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 attended college. I used to ride my bike all over the place and I always laughed when I saw the perfect combination of street signs — Nixon Blew It!! Only in Ann Arbor would the planners make that happen.
I had been checking the weather constantly for a couple of weeks and it never really got great. My girlfriend Becky sent me this screenshot this morning, but she knew this wasn’t going to slow us down. She was in Troy this morning, way further East then us. If you follow that road from Flint to Toldeo, that was where we were. Right on the edge of the storm.
We got way further along than I thought we would. We rode 27 miles over a couple of hours before the rain caught us. Fortunately, there was an abandoned bank drive-thru that we used for shelter. We had packed an apple and a protein bar and had a snack. This is Jason giving me a cheers!
After sitting for about a 1/2 hour, Greg was itching to go, so we put on our rain gear and got back on the road. Most of the rain had stopped so it wasn’t too bad. I had commented in a prior post about not needing fenders. Both Jason and Greg got the 1st laugh at my expense. I was covered in road splatter while they were looking pretty clean.
The storm passed and the skies cleared. We rode the next 23 miles through a lot of farm fields in the lower portion of Michigan. Nothing worth taking pictures of, that’s for sure. Somewhere in the middle of a dirt road, we pulled out our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ate them. We may need more than one each tomorrow. With about 10 miles to go, we stopped on the side of the road in a neighborhood near Dundee. That is the hardest thing to do when you are tired. Your body thinks it’s over, but it’s not. Our pace slowed quite a bit after that, but we finally pulled into the Covered Wagon Campground.
They wouldn’t let us put 2 tents on the same site, so it was $80 for the night. It said “resort” on the sign at the entrance, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. But the showers were warm, we had the whole back area to ourselves, and they had electricity. What more could you ask for? (ok, don’t tell me.)
Day 1 is in the books. We all had our gadgets to tell us how far we traveled. Mine was on the low side at 59.08. Greg’s was in the middle at 59.9. Jason’s was the highest with 62.03. Since I’m the only one with a GPS tracker, the official mileage was 59.08!! I do have to laugh though. I ride all the time with my buddy Frank and his numbers are always just a bit higher than mine. The expected mileage today was 56.1 miles. We made a wrong turn in Dundee which cost us three extra miles, but that’s not too bad. All in all, it was a pretty good day.
Way to go! Cheers to Day 1!
Thanks Sweetie!!!
Great Jobs team! Great first day!
Yay! Thank you!
I’m going to enjoy sharing in your travels Dennis! Be safe, and I hope you guys are blessed with kindness 🚴
Excellent Dan! I hope I can make it fun and worth keeping an eye on us. Couldn’t we all use a bit more kindness — thanks for the well wishes.
I’m betting my money on the Florida boys finishing this trip with energy to spare.
They are going to do just fine! Day 2 is going to be pretty tough. Another 60 miles (no wrong turns). The good news is that it’s flat as a pancake. Still a lot of work though with sore legs from Day 1.
Look out New Jersey! There’s a force headed your way!!!
Ha! Too early to tell. We may limping into New Jersey in 2 weeks 😁
Great first day, Dennis!!
Thanks Gar! That was a pretty nice route that Google Maps put together. Mostly paved roads with a bit of bike paths, dirt roads, and sidewalks thrown in. I really liked the route to get to Ann Arbor. I’ll probably do most of that again at some point — although we stayed East of downtown. I should have changed that up so Jason could have seen the campus.
Way to go, really enjoyed reading about Day 1.
Fantastic! Thanks!
Way to persevere guys! Excellent first day! I riding with you in spirit. I’ll do a blue and yellow loop in the morning as tribute to your first day.
Have fun and be safe!
I’m not sure if I’ll remember how to mountain bike after all this road riding. Enjoy!
I’m sure you’ll be back on Brighton trails days after getting back.
Sure hope so!
Congratulations on completing Day 1. I can’t imagine how good it must feel to get started after all the planning and preparation. Thanks for sharing your journey with us. I look forward to reading more blog posts.
Thanks Jim! Yes, feels great! Everything except the legs (just kidding)!
Awesome start fellas. Keep it up!!!!!
Thanks! Just have to repeat 27 times 😁
I sent my comment at 12:26 Arizona time…….that should have been 3:26 Eastern. Biden must be fucking up the time zones on top of everything else!!!!!!
The post times are a mess. I have no idea how to fix
Woo hoo. Sucks about paying the $80 bucks. Stay safe
I know!! Especially this place. Muddy, overgrown, and not the cleanest facilities. We’re roughing it 😁
Kudos to you for finishing day one!
✔️
The roads are a lot different on a bicycle but fun.
For sure! There aren’t any cars on the St. Marks Trail. They definitely bring a different element to the ride. The drivers in Ohio were awesome though as you know — they gave us plenty of room and waited for the other lane to clear too.