Friends,

On Thursday, I got up early and went to the tire store and bought two new tires for the van. Finally we were ready to travel again.

We caravanned with Jane and Dolph up to Lansing, MI where Mary and I went on to Holt to see Marion Thomas for a few minutes. We then drove up to Cedar Lake, MI and joined Jane and Dolph at the Michigan Camp Grounds. I was surprised as we turned off Rt64 that we crossed the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail which we planned to bike on. It was only a short distance from where we would camp.

Friday morning we decided to ride west on the trail. Mary went along and the cart worked well for her again. We rode about 13 miles to Stanton where we had a Subway sub and then rode back to Cedar Lake. The trail was newly paved for the first five or six miles, but was great all the way. It was a very nice ride.

When I got to Cedar Lake and turned off the trail to head up Academy Road there was a long and fairly steep hill. I knew that it would be hard to pull Mary in the cart up the hill, so I down shifted to the lowest gear on my bike and stood up to get going when the bike chain broke. Mary got off the cart and I picked up the broken chain and put it on the front of the cart and proceeded to walk up the hill. Jane and Dolph went on ahead and Dolph said that he would come back and get us with his truck. When Dolph arrived with the truck, I found that the broken chain was not on the cart. I immediately started back looking for it, since it might have been repairable, but it was not to be found. Someone must have seen it and picked it up as we were walking along the road.

When we got back to the campground Sharon and Doug were already there and finishing setting up their trailer. I looked up on the Internet and found a bike shop in Alma, MI, which was about 18 miles away. Doug, Dolph, and Jane went with me to the bike shop to get a new chain, and then on to Walmart to pick up a few things.

We attended Sabbath school and church at the Cedar Lake church. David Carter, a former student of mine at AUC, recognized me and we had a nice talk after church. A niece of Jane’s invited all of us for lunch at her house. There were about 18 people there.

After lunch, Wes Greene, the man of the house, took us on a tour of his honey business. It was amazing to see and hear about honey production. It was almost unbelievable the amount of honey he produces there. We watch in amazement as he open a valve and we watched a 55 gallon drum fill with about 600 pounds of honey in only a few minutes. It was great honey too, as he gave us each a taste. He said that they can extract 17 of those 600 pound drums of honey each day. It was also interesting to hear how they winter the bees in Georgia, ship them to California to pollinate the almond crop, and then ship them to MI to pollinate the blueberries and let them produce honey all summer long.

More to come…

Jared