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.