Upper Midwest Tour, Days 24 and 25 - Aug 2 & 3

Yesterday was a tough day for us -- thirty five miles on the bikes.  After breakfast at the Van Buren State Park campground, we took off on our bikes.  We first rode north from the Park to South Haven on the Van Buren Trail, a very nice smoothly paved, level path to town.  It was about 6 miles to town, then another 2 through the town on residential streets and by the marina to the trailhead of the Kal-Haven Trail.  This is a 32-mile rails-to-trails route running from Kalamazoo to South Haven.  It is one of the first trails in Indiana and one of the longest.  Its surface is labeled as limestone chips, but the 10 miles we rode was more packed dirt, with occasional chips and sand.  It was smooth and easy to pedal.  We rode from South Haven to Grand Junction, about one third of the way to Kalamazoo.

Things went well, but I suffered a couple of mishaps.  First, we stopped to read about the seven bridges on the trail and as I went back to photo the covered bridge over the Black River, my bike fell over into a patch of poison ivy.  I gingerly picked it up and worried about itching the rest of the trip (so far no problem).  Secondly, as I was riding along, a grasshopper jumped on my face, hitting just below my eye and lodging inside my sunglasses.  I reacted quickly to brush it off and may have hit myself in the eye trying to get it off.  The lower lid of my eye stung the rest of the ride.   Today, I awoke with the injured site swollen and tender to the touch.  What an unusual injury.  Thirdly, at the turn around point, I swung wide off the trail to complete the turn and went over a patch of prickly pear cacti.  I immediately checked for thorns, but fortunately, found none and have not had any flat tires.  The ride back to the camp was uneventful.  Even with the mishaps, the ride was quite satisfying.

One of seven bridges, the only one that is covered.

After the ride, we changed into swimming gear, rode over to the beach on Lake Michigan, and went for a swim.  It was cool but felt great - like a decent seaside beach, with clean soft sand and no salt.  For dinner, we went into South Haven to the South Haven Brewpub.

The draft beer list - all made in house, some with unusual names.

After dinner we strolled the Main Street, about 3 blocks of small shops, etc.

With very nice manhole covers.

Today, we struck camp and drove to Indianapolis, IN, a relatively short distance (about 3 hours).  We checked into the Fort Harrison State Park Inn a few miles northeast of the city.  It is a historic-looking inn with officer-type housing scattered around the grounds.  We are looking forward to showers, a soft bed and not having to crawl around on the ground.

Our only real sightseeing today was to drive into downtown Indianapolis and complete a "volkswalk" around the capital and surrounding area.  The start box for the volkswalk was in a visitor center at a state park that borders this area.  We started out and completed most of the walk in 88 degree temperature.  It was a bit hot so we did not go very fast.

Indianapolis has a well developed downtown with numerous parks, a canal with paths on both sides, many museums, many public sculptures, and possibly too many grandiose military monuments.  I photographed a sampling of these.  We also went by the NCAA Headquarters and ended up at the State Capital, with its pair of large government offices behind it.  The Capital looks clean and well groomed.

The canal, with gondolas and swan paddle boats

The largest Scottish Rite Temple we have ever seen.

WWII Memorial.

Civil War Memorial.

The State Capital building.

We drove slowly out of downtown, getting back to the Inn via city streets rather than the highway.  We found a Mexican restaurant on the edge of the State park property and decided to ride our bikes to it.  Dinner was great and generous.  We rode back passing around the row of officer homes - red brick with white porches and trim, very nice, reminds us of Ft. Vancouver or Ft. Worden (at Port Townsend), only larger.

On to Illinois tomorrow.