Days 43-44 Holland Michigan and another reunion

[Kalon]  From Cleveland we drove to Holland, Michigan area where another college friend of Karen's (Anne) lives.  For whatever reason it was difficult to get accommodation in Holland, so we are staying in the Grand Rapids area about 25 miles away.  After checking in, Karen took the car off to go to the store and got hopelessly lost.  She wasn't able to turn to KIA for advice and so was, apparently, driving around a bit aimlessly, finally recognizing some landmarks and returning to our hotel, rather shaken by the experience.  We then drove to Holland to connect with Anne who had prepared an elegant dinner.

From Ann's back porch with her lake behind.

The next morning Karen drove to Ann's with our laundry in tow: I had decided to bicycle there.  I had Google Maps prepare a detailed biking route (about 30 miles) between our hotel and Anne's.  I had not used Google for bike routes before and was rather impressed at the route it chose, incorporating some named bike trails.  So I started off and within the first two miles had gotten lost for the first of numerous times today.  Why?  Well, it helps to understand bike routes in the area.  Biking is actually a high priority here, and many bike paths exist, these being somewhat wider sidewalks for walking and biking.

Typical "bike path" with the street to the right

There were, however, two problems.  First, Google had a weird way of directing one to one of these bike paths.  Assume you're traveling on Street X and need to turn left on Street Y with a bike path on the right side.  Google - in its turn-by-turn directions - would have you turn left on Y for something like 25 feet, then turn right onto the bike trail.  I found this, initially, very confusing until I adjusted and recognized that any segment of 25 to 40 feet was simply a way of getting one off the road onto an adjacent bike path.

The 2nd problem was more serious.  Most of these bike paths weren't named, but some were.  For those that were Google would direct you to turn onto bike path X.  But the path's weren't identified on the ground with signs.  So instead of saying go for a mile and a half to street X and turn left onto the bike path there, the directions would simply say to turn onto bike path "Joe Schmoe" and one would have no way of knowing if it was this or that bike path (mileage of course helped, but my bike computer battery died after a while :). 

Anyway, when the directions worked I really enjoyed the ride (good bike paths, little traffic), but when they didn't I would get badly lost with lots of backtracking, trying to find my way on some maps Anne had provided), and it took a long time.  (I did a lot more than 30 miles because of my ineptitude.)  But eventually I got to Anne's house, a really lovely home on a small lake (she has a canoe you can take out and fish if you want!)  Later Anne took us off to dinner at a pleasant restaurant about 20 minutes away in Douglas.

[Karen] Again we were well spoiled by our hostess who had prepared whole Cornish game hens stuffed with rice as well as wonderful vegetables. She gave me some recipes because the cold Dill and Cucumber Buttermilk Soup she prepared was so delicious I could hardly keep myself from raiding her refrigerator for the rest which she actually was saving for a neighbor's party. Anyone coming to 149 Rametto will certainly taste this in the future! Because I was so shaken by my experience of getting so lost the day before, Anne drove me to her favorite Laundromat and waited for me to wash our clothes and then brought me home to dry them in her dryer. We were accompanied by her elderly small Airedale who is very cute and very attentive lest any bit of dropped food get unnoticed by himself - even though his attentiveness often means he ends up at the vets because of his food allergies! I wish I had taken a picture of Hixie as he has a very droll expressive look to his grin... much as though saying 'aren't I sitting in the cat bird seat?!!' (Check out Thurber's short story 'Sitting in the Cat Bird Seat' for the reference). He definitely runs Anne's life!