Pam and I took today off, so we actually waited until daylight to head out of the house, thinking we would try to get about 30 miles in this morning before we spend the rest of the day running errands.  We basically did the long Rogersville/Turners loop from the house, and had a great morning to ride in spite of a brisk wind (16 mph) from the east. 

We noticed that lots of kids were waiting for their school bus this morning, and one little girl exclaimed to her mom "Look at that bike!".

Here's a link to the GPS track...   We ended up with 32 miles.

Afterward, Pam had an appointment at the fitness center to meet with a trainer in order to get points for the wellness program at work.  While she was doing her thing, I ended up running a 5K.  Couple that with the approximate 50k on the bike this morning and I had two legs of a triathelon down.  Now for the water leg...I spent fifteen minutes in the hot tub!  Does that count?

God bless...

TW

Enjoy :)

Vola anche tu con Veniero! www,primolancio.it

We hadn't hardly gotten out of town before we saw our first flock of turkeys out near the Springfield Underground. We also found that they had paved the section of bad road just past the Underground. It's needed it for a long time. Thank you Greene County!

We saw our 2nd flock of turkeys just past Danforth cemetery. Most of them were off to the right, but one crossed the road about 15-20 feet in front of us. It was pretty cool to see him that up close.

We had breakfast at our usual gourmet spot...McDonalds. In reality, it's the only place in Strafford to get breakfast except the truck stop, and we always figured that McD's was probably more healthy for us in the long run. Once a month, the VFW serves pancakes out there somewhere, but we've never tried to get there for that.

The trip back to town was pretty uneventful, but it was already starting to get hotter. We talked about cruises most of the way back home. Sam and Barbara are going in November, and we're going a week later over Thanksgiving.

We several other cyclists this morning, and one of them was stopped along the road taking pictures of cows. I'm thinking she doesn't get out much!

Here's the link to the GPS track.... 9/01 Breakfast ride to strafford
Find more Bike Rides in Springfield, Missouri

We might get a few more miles in this evening. Libby and I have talked about taking Ben's mountain bike and the bike she's trying out over to the Galloway trail after supper. We'll see what happens.

Yep...Libby and I rode the Greenway trail after supper.  About 10 miles at a very casual trail pace.  Libby seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.  It seemed to be more her speed!  She walks the trail quite a bit, so it may have also been the familiarity that made it nice for her.

God bless...
TW

MG and I got out with Crista and Chuck on Sunday for her "Over the Hill With Dr. Disc" century ride from Frederick, Md. We were joined by Paul D., Mike G., Natalie and Keith K. This ride traveled over rolling hills to Union Bridge, Taneytown, and Libertytown. Highs in the 80s, low humidity, and sunny skies made this a great day to ride. The group was the best part. We were few in number but high in spirit.

See my photos from the day at my Flickr page or see the Slideshow.

Notably, this was Mike's final ride with us before heading to San Diego for his coast-to-coast Southern PAC tour. The tour starts this Saturday and arrives in Savannah, Ga. on Oct. 3rd. Go Mike!

As usual on Crista centuries, the bikes ran the gamut from high-tech -- Natalie's boron carbide Griffen tri-bike -- to titanium to Rivendell lugged steel. Here are the bikes on this ride:

It's a pretty low-end Giant Cyprus hybrid, but good enough for someone who isn't a cyclist.  Sam dropped it off last night, I did a little cleanup and tuning on it this morning, and about 10:30, we hauled it out to Mentor for a test run.

We had to start Libby with the basics.  High gear = go faster = higher numbers on the shifters.  We knew that this morning would be slow, and it was.  We weren't sure how far she would be able to go, but she did well, making it all the way out to Rogersville on County Line Road, stopping for lunch at Subway, then back in on 186. 

There were a lot of cyclists out.  It's just a couple of weeks until the local MS150, and the weather was really nice.  There were overcast clouds all the way out, so it was nice and cool.  The sun came out on the way back in, and it actually felt good on our backs for a while.  Unfortunately, Pam got a little sunburn on her back in the short time we were out. 

It was a  fun morning and ride.  We ended up with 19 miles.

God bless...

Today's ride was a lot better than Tuesday.  We still didn't go very fast (16.7 mph average), but it didn't kill me like the 16.2 did Tuesday.  We were working together better, and life just seemed to be back in sync a little better. 

By the end of the 20 miles, however, Pam said, "I can tell you're tired."  As captain, when I get tired, I make little mistakes like not having the cranks in a position where Pam can post up for bumps.  She was right.  She skipped her morning workout yesterday, so in the evening we ended up walking 5 miles.  I rode to work and at lunch, so I basically had my workout, and that 5 mile brisk walk just about wore me out.

I'll need to try to take it easy tomorrow so we can have a decent ride on Saturday.

God bless...

TW

This is the wholefood cafe in the middle of Machynlleth. It happens to be a great place to stop off on a long tandem journey, it does very good coffee and cakes.

This was actually the return leg of last weekends little adventure - which was decidedly warmer and a little damper than our outward journey. We left Sunny Manchester after work on Friday and rode thru the night and into the dawn. It seemed like a great idea at the time though at 3am on Saturday morning it was very cold and the Welsh valleys were more than a little misty - we had our doubts. After 170 miles and 18 hours into a headwind we arrived in Penparc near Cardigan in South West Wales, had a well earned bath and collapsed into bed. That evening we fell into the only curry house in Cardigan and stuffed ourselves silly.

After a little family time on the Sunday we got an early night in full expectation of a long day ahead. It was an early start, at around 5am we were gulping cups of tea and heading out into the dawn. This time of year it always surprises me how late the dawn is and how early the sunset arrives - it's all downhill till next Spring. Anyway, it was nice to get the bigger hills out of the way early on and we made much better time heading North. The wind was behind us and we were fresh from a good nights sleep - unlike Friday when we'd both been working all day after getting up early to watch the Olympic bmx. Ooops.

The relatively flat Cheshire plains were a welcome relief as we covered the last 50 miles or so back via Chester and into South Manchester. After 13 hours pedaling we hit the Saajan take away for a couple of well earned veggie kebabs, yummy. Not a bad weekend for a pair of tandem newbies (well, one of us had pedaled around the park before!).

So, next time you have a silly idea what about following it through? It might be hard work but it'll probably be damn good fun!   Long live long rides...

Rich.

When you ride a tandem, it really doesn't take much to throw the team out of kilter.  We're usually pretty awesome as we work together, but this morning we just couldn't get our act together.  Hills slowed us down badly, and we couldn't muster much speed on the flats.

On a more positive note, the commute in was pretty nice, and it is a beautiful day.  

I was curious, so I added up my mileage last night.  It stood at 3,397 combined miles between the tandem and the single.  About 1,600 on the tandem and 1,800 on the single, which is a little disappointing to me...I would prefer to have more tandem miles than miles alone.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to break4,200 miles for the year, but even if I don't, I think this has been a pretty successful year in terms of biking.  Commuting has added a whole new dimension, and I think it's taken away some of the need to get back on the bike in the evening.  Pam and I have been walking a lot for our evening exercise, and it's great to spend that time with her.  It sure is nice to hold her sweet hand as we stroll along!

God bless...

TW

 The atmosphere was fantastic as even those running into mechanical trouble were still smiling and enjoying the day . There was none of the panic and stress that most racing cyclists will display when receiving a wheel change let alone having a new tyre or tube fitted .

A number of times during the day some of the riders who had run into mechanical difficulties commented on how good an event it is and one guy asked me why I thought it was the best run event of its' kind in the country ( no offence Wicklow or Kerry ) , whilst being just two years in existence . I had to think about the answer and the best that I could come up was a threefold reply ;

1 - The people behind the event .

An event of this magnitude does not just appear on the day . Many months of planning and organisation go into getting the show on the road . The coming together of The Waterford county Council , Waterford Sports Partnership , Waterford Community forum and the eight local cycling clubs has proved to be a remarkable display of cooperation . The fact that all of these people can gel together and all sing from the same hymn sheet is hugely important . Having a single goal of making it a fantastic event for all to enjoy has been adopted by all and each organisation does its utmost to make that happen . When Johnny Brunnock and Gerry Geary drove the full 160k route the night before checking that all was in order and when Rosarie Keely was getting registration organised at 5 am and packing it up at 7.30 pm their main aim was to make the event as enjoyable as possible for every cyclist there  .

2 - Sean Kelly himself .

The fact that over half of the riders taking part had their interest in cycling sparked by Kelly's exploits at the top of World cycling gives many a sentimental reason to take part . The fact that it is an opportunity to ride alongside the fourth greatest cyclist of all time gives others a reason to be there . The lesser known fact that he has a huge input into how the event is run is less recognised but even more important . Kelly attends most of the committee meetings and his knowledge and recommendations are invaluable . When the last riders crossed the line yesterday evening it was Kelly who was standing under the banner to congratulate them . That is what makes him such a hero to those who can never hope to emulate what he has achieved .

3 - The people taking part .

Not once during the whole course of the day did I hear a single moan .  Whilst there were a few groans on Seskin and Mahon Falls , every single person taking part was there to have a great day out . The camaraderie and banter between all the different levels of cyclists was fantastic .  Whether you were on a ten grand pinarello or a two hundred euro hybrid everyone was chatting away together as they rode along .

Everyone had their own goal for the day in what they wanted to achieve and were all satisfied as they crossed the line . First man to finish the 160k in just over five hours was Jim Fitzpatrick from Kilkenny . Jim only started cycling two years ago and last years event was the first time he had ever ridden in a bunch . Another Kilkenny man and friend of Jim's ,  Tom who is visually impaired along with co-pilot Martina also completed the 160 k event in just under 10 hours .  But having to ride a tandem up all of those hills sitting in the saddle and forging along for that amount of time surely deserves a huge vote of admiration . Very few elite cyclists would ever contemplate 10 hours on the bike . That makes them hero's in my eyes .

Barry

www.worldwidecycles.com

I've been battling stomach problems all weekend, so we took our time getting around after church, and talked about cutting the ride short if I didn't feel like going the entire distance.  About 2:00, we were starting to head out, and I backed the truck out of the garage to get to the tandem.  I attended to a couple of other things, then the next thing I noticed was Pam sitting in the truck.

Me:  What are you doing?

Pam:  Going on a bike ride.

Me:  Why are you in the truck?

Pam:  We always go to Fair Grove in the truck.

Me:  No we don't.  We leave from home.

Her:  No.  We always drive to that little church and park.

Me:  OH!  You mean Ash Grove! 

The difference is that Fair Grove is pretty much due north of us, and we leave from the garage to do either of the routes that take us there.  Ash Grove is all the way across town and north of us.  We drive over to Elwood, which is west of Springfield (we're on the east side), park and then cycle the 15 miles out to Ash Grove.

Once we got our signals on the same channel, I threw the bike in and we were off.  It was kind of windy, but since this was our Sunday ride, we just went with the flow and tried to spin easily.  The reason Pam likes to go out there once in a while is that it's pretty quiet, with little to no traffic.  I kind of like it because all the roads are laid out in a grid.  To get from Elwood to Ash Grove, you go west a while, then pick a road and go north.  Repeat that a couple of times and you can see the water tower in Ash Grove and know where you need to go to get to town.

Because I wasn't really up to my usual effort, we went out 10 miles, then started our return loop, ending with 20.75 miles at a 15.6 mph average.  It was a nice ride with my sweetheart, then because we had to drive right past Pam's folks to get home, we stopped in to say hi.

Here's the GPS track.  

Edit....I'm not sure that Mapmyride works very well with Internet explorer.  When I tried to follow that link above, it took me there, but didn't put a route on the map.  I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

God bless...

TW

We met Sam and Barbara after work, and because Pam had a kind of long day, we decided to do the short, fifteen mile Mentor loop.  In spite of Pam being tired and us having ridden this morning, this was a really wonderful ride.  We weren't trying to push anything because we were riding with Sam and Barbara, but tonight seemed smooth and easy all the way around.  On the FR186 leg, we were practically screaming (at least for us), and not straining at all to do it. 

I'm not sure what made the difference, but tonight felt totally the opposite of this morning.  Who knows?

God bless...

TW

Pam's on a diet.

It's dark out for a lot of our ride

I'm trying to run again.

We've not given ourselves enough recovery from Michigan.

The dog barking last night woke us up at 1:30.

All excuses, but the fact is that we've seemed to struggle on every tandem ride we've taken since the Michigan trip.  I knew that ride seemed to take a lot out of me, but this is getting ridiculous.  I've had sore quads since the first day that we had a lot of climbing, and in reality, that day wasn't that much more uphill than some of our longer rides around here.

The first 10 miles this morning were really a grind, making a major contribution to our 16.6 mph average speed this morning.  I was struggling, and it felt like Pam was also.  We just didn't seem to have the ability/desire to push hard, regardless of whether we were on an uphill, flat ground, or even going downhill.  I sometimes think part of that is just going to happen when we ride in the dark.  Even though we've got the headlight on, it's still pretty darn hard to see the road in front of you.

As we climbed out of Turners, I commented that it looked like we might have a pretty sunrise, and we weren't disappointed when it occurred 20 minutes later.  I keep thinking we should take the camera with us, but I've never remembered to grab it as we leave.

The trip back in seemed a lot better, but part of that could have been because the wind was giving us a slight advantage as we headed back to the west and because it was getting light enough to feel comfortable.

For some reason, I've been getting more cautious on the downhills and turns than I've been in the past.  So much, in fact, that Pam kind of jumped on me a little on Saturday for braking as we came down a hill and approached a corner instead of letting it run.  For example, most of the summer, we've been taking the first corner on the hill down the back side of Turners at 30 mph.  Getting over that kind of scared me, but the last few rides, I've found myself clamping it down to about 27 mph to get down and around it.  I hope that's not a sign of getting old! 

I didn't ride to work today since I've got a dentist appointment this afternoon.  We may ride again this evening with Sam and Barbara.

God bless...

TW

You know those foolhardy folk who leap from aeroplanes lashed to a professional skydiver? Tandem jumping. This is my first experience of Tandem Blogging as I am posting the same stuff on my Gardeners World Blog. Except that they are spared the music and quite a lot of the random drivelling. 

Actually it is Trandem Blogging (although I doubt such a word exists) as the original blog is here. I put a clone here when .mac was misbehaving and also because this one has tags and therefore throws up interesting Google search results (I even had ‘Matthew Wilson Naked’ the other day). My .me blog is never found by search engines (unless they are looking for me) so is therefore more exclusive and seldom stumbled upon.

I have a question for you. (Credit for this goes to my wife, Celestria)

Imagine, if you would, that one sunny morning you were suddenly plucked from your existing garden and plonked into a new one. The transfer was so unexpected (perhaps like this) and so swift that you were only able to take six plants from your existing garden.

So. The question is which six plants would you choose ? Do you go for something big - a favourite cherry or a noble oak? maybe an evergreen to liven up your winter. A rose planted to commemorate an anniversary, a herb without which your cooking would be bland or maybe just a piece of herbaceous fluff which stirs the soul ? Remember these will be the only six plants that you are allowed: your new garden has no access to any nurseries or garden centres. 

What will you choose ? 

These are my half dozen (this is really, really difficult and I have changed my mind so many times - even waking up in the middle of the night muttering about Monardas and hardy geraniums). Clicking on the plant names takes you to larger pictures on Flickr (some of which you may have seen before)

Tulip Ballerina - so many tulips, almost all of them gorgeous but, as I have to choose, I plump for this one. Water ice orange, a waist like Grace Kelly and the faintest scent of velvet glove.

Bupleurum longifolia - Leaves have a slight blue tinge and the singed toffee coloured flowers are so subtle that they seem to only whisper - but such seductive words that the heart melts.

Phlox Blue Paradise - I think these are the very best of the family. A sort of washed denim colour that changes with the light. Almost glows in the looming dusk.

Rosa laevigata Coopers Burmese   - A climbing species rose. Only flowers once (though magnificently) but has fabulous hips , deep reddish purple stems and polished evergreen leaves.

Feijoia sellowiana  - An evergreen silvery leaved shrub for a sheltered corner. I first saw this at the marvellous Stone House Cottage Gardens. The flowers are so exquisite and so extraordinary: like an underwater pincushion (and if my new garden is somewhere warm I will get fruit as well).

Persicaria polymorpha  - An extraordinarily vigorous plant. Rockets from nothing to about eight feet and then over the next six months the white blooms turn into pinkish seedheads and never disappoint.

Quite summer heavy but that’s what floats my boat! it will be interesting to see what people choose.. try it.

Darn it:

What about Beech trees, yew hedges, Alliums, all sorts of Clematis, deep red Roses, winter Honeysuckle, Eryngiums, Penstemons, Pelargoniums, Rudbeckias, Dahlias, Lilies, Helianthus and,especially, all sorts of Verbena and Sanguisorba. Is it too late to change my mind ??

On my last post some of you were very complimentary about a little section of box and Pennisetum (especially Lucy who was particularly polite: the wall is, you will be pleased to hear, incidental). 

I thought it might be interesting to give you another picture of the same garden taken from further back. It is L shaped so the bit where the box lives is superfluous. There is a canal just out of view on the right - picture on the left. The sexy wooden pots come from Oxford Planters the equally sexy furniture from Gaze Burvill.

I am listening to Gran’s For Tea by The View.

That's a huge deal for me.

Today I thought about suggesting a shorter ride, but then I kept thinking,"Dara Torres, Dara Torres." So I told him he could choose the ride.

He said, "You're kidding, right?"

I love riding the tandem behind him. I love that he's in charge, and I don't have to make any decisions.

And now, YOU'RE thinking, "You're kidding, right?"

Nope, I'm not. I love that my only job is to pedal and be nice. I get to enjoy it all without thinking about shifting, starting, stopping and turning. I don't have the wear the nerd mirror on my helmet and call out for cars behind us. Once in a while I will say, "Ummmm, if you chose not to ride 26 miles an hour for a few minutes, that would be ok with me." But otherwise, I'm just along for the ride.

We have a nice loop behind our house, called the Tremont Loop. It goes through farm land and orchards and the halfway point is an old church with a lovely little cemetary. We pass tomatoes, sunflowers, almonds and walnuts. Horses, cows, goats and farm equipment graveyards. A few Victorians and one unfortunate castle-type estate. Putah Creek (twice) and mountains to the east and west. It ends by winding through UC Davis and my new favorite road next to the Mondavi Wine Insitute, Beau Vine Road.

We get to talk, and sometimes we don't.

Today I realized that one of the things I love about the tandem is that I can't look ahead. I can only see side- to-side. Or the shadows below me. But it's usually side-to-side or smack in the middle of Steve's back.

In my real life I never look sideways. I am a straight-ahead gal, and always have the end goal in sight, sometimes to the detriment of the experience itself. Sideways is a new view, and it can be much more interesting than the road in front of me, know what I mean?

I think riding the tandem is one of the nicest things we do. It makes Steve happy, it makes me strong...and it's kind of wonderful to not always be in charge. At least for a short time.

We did loop to the north side of Highway 60 at Sam's suggestion.  They've been riding over there a little and like the fact that there is a little less traffic (both vehicular and cyclists).  The two roads out to Rogersville on the south side of the highway are great, but they can get a little busy, especially if you're wanting to ride two abreast and talk.

Wildlife sighting:  Two young deer at the top of the hill going down the backside of Turners.  They had been eating apples off the trees in someone's yard.

This was basically a nice easy ride...I think we averaged somewhere around 13 mph for the 27.5 miles.  The weather was delightful again, and it was great to see good friends!

God bless...

TW

The trip out was kind of tough.  There was a bit of a wind from the east, and naturally we were fighting it.  The trip back, however, was an entirely different matter, especially that long straight stretch from Strafford back toward town.  That was fun!

We saw a couple flocks of turkeys out by Danforth Cemetary, and as we came up to Pearson Creek on the way home, there was one in the road.  It saw us coming and skittered off to the right and disappeared into the brush, but just as we approached, another flew up out of the ditch on the right.  It's a wonder those things can fly at all.  To see them take off is comical!

For some reason, my quads are still sore from last week.  I kind of felt like I was pushing a little hard yesterday, so that may be part of the reason.  For sure, we didn't do a lot of fast riding last week, but we did a lot of climbing.  I'm guessing that's the cause.

I took great pains this morning to prepare a water bottle before we left, but we somehow still managed to leave it at home.  By the time we got to the convenience store in Strafford, I was pretty dry!  Pam got a candy bar, and claimed on the way home that was the reason she was so happy this morning!

On the way home, we saw Randy Holt out painting his fence and hollered a big "Hi!".

Right at 30 miles for the morning.  Here's the GPS track.

By the way...I noticed that I passed a milestone today.  There have been over 1,000 views to this blog.

God bless...

TW

Well, the good news is that the air mattress didn’t leak after it’s patch job. The bad news is that the tent did. We had a pretty intense thunder storm sometime after midnight that lasted at least a couple of hours. We initially thought the tent held up pretty well….we didn’t find anything wet, and only a small puddle by the door, but when we started packing up and moved the air mattress, we found that we had a flood. This is the last trip for that tent!

Because the morning was cool, damp, and dreary, there was not a lot of incentive for our standard procedure of getting out late. We were on the road by 7:30, and shortly afterward, the rain started again and just stayed around long enough to make it not a fun morning. Even after the rain stopped, it was damp and pretty cold, so we weren’t much interested in taking our time. In addition, there wasn’t really much to see today other than woods on both sides of the road and a beach that it was way too cold to stop and enjoy. We had pretty strong winds off the lake that made it cold when we got near the water and warmer when we got inland, making it hard to stay dressed for comfort.

We reached the end of the ride about 10:00 am, and were one of the first few riders to finish. We quickly grabbed our luggage, threw it in the car, and headed off to our hotel for the night so we could go over to the island. Pam drove, and I rode the tandem alone, prompting the first comments about having someone missing before I got out of the parking lot.

We left the car at the hotel, and caught the noon ferry to Mackinac Island. As soon as we got there, we grabbed a sandwich from a grocery store deli and ate it in the sunshine (yes, it had turned into a gorgeous day while we were on the ferry). After eating, we toured historic Mackinac Fort, then set out for our circle tour of the island by bike.

If you discount the tourists everywhere, the island was pretty cool. No cars are allowed, so the only transportation is by bike or horse drawn carriage/wagon. Bike rentals have run amok on the island, and it’s really hard to get anywhere for all the families/little kids/people who haven’t ridden a bike in years not knowing how to safely ride on a path or street.

We managed to complete our island tour by bike, then decided to take a horse drawn tour. It was OK, but a little anti-climatic. We enjoyed it, but was a little longer than it needed to be.

After dinner, we took the ferry back to the mainland and rode a couple of blocks back to the last light house of the trip. After getting it’s picture, we headed back to our hotel and a much deserved rest….and got a flat tire on the way. It was flat when we got up the next morning.

Well, we did have our first flat this morning….sometime after midnight, we woke up on the ground. Our air mattress definitely had a hole in it. After breakfast, we aired it up again, found the hole and put a bicycle tire patch on it. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for tonight.

What with playing around with the air mattress, we didn’t get out of camp this morning until 8:30. We were definitely one of the last few out.

About 10 miles into the ride this morning, the regular route had a lake crossing on a ferry, and an alternate route added another 8.8 miles by circling the lake. We opted to circle the lake, in spite of being told that it was kind of hilly. We stopped at a convenience store in East Jordan, which was at the very tip of the south arm of Lake Charlevoix.

After rejoining the route, our next stop of the day was in Boyne City, which is at the very tip of the main arm of Lake Charlevoix. We stopped at a bakery to sample their goods, and while we were setting in the sun enjoying them, a gentleman came up to talk. He’s from just outside of Peoria, IL, but in his words, his father had the foresight to buy a house on the lake 75 years ago, and they had managed to keep it in the family since then. He was interested in our ride, and we even learned from him how to go about catching a bat the next time we need to.

We caught up with Linda and Bill (one of the people she rides with) a little before lunch time and planned to meet them in the port city of Petoskey for lunch. After eating, Bill went ahead and Linda, Pam and I walked around town a little, then went over to their pier and enjoyed the sunshine and clear sky for a while. When we finally moved on, we took a bike trail instead of the normal route, and that was a very wise decision because the regular route included a very busy highway.

We stopped at a state park and walked down on the beach a little while before finally making our way into Harbor Springs.. The ride into town was very impressive, as we passed by what seemed like hundreds of what we would call mansions, but were probably only summer and vacation homes of very wealthy folks who were probably “old money” people. I’ve honestly never seen anything quite like it….they were absolutely gorgeous old homes.

Before heading up to the school, we stopped one more time to walk through town, but it was really just a carbon copy of several of the Lake Michigan port towns we’ve passed through in terms of the stores and shops.

Man, today really kicked our tails! The keywords for today were hills and headwinds. Add to that the fact that there weren’t as many places to stop and entertain us, and we were glad to get into camp by 2:30 this afternoon.

A lot of today’s ride wound around two fairly good sized lakes, so the scenery was pretty nice, but consistent with what we’ve been seeing all week. Our first happy diversion was the beginning of sunflower fields about 20 miles from Traverse City. It reminded us of the fields we saw in Hungary several years ago. There was a line of cyclists gathered around the first one taking pictures, so we asked one of the SAG ladies to take ours with the field in the background. She took two, but our silly camera was set to the movie mode, so all we got was a real shaky video. Luckily, Pam snapped a couple other pictures before we moved on.

Just around the corner from the first sunflower field, we came across a fruit stand, where they were selling cherries, apricots, pies, and various other stuff. Pam managed to con a guy out of a couple of apricots from the pint he had bought, and after a lot of hemming and hawing, I bought a pie. The question was, what was I then going to do with the silly thing. My first impression was to eat part of on the spot and share the rest, but there was nothing to cut it with, or even eat it with or on. I managed to borrow a knife from one of the SAG ladies, but after cutting it, we couldn’t get any of the pieces out without totally mangling it, so I sent it ahead of us in the SAG van. At supper tonight, we found it, enjoyed our share, and passed the rest to Linda, Joann, and the Chicago foursome.

The final notable thing from today’s ride was a little cookie stand where three or four high school girls were giving out fresh baked cookies and lemonade. They do it every year, and one of the girls said they did because her older sister used to do the ride.

After supper, we caught a shuttle into Charlevoix, walked around a bit, and then came back to camp. It’s really windy out and almost a little cool. We’re hoping that the wind will die down overnight and give us an easier day tomorrow.

We’re also watching one issue….our air mattress seemed like it lost a lot of air this evening. I’ve re-filled it and we’re hoping for the best tonight.

When we awoke this morning, everything was shrouded with a very thick dew, but it was another gorgeous morning as we hit the road about 8:00. We weren’t the last ones out, but took consolation that we were at least in the last 10-15% to leave. After yesterday’s hard climbs, our lets felt a little heavy for a while, but we eventually loosened up and got in the groove.

Our first stop today was the Point Betsey Lighthouse. It was about a ½ mile off route, so no other riders stopped (at least when we were there) and we had the place to ourselves. It was one of the top two coolest lighthouses we’ve seen this trip, but we were disappointed that it wasn’t open for a tour yet. We were there by 8:30ish, and it didn’t open until 10:30.

After stopping for a drink at a float outfitters down on a little river (some riders took time out for a short float, but we passed on that one), we continued down the road to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore. The big attraction there was the chance to climb some honking big sand dunes. Our hope was that we could climb to the top and get a view of Lake Michigan (1 ½ miles away), but it wasn’t to be. We climbed to the top of the dune, and I’ll be darned if there wasn’t another ridge in the distance. Not wanting to give up, we continued climbing and finally topped that one to find that there was yet another that we would have to climb. At that point, we gave it up because it was getting pretty hot up there, and climbing in the sand was a lot of work! By the time we made it down, our bare feet were complaining, and Pam actually had several small blisters on her feet and toes.

The National Park Service has a maritime museum just a couple of miles from Sleeping Bear, so we found it and took the tour. It was interesting to see the equipment and learn the methods that were used to rescue the crews of grounded ships before the turn of the century. The predecessor of our current day Coast Guard was called the U.S Life Saving Service, and manned rescue stations scattered around the great lakes.

There was about a 10 mile stretch this morning that was an absolutely delightful ride. We had great roads, a lot of winding around small lakeshores, and pine forests on both sides.

We had lunch at a small tourist town called Glen Arbor. For the 2^nd time this week, the rides pretty much flooded the town at lunch time, and overwhelmed both the locals and the tourists. The waitress tried, but you could tell that she was at her wits end…they even ran out of drink glasses. It’s interesting the perspective you get on these trips. We’ve been through a lot of tourist towns, and every one has been marked by horrible traffic. My eyes were opened today to what America has become when we overheard a tourist lady telling her friend that she would love to go to a shop, but that there wasn’t anyplace to park. The sad thing is that the shop she was talking about was within eyesight…not more than 3 blocks down the road. Our cyclists might be a motley, rough looking lot, but at least we can walk three blocks down the road if we want to.

After lunch, we started climbing again. The entire distance between Glen Arbor and Traverse City was one long climb like another. Nothing really steep, just a long constant grind at 4-6% that goes on forever, with some long downhills thrown in for good measure. There was one that I was comfortable letting the tandem run, and we topped out at just over 40 mph. Several other times, I used the brakes to keep us down under 30 mph, and by the end of the day, I could tell that I had just about fried the rear disk. Luckily, it has adjusters so you can compensate for wear, so after we got to camp tonight I tweaked it in a little bit so it should be better tomorrow.

Instead of eating the tour meal, Pam and I decided to walk downtown in Traverse City and eat out. We chose a nice Italian place, and topped it off with Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.

As we were sitting down to recap our day, Stellie and Ron stopped by to visit. They are two of the 4 from Chicago. We found that they were actually high school sweethearts who were re-united after nearly 40 years. We also found out that Stellie had a bad bike accident 4 years ago and was in a coma for over a month. Pam was amazed that she was back on the bike, but I found their story to be very inspiring. We traded e-mail addresses, and I hope to hear from them again.

After last night’s storm, we were very pleased to not have any more rain during the night, and this morning dawned clear. The first 23 miles of today’s ride not very scenic….just a bunch of farmland. The problem was that most of the roads in the county had been washed out in a super storm in June, so we had to be rerouted inland.

Our first real stop of the day came at Manistee, where we stopped to look at their lighthouse. As we were cycling back to the route, we stopped at a little snack stand for some really bad lemonade, but while we were there, we walked over to the fish cleaning building, where a guy was just finishing up with his catch. He had a huge tub of salmon fillets, but he said three got away and that he would have had a good catch if he could have landed them. After spending so much for salmon fillets at home, we were really impressed by his tub of them.

We stopped at a little historical museum, housed in the old waterworks building. It was really just a bunch of antiques, but there were some interesting things to see. Lots of stuff that was fishing and logging related, and not the kind of antiques you see around Springfield.

As we were leaving the museum, we noticed a bad thump-thump coming from the front tire. We looked and found that we had developed a bad knot on it from the cords splitting. Just as we were about to dial the SAG for help, Pam had the wisdom to ask a passerby if there was a bike shop in town. Would you believe it was just two blocks away? How lucky can we get? If you’re going to ruin a tire, you might as well do it where you can get another.

After buying a new front tire and having it installed, we went across the street to a little bar & grill for lunch. We’ve both been having a good time trying the local fish, and today’s red fish sandwich was excellent. The secret about the red fish, is that it’s really white fish with some hot spices added to it, but it was deep fried to perfection.

After lunch, we pedaled 10 miles to the town of Onekama, where the local Methodist ladies were serving lunch. Since we had already eaten, we stopped for dessert! We both left so full that we felt bad, but it was pretty good stuff.

The last 20 miles were very interesting to us…and hard riding. There were three hills, that just absolutely went on forever. The biggest was called Arcadia hill, and it actually had some grades of 14%. We had to stand for a long time to get over the steeper parts, but we were rewarded with a watermelon stop about ¾’s of the way up. There was a scenic overlook that required climbing quite a few steps, but the view was wonderful. It would have been even better if there hadn’t been a bit of haze out over Lake Michigan. We’ve really never encountered hills like these. At home, we get steep, but short. These went on and on. Pam clocked one at two miles and another at 1 ¾ miles. The rides down would have been really fast, but there was enough wind blowing that I wasn’t comfortable letting the tandem run out without braking quite often. I never let it exceed 35 mph, and keeping it at that speed really punished the brakes.

After pitching our tent in Frankfort, we rode down to the beach to see their lighthouse. The beach was just too inviting, so decide to go ahead and get wet. After riding that far today, the water felt really good. We have been surprised at how crystal clear the lake is. It’s too cool for Pam to get more than her feet wet, but I got all the way under and it felt great.

We went back into town, got a drink from the convenience store (they call them party stores here) and sat in the park watching the boats come and go.

We were really thankful that we brought the Prius. For the first tank of gas, we averaged 54.8 mph! Wow! That sure beats the 16-19 we would have gotten in the truck.

After that first tank, the mileage went down a little, but we still arrived in Mackinaw City with an overall average MPG of 53.0.