Things That Make You Tuffer

As we were recovering from today's short, but miserable ride, Alex pointed out that we were stronger today than we were yesterday because we had a miserable ride, even though, in his opinion, today's ride wasn't as character building as that one from Mio to Harrisville.

 Alex's philosophy doesn't seem to extend to encounters with spiders. We stayed at a quiet campground in Cheboygan last night after a perfect day of riding from Rogers City. The campground in Cheboygan was much smaller, and it was the first place we've stayed where no one has spoken to us. The residents didn't come out of their big, fancy motor homes except maybe to let their little dogs out, and the weather was beautiful, so???  The first thing we always do after a long day of riding is hit the showers, and here's where Alex was accosted by a menacing gang of spiders. The "big one" seemed to be the leader. It waited for him in various places (dangling above his head in the doorway, just to welcome Alex, it seemed), and sometimes gathered its minions for an even more impressive display of power.

I think Alex was pretty happy to leave that campground, even though we left in cold rain. Our goal was to make it to Petoskey today, which would have been about 48 miles. But the rain never slowed, and the temperatures never rose. 18 miles in, we stopped at a gas station, soaked and chilled to the bone, water pooling in our shoes. David kept checking with us along the route to see if we were ok or miserable. In that situation, what can you say other than okay? It's not like we could just call off the ride. I was reluctant to get back on the bike, but the plan was to ride six more miles and stop for lunch. I changed into a dry shirt and pulled on an extra pair of pants.

Six miles later, we arrived in Indian River, where David suggested we get a hotel room, order pizza, and save Petoskey for tomorrow. He got no arguments from us. I was thinking along the way that I would suggest never riding on days like today again, ever. You really need warm, waterproof gear to do that. And people who want to ride on days like this, well, nobody likes them.

So far we haven't encountered any spiders here, but I have some good ideas about how to help Alex build someone character in the future.

Tomorrow we're off to Petoskey to the hotel we always end up in after bad weather rides to Petoskey. Stay warm and dry, everyone!