Day 1
Marc and I had scheduled the last week of July and the first week of August off for vacation sometime in January. We had talked for months about what we were going to do and where we were going to go. We talked about going to Colorado again. My brother used to live in Longmont and we made the trip to Colorado every year for almost 20 years, and we both missed the mountains. We talked about driving up to the upper Peninsula of Michigan and getting a cabin and exploring the wilderness up there. We talked about driving to the start of the Michigan Coast to Coast route (a 200 mile route across the state on gravel roads from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan) and then riding the route on our bikes. However, that would be complicated, as we would have to have a location to park our car for over a week, or get a rental car there and then back.
We talked back and forth, and we weren’t sure that we wanted to spend any time in the car. Day to day life is busy and stressful, and filled with deadlines, responsibilities, schedules, and traffic. The entire purpose of vacation is to escape, and that is what we wanted to do. In the end, we decided to pack up our bikes and head out our front door. We decided a good location for the first day of riding was Potato Creek State Park. The park is about 60 miles from our house, and we knew from experience that when you’re bike packing with loaded bikes that weigh over 65 pounds, 60 miles a day is about the limit if you want to enjoy the day.
We thought we could leave home around noon, and make it to the park in plenty of time to set up camp and eat supper. However, we grossly underestimated the packing and bike preparation, and we ended up not getting out the door until 1:40 pm. That meant we would have to pedal fast, which was not going to be an easy feat. Marc weighed the bikes before we set out. Mine weighed 67 pounds and his weighed 83 pounds with the bikes and equipment all together.
When we set out, it was HOT. It was about 87 degrees, and the sun was relentless. Marc had created a route on his Garmin, however, we had to re-route 3 times due to summer road construction.
I liked this tree. 
It was just hot. We stopped for a break. 
This was such a pretty route. 
One of the closed roads.
Even though it was hot, hot, hot, and we were in a hurry, we tried to enjoy the day. We passed by fields of mint that smelled like chewing gum, and fields of peppers and potatoes. There was hardly any traffic. It was such a pretty route!
I also saw a really cool barn that looked like the farm it stood on was abandoned. I am a sucker for old barns, so I had to take a picture. We also got lost for a while, and we were both getting very low on water. I saw a young boy on a bike pass us and I asked him “Is there a place we can get water that’s close?” He said “You mean like at someone’s house?” I told him no, but that a gas station would be nice. He then said “Oh, yeah, there’s a gas station in town.” He still wasn’t understanding, and I said “So, exactly where is the town?” He then directed us to take the road and curve to the left, and it would take us right into town. We stopped at a gas station and got water and some chips.
We pulled into Potato Creek State Park close to sunset. The woman at the entrance charged $4 for the two of us and our bikes to enter the park. She then directed us to the campground, which was three miles from the entrance. We were racing the sun, and it was crazy that once we got to the park we still had three miles to go!
I hadn’t been to Potato Creek State Park since the kids were little, and we took a cub scout hiking trip there. My memory of the park was that there was a lake, but very little woods, and mostly open fields. The park had changed so much! It was lovely, and the road winded through some beautiful forested areas. Marc rushed to set up the tent, and I rushed to get food ready. We had planned a dinner of peppers, onions, avocado, refried beans, and rice wrapped in tortillas. It was comical, because it was almost dusk, and I was trying to cut peppers and onions while swatting mosquitoes. I was doing a dance, while Marc got out the bug spray. (It didn’t work!) Marc set up the small camping stove, and I threw everything together in one pot just to get it cooked, and get us fed before it got dark. We wrapped everything in the tortillas, then the two of us paced back and forth, trying to eat and swat mosquitoes! We couldn’t figure out where to wash dishes, so we wrapped everything in plastic bags to wash later. Below is a picture of the chaos.
We took showers and then settled into our tent. The setting sun had not cooled it down, so it was still very hot. Marc rigged a battery operated fan at the top of the tent to cool us off. We had blow-up mattresses and memory foam to put on top, so it was actually pretty comfortable. With the fan and the soft mattresses, I thought I might possibly go right to sleep after pedaling 60.01 miles. I was wrong. It was just hot. And the campers next to us had a fire going, and they were very loud. We assumed that 10:00 would come and they would go to bed, since this is usually campground quiet time. I was wrong again. The later it got, the louder they became. I could only assume they were enjoying way too many alcoholic beverages. They also didn’t put out their campfire. I was still pretty sure a park ranger would call them out and make them be quiet and put out their fire. Do I need to say I was wrong again? The party boys went at it until 2:30 am. I ended up covering my eyes with my headband and putting on my headphones to play some music to drown out the noise. The problem was I had to turn the music up loud to drown them out. My Fitbit said that I ended up getting 4 hours of very restless sleep, and my sleep score was 58. Do I need to explain that a score of 58 is POOR?!
The next day we got up and started packing to go. The amazing thing is that the partiers who had been up at 2:30 am were also up! I had assumed they would sleep until noon. I was very thankful for the nitro coffee that I had packed, and it tasted wonderful So wonderful in fact, both Marc and I had two cans and some oatmeal bars.
We ended up getting everything packed to make our way out of the park by about 10:20 am. We decided to take the bike trail through the park to see what it was like. It was lovely, and it meandered through the woods to the front entrance. As we left the park, I took a picture of Marc by the lake, and Marc and I snapped some pictures on the bike trail.
Day 2
Our destination after we left Potato Creek State Park, was Shipshewana, Indiana. Shipshewana is in northeast Indiana, and is a tourist destination because of the Amish and Mennonite population there. The population of Shipshewana was only 658 at the last census. Because of the Amish community and the small population, both Marc and I assumed the route there would be peaceful and lovely. We expected little traffic, as Marc had made a route which bypassed highways and consisted of county roads.
We got on the road after 10:00 am, and it as already a scorcher of a day. There was full sun, and temperatures were in the high 80’s. It was so miserable, I found myself hoping and praying we would pass through some sprinklers. Just as I had this thought, we saw farmer’s pivots watering the fields in the distance. An answer to a prayer! We stopped at each one, and laughed with delight. Marc was like a little kid that I had to take kicking and screaming from the water park. He insisted on staying in the water as long as he could. I snapped a picture, laughing, as he just stood there and checked his bike. He wasn’t budging. It was positively delightful, and I too felt like a little kid. We had lucked out!
After we passed through the pivots, we hit a series of county roads that were like highways. It was crazy! Cars were speeding over 60 mph, there was no shoulder, and the traffic was terrible. We tried to re-route, but all the county roads were the same. We were baffled as to why in the world there would be so much traffic in what we thought was the middle of nowhere! Marc kept checking his phone, trying to re-route us, and we did manage to find some roads that were lower traffic.
We pulled into a small town called New Paris around 1:30 in the afternoon. We were both starving, and we were excited to see a little, authentic looking Mexican restaurant called Antojitos. We parked our bikes and went inside, because we could see the bikes from the window. There was only one other customer in the restaurant, and he asked us where we were from and where we were going. After two days on the road, the food tasted fabulous! The salsa and guacamole were very much homemade, and either it was the best salsa and guacamole we had ever had, or we were very hungry! When I went to pay the bill, the owner got very confused as he could barely speak english. He handed me a calculator and asked if I could add it up for him. I did, and handed him back the calculator. He didn’t charge tax, but I didn’t know how to explain that to him, or if his prices already included tax. I took a picture of our food, and Marc took a picture of me and my bike next to the restaurant sign.
We really just wanted to take a nap after lunch, but we got on our bikes and headed northeast. There were more crazy county roads, before we got to Indiana State Road 5, which would take us straight into Shipshewana. This road was amazing! It had a separate lane for the Amish and their bikes and buggies, so we could travel safely. We took this road for about 10 miles, and it led us directly to our hotel. Yes, a hotel and not a tent! I enjoyed seeing the buggies and the Amish on their bikes. There was an old man with a long white beard and a straw hat who was riding an electric bike. I assumed the Amish must make exceptions for older people who can’t care for a horse or ride a bike. The bike looked like an old Amish bike, but it was equipped with a motor. I really wanted to take pictures, but I thought that would be disrespectful, so I only took one picture of a buggy from behind, so they wouldn’t see me.
When we got to the hotel, we saw that is looked brand new, and it was so nice! It was within walking distance of the town’s shops and restaurants, and the rooms were huge.
We got our room, showered, and looked at our phones to find a place to eat. It was strange, because it was only abut 7:00 and the entire town was pretty much shut down. We ended up getting a pizza at a carry-out place next to the hotel. We ate it in our hotel room, but Marc was still so hungry, he said he had to go find more food. So we walked through town and found ice cream and cookies at a gas station. We then went back to our hotel to have a VERY blissful and quiet night’s sleep.