I bolted upright in my sleeping bag. In a second, I was wide awake.
"Yo!" I yelled back. "I'm up, I'm up!"
"I'll be inside," Tim called back. "Bathroom is on your left. How'd you sleep?"
"Like a child," I responded.
It was 5:45 and I was wide awake.
Tim went to sleep immediately when he got to the house. We left a note on the windshield wiper of his car and were on our way.
We rode on a two-lane highway for seven miles before we got to a relaxed, rich neighborhood on the way to New Buffalo. Nothing but sculpted caucasians and a few geezers, all friendly, of course. I rode through the gated communities and encountered a cool breeze rolling off of Lake Michigan. Soon enough, it came into full view.
Josh and I had planned on finding something to do and though the New Buffalo beach beckoned, we continued onward. A few miles up the road, we entered Indiana.
We took a long road along the shore of Lake Michigan with all of the lavish buildings. People clogged the streets with bright neon colors to warn motorists they meant business. We accidentally arrived to a beautiful park in Michigan City. We sat on a bench to eat and discuss where to go, what to do. And then... we fell asleep.
Exploring Michigan City, I found a Farmer's Market. Pulling over, I took a walk around the place, overwhelmed at everything. I noted a specific man with shaggy blonde hair and piercing blue eyes watching us curiously when we entered. I nodded. When I got back to my bike, he was talking to Josh.
"Yeah but where are you going to go?" he said, visibly anxious. Immediately, I felt anxious. "I... I just... there's no good ways to get Chicago. How you gonna get there?" He turned to me.
"We're gonna bike," I replied simply.
"Well, I know that. Chicago's a dangerous place though. You guys are in for some trouble. People shoot you over there for walking on the wrong turf. Do you watch the news?"
It sounds like you watch too much.
The man was Mike. As generous as he was to us, giving us free food, and chatting us up, his anxiety weighed on me for the rest of the day, dampening my mood. His family was wonderful. Talking to his kids allowed me to shake my disliking of the man and his wife was very kind. At first, I think she thought we were vagrants but after we offered to help clean up and she realized we had manners, things were cool.
A funny thing happened later in the day when Josh and I decided to spend the day at the beach...
We made a wrong turn and went to turn around down a road. A car had just left this road and an automatic gate was closing. Jokingly we went riding toward it yelling like it was a movie where the action hero just makes it in. The only thing was... Josh actually went in and got locked in. He had to get the keypad number from a guy playing tennis to leave.
So we got a WarmShowers host by the name of Kevin this evening, swell guy. A true adventurist, he was telling Josh and I about all the places he's been. As I can relate, he can't stay in one place.
"You guys know what a recumbent is, right?" Kevin asked us.
Josh and I looked at each other.
"No."
"Your kidding me. Come with me," he said.
Out in the garage was a bicycle that looked like a certified Laz-Boy with wheels. It had a bizarre... everything. Kevin let us ride it. We were like little schoolchildren flying around on the thing. It was hard not to fall over on.
Kevin lives with his wife and her daughter Julie who has autism. There's never a dull moment with her. We all ate watermelon together and shared stories for a few hours in the home. He had an RV out back that we're staying in for the night.
Too tired for spellcheck.
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