100 Miles in One Beautiful Day

Yesterday I rode 100 miles with the Shut Up and Ride Club and we all agreed that there was no better way to spend the one sunny day we get in West Michigan in November.

The hub of our ride was The Good Earth bagel shop in Holland, where we stopped for comestibles and warmth in between loops.

The first loop was 30 miles south to Saugatuck and back, which is done weekly by this group and called "The Bagel Ride." As you can see from the photo below, we move along in a double paceline at an easy speed. 

After a quick bite at the bagel shop, most of us headed north to Grand Haven for the next 45 miles. We found the wind and got a little more serious about drafting. 

As you can see, the sun was shining. After passing by the lakeshore,

 we stopped at a coffee shop that had a very cool sign:

Then yet another loop to complete our 100 miles. No better way to spend a day.

Need...More...Oxygen

Cycling in the Colorado Rockies. A popular 30 mile loop from Boulder to Jamestown and back. The mountain roads had as many bicycles as motorized vehicles. The climb up was an easy 6% grade most of the way.

Here's photographic evidence of my climbing accomplishment. Jamestown is at 7200 feet, so a climb of about 2000 feet. I don't know if you can see the lack of oxygen in my face, but cycling at this altitude only two days into our visit was not easy.

There were many interesting sights in Jamestown. A sign warning motorists to slow down in order to avoid hitting bear families. Or maybe this sign is meant for us cyclists to motivate us to go faster because we may be chased by bears?

There was also a cyclist oriented drive-in library.

And, most conveniently, water.

Jamestown is a nice place to ride a bike to and then turn around and fly down the mountain at a high rate of speed. These vistas are something you see out of the corner of your eye as you are mainly setting up for the next curve in the road.

After another steep climb up Old Stage Road I was rewarded with this view of North Boulder.

Here's the map and profile:

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Just another old barn

Cut my ride short and went past this.

 

 

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Creatures along the side of the road, real or imagined

Here's a sea serpent that is sporting a new pink color. I call him Cecil. Not really sure about the new color scheme, but that is a personal thing.

Wherein I Recount Today's Ride to South Haven

Today I rode 55 miles to South Haven and back. Here's the data:

Most of the way is through blueberry fields like this one.

Actually kind of boring- it's like riding through cornfields but instead of corn you see blueberry bushes. Another drawback of monoculture.

My rear tire flatted as I entered the South Haven trailhead so that was as good a time as any to stop for lunch and repair the flat. I found a very small stone chip that had imbedded itself into the rubber and worked its way through the casing. Could have been there for weeks. I do inspect the tires for such things, but this was too small to be noticed.

After lunch I rode to the lake. A strong west wind was kicking up swells in the channel and no swimming was allowed. The sign said "Avoid Contact With Water." I wondered if monoculture could be the culprit here too.

So, homeward bound. I passed this old schoolhouse on the way home. I remember first seeing this years ago and thinking it would be a nice project to restore and convert to a home.

Every year the project increases in scope. At least someone loved it enough to place a wreath on the front door.

That's all folks. Ride lots!

 

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Sea to Sea-final day for me!

The last post was submitted prior to dinner with Ruth Friday evening, which was at her favorite place-The Curragh Irish Pub. When I returned to my dorm room I could see that dorm living seems to have brought out the sophmoric prankster in someone:

Turns out the signs were correct because there were both women and men in the rest room. Crazy fun!

 

Saturday's ride was sort-under 50 miles. A ride from Hope college to Calvin College stopping at Calvin CRC in Grand Rapids for lunch. There was an open invitation for anyone to ride along so the number of people riding was at least twice as many as usual. Here is what most of the ride looked like:

Many new riders who were not experienced in riding in a group. There is a set of behaviors that those of us who are experienced look for in others who want to ride with us. Things like keeping a constant speed, not crossing wheels, not swerving, calling out or signaling obstacles, etc. so this ride made me nervous. The last few miles were done all in one mass of riders. Here we are queuing for departure from Calvin CRC:

I felt this was the most dangerous part of the week, but everyone made it to Calvin College without incident.

 

So, now that I have completed my week, a couple of thoughts.

The most valuable lesson of doing this didn't have anything to do with bicycling or anything related to that. It was that I can sometimes completely loose control of the situation and still have a positive experience. I rode in weather that I wouldn't choose to ride in. I camped in conditions I wouldn't choose to camp in. We took routes I wouldn't choose to take. I have been very fortunate to adjust my lifestyle so as to be in control of most of it. But spending a week out of my control was a good thing for me. Because when it really comes down to it, I'm not in control of anything.

 

Would I do this again? Yes! Probably a different part of the country, maybe more than one week. Not the full ride unless we somehow retire from innkeeping entirely. But if Sea to Sea rides again, I will be participating.

 

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Sea to Sea week 6 Day 5

Today we rode 59 miles from Benton Harbor, MI to Holland, MI. Not many pictures since the route was through some very familiar territory and I had the "been there, done that" syndrome.

Two things of note, first the night spent in a tent on the church lawn in the heart of Benton Harbor. After walking to a "Canadian Bible Study" with three other adventurous Sea to Sea riders, I settled into my tent at about 10pm. I could hear the sound of two or three men yelling at each other coming from a neighboring house. This continued until about 2am, interspersed with groups of men walking by talking loudly, most of which I could make out word for word. Some of the conversation had to do with us in our tents-I'll leave it that we were the butt of many jokes. Fortunately everyone passing by kept moving and the yelling match did not escalate to gunfire. I spent much of the night praying that we would be "passed over" like the Israelites in Egypt. One of the first things I did when I got up in the morning (5am) was to circle the trucks to see if they got tagged. They were clean. Maybe I was over-reacting, but it sure felt like we were in an evil place. What a difference from the very high-end properties we saw along Lake Michigan surrounding Benton Harbor. We had a praise service-here are the musicians warming up

prior to our nightly Peleton meeting and heard about the various efforts Christians are making in this city to improve the situation. One thing I heard is that by many economic measures, Benton Harbor is the worst place in the country. And so very close to us.

The second topic was the weather for today. This picture of Donald sums it up:

I was wringing him out again. I rained rather heavily most of the way to Holland. I'll spare you the gory details but riding in the rain is not something I would choose to do but the tour must go on! Eventually we happened upon This sight in Holland.

We never thought dorm life would be such a luxury. Actual hot showers! More than one toilet for all the men of the tour! A dry place to sleep! And Ruth is coming out to treat me to dinner tonight!

 

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Sea to Sea week 6 day 4

Today's ride was 88 miles from Lansing, IL to Benton Harbor, MI. We travelled along the Lake Michigan Shore and passed through towns that were ever more familiar to me, including Michigan City, New Buffalo, Bridgeman, and St. Joseph before our destination. We did see the Lake at times, such as this photo taken in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore:

We also found a swedish bakery to and stopped for some refueling.

When the owner heard our story about cycling with a mission to fight poverty she paid for our drinks and later came out with three delicious Swedish pancakes with Lingonberry sauce at no charge:

I may be gaining weight on this trip even though I'm cycling close to 100 miles a day. That's Dan Kiel, who I am doing most of the riding with along with Pete Wiersma. Both are from Zealand and doing the full ride

 

And now some things about camp life. Lighthouse ministries is a joint RCA/CRC mission operating in a very large, old church building here in Benton Harbor. The first thing to do when arriving is to set up your tent, unless we sleep inside like last night. There are many areas set aside for sleeping inside, but many tents were being set up on the church lawn. I opted for the privacy of a tent over the security of an indoor slumber party and set up near the entrance.

 

The second thing to do is take a shower. This is when it becomes important to get in from the ride earlier rather than later because usually there is limited hot water and the shower area tends to get hot, humid and dirty due to being overwhelmed with the 150 or so people. This ministry was proud to have just recently installed 3 showers in the basement, but apparently they are close to each other so they were designated Women's showers. This left the makeshift outdoor shower as the only option for men. It was set up on the front lawn of the church:

Obviously, this is cold water only and not really private-I'm sure the people must be wondering what is happening here as they drive by. You may think the other side of the shower would be more private-wrong!

Anyway, with that out of the way, maybe you would want to wash some clothes. Most cyclists did not pack an entire week's worth of cycling clothes so getting tomorrow's clothes washed and dry becomes a priority as the week progresses. There are laundry options available but usually only on weekends. If you look at the far right of the photo above you can see the in-camp laundry tub, along with the rinse bucket. Drying happens wherever you can hang your wet clothes. This is my tent and bike right now:

Hoping for a dry evening tonight.

 

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Sea to Sea week 6 day 3

Today we biked 94 miles to Illiana Christian School. It rained all night so everyone had to pack their wet clothes, tent, etc., put on our wet shoes, helmet, gloves etc. and start out into a misty fog that got us wet all over again. Donald came along for all the ride and he looks like I feel:

I had to wring him out this morning and he's never been the same since. 

Today we wore jerseys representing our alma mater. Most of the Reformed tradition was represented as we can see here

After about 50 quick miles through yet more corn we began to use bike trails like this

This actually slowed things down considerably since we had to stop at every cross street for traffic. 

Eventually, after a few wrong turns and an ill-fated visit to a gas station--who really thinks a local in Joliet would know the tour route-- we began to see signs of welcome, literally:

And eventually saw this one

Sleeping arrangements for this evening are a little out of my comfort zone

Hope to get at least a little sleep. Goodnight, sleep tight, all 150 of us!

Sea to Sea Week 6 Day 2

Today we rode through 87 miles of wet corn into into a headwind to an Illinois state park called Shabonna. I really have no idea where we are, other than that this park is surrounded by corn. Here is a picture of the typical road we rode on:

The recumbent rider, Dana Sommers, is from Auckland, New Zealand. We were impressed that he was staying on the right side of the road. A few other sights along the way included a covered bridge:

And my love of old barns was requited

Not much else to show. It was a hard day on the bike; cold, wet, and windy. I rode with Dan again and we hooked up with various other small groups to share the work of riding in front. I was glad to have fenders on the bike with this rain. You may also notice my "license plate" issued by Sea to Sea. They help in identifying people as you ride with them on the road. Donald is still hanging on. He got wet too.

You may wonder how we know where to go when we ride our route. Most routes are worked out ahead of time and available for download ahead of time. These routes are confirmed a day ahead by Phil Quist. Yesterday he found a bridge out and had to reroute most of the course. He (or Barb Mellema) drives the course, sometimes in the dark and paints markers on the pavement at each turn for the cyclists to follow. He also prints a finalized route sheet with mileage to each turn. Mostly, we just look for the markers on the pavement and only consult the route sheet if we think we are lost. We are usually in sight of a group in front of us so we can follow them too. Here is an example of a marker. It is the letter "C" with some kind of arrow connected to it. So, turn left ahead.

 

Overall I feel good and am having little difficulty keeping up. We don't ride as hard as some of the groups of younger riders do. I'm averaging about 15 miles per hour. Tomorrow, we ride around Chicago to Lansing, IL. A ride of about 90 miles, many of which will be on bike trails. This may slow us down because of stop lights and other obstacles. We all are praying for a dry day.

 

 

 

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Sea to Sea Week 6 Day 1: Coralville IA to Fulton IL

Today we cycled 95 miles through the corn of Iowa. The first 20 miles had corn growing in very scenic countryside.

After that, the corn was growing on land that is basically flat. I rode for the first half with three others, the two I rode in the van with, Paul and Rod. Plus my sweep team leader Dan Keil, who is from Zeeland, Michigan. Sweep team is basically the cleanup crew after breakfast, which means we were the last to leave. Here are the three I just mentioned riding through the flat corn.

One of the volunteers, Billy D, rides along the route on his Harley to check on us. Here he is with his mascot, Arnold riding on the back near the flags.

I took the opportunity to show him my mascot, Donald, who is my constant companion on this trip:

 

 

There are also rest stops set up along the way to offer us refreshment and the opportunity for a "natural break." The driver of the white van assured me he has never pulled out into traffic with an occupant seated inside.

Our group of four split up and I proceeded with Dan the rest of the way, increasing our rate of speed as we neared our stop just like a horse picks up speed when he senses he is returning to the barn for his nightly oats. We passed Bruce Seinkowski, who is doing this week's tour on roller blades:

 

Then, after 90 miles, we crosses the Mississippi. The water tower of Fulton shown below is very close to where we are camped now. The windmill is one of Fulton's little mysteries

We crossed the big muddy and rode to Unity Christian School, our very gracious hosts for the evening. They put on a huge dinner featuring grilled chicken and pork chops with corn on the cob. And Pie! The agenda offered a praise band, which I thought would the typically lame kind of music usually offered during worship services. We were all very pleasantly surprised to hear a very good group of musicians. Here's a video mashup of their music:

There may have been dancing.

 

As you can see, I am having a great time.

 

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