were cases where just the right people were available, at just the right times. We don’t have a “sag wagon,” so this whole trip is an experience of living by faith; at any moment something can go terribly wrong, and we could just be stuck.

Well, that something happened again today. Just 5 miles from our destination, after leaving a beautiful scenic overlook of Lake Michigan, Angela’s trailer got a flat. No problem, I thought. Just swap an inner tube, and we have plenty. Oops.  I was wrong.

I had failed to check the tread on the tires of her Burley trailer in any recent inspection, and when I saw the state it was in, I went into a bit of a panic.  The tube failed because the tire was worn through!  We had plenty of extra tubes, but we hadn’t thought to bring extra tires… This trailer had been hauling close to 100 pounds of goods, for over 500 miles, and the miles had taken a toll. I tried using duct tape on the inside, but I knew that might not last at all, so I was really in a pickle. Can’t tow a trailer with only one tire!

Here’s the tire… can’t believe we didn’t notice how worn it was

It was around 3:00, and the Whitmers were coming to bring us dinner at 4:00. So, I texted them, asking if they knew of any bike shops around. Yeah, right, I thought. This is about as remote a place in the U.P. as you can get. There’s no way there is a bike shop within miles of here.

Miraculously, they texted back immediately and said there was a bike shop near their town of Newberry! So I gave them the tire specs, and they were able to pick up a couple! Later we found out some interesting particulars to this story:

• If I had texted them 5 minutes later, they would not have been able to help. They were driving into an area with poor coverage, and by the time they came out of it, there would not have been time to make it to the store.
• The store owner thought at first he did not have any tires that size, except for a used one that barely had any more tread than the one that just failed. But then on their way out, he glanced over at some heavy-duty Kenda 20″ tires and realized they would do the trick. These tires were more expensive, but they also seem practically bullet-proof. Dan and Debbie took them immediately and were on their way.  These were the last two 20″ tires in the store!

So, God showed up again. Once we knew that they could get the tires, I went to the campsite with the kids and started to set up camp. Dan and Debbie picked up Angela and Lydia, with their bikes and gear, in their Tacoma pickup. And they brought us a feast of hamburgers, watermelon, ice cream with strawberries, and chips. We couldn’t wipe the grins from our faces, not only because our bellies were full of awesome food, but also because we knew we had once again dodged a bullet thanks to God’s provision.

It was so great catching up with Dan and Debbie–I knew Debbie when I first joined staff with Cru back in 1992 and lived in Marquette to raise my initial support. She was part of a single’s bible study group that I became quite attached to. She eventually served in overseas missions for 14 years, and on one of her trips home she met Dan, and they married. She is a physical therapist, and Dan works at the Newberry Prison. Anyway, they now have 5 acres in the middle of the U.P. where they raise chickens, ducks, bees, and a large garden that sounds absolutely amazing. The kids were enthralled with the stories about the things they grow and raise, and it’s now a bucket list item for all of us to stop and visit them at their home.

The evening ended with a time to thank God for His provision, some time at the beach, and a gorgeous sunset to remind us of His marvelous beauty.

David, writing his name in the sand

Sunset at Hog Island Campground

as journaled by Brittany

36 miles

9:53

Departure

14:10

Finished eating lunch in this amazing rest area just off the road we’re biking on. There are restrooms, water, and shady picnic areas. Paradise, really.  Already only 11 miles left for today’s trip, so we’re pumped and ready to get going.

Hopefully, our campsite’s as nice as this rest stop.

17:01

Arrival

19:15

Settled into our campsite just in time as it begins to rain.  Dinner is almost ready, and the group of swimmers and intrepid minnow catchers that went out after the tent was set up – our camp borders the lake – have returned due to leeches.

Yes, leeches.  Cora was the first person we saw one on, and Mommy subsequently called everyone in with panic only slightly audible in her voice. Cora was also the only one with a bigger leech on her – everyone else had smaller ones.

Leeches aside, this camp isn’t nearly as nice as the previous ones we’ve stayed at.  There are no showers, the bathroom appears to just be an outhouse, and there’s only one pump, out by the registration area.

I’m impressed by how fast we got here. Sure, it’s not as early as we could have gotten here, but it’s far earlier than we’ve ever managed.

I really want to thank my grandparents for coming down to our campsite yesterday.  They brought enough food to feed an army, and, wonder of wonders, some of it was even leftover. It was amazing to see you guys, and also to see my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins three days ago. Thanks for coming, we loved seeing you!

as journaled by Brittany

42 miles

10:51

Departure

12:52

Today ought to be better than yesterday, even if I mostly say that hoping rather than knowing it to be true.  As amazing as it was to be bailed out last night – the trip before that was a nightmare. There’s still a headwind today, but I’ve been reassured that soon it’ll hit us from the side as we go East rather than North.

Lydia is once again reading over my shoulder as we wait for Mommy to finish grocery shopping. This time with Elise.  Daddy and the others are still at the McDonald’s where we grabbed breakfast about an hour ago.

Our meal schedule is so out of whack by this point that it’s comical.  We eat breakfast when we get up – around 8 or 9 – then lunch sometime in the afternoon.  (2pm to 6pm) Dinner? We’re lucky to get it before dark.

Ah, well.  We actually have a real live rest day tomorrow, for once in our lives, that’ll be a relief. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been biking nonstop.

21:37

Arrival

The real hero of the day is Joshua.  Earlier he felt sick and has continued to do so after not eating or drinking anything! Yet he’s managed to pull through and make the day’s trip – including a fall just before we stopped for lunch.

He gets to lay in the hammock while we set up camp.

We’re all glad to have a rest day tomorrow.

as journaled by Brittany

44 miles 34 miles

09:38*

*We don’t end up crossing over into Eastern time until later that day, but in the interests of convenience used Michigan time for the whole of the day.

The campground where we stayed the night (JW Wells) is absolutely gorgeous. Like, 10 out of 10, would come back. We’re right by the lake – like, right by it, even though there’s no beach on the shore that borders our sight so we can’t swim – and the showers are amazing. What more could you ask for, am I right?

In all seriousness, though, this place is amazing. I really hope we come back here sometime.

It helps that we got here so early last night. Sure, seven at night is still pretty late for most of you guys, but for us? Unprecedented in how early it was. We actually managed to have dinner while it was still light out, for once!

When it did get dark, though, that’s when all the fireflies came out, and when you could see all the lighthouses across the lake (including a few green lights, which I find hilarious). And the stars – holy smokes the stars are amazing out here. I even saw a meteor!

Oh and before I forget – are crows bigger than ravens? Or is it the other way around? There’s a debate in the Koch tenthold about this, and I really want to know the correct answer.

UPDATE: Ravens are bigger than crows! Curt (he and my aunt and cousins stopped by later today) confirmed it. I was right, Daddy and Joshua were wrong. Whooop!

12:50

Departure

20:20

Arrival

21:32

So – today sucked,  but it’s getting better. We already had a fifty-mile trip ahead of us, but there was a bad headwind the whole time. We had to struggle pretty much the whole way, and it was really chilly as well.

In fact, we still have about 14 miles to go to the campsite we were supposed to get to tonight We ended up setting up in a different campground instead.  My aunt, uncle and cousins really bailed us out today.  The brought us food, drinks and dessert.  They are amazing!

It’s always nice to see them, and especially when they bring food and take David, Lydia, Lydia’s trailer bike, and Mommy’s Burley for the last five miles!  Thanks again guys! Can’t wait to see you at Barothy.  (or in two days, Anna, if you can make it)

as journaled by Brittany 

40 miles

08:35

So… Myself and the other residents of Tentville, currently located in Bay Shore, had an interesting night to say the very least. It rained. A lot. (Let it be known I am the master of sarcastic understatement)

Thing is, we knew it was going to rain last night. Prepared for it too, in a way I thought rather excessive at the tie. But last night was the kind of storm that, if I were home, I would have loved to listen to from the cozy warmth of my covers. (Both these adjectives, by the way, are banned from being said around our campsite at the moment.) I usually love It when it rains at night, because it’s outside while I’m in, and there’s really nothing better to help you appreciate the comforts of your own bed. But all that becomes rather pointless when you have a leaky tent and the rain can get inside: which is just what it did last night.

At lease it’s sunny now, I guess.

10:59

Departure

13:26

Welcome to Michigan!

14:04

We’ve found the perfect place to eat- even if we have to do it barefoot. There’s a small, mostly shady (meaning we have a spot to try and dry things out in the sun) picnic area halfway down a hill that separates the Michigan Welcome Center (holy smokes we’re in Michigan already!), complete with bathroom and water fountain, from the parking lot of a supermarket, where Mommy can go pick up some more food while we get set up.

Only problem is, the area separating the parking lot from the stairs leading up to the picnic area is flooded, thanks to the rain-we-do-not-speak-of. So we’re eating barefoot.

I don’t mind.

19:02

Arrival

as written by Jeff

From Green Bay to Peshtigo, WI (44 miles)

We all woke up refreshed at the home of our friends Jim & Donna Kelly… We all slept in their basement on air mattresses and couches, so it was a little like camping, except more comfortable and no bugs (yay!) After a full breakfast of cereal, oatmeal, and eggs, we hit the road – 44 miles to go today.

Green Bay is a beautiful city, and it turns out, very bike-friendly. It has lots of bike routes, wide shoulders—and a beautiful bike path. As usual, we had to stop at a bike shop on our way out town, as the day before Cora & Elise had to stop every 10 minutes to fix the chain on the derailleur—it kept coming off of one of the pulleys. Ugh. The gear “teeth” on the pulley were almost completely worn away, so it couldn’t hold the chain where it needed to be. The solution: a new derailleur. The mechanic, John, at J B Cycle and Sports, was really kind. In spite of the fact that he had a backlog of repairs, he took care of us right away and even gave us a bunch of information about the route we are taking through the Upper Peninsula. He’s done the trip twice, going halfway around to Ludington & taking the ferry back across the Lake.

The delay was significant: we hit the road at 3pm with 37 miles more to go. However, I’m amazed at how the family is doing. We wake up pretty sore every day, but that fades within a few minutes on the bikes. Our stamina and speed has increased significantly too—our first 40-miler just about killed us (still want to write about that), but now it’s not a huge deal. And, believe it or not, we’re still all enjoying each other! The ride took us through the small towns of Suamico, Pensaukee, and Oconto—all lovely communities. We saw tons of cows, fields, farms, and wildlife: turkeys and deer are the really special ones.  Roadkill is also a common sight, but Elise turns away every time she happens to see that.

We arrived at our campsite at North Bay Shore Recreation Area in Peshtigo before 8:00, and immediately our crew got into action setting up the tent and preparing dinner. We were settled and eating within 90 minutes—a record for us. Dinner for us was Dr. J’s Chicken & Dumplings, as prepared in our dutch oven. Wow, delicious! The campground is on a harbor; people usually use this as a place to fish or boat on Lake Michigan. So, lots of kids were fishing the harbor too; Caleb was so bummed that we did not bring our fishing poles.

Getting dinner ready

Our campsite: right next to the harbor

As we began to settle in for the night, we learned that a storm was coming, so we were extra careful to put things away and move things away from the tent walls. We should sleep in relative peace… right?

The rain started about 11:30. It came in gently, like a lamb, but soon began to roar like a lion, with lightning everywhere and torrential rain. I stayed up to make sure that everything would be okay, and soon I found myself dancing between sleeping children, moving from place to place in the tent to mop up puddles that were forming. The back of our tent was getting a full onslaught, and water was almost pouring in through the zipper, right by the heads of Joshua, Caleb, and David. I dragged them further in the tent and began to bail out the water using a Norwex Towel. I gotta say, that towel absorbed about 100x it’s weight in water, I’ve never seen anything like it. But the rain was relentless! Water gushed down. I couldn’t help but think this may have been what Noah experienced on Day 1! Eventually, the rain died down a bit, and I made a levee to keep the growing pools of water away from sleeping kids. And I went to sleep around 1:30, exhausted.

2:30. “Jeff – there’s water in the tent!!!!” Huh? I was so out of it. Joshua woke up to a sleeping bag soaked with water. The growing river was threatening the other boys too. After moving the boys further in, Angela and Joshua began bailing out the tent with the Norwex towel. They did this until 4:30, when they gave up due to a combination of lighter rain and hopelessness.

A picture of Lake Wenger, named after our tent that let the water in. Joshua’s blue sleeping bag was used as a levee to keep the water at bay. Yes, that’s David, sleeping in a wet sweatshirt, who never woke up during the night.

That’s our fire pit. C’mon Elise, start a fire for breakfast!

Look ma! Raisin hands! 15 minutes after getting up!

We all woke up around 6:30am and witnessed the final result. The boys were sleeping with Angela and me, and almost everything in the tent was wet. Miraculously, David slept through it all. Almost 4 inches of rain fell, and there was water everywhere–ponds and lakes popped up all over the campground where there were none the day before.  We stung up a clothesline in a vain attempt to dry some things out, but it had little affect. We just wanted to get out of there and get to our next site so we could dry everything out, so we packed up and left for our next destination: JW Wells State Park, in the wonderful state of Michigan!

 as journaled by Brittany

42 miles

10:50

Departure

11:54

 Another day, another bike shop. Ha! Actually, I’m at a grocery store with Lydia, Joshua, David and Mommy at the moment. It’s the others who are at the bike shop, trying to fix the girl’s bike again. As you can see, that’s become an annoyingly persistent issue. I’m sure Daddy will explain it more in is his own posts – the art of bike engineering techno-babble isn’t really something I understand beyond the simple stuff.

Hang on – Lydia’s been reading over my shoulder and wants to say hi. There, Lydia, I wrote it down. Happy now? Good. (Now she says I’m mean. Deal with it, Lyds.)

She, Joshua and I are waiting outside the store, relaxing with the bikes, while mommy and David shop for lunch and dinner for today and tomorrow’s breakfast. And, hopefully, pick up more snacks. Someone (cough Joshua cough) fed David most of the snack bars we had left, and we have barely any left.

Actually, besides the whole eating four bars in two hours thing, David’s been pretty good this trip. His main complaint is that he wants to get out of his chair more often in order to run around: which, bizarre as it seems to the rest of us (our main complaint of him is that he doesn’t seem to appreciate how easy he has it) actually makes sense.

To be honest, he’s probably doing the best out of all of us. The hard works and long hours are weighing on us, affecting everyone in different ways. I shut up, keep my head down, try to focus on getting one mile at a time over with. Caleb overreacts to the smallest things. Tempers are growing short, and little arguments are blowing up into huge conflicts.

Hopefully we can make camp early today, get a chance to relax and unwind. That’s really all we need, I think.

19:45

Arrival

21:07

Today has to be the earliest we’ve ever made a place we were staying tonight (besides the practice trip, which was a measly 27 miles – yes, I did just say that, yes, this bike trip is driving me [pun intended] insane), and it was 42 miles, and we ended up taking forever at the grocery store/bike shop/hardware store.

Speaking of I was mistaken earlier when I said Daddy and the others were going to the bike shop. Turns out they were just massively delayed. We ended up all going to the bike shop, staying there and eating lunch for a while, and then going to the hardware store to repair a few things.

Around 22:30-23:00

The rain begins (DUN DUN DUN!!!!!)

as journaled by Brittany

44 miles

09:45

We’ve just had (or are in the process of having, in some cases) an amazing breakfast after a restfulish night’s sleep. (I’m still mad at Daddy for waking me up.)

We have a long day ahead of us, so we’re trying to get going as early as possible. We might have bad luck there, though–everyone is exhausted still. We’re staying at a friends house again tonight, so we don’t have to get there before it gets dark.

My knee is incredibly stiff today. Eve before I fell on day three I was having problems with how stiff my knees would be after a break, but now that I’ve scraped them up it’s a thousand times worse. Plus, yesterday I fell sideways–when getting on my bike, why can’t I every get a break?–and ended up removing part of the scab. It needs to heal all over again. Sigh.

11:05 

Departure

17:00

David and Caleb locked themselves in the bathroom, so now we’re waiting for Joshua and Mommy to get them out. Lunch has been eaten and packed up, and we’re about to get going on this last 20 mile section.

I like the simplicity of the way we do things now. We carry our essentials on us–clothes, the snacks for the day, kitchen supplies, the tent–and whatever we need for lunch or dinner or to refill on snacks we buy on our way. No room for extra weight.

19:58

Arrival

22:20

We’re staying the night in the basement of another friend’s house, whom, like yesterday, didn’t hesitate to make us dinner and house us for the night.

More and ore as we continue on this trip I learn just how generous people can be. I fell yesterday because we’d stopped to chat with an older man who’d pulled over to check and see whether we needed anything–before he left he gave us two gift cards to a restaurant. This morning we pulled into a bike shop (yet again – soon enough we’re going to be experts in all the bike shops around the lake) to try and fix a problem with the girls’ bike. We found out later that his solution didn’t solve the problem completely, but in the meantime he did it for free. Instances like these? I’m so glad to have the opportunity to experience them.

Well, I’m beat. We have a 42 mile trip tomorrow as well, but we’re going to try to leave earlier so we can arrive at the campground before dusk. Daddy actually told us we had a 42 mile trip today, but it was really 48 miles… the liar.