I mentioned in the last post that I came down with a stomach bug following our return from Snowshoe. I was unable to eat for several days and was feeling pretty bad when we were originally supposed to head up to meet Amber in Indiana. We ended up having to stay home on the weekend and skip the few days in Indiana with Shannon's family we had planned before going up into northern Michigan for the actual trip. It was a crappy weekend. I couldn't do much other than lie on the couch. I dropped seven pounds in four days. We also found out on the weekend that most of the family had bailed on us for the trip. Only Shannon's mom, Amber, Shannon and myself would be making the trip. So we had this huge house that Shannon and I had paid for expecting people to split the cost with us and now there were very few people to split with. This was supposed to be a fairly inexpensive trip for us. Also, we were going to be catching the next DINO Series race at Potato Creek State Park on our way home from the trip, so I needed to have bikes with me too and we still didn't have our rack fixed from the incident at Helen. Thule never sent the wheel tray I ordered weeks ago and it took them another week just to return emails and phone calls. When we left for the trip we still hadn't heard anything from them so we were stuck with only having one spot on the rack, while our other two bikes had to go inside the car. Not the most convenient thing, but at least we were able to get them up there.
I survived the eight-hour drive to Shannon's parents house in Elkhart, IN and was actually able to hold in some oyster crackers and ginger ale. I was still leaking out most of my food, but not quite so quickly as before. Shannon's parents are remodeling their upstairs bedrooms and bathroom. It was a nightmare for somebody that is sick. The walls were framed and that was about it. No dividers between the two bedrooms and the bathroom. It was just a lone toilet sitting in the room surrounded by incomplete walls. There was no privacy for somebody that couldn't stay off the toilet. They did put up a sheet over the entryway between the rooms under construction and the living room, but a sheet does little to stop sounds. It was terrible at the time, but it makes me laugh now. It's one of those experiences that makes for good stories for all of us down the road.
Not much privacy with skeleton walls
I felt good enough to attempt a road ride when I got into Elkhart. It is pancake flat around town so it was easy terrain, but I was weaker than a newborn kitten. I rode really slow for 30 min and then completely bonked and struggled to get back to the house. It was really frustrating to feel so bad after I had felt so great just a week before at Nationals. It was a good gauge for where I was in my sickness recovery and reminded me that I need to take it easy for a few more days if I want to be strong come the weekend for the DINO at Potato Creek.
Shannon did a lot of research on a different place to stay in Michigan. The original place we booked had a very flexible cancellation policy and we were able to cancel it and get a smaller place. Shannon found us a small house on a lake a little further south. It was a bit farther from our target for the trip, which was Mackinac Island, but it was much more affordable for us and still more than enough room for a group of four.
I also got a new set of pedals while in Indiana. I ordered them right after the disaster at Nationals and had them sent to Elkhart so they would be there when we arrived. Getting those pedals and finding a new place to stay in Michigan was a huge relief to start off the vacation.
We left Elkhart and headed north on Tuesday, stopping to visit the Toney grandparents in South Haven on our way up to our rental home in Indian River, MI. We combined into one car since there was just four of us, which meant I didn't have room for both my bikes. I hadn't been able to find too many trails in that area when I was researching the trip and with the sickness mountain biking wasn't looking likely anyway. So, I took just stuffed my road bike in the trunk and put Shannon's mountain bike on the hitch rack so we would have them to use on Mackinac Island. The island has no cars, so you either walk, bike or ride a horse to get around. Of course, we chose bikes as our preferred travel method. We stopped at Sherman's for ice cream on our way out of South Haven, but I couldn't handle real food so I passed on the dairy and stuck with my crackers and ginger ale.
We got to our rental house just before sunset. We had enough time to unload the car before Amber and I walked down to see Mullet Lake, which was basically across the street from the house. We viewed a nice sunset from the neighborhood dock before heading back for dinner. More crackers for me.
Sunset on Mullet Lake
Neighborhood garden decorations at Parrott Point
Our first full day in northern Michigan was beautiful. The temperature was in the 70s and it was sunny for most of the day. Since we were further south than planned, it opened up a new area to explore. We decided to go see the towns of Petoskey and Charlevoix before going north through the Tunnel of Trees on Highway 119.
Most of the road connecting Indian River and Petoskey were dirt/gravel mix so we had fun driving there. Our first stop was at the Crooked Tree Arts Center in downtown Petoskey to see a free photography exhibit of work by Ansel Adams. He has some of the most famous black-and-white scenery photos ever taken. I did not realize that he used layering to create the perfect shades of black and white and it was not just great lighting and angles. He was "photoshopping" by hand before anyone ever thought about computers and Photoshop. Here's my favorite two photos from the exhibit:
They also had a National Parks exhibit which gave me some ideas on where to go on future trips.
Been there. That's at Yellowstone.
Yosemite
After the photo exhibit, we headed to Charlevoix, which sits on the edge of Lake Michigan like Petoskey does. Petoskey sits in Little Traverse Bay, while Charlevoix sits between Little Traverse and Grand Traverse Bays. There is a canal through the middle of Charlevoix that connects Lake Michigan with Charlevoix Lake making for a lot of waterfront in town. We first stopped at a lighthouse at the entry to the canal at Michigan Beach Park, the sight of a pioneer battle back in 1853.
Charlevoix lighthouse with a gull flying by
Boat heading into the canal toward Lake Charlevoix
Flag at Michigan Beach Park
Flowers in bloom near the park
Shannon found a tour for us to do before lunch. We met up with a tour guide that drove us around town in a little cart to show us the "Mushroom Houses," which were a collection of houses built by a famous architect named Earl Young. I'm not sure where the name comes from as most of the houses do not look anything like mushrooms, but some of them actually do. All of them were very cool and unique. Young used rocks from the lake to build the homes. He built over two dozen homes in the area over a 50-year span. He was also self-taught in his building techniques, which makes them all that much more incredible. Some of the homes started with a thatch roof. Different home owners have changed bits and pieces of some of the homes, while a few are still original or rebuilt using the same materials. Thatch roofs are expensive and a pain to build, but they sure do look nice!
In our little cart ready to see some mushroom houses.
The first house we came to. You can see why they are also known as "Hobbit Houses."
This is the Thatch House, probably the most famous house Earl Young ever built. The thatch roof looks so cool! It was definitely my favorite house of the bunch.
This house features one of Earl Young's favorite features to add to his creations, the "snowcapped" look for the chimneys.
Backside of the house pictured immediately above.
My second-favorite house out of the bunch. This little cottage was right in the middle of a bunch of trees with a mossy roof. Very cool.
Backside of the mossy cottage
A big house along the edge of the lake. Earl Young made a huge rock wall around the property that featured rocks slanted to resemble the waves of the lake.
We passed by Boulder Park which is where a lot of the boulders used for the homes were found or stored.
This one reminded me of an owl.
Miniature house in the back of this one.
This house featured curved shingles on the edge of the roof and overhang.
This house had a wavy roof with shingles shaped one at a time with a steamer. It was replaced recently and the owner did it exactly like the original roof, down to the exact size of every shingle.
This Earl Young-built home was in the middle of town along the canal.
Lighthouse in the distance while looking down the canal
Big ship in the harbor
We didn't get to go in any of the mushroom houses, but the tour was great and I highly recommend doing it if you visit Charlevoix. The houses are now owned by people other than the Young family or are vacation rentals so you can't always get into them all, but our guide said there are days where people on the tour can get inside a few. After the house tour, we walked around town and then grabbed lunch at The Cantina where we were treated to some great Tex-Mex food.
Lunch from The Cantina
Church in Charlevoix
This lighthouse in Petoskey was busy with swimmers.
Highway 119 runs north out of Petoskey toward the top of the Michigan mitten. It's called the Tunnel of Trees because it goes through some heavily wooded forest on the northern end of the highway. I was able to eat some real food this day and had enough energy to get the road bike out and ride this highway. It started off rolling around some decent hills with fields of wildflowers along the road.
Wildflowers along Hwy 119
About halfway through the 18.5-mile stretch you get near the lake with a few open views of the water on your left and forest on the right. There are many homes in the first few miles of the forest. After that, you go for several miles through thick forest without any houses. It wasn't a hot day by any means, but the thick shade beneath the trees still felt very good. The trees were very close to the road and most were very tall with no branches in the lower half which really did make the road look like a tunnel.
Early forested section of the road in the middle of Hwy 119
The northern end of Hwy 119 definitely shows why they call this road "Tunnel of Trees."
I felt much better on this ride. It was still super sloe and I felt drained after an hour, but it was significantly better than the ride two days before in Elkhart. I even felt good enough afterwards to stop by an ice cream shop in Indian River to try dairy on the stomach for the first time in a while. My body did ok with it, so hopefully I have kicked this bug now and am on the way up just in time for the DINO coming on the weekend.
More from our trip in the next post as we head to Mackinac Island for a day of boats and bikes.
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