On a Scale from One to Leper Colony...

Fueled by peanut butter and jelly and ibuprofen, we left early for Alpena this morning, and we made it there in record time with no flat tires. We arrived at the bicycle shop in plenty of time, got a puncture resistant tire and a heavy duty inner tube for my bike along with some more spare inner tubes. The owner of the shop also worked on my bike's alignment, so now it doesn't get all squirrelly on me at higher speeds. The moral of the story? Take your bikes in to the mechanic for a checkup before you go for a big ride.

It was a perfect  ride between Harrisville and Alpena. There were some huge hills in the first 16 miles out of Harrisville, just in case you're interested in riding this route, but we survived these without having to stop and push the bikes up, and the rest of the ride was pretty flat. As excited as we were about our pace, in the distance I noticed the skies darkening. Since I've started writing this, they've opened up, and we've huddled into the tents. It'll be a rainy night, but at least it isn't cold.

On a scale from one to leper colony, I'd score this campground a solid "People of Walmart." Everyone needs a vacation, I suppose. The campground is populated with strange, irritable children with fallen faux hawks and some long-bearded guys in overalls I think I recognize from Bugs Bunny. Even some of the dogs are a little off.

I overheard some people solving a math problem that seemed appropriate for the venue. "There's only two beers in here." "Well that means twenty-two  of 'em's gone."

The neighboring camper came over to talk about biking while we set up camp. He's here with a big church group this weekend and invited us to join them later for some singing. Alex wanted to respond with, "You'll definitely hear my voice stand out. I like to think of myself as a modern day Frankie Valli." I'm mostly glad he didn't say this to a stranger.

Tomorrow we set out, hopefully not in the rain, to a new destination. I'm feeling confident in my improved ride. By the way, for my visual friends, I am unable to upload my pictures to blogger from my iPhone (I thought I had this worked out), so I'll be adding pictures when we get home. Meanwhile, I'll continue sharing pictures on FB.

Screw it! We'll just walk!

My tire was flat this morning after David filled it up yesterday afternoon, so he changed the inner tube. In the process, he discovered that my tire was in bad shape, and I'd need a new one. The closest bike shop would be in Alpena, where we plan to go tomorrow. Nothing to do but take our chances. 

Today's ride took us through Huron National Forest, miles of winding roads through beautiful country. We had a good 20 miles of quiet riding with very little traffic to interfere with the sounds of gears and crickets and birds. This is my favorite kind of riding.

Unfortunately, sometimes on  quiet rides there is nowhere to stop along the way, so when we ran out of water and became hot and thirsty, there were no businesses on our route where we could refill the water bottles. There was also no place to stop for lunch (don't worry- I made sandwiches). I kept hoping there would be somewhere to stop for water just over the next hill, but nothing ever materialized (thanks a lot, optimism!). Finally, we pulled over, and Alex used the water from the melted ice in the cooler to give us each a little more to drink. 

The first half of the ride, as I said, was fantastic. The Au Sable River would appear intermittently through the trees, sometimes with pasty white canoeists paddeling shirtless, sunning themselves like albino turtles. I haven't investigated yet how many Bigfoot sightings there have been in the Huron National Forest, but it seemed to me a great place for a Squatch to hide, along with his moonshine still. It had everything a moonshining Squatch would need: tree cover, a fresh water source... Why wouldn't he do this? What else does he have to do? And I'm pretty sure he would know how to deal with shirtless canoe people. 

We took more frequent breaks as the miles dragged on. About 1 1/2 miles outside of Harrisville, David got a flat tire.  Alex and I to went on into town to find something cold to drink while he pushed his bike in to change the flat. When a passing stranger outside the  grocery store asked us about our bikes, I explained our situation and asked him where to find a place to stay as we'd had kind of a bad day and didnt feel like setting up camp. That's when Alex noticed my tire was flat. Seeing we were in a tight spot, the stranger offered to take David to Kmart 15 miles away if necessary to purchase more inner tubes. 

After the patch work on the dead inner tubes didn't appear to be going so well, David gave the man a call from the hotel room we found to make life a little easier tonight.    I guess the only bad thing about staying here is that there is nowhere to wash laundry close by. I asked the owner if there wre facilities here, but she said no and proceeded to give directions to a laundromat. "It's only a mile," she said. "You could walk or ride your bike." True, but not what you want to hear after a lot of tough miles. I thanked her anyway but didn't explain. She probably thinks I'm lazy and rude because I may have rolled my eyes when she said it was only a mile. 

Tomorrow we set out early for Alpena to get to a bike shop before it closes at noon. At least that's the plan. 

Meanwhile, after David took his trip to Kmart, we were finally able to go out for a good meal. PBJ and bananas are great, but we needed some better fuel for our empty tanks. 

PS: the inner tubes David picked up are too big for our bikes. Let's hope the patch work he's done on the old one holds for the ride tomorrow. Also, Alex says he knows where we went wrong today and has suggested that when we are riding uphill in the future, we should push down harder on the pedals so we can go faster. What a scientist! 

Smokers Help Prevent Fires

After shivering through a long night in our tents, we briefly considered trying to rent a heated cabin at our next campground, but since the weather was fine otherwise, we decided to wait for an emergency that involved precipitation before caving in to pamper ourselves.

At the campground we departed this morning, a sign which read, "Smokers Help Prevent Fires" was painted at the top of a receptical for discarded cigarettes, proving once again that commas are kind of important. I would think about this message later in the day as we road past miles of skeleton trees charred black and gray from forest fire. Apparently the smokers failed to do their job.

Another sign at that campground read,  "No Animals in Bathroom." I'm not sure if this was intended to ease my mind before entering, or if it could be taken as a reason for the absence of goats.

There wasn't much of note along our 52.5 mile ride today. Some days are like that. You just keep pushing the pedals through landscape reminiscent of one of those old Very Brady Vacation shows. That's not to say it was an easy ride.

After obsessing over the weather reports last night, I was convinced that we wouldn't be dealing with any wind today, but a strong, cold headwind and hills slowed our progress all day.  We also changed our route after discovering one of our roads was a dirt road (our history with dirt roads is bad, but Alex suggested we try it anyway). Once we realized it was a mistake and turned around, Alex pointed out, rather eloquently, that the problem with optimism is that sometimes it screws you over. This was definitely true when it came to my belief that there would be no wind today.

16 mikes into the ride:
Me: Hey, David, how long before we turn and head east? (I was frustrated with the headwinds coming out of the north. Once we turned, I figured the wind would no longer be a problem.)
David: Roscommon is 22 miles in. We'll get sandwiches there.
Me: Yeah, but... Okay.

Communication can be challenging on a ride.

The winds were worse after we turned east, so nevermind.

Also, my tire went flat at some point, but David filled it with air at a place we stopped, and it seemed to hold for the last 7 miles of the ride.

Now Alex is icing an aching knee, and I am trying to rehydrate. It's ironic that the guy who gets the least exercise throughout the year is the one who currently has the most energy. Perhaps we should all follow his example and quit exercising so we can save all of that energy to put into a single bike tour.

Tonight we camp in Mio, a town which I can only assume was named after its founder's favorite cat.

We Were Wearing Stretchy Pants Before It Was Cool

We learned a couple things from last year's bike trip, but most importantly we learned how miserable it can be to ride in the cold. To prevent suffering, David and I both have added long stretchy pants to our riding wardrobe. Alex doesn't need them as his legs come equipped with thick fur. The day started out in the 40's and wasn't much warmer by the time we began our short ride from Cadillac to Houghton Lake. We were thankful for the extra warmth.

There are plenty of nice campgrounds up here in Northern MI. To make themselves more competitive, Camp Cadillac has a unique feature - goats. One can purchase goat feed for them and feed them over the fence. This is likely very popular among the camper and motor home people when their grandchildren come to visit. Sadly, our new campground is goat free. We should probably advise the manager about this clever, and noticeably missing, attraction so that the oversight can be corrected quickly.

Camp Cadillac also had Bob, the retired guy who said he came over to help us get our campfire going better, but I really just think he was bored. In a Stephen King novel, Bob would play the part of the good-natured and well-meaning  but quirky bystander.

I wasn't quick enough to capture many photos from today's short 35.5 mile ride, but I can fill in a couple details to help paint a picture of where we have traveled. I failed to notice a dead bird next to a bottle of whiskey on the side of the road (David told me about it too late for pictures, and out of respect for the poor bird's friends and family, I should probably not post its grizzly demise if I had photographic evidence - just remember the warning that the picture should have delivered.) In another place along the way, I did notice a sign advertising fresh "minure" for sale, so if you were looking... Along Houghton Lake Road, we came upon 8 Mile Road, where we paused briefly for an epic rap battle (never before had this been accomplished by anyone in stretchy pants). Otherwise, it was an uneventful ride, and those are the best kind.

When we arrived at our new campsite, a family in the adjacent site, who was nearly finished packing for its departure, gawked at us and asked lots of silly questions. How do you ride so far? Where's your tent? Where's your food? We have two cars for all that stuff. Mostly, I think they were in awe of our stretchy pants. They probably went right out to buy their own after they left. I am happy for them. 

Cardinal Rules

There are things you just shouldn't do. You don't say Macbeth in the theater. You don' tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. And you absolutely do NOT brag about having perfectly functioning tires on a bike ride. Alex did this yesterday, and no matter how we warned him, he kept doing it.

"Hey, we haven't even had one flat tire on this trip."

"Shhh! Don't talk about it, Alex."

Then later, "I can't believe we haven't had any flat tires on this whole trip!"

"Seriously, you're going to jinx us."

4.5 miles into the ride today, guess who had a flat tire. Fortunately it was a quick fix, and we had no further mechanical problems. The Universe pays attention to these things. As soon as you start to feel too good about something, as soon as you get a little too proud, the Universe levels things right back off. This is abundantly obvious on a bike. If you've had the luxury of coasting down hills all day, you'll be sure to pay for it with some climbs. If you've been climbing tough hills, you'll most likely be rewarded with some downhill. Unless you're in northern lower MI.

We told Alex  the flat was his fault, but he isn't accepting responsibility. He figures if he had upgraded Kevlar lined tires like ours, there would have been no problem. Of course he also blames David for the winds today. "Hey, it looks like the winds have finally calmed down." Ahem. The Universe was listening.

David often says about cycling that you just have to take what the day gives you. Today was a good day to keep that in mind. We had a little bit of almost everything to deal with while riding, including a busy, bumpy road with no shoulder, strong winds, hills, and of course, one flat tire. On the bright side, we did manage to outride a storm we saw coming. Those dark clouds were headed north while we were headed south.  Another bright spot was the miraculous recovery of David's knee. He had no trouble today.

I find that riding against the wind and climbing steep hills makes it difficult to relax. My upper body tenses up and exacerbates my neck problems. So I rode in a lot of pain today. If you are thinking of taking up distance riding, and you are young, I would recommend you start before you develop such problems as bone spurs and arthritis. I may need to take more permanent action at some point with my neck issues so that I can ride more comfortably.

I think they were expecting us to sing or play some jazz...

 As it was, I had developed a pretty bad attitude during the first 17 miles or so. Then we stopped to take David's picture in front of the "welcome to Denmark" sign, and some cows wandered out to the roadside to say hello. That improved my mood. (Mooood) Usually the pain comes later in the ride. I went from feeling regret just yesterday that the trip was almost over to counting the miles to the finish line today. Just as a watched pot never boils, counted miles never seem to increase. But eventually we did find our way into Manitowoc and a hotel. There is a hot tub here calling my sore muscles, and I'm thinking I've earned it today.

After 534 miles, not counting whatever riding we did in TC to get our laundry done, we are finished with this particular trip, our longest to date carrying the most equipment on our bikes at once. I'm pretty proud to have made it all the way here. I have been saying this is our first long unsupported trip, but I have to admit there's been support waiting in the wings the entire time. My parents have been prepared to come and fetch us if ever things got too messy, and that knowledge has been a great comfort. I'm glad it wasn't necessary, and now we can enjoy visiting them on our way back to reality. Or from reality. I haven't quite decided which is more true. It's been a great break from the ordinary, that's for sure.

Pretty sweet ride, huh?

Go drink some water and jump on a bike! As for us, we'll be on the SS Badger tomorrow afternoon crossing Lake Michigan to get back to our car.

Civilized Places Don't Let Their Turkeys Go Just Anywhere

Even the sign is shaped like cheese!

After a painful ride for David yesterday, we decided that we would reroute our trip once more to make the path to Manitowoc more direct. Today we find ourselves in Green Bay with one day of riding remaining instead of two.  Although we believe he's dealing with some tendonitis in his knee, David rode today's 57.6 miles like a boss. He's icing it up while we wash the laundry. Now that it's warmed up into the 80's, our laundry seems to be even more stinky than before.

The roads along our Wisconsin route are nice and flat so far, but we were still fighting a strong wind for much of the ride. While we still haven't seen any bears, we did witness a turkey wandering around town in Marinette, and outside of town a couple of ostriches saw us coming and started sprinting toward the road. I wondered what they would do if they didn't have a fence to keep them in. If I could've tossed a tow rope around one...

Unlike riding through the UP, we had less trouble locating "civilization" today, although the increased amount of McDonald's debris along the roadsides isn't really all that civilized. Almost halfway through the ride, we found ourselves in a little town right about the time we were ready for lunch, so we located a generic family restaurant, and decided to give it a try. I've gotten used to the strange looks people give sometimes when we walk in wearing stretchy shorts, but the problem with every small town diner we've entered is that there is nothing healthy to eat there. I've definitely consumed some unhealthy fuel while traveling, and it's reminded me why I choose not to eat so many of those food items any more. If you are a vegetarian or a vegan, there aren't many options out there, particularly in small towns.


Tonight we're trying out a vegan/vegetarian restaurant, so we'll hit the road tomorrow hopefully feeling less sluggish. I have just been informed that Manitowoc is only 37 miles away. So tomorrow should be easy, right?

Menominee: Oh, man, my knee?

Today is the first day we haven't needed our jackets to ride. The heat that's been plaguing the lower part of the state is finally creeping up to us, and it's a good thing because we're camping tonight, and I don't want to be cold anymore.  It was a 56.5 mile ride from Escanaba to a campground in Menominee, and while the terrain was nice and flat, we had a headwind today which only got worse as we progressed through the miles.

It was thirty miles into the ride before we came across a gas station/restaurant. Having looked ahead, we knew this would be the case. See ? Remember what I told you about riding in the UP? We were prepared just in case with PBJ and granola bars. There's nothing you can do, however, about a headwind, even when you know it's coming.

David is having trouble with his knee today, so that made the ride tougher for him. Hopefully he'll feel better with some ice and ibuprofen tonight so he won't be in pain riding tomorrow. We'll see. On the bright side, after watching that crazy guy walk across the Grand Canyon last night, this seems pretty easy. It's all about perspective.

I took no pictures today, so you'll just have to imagine a road with trees on either side, occasionally some houses, and occasionally a nice view of Lake Michigan. With sunshine and some clouds. There. Now you know what it looked like.

Tomorrow we're headed to Shawamo, Wisconsin. At least I think this is true. Alex is all excited about the prospect of cheese and has suggested that vegans may be against the law there because there will be cheese on everything, but I know he just wants to eat cheese. I think we've ridden about 430 miles now. Three more days of riding are left. Stay hydrated, people.