I started today’s ride with a stop at a McDonald’s. I had oatmeal and one of the two sausage/egg McMuffin sandwiches I bought. (I put the other sandwich in my handlebar bag for lunch.) As the sun rose, it was 57° and clear with a slight breeze; perfect cycling weather.
I rode past an outdoor rec center and stopped to see my first ever pickleball game. One of the older guys standing nearby described pickleball to me as “tennis for old people”.
It actually looks more like ping-pong played without a table.
“STEM” as explained by a Liberal Arts major
“Wood, Stock, & Grill BBQ” is a business whose main asset is a modified 55 gallon drum attached to a 1960’s VW bug with a creative paint job. Peace, man.
Upscale housing lines the west side of the road, but between the houses I got my first glimpse of Lake Michigan.
Image layout selections made by the sign designer:
Orientation – Portrait
Font Size – Very Large
Wrap Text – Check
Other available selections would have yielded a different result.
Here’s a view of Lake Michigan from St Joseph (the city). The water is remarkably blue.
So why is Lake Michigan so blue? Here’s a snip from https://wgntv.com/news/ask-wgn/lake-michigan-is-more-blue-than-it-was-20-years-ago-researchers-say/ 10/17/2019
“Researchers say the lake’s color has actually changed drastically in recent years. Michigan Tech’s Bob Shuchman and Mike Sayers say Lake Michigan’s waters used to be more green in color because of the amount of algae they carried. But over the last two decades, their research found Lake Michigan has actually transformed in color from green to blue as invasive mussel species have caused a massive decrease in the amount of algae in its waters. They say there are so many mussels they can filter the entire volume of Lake Michigan in four to six days, and they’ve reduced the amount of light-absorbing algae by over 50 percent. Since there’s less algae, the water is less green. ’20 years ago Lake Michigan’s color was driven by phytoplankton absorption. Due to the reduction of phytoplankton from the mussels invasion, pure water scattering is now the dominant factor in water color.’”
This is one of many apple orchards that I began to see as I headed north.
I was also still seeing some corn fields, with ragweed, mares tail, and grass growing by the road.
Below is a sign I saw several times while riding north on the Blue Star Highway, which appears to also be known as county road A-2 in Allegan County. The red mark on the map is the location of this sign on the Blue Star Highway. Note on the map that I-196 at this point is 1.6 miles east of Lake Michigan, and the sign is 1.3 miles east of the lake
I wonder what imagined emergency is so serious that it could
1. Force traffic off I-196 and onto the Blue Star Highway, while at the same time
2. Not affect the Blue Star Highway
I had dinner at a Chinese buffet in South Haven.