2 rides in one posting

  May 17, 2013

2 rides, with in 3 days, plus working and getting the living room put back together, have put me behind on the blog, so I'll be doing a 2 in one posting today.

May 15, 2013
 We had a short day at work, were happy to come home and go for a late afternoon ride to church and back.  Temps were in the 70's, so we needed sunscreen and shorts. Fields are plowed and the manure trucks are busy hauling liquid manure.  Several zoomed by  as we pedaled past a man mowing his lawn, and another sawing lumber for a remodel he was working on.  Seagulls were dancing across the sky as the  red wing black birds "conch-a-ree" drifted from the marsh,  making our miles pleasant.

We stopped and talked to Pastor and his oldest daughter, as he got the mail at his house. He told us he was going morel mushroom hunting with a friend, and promised me, that if he did well, he would share.  My mouth has been watering for quite sometime for some morels, so I hope the Lord blesses this mushroom hunt greatly.

At church we took a break, and refilled our water bottles.  Not wanting to sit on the trike with my knees bent, I walked around and took a few pics while Tony rested his legs and ate his granola bar.

The apple trees are in full bloom.  I hope this is an indicator of a bounty crop in the fall.

Looks like we still have a pretty good supply of firewood to be used in our firewood ministry.

 People who need firewood but are unable to purchase it, or cut their own, contact Love INC, (Love In the Name of Christ,) and if they live in our area,  someone from our church will deliver the firewood to them.  Many folks around here, heat with wood in the winter, so it is a vital ministry for our community.  Some  have dead trees they want removed, call our church, and donate the wood to us, if we will take the tree down. It's a win, win, for all.

The flag was flying at half mast to honor service men or women, in our state who have been killed in the line of duty.  It does my heart good to see appreciation of those who give the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

Our church is built on the site of the old Dighton School house. The school house was unsafe and had to be demolished.   In order to preserve the history of this important landmark,  our church had a tower built to house the bell from the school house.

On our way home, we went past 2 dogs, that were rather comical, friends.  A black lab and a chihuahua.  The lab was the leader, with the little one at his heels.  When they saw us, the pip squeak started to give chase, but when his buddy didn't join in,  and unable to impress him, he gave it up.

Our 16 mile ride tonight, will  hopefully, help us meet our mileage goal of 80 miles this week.  We hope to get a long ride in on Friday.  Might bring our camper up to Northport, if we can get someone to cut  up the  dead tree, lying on the ground, in our way. I am so far behind on everything at the house, that I will not be broken hearted, if this doesn't take place. I need the time to get caught up.

May 17, 2013

My sister and her hubby, who live out of state, are coming for a short visit next week.   We are looking forward to spending time with them.   Will do some antiquing, and hit some Memorial Day weekend, garage sales.  What we won't be doing is  riding. They aren't cyclist, so we knew that today would be our last day to a long ride for at least a week.  We wanted to have our mileage for the week above 80.  Temps last night were below freezing, so it took the day awhile it to start warming up.  It was drizzling, but the forecast last night said today would have passing showers, so we waited until 10:30 AM, before heading off.  It was cloudy, 61 degrees, with a few drops of rain falling now and then.  The route today was to ride past church, then keep going up the newly resurfaced TV tower rd, (that's what the locals call it, since it is where the TV tower is located.)  and then ride into Cadillac, and take the trail home.  This would give us a 43 mile ride, our longest so far this season.

This was the first time I have worn my arm and leg warmers that I got on sale for 6 bucks a pair.  Tony didn't want me to order any for him, so he was riding bare legged.  Not as many layers on this ride, but enough, to hopefully enough keep us warm.  I had a short sleeved cycling shirt, my arm warmers, a long sleeved cycling shirt, and my wind jacket on. My rain gear was in the pannier.  Tony layered up too.

The drops eased off after a mile or 2,  my leg warmers, kept m legs toasty warm.  I should have bought some of these, years ago, they are great.  Poor Tony had to listen to me go on and on about them, for several miles.

Took our usual break at church, then headed up to TV tower hill.  For those of you who haven't been following my blog for very long I'll do a bit of back tracking here and give some history.

Michigan is a state that was formed by glaciers.  The glaciers came from Canada and as they moved, they carved out our great lakes, our flat farmland, and the hills that surround the area where Tony and I live.  The highest place in the lower peninsula of MI is about 10 miles from where we live.  It is known by the locals, as TV tower hill, because it is where TV 9 &10 is located.

On top of TV tower hill is a place called Grove Hill.  For many years I thought it was named that because there was a grove of pine trees there.  But it is named after George Grove, who was deeded the land as part of a homestead in 1873.  The Grove family were among the first settlers in the Sherman township area. Because of it's commanding views and elevation 0f 1722 feet, it was later used for a fire tower.  It is 1000 feet down to bedrock from Grove Hill.

TV tower road has been in a shameful and dangerous state of disrepair, that has steadily declined.  Last summer we decided it was too dangerous to ride it due to all the pot holes and broken pavement.  This spring, 2 people in our church that travel this road on a regular basis, broke tie rods on their cars, from hitting pot holes and another, blew a tire.  There was much rejoicing, when 2 weeks ago, the road was finally, resurfaced.  Every since then, we have been eager to ride it again.  It takes us a long time to get from the bottom to the top and since it was a cloudy day, we figured it was a good time to take the hill on.  Having mountain drive, which is super low gearing that is engaged by Tony tapping a button with his heel,  makes it so much easier, we just spin our way through the really steep sections, but we go so slow that someone walking, could pass us. We used mountain drive 3  or 4 times before reaching the summit.  We were going to take a break among the pines at Grove Hill, but the mosquitos were having a convention there, so we moved on.  The rain drops started again, at the bottom.  We talked about heading for home, but neither of us wanted to take on what we had just complete so I donned my rain gear, discovering that Tony had not put his in the pannier.  The rain wasn't supposed to last all day, so we decided to go ahead with our itinerary.

This kite meet it's demise in a tree.

The drops changed from sprinkles to a steady rain, but we were far enough from home that we decided to press on.  Tony's wind jacket seemed to be doing an OK job keeping him dry.  We enjoyed the rolling hills as we pedaled to M 115.  

M115 is a very busy road, it has a wide shoulder, but it is still nerve wracking as the big trucks whip past.  Thank goodness we only have to  be on it for a little over 3 miles, before getting to our turn off.  At one point we were going down a hill at a good clip and I could see that the shoulder we were riding on had a drainage curve off to the side, that did a big dip down.  If we hit that at our speed, we would likely flip, so I braked and turned onto the rumble strip.  My side mirror was jarred loose, but other than that we were fine. 

  Having dealt with this same issue on PALM last year, I was prepared. When we reached a spot that gave us enough room to pull over safely, I got out my duct tape and did a quick, temporary, repair job.

My rear gears continue to slip and shift, even when I am not shifting, so when we got into Cadillac our first stop was at the local bike shop.  A quick adjustment, and we were on our way to lunch at Herman's Deli.  There was an awning to park Rollin under, so at least we wouldn't  be greeted by wet seats, upon our return.

Grilled veggie sandwichs and all you can eat soup bar really hit the spot.  The Canadian Cheese, Beer soup was a tasty new experience.  Tony's jacket was very wet, I draped it over 2 chairs to dry out a bit, and went out to the pannier and got him another dry, light weight jacket that was stashed.  By the time we left, his wind breaker had dried quite a bit, so a trip to the laundromat , wouldn't be necessary. We found someone to take our picture before we headed back out into the wet world that stood between us and home.  It would be the last smile on our faces, for quite sometime.

 As we rode down the trail, we were able to get the speed that eludes us going up hills, but the rain continued to come, my dry gloves, soon became wet and the ride turned into something to endure, making  us earn every wet and soggy mile. 

My posting on Facebook, pretty much sums up the rest of the ride, so I will conclude with that.

Dear Weatherman,
Please let me give you a real life definition of a few weather terms. A predicted high of 70 degrees, with occasional showers, means the long bike ride we planned today will move forward as scheduled. Showers indicate that the rain won't be around long, and we bike in quick dry biking gear, so no problem. Showers, are OK. 
Steady rain with temperatures dropping to the 50's by late afternoon, means that we would choose to do other things, rather than go on a long bike ride, that would mean hours and hours in the rain, with soaking wet gloves, and very cold hands. One of us didn't even wear socks, because they don't always dry quickly after a shower. By the time we got home it was 51 degrees. It is not fun to be wet, when it is that cold.
The forecast you gave for today was the first scenario, but ended up being the second. Next time, please be more specific. It will help us be better planners. Thanks. That's all.

Our total mileage for the week was 85 miles. 

Hats and gloves in May.

May 13, 2013

 The saga continues;  my sports medicine doctor referred me to a specialist and told me no more riding until I saw her.  The referral went a bit awry.  First the nurse who wrote it up didn't put "STAT" on it like the doctor instructed, instead he put "ASAP", on the "last" page, so the doctors office that received it didn't see the "ASAP" and didn't make it a top priority.  To complicate things even more, the Dr. I was referred to, took a vacation.  I finally called my sports medicine Dr. to find out why the referring doctor hadn't called me back, and that it when I found the littered trail of confusion that my referral had left behind.  To make a long story short.   I was rewarded  a May 29th  appointment to see the specialist, but still had no answer on whether or not I could  safely ride.  The PALM  final cancellation/refund date of May 15th was quickly approaching.  I finally got someone at the  specialists office to help me, and last Friday I got a call back from her, telling me that the doctor had reviewed my MRI and I could ride without risking further damage to my knee.  I am supposed to let pain be my guide.  not a problem, not a problem  at all.  I'm pretty sure I heard a hallelujah chorus when the words, "you can ride," came through my cell phone.

However, the weather was plotting against me.  A cold front came knocking, and stuck around over the weekend, producing snow on both  Saturday and Sunday.  I had advance notice of this event, thanks to the local weatherman, and  was prepared.  My trip to the home improvement store yielded paint and supplies to repaint our living and dining rooms.  I prepped on Friday, and by Saturday, late morning,(I'm only an early  morning person, when forced to be.)  I was hard at work, trying to see if yellow paint with primer in it, would really cover a darker color.

In my younger days, I would tackle a big project like this and just keep going until it was done, even if that was midnight.  Alas, those days are now behind me.  I quit when my back told me it wasn't happy, and was grateful that my knee had not complained from going up  and down the ladder so much.  I  hope to finish the task on Tuesday.

This morning I spent 2 hours painting, ate a quick 11 O'clock lunch, and got ready to ride.  Temps were in the mid 40's, and mostly cloudy, but are supposed to rise to 55 and sunny by afternoon.  Tony and I each dressed in our biking tights, 4 layers on our upper body, plus hats and gloves. A far cry from how we usually adorn ourselves for mid May riding.  In spite of the cold NW wind,  we were happy to have our feet on the pedals.

Headed into LeRoy, destination;  the White Pine Trail. No billy goats grazing around the barn, as we rode up 2 dog hill, not even any dogs to run along the fence line, as we rode past.   The clouds were a mix of small white puffs that slowly stretched out into long dirty rags across the sky.  As we rode on,  more blue sky began to appear between them.  The trail was begging for riders, and we were happy to oblige.

Stopped and talked to some horses.  The young Sorrel was quite curious, coming up to the fence to check us out several times.  The others, mostly ignored us.

As we rode on, cedars perfumed the air.  I spied a small patch of trillium, far back in the woods,  too far away to get a good picture.  2 cyclist rode past us, going the opposite direction.  We found a nice pine forest.  The gate had given up it's guard, so I ventured in.

 I am amazed at how a pine forest grows as if someone came in and planted the trees in straight rows.  (did they?)   I didn't have to get very far in before the silence engulfed me.

 We took a break, nearby,  welcoming the warmth of the sun, which was shining more often, now.

Across the trail was a house with a bright blue roof.  I wonder if they got a new one last fall?  I don't remember seeing that house there before, but with the blue metal glinting in the sun, it's hard to miss now.

2 more miles passed under our tires before we turned around.  No turtles crossed the trail, but I did see a red tailed hawk, patrolling for prey. By now blue skies prevailed and the sun felt warm and wonderful. Tony shed his gloves, but I kept mine on.

Rollin seems to be in good shape, but is still missing his rear mud flap.  I need to figure out if I can use the one I salvaged from our old fenders, or will I need to order a new one.  Having a compass is nice,  we'll probably appreciate it more when we are riding in unfamiliar places.

Not warm enough to warrant an ice cream stop today, plus we didn't really have time, since we had 3 massage clients coming this evening,  had to be home early to have supper and take a quick shower. We ate an apple as we rode,  put off  the temptation to explore this trail into the woods,

and stopped in LeRoy, for a little rest, before tackling the 4 miles of hills, to home

   My knee was hurting some,  walking around a bit seemed to help, and soon we were on our way.  Our odometor showed a total of 26 miles ridden today, and we enjoyed every single one of them. I love how things change so quickly this time of year.  Each day God awakens something new.  

May 6, 2013

Still grounded from riding, but trying to make the best of it.  If you are wanting to read about one of our rides, you might want to skip this one.

Today was sunny and in the low 70's.  We rearranged our schedule a bit, and headed up to Northport to start clearing the lots we purchased last fall.  A chainsaw wielding friend was unable to go with us, due to  health issues.  We were armed with shovels, rakes,  hand saws, and yard gloves.  Our main foe was raspberry bushes, and plenty of them.

After battling them for about an hour, and realizing that I should have brought pruning shears along, I headed to the local supply store and bought some.

After a little break, we were back at work.

Tony went to work with the saw, cutting what small trees and branches that he could, but it was obvious that some were too big for him to conquer.

 Our goal is to clear a semi circle, so we have an easy in and out with the camping trailer, and the cargo trailer.  This is part of the drive thru.  The less backing up the better.

50 feet back is where the camper will be.

In addition to my share of cutting canes, I also hauled them to an open spot, where they were thrown to await a fiery fate..

They did not want to give up the claim on this land, but we were determined to win.  Tony attacked with the saw, while I persistently kept after them with the pruners.  One by one they fell. Some didn't give up the ghost easily and others grabbed my ankles with their  spiked trendiles  as I walked by.  The tough guys fought me all the way to the death pile, wrapping thorned arms around to my back, latching onto my sweat pants, and drawing blood from my arms.

 Our original plan was to do some work, then stop and take a walk, but our energy was used up before the work at hand was completed.  We have the spot for the trailer about 3/4  ready.  Our Northport  neighbor is going to cut the downed trees for us, so we will be able to get our camper in.  Then we can get keep at it bit by bit.

The sandwich shop in Northport was closed, so after packing up, we stopped in Sutton's Bay and had supper at VI

Across the street there is a n old telephone booth, that has tourist info posted inside.

Next to that, is a colorful art gallery.

On the way back to the car we came across this.

Todays adventure didn't occur on a ride, but until we can ride again,  this project will keep us busy.

A Social Ride

Monday, April 29, 2013

Spring is really here and we have good riding weather to prove it.  Starting temp at 10 AM  was  52 degrees, when we finished our ride a few hours later it was 71 degees.   Our route of choice today was to head to LeRoy and then ride the trail.  Rain was predicted for later this afternoon' so we were hoping to complete  this ride with out getting wet.

With blue skies as a backdrop, we pedaled our way into LeRoy, and got on the White Pine trail.  The trail was in good shape.  Glad to see the snowmobiles didn't tear it up too bad over the winter.

Before we hit the trail we stopped at the library, had a nice little visit there.   On the way  back to the trike we encountered a "looky loo" who had lots of questiobns about Rollin.  "Yes, it is comfortable to ride., "The shifting is here, and I steer like this."  "Yes we both pedal at the same time, but they do make tandems where each person can pedal separately. It's called  an independent peddling system or IPS "  We bought ours used in WI, but there is a company called Terra Trike that makes them in Grand Rapids MI.  They make single tikes too.""Bye,  you have have a good day too."  The trail was calling,  so off we went.  Rollin was glad for a flat  place to get rid of the  rest of his winter cobwebs.

My knee was bothering me, both of them actually, but nothing unbearable.  Warm enough to wear  shorts today along with sunscreen,  and after a few miles we shed our jackets.  Blue knee sleeves,  adorned my legs,  inviting a tan line.

Rode through Tustin  and beyond.   We are getting used to the sound of the new tires. At a good clip, the hum starts and Tony says,  "The engine is revving up." Nice  to have the steering so responsive once again.  It really needed greasing.

Found evidence of the beavers labor.   Looks like they got interrupted before they finished getting this tree down.   They are so programed to build.

 Had a beaver pond and a lodge, to prove it.

With an occasional cloud scutting across the sky, it didn't look like rain, even though Tony's I-phone said there was a 30 percent chance.   We were debating which route to take home.  18 Mile has more hills,  and would take us longer, so we decided to stay on the White Pine.  Met a couple on the trail,  strolling along, enjoying the nice weather.  We stopped to visit a bit, and put the camera to use..

 A few miles further we met another triker named Mark.  He is a retired teacher.   It's pretty unusual to see other trikes on the trail, so a chat was in order.  He zooms along at a good clip, due to his speed drive.  Has his brakes and shifter on one side of his trike because he has physical limitations with an arms and shoulder.  Great set up.

He hadn't ridden a tandem before,  and I had never experienced a speed drive, so he went for a little spin with Tony, while I took his trike for a ride.   The speed drive really gives his trike some juice.  Going as fast as he does, he can cover greater distances than we do on Rollin, and in a shorter time period.  He rides mostly paved rails to trails paths.  I can see why he likes the speed drive.  It kicks in and out, the same way our mountain drive does, very easy to use.  When he and Tony took off, he said he could feel the power of having a stoker right away.  On a tandem, a stoker is the one that starts the trike.   Having that power behind me,  I'm not used to doing the power pedal push it takes to get a single trike started,  so Mark gave me a little push and off I went. Even though he was taller than I, the pedals on his trike felt too close for me.  My bum knee, along with the other one, didn't like the set up.  I think we were all glad to get our own ride back, but it was fun for all of us to experience something different,  the enjoyment of talking trike with someone, made it all,  better yet.

My experiments at self photography continue.  Tony wasn't ready for this one.  More laughs to follow in future blogs.

A few miles past Tustin there is a country house with a nice little pond.  It's hard to get a good picture when the trees are fully leafed, so I took advantage of leafless foliage, and stopped for a Kodak opportunity.

By the time we got home, my knee was very unhappy.  I've experienced more pain,  but it sure took my knee a long time to forget that it had been asked to put in some riding today.  It knows how to hold a grudge.

There was no shortage of people to talk to on this adventure, and each visit made our 23 mile ride, more memorable. Hoping the trees will be leafing by our next ride.  They are ripe with buds, just waiting for a  few warm days in a row, to begin unfolding their  new spring leaves.

A few days after this ride I got a call from my sports medicine doctor, telling me not to ride until I get into to see Dr. Danielle for a 2nd opinion.  He said riding with the sleeves will only make my knee worse. I told him that I couldn't get in to see Dr. D until May 29.  He said he will do his best to get that appointment moved up.

Things aren't looking very promising for our PALM ride. It feels so wonderful to ride again, my feet feel good, if only I could get my knee to settle down.  At this point I'm not sure it can do 50 miles, much less 50 miles day after day.  Such a disappointment if we can't ride. Especially since our BROL friend from WA will be coming to ride PALM.    In order to get a refund for our tour, we have to have a cancellation letter in by May 15th. We have given ourselves until May 10, to make the decision.  If our niece and great niece ride, than we will still go and drive the trailer.  We just won't ride. That will be hard, but  we will still have the pleasure of  seeing everyone and spending time hanging out with Tammy and Ariann.   We keep trying to remember that in the end, it is in God's hands.  He is the one that will decide.