Grand Haven, Michigan

It was cold last night - brrrrr! Another good reason to take your spouse along. You know what it says in Ecclesiastes 4: "Two are better than one...if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?" It's quite a change for us after so many hot days. The high temperature today is around 75 F, but it is still sunny and clear, and windy.

Today's trip again took us mostly along the lake, along beautiful roads such as the one below.

The highlight of today was a visit to Graafschap CRC in Holland, Michigan. It's the oldest CRC in North America and a massive building with a whole museum in its basement describing the history of the CRC in that area from its beginnings in 1857 on. Very impressive, and the food was great. Some of us (like me) didn't eat much, however, because word was that another church was hosting a barbeque just 10 kms away. A simple turkey sandwich and we were on to a much better table, right? Wrong: we learned that you shouldn't trust rumour, since there was no barbeque in sight.

We met a couple there by the name of Gerrit & Janet Scheeres who told me that dad (Lammert Slofstra) officiated at their wedding in Clinton. So this is for you, mom and dad - they wanted me to pass on greetings to you, and to let you know that their marriage has been strong all these years!

Right across the road from the present Graafschap CRC is a replica of the original building. Here it is, pictured below, from the outside, with Diane and Bob Winkel from Waupun, WI, standing by the door.

As you can see from the following picture, this oldest church now has its first female pastor. She has been hired for her friendliness, evident in the photo below...

because the people were tired of the stern male pictured below who was always pointing the finger at them...miserable fellow!!

From Holland on, it was an easy ride in to Grand Haven and the CRC Conference Center, which is right on Lake Michigan. It's full of blond, blue-eyed CRC people! A great place for families, though. Diane and I went for a swim in the 62 degrees F water; it was refreshing. Then a warm shower in personal shower stalls where you didn't have to look at 10 other naked people (phew!) and now Diane is reading while I'm blogging in the cafeteria with about 20 others. Unknown to her, I've also ordered a nice big piece of lemon meringue pie (not as good as the one Alice Groothof makes by a long shot) and a delicious cup of cappucino. Tonight we're getting a steak dinner courtesy of CR Home Missions - it's a tough life.

Tomorrow will be a bit of a scary day, and an exciting day. We will enter the "holy" city, Grand Rapids with lots of media attention, and that's exciting. The scary part is that 130 additional cyclists will be joining us for the day. That's quite a crowd, and we're hoping they know the rules of the road and how to ride in groups. We'll see.

One other interesting note (assuming you found anything else interesting above, of course): Cynthia Aukema (from Aylmer) who broke her pelvic bone the first day out of Denver, has returned and plans to cycle tomorrow to see if she can complete the tour from here. She's one determined lady, and we're all hoping for her success.

Today's stats:

Distance: 77.55 kms
Average speed: 22.5 kph
Maximum speed: 39.1 kph
Time in saddle: 3.26.43
# of flat tires on tour: 9