Day 6-The Joy of Riding A Cross Bike

As the neon says on the hotel sign, YES!

I went for an ACE ride today! Let me back up...

I did some work this morning, then called the very kind Jan who offered to let me keep Frazier in her back yard. I took him over at noon and met up with Jan, who had ridden her own bike back from the office (this town is overwhelmingly bike friendly, and there are people on bikes everywhere). Frazier was happy to be outside and running around with Jan's two Golden Retrievers. I left and I'm not sure he realized I was gone.

Then it was off to an embroidery shop to get a couple of new shirts I bought logo'd up with the new Trek Women graphics. They should look pretty sweet. And cool. Literally, since they are DriFit.

At last, I got back to the hotel and prepared for a ride. I had planned to check out the rail trail that runs through town and then out along the western side of West Bay. I rode from this end of town, through the downtown area of Traverse City, then along the bay for a while before cutting in to the trail. This really is a nice bike path. At some point, the coast gets hilly, and the trail follows the old railroad bed between one set of hills, and another that lies west of that, near Lake Leelanau, another significantly large lake. It was gorgeous. I went through thick pine forrest, orchards, farms, and rolling hills of green, green grass. Eventually, the pavement ended and turned into double track. I was so happy to be on the cross bike. It made the ride so much better, and exciting. I loved having the right bike for a variety of surfaces, and not being forced to carry on via road.

I was a little conscious about the time. Jan had to be out by 6pm, and it was getting to be 4. I was hoping to go all the way out to Sutton's Bay, which would have been 40 miles or so round trip, but I didn't want to take advantage of Jan's kindness and keep Frazier there any longer than I had to. I cut back over to the paved road along the shoreline to speed things up. I got back just before 5, and headed to pick up F after a quick shower. 33 miles and change of mixed-surface, view-laden, cross bikin' lovliness. The only thing that would have made this ride better was to have you, my lovely readers, along with me. All 2 of you.

Frazier was rewarded with a nice swim in the bay again, and I had plans to reward myself with another self-made meal and some serious damage to the bottle of Moscato I had chilling in the fridge. I didn't have an opener, so after my ride today I went and got one of those cheap travel ones, instead of paying the 4 extra clams for a proper waiter's friend type.

I pulled, and yanked, and caused bones and tendons and veins to bulge out from my arm, but no amount of strength was enough to budge the cork. I gave up and unwound the opener. I heard a 'pssshhh' of air, which suggested that I'd poked a hole in the cork. For fun, I thought I'd see what would happen if I tried taking a swig. Lo and behold, with a little water bottle-like sucking action, I was able to extract the wine from the bottle.

I've now had nearly half the bottle via this method. It just doesn't get any more classy than this.

Day 5-Port Huron to Traverse City, MI

I had a leisurely morning today. I set off for Traverse City around noon, and made a stop at a big outlet center in Frankenmuth. I wanted to check out the Nike store to see if they had any 6.0's around, and they did. A nice addition to my shoe collection.

It was another 160 miles to Traverse City from Frankenmuth. The drive was uneventful, and the temperature was cooler by 10 degrees when I arrived in town. The scenery changed somewhere along the way from flat and straight to suddenly hilly and full of pine trees. It reminded me of home, and a flatter Colorado with the added benefit of water. A great first impression, all in all.

My hotel lies on the edge of town, and directly across the street from Grand Traverse Bay. The first step in the arrival process was to back the trailer into a parking spot, and unhitch. This is an overwhelmingly liberating feeling. It's almost fun to drive the truck when the trailer isn't albatrossing it. Next, a treat for Frazier, who stuck with me through the drive and even put up with my shopping side trip. It took him next to no time to hit the water. He startled a couple of Canada Geese who decided to linger about 30 feet off shore. Frazier ignored them for the most part, but at one point he couldn't take it any more, and he started to head out after them. "Honk honk!", they protested. I was expecting him to start swimming and realize he couldn't make it to them, but he just kept leeping through the water. I realized that it stayed pretty shallow, and he was probably 80 feet away from shore before the bottom dropped. Fortunately, he then turned around and made the trip back to shore. I thought for sure I was about to get my feet wet to retrieve him. He is now sacked out on the floor, once again.

I read recently about how great dollar stores are. I passed one on the way in, and had heard that you can save a bunch of money on olive oil. I'd found a co-op in town, and since the hotel I'm in has a kitchenette, I started looking forward to being able to cook my own food. I went to the dollar store and bought olive oil for a song, a cheese grater for the parmesan I planned to buy, and some storage containers for any leftovers I might wind up with. Then it was off to the co-op for fresh produce, garlic, red onion, some sort of Japanese sweet potato that I never knew existed, various other things, and chocolate.

Outside of the store I ran into 3 people on bikes who saw the truck and started talking to me. I noticed that there are loads of people on bikes here. These people had plans to attend the ladies' night I'm here for later this week, so we got to chatting. They gave me some great local knowledge, including the fact that there's a rail trail that literally runs right behind the hotel and goes to some other bay for 15 miles one way. Then one of them offered to let me keep Frazier in her fenced in back yard so that I could go see some of the local attractions. Numbers and names were exchanged. Things are suddenly looking up.

Back to the hotel for cooking, and a nice veggie and chicken sausage stir fry later, I'm happily sitting here typing away with a belly full of veggies and rocket salad.

Day 4-Port Huron, MI

Woke up in Warren again this morning with the intention of heading north 54 miles to Port Huron. I'd stopped there last year at a park located under the bridge to Canada, so that was the destination for the morning. Frazier got a nice swim in Lake Huron before Random kindly chucked the ball too far from shore, into the current. Despite being about 15 feet from the shore, the water was too deep and the ball too far for F's old legs to swim out. Another ball bites the dust, or floats away as the case may be. Friggin' Random.

We sat around in the park for a while just enjoying the day, then Rando's belly alarm starting going off again. We went into downtown Port Huron in search of food, and found a diner with outside seating and a sign advertising 'Steamed Burgers As Seen On The Travel Channel'. Result! We were sold on the steamed burgers after the waitress gave us the description of them. "The fat steams off but the flavor doesn't. And the white cheddar cheese is steamed as well, so the end result is that it's gooey." Who doesn't want to eat something described as 'gooey'!?

After lunch, it was time for Rando to head back over the border into Canadia. It was great to see him as always, and I truly appreciated the company. Thanks, pal. Can't wait to see you in the future.

I was at a loss for what to do next. I spaced and didn't make arrangements for tonight, so I wasn't sure where I was going to stay, or what my plan was for tomorrow. I thought about heading inland towards Frankenmuth. My mother recommended that. I looked around for a wireless signal to use the power of the internet, but couldn't find one. I wound up spotting a Petsmart and replaced the lost ball with a fresh one, and then saw a Barnes and Noble and killed an hour buying books, one of which was a Michigan guide. I went back to another lakeside park I'd seen so Frazier could have another swim with a new ball to fetch. Then I called around to find out which hotels allowed pets, and settled on the Comfort Inn. It was almost 6pm. Using the time to pick a shot of the day, write this post, read up on Michigan, and lounge around was more appealing that driving for a couple of hours into the unknown.

Not sure what the agenda is for tomorrow. I'd really like to do a ride along the water in the morning, and then I will probably head off in some direction. I have until Thursday to be in Traverse City, which is on the western shore of the State.

Stay tuned.

Day 3- Warren, MI

Demo today. I just couldn't get excited about it. The weight of the economic impact on the US auto industry weighs heavily on this place. There are dozens of factories devoted to making cars and car parts. All of them look either desolate, or slowed down, or shut altogether. The feeling is accute. It's probably the hardest hit area in the entire country.

I found myself having a hard time being 'professional' today. Or maybe the better way to say it is that I was a consummate professional; providing a high level of service even though I was really having a hard time finding the motivation. I just didn't want to talk to people, mostly. But, I had to. So I did.

Random helped at the demo, even when a guy who just wanted to ask the same questions over and over again to whomever would listen, started asking him about 29ers vs. 26ers. This was one of those 3 day shoppers who just comes in for days to talk about the same things, but just can't commit to the purchase.

We were both more tired at the end than we expected, and plans to head north along the lake were scuppered from a combination of fatique and not finding a place that we were excited about for accommodation. We're back at the same hotel after a nice Italian meal at a local place, complete with Geezers Playing Poorly But Really Getting Into It.

Frazier enjoyed being outside all day, and he is now passed out on the floor.

Day 2-Buffalo, NY to Warren, MI, or How A Day Of Driving Can Still Be Crappy

The first half of my day wasn't so ideal. Last night I picked out a spot that looked like it might be a nice place to take Frazier to the lakeshore for a swim. Conneaut, Ohio was the destination. Right over the Ohio State line, and a couple of hours after we set off. Just the right amount of time to drive before a pit stop.

The park was gorgeous, and had a really long beach to access the water. I descended the steps down the very steep embankment and started the walk along the long, wooden planks to the water's edge. There was a man off in the distance, probably two hundred yards away, moving debris from the beach with a tractor. I started to cut left along the beach, and noticed that he was driving towards me. He then pulls up alongside me to tell me that dogs aren't allowed. Shit. He suggests I go 'over there', but that they'll want F to be on a leash. Pfft.

I went 'over there', and Frazier somehow managed to lose a ball while pestering some Canada Geese. Crap. We left Conneaut after the dog had a chance to splash around some, and headed west along the lake towards Ashtabula. The coastline is pretty high, so there were few places to access the shore. I found another gorgeous park 8 miles down the road with prominent signs saying 'NO DOGS ALLOWED'. Thanks, Ohio. I gave up and continued back to the highway.

I feel like I am constantly battling Frazier's travel water bowl. I had it sitting on the arm rest of the truck, and at some point forgot it was there and knocked it over. It spilled out into my half-open messenger back. There wasn't much water in there, but enough to soak some mail, a bar of chocolate, and a few other things that could get wet and survive. The cleanup was a bit of a hassle, but what really made it go south was the bottle of ibuprofen that somehow managed to open while I was sopping up water, and of course most of the bottle spilled into the puddle at the bottom of the bag. I finally got off at the next exit to deal with the mess. Every time I put my hand in the bag my fingers took on a Moab-red color from the coating on the stupid tables. Shite.

I finally made it through the maze of highway closures to my stop for the evening: Warren, MI. Along the way I passed Eminem's hood 8 Mile. Wow. Scary!

The Random Canadian drove over from Canadia to spend the weekend with me. We had Thai food. The day ended better than it started.

Day 1-Departure

I left home on a gorgeous, 75 degree day. I would rather have been riding my bike. The drive was pretty uneventful, other than driving into rain somewhere along the way. I stayed overnight just outside of Buffalo.

Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing remarkable. Oh, there was one fender bender in Albany that caused a bit of a slow down. Frazier stuck his head out the window a few times during the drive. Those are about the most exciting things to happen the whole day.

Appreciating What You've Got, When You've Got It.

So I finally did my first road ride of the year at home today. I've got this little 12 and a half mile loop that's got some nice rollers in it. It takes about 45 minutes to ride it, or, it takes longer than that and I'm not as unfit as I thought I was.

Anyhizzle...It was the first hilly ride I've done this year. I've been riding around my parents' house, on the flats with constant headwinds for all of my rides so far. Now that I'm back home, I've decided that maybe I've missed the hills after all. It's not that my legs and lungs missed them, but the variety makes a nice change.

I got to thinking about the good and bad parts of riding in mountains vs. sea level along the coast. I realized that fighting those persistent headwinds in every direction, on roads with no topographical variation whatsoever, is probably pretty good for the pedal stroke. There's no real place to stop pedaling at the shore. There aren't any hills to power up, with descents to coast down. You aren't really resting. Ever. All you can do is vary your speed, depending on how aggressive against the wind you feel like being. Never, in my case. Except in 10 second bursts of 'Oh yeah wind!? Is that the best you got!!?', followed by a return to my senses, or a feeling of breathlessness.

Now that I'm back in the hills, I am enjoying that approach-to-anaerobic feeling, followed by the brief recovery period that follows on the downhill side. It makes a nice change of pace, literally and figuratively. I was thinking about some of the loops around here, and how much I dread the thought of going up some of the hills. But at least I have hills to dread here. And quite roads that provide periods of great views and heart rate increases.

I may sound like I'm slagging off riding at the shore. I am and I'm not. I love riding over to the coast and taking in the salt air. How could I not love the mid-ride stops at Mack & Manco's for a slice and a birch beer? And I do appreciate the end result of the strength I gain from the wind and the flats, even though it feels like the life is being sucked out of me during those rides.

It's hard to say what type of terrain I like better. I'm no great climber. I'm quite bad at it, actually. But I don't have the fitness right now to maintain a high pace on a 40 mile flat ride, either. At the end of the day, both types of riding have their place. And either type is better than no riding at all.