Day – 38 – Mt. Pleasant to Birch Run MI
A nice “run” on the bike through Michigan
The most interesting thing observed so far in Birch Run Michigan was a touching reunion between John Hubert and his mother who surprised him with a visit here. John had a surprise visit yesterday from two of his sisters. He and his family grew up in Michigan; John you may recall is an airline pilot who now lives in Connecticut.
Euphoria Meter (1-10): 7
Flat, no wind go hard bike ride… if there was interesting scenery, I missed it.
Ride Stats:
Distance: 74 miles
Riding Time: 3:59
Max Speed: 26.8
Average Speed: 20.6
Total Miles traveled: 2,771
Miles to go: 858
Weather:
Guess….If you guessed blue skies, 70 degrees no wind, you were right. Yes, another glorious day made for riding your bicyle!
Incidents and Rider Report
None known.
How I Feel (1-10): 10+
It is getting a little spooky to hop on the bike, ride like crazy for 74 miles and feel so good the entire way. I think I am now really in shape for this kind of thing. It is fun to be able to enjoy it.
Stuff that happened:
Today’s ride started out a little social. We had a late load of the box, 7:30 am. Rich snuck out of the room to have breakfast this morning. He thought I was asleep and I thought I heard him go into the bathroom and shut the door. As a result I lay in bed, waiting for him to come out. When he returned to the room from breakfast I realized what had happened and finally got out of bed. I didn’t realize how late it was until then. Breakfast had been scheduled at the hotel from 6:00 to rap time of 7:15. I scurry to get dressed, pack and down to 7:15 rap…with no breakfast. After rap I load, and bump into Gerard who says he’ll wait a minute for me. The good news is that all of the bikers had now left the building and were getting on the road. I had the Comfort Inn breakfast buffet all to myself! Now I scurry back into the hotel, pour a glass of waffle mix onto the open waffle iron (something I’m not used to during normal breakfast hours), crack open a bowl of raisin bran (recently restocked now that the biker locust, chow piranha have left the building). It takes 2:30 minutes to cook a waffle. I down two glass of orange juice, a banana (also just restocked) just before the timer goes off. At the buzzer I grab the waffle off the iron and walk out the door eating it. Hoping on my bike, putting my gloves on and starting to roll now I enjoy my fresh waffle as best I can.
Gerard and I start out easy, greeting fellow bikers as we ride along. We pick up SanFrancisco Jan Medina who drafts behind us as we continue to slowly come up on other riders. Several others hop on as well. Gerard is on my left and I am riding the white line. Jan asks him after a while if he intends to get in a single file line or not. Gerard replies that he will when Ralph starts going fast enough to justify doing so. I think that was Dutch humor. Up unit this point we’d been riding socially at about 18 mph. Now the pace picks up little by little. Next thing you know Jan has dropped off and now it is Gerard, me and John Knapp. The three of us go to the first and only SAG together and end the ride together as well. John wasn’t real eager to pull today, so Gerard and I traded off. The ride was flat, some pretty rough road in places, but we were able to average 20.6 mph which is the second fastest I we’ve done for the trip. In case you are interested, the fastest average was 22 mph from Burley Id to Blackfoot ID over a distance of 112 miles. That was pretty fun too! (see day 13 for more details)
I don’t really understand completely why I like to go fast on the bicycle. I am not really fast in the big scheme of things or even relative to other riders on this trip. But I like going fast relative to my own range of abilities. It is fun to sweat, breath hard and feel the rush of the endorphins kick in. Trying to keep up with the good riders like Gerard and Steve Bennett is a fun challenge for me. It is all part of the riding across America adventure.
Today Gerard, John and I happened to be the first ones back to the hotel. Shortly thereafter Steve Bennett arrives. We all agreed that we missed the company of young Derek Miller who broke away yesterday from his family to ride with us for a while. He has lots of potential to be a very strong rider. My guess is that if he could spend some time on this ride with Gerard he would learn a lot that could help him.
Steve Bennett talks Barb into letting four of us unload the box… usually she waits for half the riders to arrive but Steve wants to get his clothes to change into. We start the job and about half way through are joined by Daco, Bud and others. We shower, go to lunch and I retire to my room to get the blog updated. I haven’t heard of anything interesting in Birch Run. If I find anything later this afternoon or evening I’ll let you know.
A nice “run” on the bike through Michigan
The most interesting thing observed so far in Birch Run Michigan was a touching reunion between John Hubert and his mother who surprised him with a visit here. John had a surprise visit yesterday from two of his sisters. He and his family grew up in Michigan; John you may recall is an airline pilot who now lives in Connecticut.
Euphoria Meter (1-10): 7
Flat, no wind go hard bike ride… if there was interesting scenery, I missed it.
Ride Stats:
Distance: 74 miles
Riding Time: 3:59
Max Speed: 26.8
Average Speed: 20.6
Total Miles traveled: 2,771
Miles to go: 858
Weather:
Guess….If you guessed blue skies, 70 degrees no wind, you were right. Yes, another glorious day made for riding your bicyle!
Incidents and Rider Report
None known.
How I Feel (1-10): 10+
It is getting a little spooky to hop on the bike, ride like crazy for 74 miles and feel so good the entire way. I think I am now really in shape for this kind of thing. It is fun to be able to enjoy it.
Stuff that happened:
Today’s ride started out a little social. We had a late load of the box, 7:30 am. Rich snuck out of the room to have breakfast this morning. He thought I was asleep and I thought I heard him go into the bathroom and shut the door. As a result I lay in bed, waiting for him to come out. When he returned to the room from breakfast I realized what had happened and finally got out of bed. I didn’t realize how late it was until then. Breakfast had been scheduled at the hotel from 6:00 to rap time of 7:15. I scurry to get dressed, pack and down to 7:15 rap…with no breakfast. After rap I load, and bump into Gerard who says he’ll wait a minute for me. The good news is that all of the bikers had now left the building and were getting on the road. I had the Comfort Inn breakfast buffet all to myself! Now I scurry back into the hotel, pour a glass of waffle mix onto the open waffle iron (something I’m not used to during normal breakfast hours), crack open a bowl of raisin bran (recently restocked now that the biker locust, chow piranha have left the building). It takes 2:30 minutes to cook a waffle. I down two glass of orange juice, a banana (also just restocked) just before the timer goes off. At the buzzer I grab the waffle off the iron and walk out the door eating it. Hoping on my bike, putting my gloves on and starting to roll now I enjoy my fresh waffle as best I can.
Gerard and I start out easy, greeting fellow bikers as we ride along. We pick up SanFrancisco Jan Medina who drafts behind us as we continue to slowly come up on other riders. Several others hop on as well. Gerard is on my left and I am riding the white line. Jan asks him after a while if he intends to get in a single file line or not. Gerard replies that he will when Ralph starts going fast enough to justify doing so. I think that was Dutch humor. Up unit this point we’d been riding socially at about 18 mph. Now the pace picks up little by little. Next thing you know Jan has dropped off and now it is Gerard, me and John Knapp. The three of us go to the first and only SAG together and end the ride together as well. John wasn’t real eager to pull today, so Gerard and I traded off. The ride was flat, some pretty rough road in places, but we were able to average 20.6 mph which is the second fastest I we’ve done for the trip. In case you are interested, the fastest average was 22 mph from Burley Id to Blackfoot ID over a distance of 112 miles. That was pretty fun too! (see day 13 for more details)
I don’t really understand completely why I like to go fast on the bicycle. I am not really fast in the big scheme of things or even relative to other riders on this trip. But I like going fast relative to my own range of abilities. It is fun to sweat, breath hard and feel the rush of the endorphins kick in. Trying to keep up with the good riders like Gerard and Steve Bennett is a fun challenge for me. It is all part of the riding across America adventure.
Today Gerard, John and I happened to be the first ones back to the hotel. Shortly thereafter Steve Bennett arrives. We all agreed that we missed the company of young Derek Miller who broke away yesterday from his family to ride with us for a while. He has lots of potential to be a very strong rider. My guess is that if he could spend some time on this ride with Gerard he would learn a lot that could help him.
Steve Bennett talks Barb into letting four of us unload the box… usually she waits for half the riders to arrive but Steve wants to get his clothes to change into. We start the job and about half way through are joined by Daco, Bud and others. We shower, go to lunch and I retire to my room to get the blog updated. I haven’t heard of anything interesting in Birch Run. If I find anything later this afternoon or evening I’ll let you know.
Steve and Molly Dutton from our neighborhood and athletic club in Columbus join us in Birch Run Michigan for an adult beverage while on their way driving to vacation in Northern Michigan.
3 comments:
I just got back from a ride up Vail pass with a high school friend of mine who owns a house in Frisco, Colorado. I thought about you the whole way. WOW! You still feel a 10 on a scale of 10! You feel a whole lot better than I do and I didn't do anything.
I got a new computer today. Mike Kelly installed it. I am so happy. Thanks
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