The Big Plan!

When I was in high school I met this guy who had ridden across the entire United States on his bike. Ever since that encounter the idea of doing something similar has both intrigued me and never drifted too far from my thoughts. I am finally in a place in life where I can pursue this adventure. I am so incredibly happy that my son Alex is as enthusiastic as I am for our own ride!

Over the last year or so our plan has changed a few times, but we think we know what we want to do now. Sometime in June this summer (2009) Robin and Emily will take me and Alex to Mackinaw City where we will start our journey back to Osseo. This approximate 450 mile ride will tell us so much about what we don't know and what we need to learn before we make our bigger ride in the summer of 2010. In 2010 we plan on riding from Osseo to the east coast. Currently we are looking at Maine as our destination.

I am looking forward to the personal challenge and the time I will get to spend with Alex the 2 summers before he enters high school. We plan on updating this blog frequently to have something that will serve as a reminder to us of all of the effort, ups, and downs of going after this goal and to let others who are interested see what we have been up to. Feel free to comment on items that interest you, and skip those that don't!

What Now?

So the big plan has been to ride across a significant part of the country, and this summer's trip was a warm-up for something yet to come. Alex and I had a great time together preparing for the ride, and then heading down the road and exploring new places. A ride from Osseo to Maine would take about 6 weeks to accomplish.

What has been difficult is that everything has been on hold; things I like to do. The motorcycle is still in the garage, the dock is still on land and not in the water, and the boat is still at Lake Diane Marine. On top of that I have several projects around the house that I really need to do. Even though the ride kept us occupied and extremely tired at the end of long days, there was still plenty of time to miss the rest of the family. Going on a 6 week ride would require everything to be on hold again, but for a much longer time. At this point I don't know if riding across the country is still what I want to do, but riding is something I am going to keep doing. Maybe the whole family will somehow be involved...maybe a support vehicle and an extended family vacation or another 2 week ride, but on the east coast or upper mid-west. There are plenty of rides in Michigan too. I think the extended ride will still happen, but after I retire and have the ability to organize my time the way I want it to be. Hopefully Alex will still be interested.

Petoskey to Mackinaw City - Day 11

Alex and I were so excited for this day to arrive. We would be getting to the bridge and the rest of the family was coming to meet us. Unfortunately, I was still feeling less than my best from the previous 2 days of riding in the heat and extreme hills. We made a plan to ride the first 14 and the last 11 miles of the scheduled 50 to the bridge. Robin and Emily picked us up in Harbor Springs and we drove through the "tunnel of trees" along the lake shore. We stopped for lunch in Cross Village at a great Polish restaurant called the Legs Inn. What an interesting place! It had cool wood carvings, great food, and a patio with a great view of the lake for those who like to eat outdoors like we did. I guess Bob Seger has a second home up there and frequents the place often. No sighting of him this particuliar day.

After lunch we drove for a bit before Alex and I got back on the bikes for the last 11 miles. I told Robin to meet us in an hour, and that she should have time to check in at the hotel. Was I ever wrong...We rode those 11 miles with a very brisk pace. Alex was saying that he'd never been as excited as he felt then. We averaged 16.5 mph which is considerably higher than our normal pace of 12.5-13.2 mph. We got there before the girls, and called them to come meet us. We took a lot of pictures, shared high fives and hugs. Yes, we cheated a little on the last day, but riding 440 miles is pretty darn good if you ask me. We were only about 1.5 miles from the hotel, and decided to ride that too. It was a good trip, and I am one proud father of an amazing 13 year old boy!

We capped the big ride off with a day on Mackinac Island. We did something we had never done there on our previous 2 trips...explored more of the island on rented bikes!

East Jordan to Petoskey - Day 10

Knowing that this would be another extremely hot day, we decided to get an early start. Bananas, donuts, and milk fueled the start of our ride. Our route took us through the rest of the town we had not yet seen. Within the first few miles we found ourselves again in the hill country of northern Michigan, and were walking the bikes up the hills. On the largest hill of the entire ride, a motorcyclist who was starting his descent yelled over to us. "It's a wall, isn't it?" It was not even 8:00 and we were dripping wet with sweat. This pattern f ride and walk went on for about 20 miles before leveling off for the final 8 miles into Petoskey. I appearlantly miscalculated the mileage for this day. It was only 28 miles when I thought it would be 37.

We found the hotel around noon, and they told us check-in was not until 3:00 pm. After a lot of questioning, they found a room for us to get in right away. The heat and hills were taking its toll on me. I was feeling light-headed and slightly nauseated - similar to motion sickness. I think it was heat exhaustion. I was concerned about my ability to ride another day on rodes with extreme hills, so we rented a car to scout the next day's route. The middle of the route was going to be very difficult.

Williamsburg to East Jordan - Day 9

We said our goodbyes to the Cobb's after a tasty breakfast, and started our 54 mile ride. It was still cool, but only for a little while. My legs felt fresh from the 2 days of very light riding and plenty of fun, but Alex said his had felt better when he was riding every day. There were a couple of big hills within the first 5 miles of the day, but after that things were very nice for most of the trip. At 1:00 pm we had the option of turning left to travel into a very small town to look for a restaurant when none was indicated on our map, or to go right for 6.5 miles to Ellsworth where we knew there was a place to eat. The left turn would have taken us about a half mile downhill that we would have to back-track (uphill, of course). I knew I could wait for lunch, and let Alex make the call. By this time of day, it was really very hot. After some conversation, and a drink of water, we decided to turn right which took us east. This was some of the most difficult riding we had on the entire trip. The jills were huge, and the sun was bearing down on us hard. There was almost no place to shade ourselves when we stopped for breaks. t took us an hour to make it through to Ellsworth. Our bikes felt quite heavy as we walked them up a hill, only to find another larger hill waiting for us. I felt so bad for Alex - he was really wearing out. He would take a few steps, get a drink, take a couple more, wipe his head, followed by 5 more steps, and then tying his shoe. He could not keep a steady pace. We finally pulled out bikes in front of a charming little cafe. We started removing our helmets and gloves, grabbed the water bottles for a refill, and watched the lady working inside shut off the "open" sign. I went in and asked if they were the only restaurant in town, and they said they would serve us cold items only so they would not have to fire up and clean the grill again. I told them we may want to stay and rest longer than it would take to eat the meal, and again asked if there was another place to eat. They pointed us in the direction of the local bar, The Nugget. after locking the bikes up, we waked to be greeted by "you're not from around here" looks of every one of the 7 locals sitting at the bar. To say we didn't fit in with our spandex riding shorts and our bright cycling shirts would be an understatement. We chose a table on the other end of the place, and had a good lunch. After a good hour, we pushed on for the last 7 miles to East Jordan. Again, we walked up several hills. The las mile and a half were all down-hill, and were we exceedingly grateful. The motel was another mom-and-pop type places, but this one was very well maintained. They had a dock across the street where they were going to swim in an hour after we checked in, and invited us to join. My dome was still red from the days' activities in TC, but Alex wanted to go. We got cleaned up, and fell asleep before it was time. We woke up much later, and missed our chance. I don't think a bed ever felt so good.

Traverse City

Days 7 and 8 were a lot of fun for both Alex and me. It was a 20 mile ride to our hotel on the East Bay side of town. We stopped at one of our favorite places for food in TC - the GT Pie Company, where they give you a free drink if you ride your bike there! We saw 3 other cyclists who were also going to Mackinaw City, but they were doing the camping thing. We chatted it up with them for a while before they left. Our Hotel was next to Pirate's Cove. Since it was Father's Day they had a special - Dads mini-golf for free. We had a blast playing 36 holes. Later that afternoon we were invited to join the Cobb family (Jeff, Laura, Elijah, and Ari) for a get-together at Laura's dad's home. There were 18 people there, and they made Alex and me feel very welcomed. They have a beautiful home on Elk Lake, and the food was terrific too. Jeff and Elijah took us back to our hotel, and we made plans for Monday.

Monday morning Alex and I had most of the day to ourselves, and we took advantage of the time off. It started with go-cart racing at Pirate's Cove, and then we went across the street to the Beach Haus Hotel. It turns out that Laura is running the hotel (a very complicated story). She made arrangements for us to use their beach and they provided us with towels and a place to secure our bikes and belongings. We had the best time that afternoon! We rented a Sea-Doo for an hour and buzzed around the bay, and I was able to convince Alex that the parasailing would be fun. I am not a big fan of heights, but I have to say it was extremely peaceful up there. We were in our swimming trunks, so they gave us a "foot dip" before bringing us back onto the aft deck of the boat. After changing we went to a pizza place for lunch.

We did ride 7 miles that day to the Cobb's home. We were invited over again, but this time for dinner and to spend the night. The kids set up a home-made slip-and-slide in the front yard as soon as we got there, and Jeff made a delicious meal. We talked a lot over a few brewskis, and finished the night by playing video games on the Wii. It was a fun day. The down side was that it was Robin's and my anniversary. This seems to happen to us most years, but we always make sure to celebrate it a little late or a little early. Usually it is a professional obligation that keeps us apart on June 22nd.

New Pics from days 3-6