Month: May 2022

I like riding with someone!  It was great having Greg and Jason with me for 2 days, and Jason with me for another 3 days. I ride a lot on my own, but it’s a lot more fun to ride in a group. There wasn’t enough time to enjoy camping!  Greg and Becky are experienced… Continue reading Lessons Learned

https://youtu.be/cW7QhKifdFc I had the GoPro Hero 10 with me for the whole trip.  I took a little bit of video each day, except for the shortened 5th day.  Even though I have a mount on top of my helmet, I tried to take some by just holding the camera instead.  A lot of the scenery… Continue reading First Five Days

Joseph Keith Howell, (5/27/1934 – 10/25/2005)   In case my dad is looking down at us all — Happy Birthday Dad!  He would have been 88 today. Joe was the youngest of 9 kids that my grandfather had — 8 boys and a girl.  Five with his first wife Olive and 4 with his second… Continue reading Generation 8

It took us 5 days of riding to get to Warren, OH, but only 3.5 hours to drive home.  Yeah, we had to pull the plug on this adventure (for now!)  Greg hasn’t felt good almost this whole trip and now Becky is sick too.  Jason and I were well down the road by the… Continue reading Day 5 – Oh Oh!

Last night and all morning, we had visitors.  We didn’t invite them and they wouldn’t go away.  The first time I heard them, Greg and Becky got up and put most of the food into the truck.  The second time, I heard something right outside my tent.  I opened up the zipper and this big… Continue reading Day 4 – Visitors

Two different versions of “cold” today.  The first cold was the temperature — 47 at 6 am and 59 at 5 pm.  Isn’t it Spring??  Brrrr!  I think tomorrow is the same at the start though, so I’ll quit whining.  The second cold is what Greg caught.  He was miserable.  We forced him to stay… Continue reading Day 3 – Cold!!

We all started stirring around 6:00 am — but a quick look at the 53 degree temp and a light rain, didn’t inspire us to get going. Greg eventually got up and started making breakfast — oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon-raisin English muffins.  This was our 2nd day in a row with this breakfast and… Continue reading Day 2 – Tailwind

We took off from my condo today at 7:15 am.  I can’t believe the day is finally here.   We had clear skies to start and perfect temps in the low 70s. We took some back roads out of Brighton and worked our way South.  Our route was taking us through Ann Arbor, where I… Continue reading Day 1: Finally, It’s Here!

The group gathered at my house yesterday and today we were able to get out for our first ride together.  We went to Island Lake State Park and Kensington Metro Park for a 22 mile ride.  I’ve done this ride so many times, but for Greg and Jason, this was new and exciting.  Their go-to… Continue reading The Pre-Ride

Previously, I wrote in Planning the Route Home – Part 1 about going from New Jersey to Niagara Falls.  This post is about the route through Ontario and back into Michigan.   This will be an interesting segment of the journey.  Unfortunately, the party will be splitting.  My support vehicle and fellow riders aren’t going to be… Continue reading Planning the Route Home – Part 2