Laingsburg, Michigan - Richmond, Michigan

NOTE: Below are some notes re both Monday and Tuesday. There was no wireless available in Sleepy Hollow State Park.

It's Monday morning and we're on the road again after a very relaxing weekend. Two nights at the Prince Conference Center in a king size bed and with our own shower and a hot breakfast provided, man, that's luxury! Everything we see and experience makes us realize over and over how well off we are, and how much reason we have to be grateful to God for all his good gifts. And everything we see and experience on this journey makes us realize that if we have much, there's a reason for that: that we give much.

Yesterday's celebration service in Grand Rapids was held in Fifth Third Baseball Park, home of the Single A Grand Rapids Whitecaps baseball team. The pictures below were taken about an hour before the service began. The speaker at the service, whom you can barely see below, was Shane Claibourne, author of the books The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President. He was very dynamic and challenging, with a definite Southern Tennessee accent.



At the service we ran into a number people we knew but did not expect to be there: Leanne Doornbos (formerly of Abbotsford, then Lacombe, now teaching at Calvin), Albert & Freda Snippe (Georgetown, our former congregation a lifetime ago), the Wisselinks from Abbotsford (here to visit their Kevin and family). In the evening we spent time with brother Peter & Marja and their daughter Christy and family.

Today 60 new people joined us, including another old family friend: Herb Goodhoofd (and thanks for your card and note, Pete & Joan). All in all, the day went pretty well. A large group of us did miss one turn, so we had to take a long block around to get back on track. For the most part the roads were straight and flat, and my average speed today reflects that. It sounds terrible to say that there was nothing worth taking a picture of along the way, but there was certainly nothing that stood out. You can only take so many pictures of cornfields and trees.

There was one refreshment stop in Lowell, courtesy of the Calvary CRC in that town, and as usual there were loads of baked goods. Your intrepid and dieting (but not seriously) reporter was able to stick to fruit only. There were also a few individuals and small groups cheering us on along the roads, including Beverly Weeks, former fellow Board of Trustee member, sitting by herself with a sign assuring us of her family’s prayers for us (and was I smart enough to take her picture – noooo!).

The early group, including myself, arrived at Sleepy Hollow State Park by 12:30 already, and our large group is now scattered all over the campsite. Diane is swimming in the shallow and murky water – my description gives you the reason I’m not swimming but showered instead – with other members of the kitchen crew.

On a not so happy note, two more people have had to leave the tour because of injuries: Lynn, who fell off her bike onto her kneecap last week and tried to return but couldn’t because of water under her knee, and Jim, who was staying in a hotel this past weekend and cracked a couple of ribs when he slipped in the shower there.

Tomorrow is our last full day in the U.S. before we enter our home and native land. We will be crossing the border on a ferry, which is something we've never experienced before, and we're looking forward to seeing old friends along the way.

Today’s stats:

Distance: 113.32 kms
Average speed: 27.5 kph
Maximum speed: 54.3 ph
Time in saddle: 4.06.23
# of flat tires on tour: 9

It's Tuesday afternoon and a hard day is behind us, unlike the wind, which was blowing hard in our faces for 153 kms. There's not much to say except that you put your head down and pedalled. I pulled Claire Elgersma pretty much the whole day, and it was the two of us for most of that time, although we joined and were joined by others off and on. I did not get lost and I had no flat tires. The weather was sunny but cool, and the temperature tonight is supposed to go down to 8 degrees C.

Diane spent the day with Erinn Swett and they goofed around in Lansing, meaning I had to set up the tent and blow up the air mattress. I think she planned that on purpose! We are looking forward to crossing the border tomorrow and using the Timmy card that Joel and Marsha sent us, and also visiting with Diane's brother Art and sister-in-law Sue (Ridgetown) who are picking us up for dinner and sleeping at their place.

Sorry about no pictures again. I'll do better tomorrow. Today no one took any pictures, we just put our heads down and pedalled.

Today's stats:

Distance: 153.72
Average speed: 24.2 kph
Maximum speed: 50.9 kph
Time in saddle: 6.19.57

Grand Rapids, Michigan

We have arrived in Jerusalem! And what a glorious day it's been. Sunny, not too hot, and no head winds.

The day began very cold, and as good as breakfasts are everyday, Ed Gringhuis (from Hamilton) and I decided it was time for a bacon and egg hot breakfast. So we skipped out early, rode 8 kms out of our way into Grand Haven, and had us a sit down hot breakfast - delicious! Sitting in the same restaurant was a fellow who immediately identified us as being part of Sea to Sea, and who showed us the way to get back on the tour track by an alternate and shorter route. Not only did he show us the way verbally, he drove his pickup truck and led us for 25 kms. We rejoined the tour in Eastmanville, just in time to reach Lamont and our first refreshment stop. Shortly after that first stop, I passed an older gentleman selling small baskets of peaches, and knowing how much Diane loves fresh peaches, I bought a number and carefully packed them in my bike bag.

A second refreshment stop was hosted by Westview CRC once we reached Grand Rapids, a third was hosted by one of the individuals who was forced to leave the tour due to injury, and a fourth was hosted by some folks along Fulton Ave. At the end of the trip we arrived in a school parking lot just 1 km from Calvin and waited until all the riders were in,

then we rode en masse in a media event onto Calvin's campus. It was a lot of fun, with people lining the roadways on the campus and cheering us on. Among those gathered there was brother Peter and Marja, as you can see below.

Diane and I are booked into the Prince Conference Center for the weekend, and we are grateful for a king size bed and our own personal shower and not having to put up a tent and blow up our air mattress, etc. Does it sound like we're getting ready to go back home? We do look forward to this weekend, however, as we have a relaxed evening watching the Olympics in our room tonight, and we hope to see more of Peter and Marja tomorrow, along with all the other events, especially the mass celebration service. And we especially look forward to seeing daughter Alicia & Arie and our 4 lovely Lise grandchildren this week. But right now, we will simply enjoy a weekend of rest.

Today's stats:

Distance: 82.80 kms
Average speed: 22.7 kph
Maximum speed: 49.6 kph
Time in saddle: 3.38.39
# of flat tires on tour: 9

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

South Haven, Michigan

We underwent 2 major changes today: state and time zone. At about 9 this morning we entered the state of Michigan, home of the majority of the American riders, and with that came also a change in time zone, from Central to Eastern Standard Time. We were in the state we left behind, Indiana, for less than a day. That’s just how it works geographically.

About half of our travel today was close to or alongside Lake Michigan, and I offer the following shots taken at a variety of different places, but all of them with a Lake Michigan theme…


Because we traveled alongside the lake, we also had an opportunity to see how the wealthy lived. Yesterday we spent time in the rundown neighbourhoods of Chicago South; today we viewed the exclusive homes of the rich. It was quite a contrast. While there were some “ordinary” lakeside homes lining the route, some were obscenely large and obviously expensive – mansions! There were also signs alongside the route suggesting that these roads were private and that unless you lived there you should turn around. We ignored these, of course, and cycled on through.

When we weren’t beside the lake – there weren’t always roads – we traveled on tree lined country roads, with the trees forming a tunnel. The picture below gives you the idea, and you imagine what it might look like when fall colours kick in – beautiful!

My ride was mostly without incident - mostly. I got stung by what I thought was a hornet, right on the right arm below my armpit. I stopped the bike immediately, and pulled out my epipen (I’m allergic to hornets/bees), ready to stick myself. Oddly, however, there was no reaction except that I could feel the stinger, and still can 3 hours later. But there is no swelling and all the usual reactions, so we’re wondering if it really was a hornet that stung me. Sure looked like one. Another rider, John Vandersteen, got the same sort of sting, but just above his eye.

The weather lately has been cooling off, by the way. It was sunny all day, but very breezy. Some of that is due to the lake effect, and the last 30 kms or so we had to fight a very strong headwind. Finally we arrived in South Haven, and below is a shot of the inner harbour. Looks a little like some of the ports you see in the Netherlands.

Tonight we are not in a park by the lake, however, but at a middle school. Diane is napping, our clothes are drying on the line, and I am hungry, a pretty constant thing. Tomorrow and Saturday will be short days – less than 80 kms – with a lot of hoopla, I’m sure.

Today’s stats:

Distance: 130.16 kms
Average speed: 23.0 kph
Maximum speed: 45.0 ph
Time in saddle: 5.39.25

Indiana Dunes State Park, Chesterton, Indiana

First the good news: I did not get lost today, and I had no flat tires!

It was a relaxed, no hurry, kind of day in which we were only supposed to ride 82 kms. We had the option, however, of going in groups of 10 to visit 2 of our denomination’s inner city (Chicago South) ministries: Roseland, and Pullman. Because I chose that option the trip was a little longer. It was worth it. Our visit at Pullman was very brief, but at Roseland we met the pastors working there and a lot of the folks who make use of their ministry: homeless shelter for men downstairs, shelter for women and children upstairs, kitchen where they feed people everyday, worship center, etc. In the picture below, retired pastor Tony Van Zanten explains the history of Roseland. Sadly, Tony suffered a stroke while undergoing an angiogram a few years ago and is no longer able to work. I knew him from a couple of synod meetings.

We had to travel there in groups because there was some fear that these were not safe neighbourhoods for us to travel in alone. That may be so, but the neighbourhoods we cycled through this morning were no different from the neighbourhoods we lived in in Grand Rapids while we studied at Calvin. And we lived there with 3 children.

From there it was on to Indiana, where we were soon greeted wildly by the members of Second CRC in Highland. They had lunch ready for us, as you can see from the pictures below. There is a great danger here, of course, and that is that all the weight I have lost will be regained by the food/snacks we’ll be offered during the next couple of weeks as we tour through areas thick with Christian Reformed churches. It will require all of my willpower to stick to the healthy stuff! I don't want to suffer from "Dutch bum disease."



After that it was a very relaxed trip to the state park. I traveled all day in groups, just so I wouldn't get lost again. The pace was slow and relaxed. At the park several of us decided we could not see Lake Michigan and not swim, and the water was actually pretty nice. The dunes here are pretty awesome, as you can see below, though they're a lot of work to climb.

All in all, it was a slow day, just what we needed after the craziness of yesterday, and with a beautiful sunset to end the day...


Today’s stats:

Distance: 92.51 kms
Average speed: 21.1 kph
Maximum speed: 41.6 ph
Time in saddle: 4.22.10

Palos Heights, Illinois

Well, today started off with a real bang, literally. Of all things, my rear tire was flat when I woke up. When I replaced the tube and pumped it up, at 120 lbs of pressure (it takes 125 lbs) the tube simply exploded with a bang that sounded like a rifle shot. It woke a lot of people up! So that was the start of the day - 2 flats. It didn’t get much better after that.

But I need to digress briefly. I forgot to mention that we were fed a most marvelous hot lunch yesterday by Delavan CRC, and cold water by Inspiration Disabilities Center a few kms further down the road. We appreciated both refreshments!

Half of today’s trip was spent on a bike trail. The pictures below give you some idea of what that was like, including some of the beautiful flowers along the way. Who says I don't stop to smell the roses?



On the way we all stopped at a small coffee shop and overwhelmed the gracious and friendly hosts who managed to feed us all our caffeine fix. Most of the cyclists had left so what you see is one of the last groups.

What we were not told about the trail is that it diverged at a number of places and that it was important to stay on the Fox River Trail. About a dozen of us, myself included, took a wrong turn somewhere. I personally ended up all by myself in Wheaton, Illinois, totally lost. Fortunately I am not your typical male: too proud to ask for directions. By the time I got back to where I needed to be I had traveled 38 extra kms. We call them bonus miles…

I was also witness to a minor accident involving two of our girls. A car hit their bike and took off. Both girls were OK, and the only damage was one bent rear tire. We got the license plate of the car and the police came to take a report. What happens after that we have no idea. One of the other girls with these two had a flat at the same time, so I fixed that for her. It was a long and busy day!

The roads we were on today were also very rough. I did take the time to notice a few fellows doing a job you could not pay me enough money to do.


Finally I arrived at Trinity Christian College, with a worried Diane waiting at the entrance, at 5:15 p.m. A quick shower, pack some stuff, a photo of a deer on campus,

and eventually we were picked up by Bob Love, our son-in-law’s father, and we had a wonderful dinner and evening with Bob & Phoebe at their home. After supper we watched the Olympics for a while, and we are sleeping in a comfortable and dry bed (rain is expected tonight) in their home. They will bring us back tomorrow morning. We are very grateful to them.

I mentioned last e-mail about my somewhat unhappy experience at Trinity. It wasn’t the school’s fault. The problem was that I was madly in love with a girl who lived in Ottawa, so every 3 weeks I left school and hitchhiked the 1600 mile round trip to visit her, which meant my grades really suffered. It’s a good thing I married her, I could not have survived that constant hitchhiking. After I married Diane and went back to school, my grades also shot up from D’s to A’s.

But now I’m off to bed. Diane is already sleeping. Good night.

Today’s stats:

Distance: 168.37 kms
Average speed: 22.0 kph
Maximum speed: 47.5 ph
Time in saddle: 7.40.15

Woodstock, Illinois

This morning we said goodbye to Ada & Andrew after a very relaxing weekend at his parents’ place in the country. It was great not to sleep in a tent for 2 nights and to be away from the whole tour and all the hoopla that goes with it. As fun as it is, it’s also very “druk” – as they say in Dutch, one of those words you can’t really translate. The weather was ideal this morning, not too warm or cool, with clear skies, and the dew rising in a mist from the fields surrounding Madison. The picture below shows the view from the house where we slept last night.

Ada & Andrew brought us back to Crossroads Church by 6 a.m. and after breakfast we were off again, with 130 kms to go and another state line to be crossed. Today’s trip took us through all sorts of twists and turns down one country road after another, anything to avoid interstates and busy highways. The risk of all that, of course, is getting lost by making a wrong turn. I know all about that by experience, because I traveled an extra 12 kms today by making a right turn one road too early. It was a matter of poor communication, both by the person who told me I’d gone too far and needed to turn right a ways back, and by myself for not asking for a clearer explanation and assuming I’d gotten the information right. Apparently all sorts of people were hollering at me as they watched me speed away, but I was so fast – ha! - I was almost immediately out of earshot. Oh well, live and learn. It took me 6 kms to realize my mistake.

There wasn’t much in the way of photo ops today, just this one farm that had its property surrounded by signs protesting the use of corn for ethanol rather than food. That would be pretty consistent with the point of our tour, of course, which is to help end the cycle of poverty and raise awareness of poverty/hunger in North America and the world. I didn’t picture all the signs on this particular property, but the photo below sums up his/her message pretty well.

We crossed the state line from Wisconsin to Illinois with no fanfare whatsoever. There was no sign marking the crossing, as we were on backroads all day. It was only looking back and seeing a small sign that said “state line” that told you we were now in Illinois. We are at a highschool again, and this school has showers rather than pressure washers. Because Diane was late in today – she and the kitchen crew took a detour and visited Lake Geneva, eating ice cream while dangling their feet in its waters – I set up the tent again. Diane is busy getting dinner ready at the moment – bratwurst, a real Wisconsin treat. Tomorrow we head for Chicago, and Trinity Christian College, where I spent my first year of college – not the best year for sure, but more on that tomorrow. Day 1 of week 7 is over, and we are more than 2/3 done. Unbelievable…

Today’s stats:

Distance: 142.79 kms
Average speed: 23.3 kph
Maximum speed: 55.3 kph
Time in saddle: 6.07.00
# of flat tires on tour: 7