250 mile 4th of July Road Trip: DIY Rack Worked Great!

Well, we went to the lake for the 4th of July Weekend, and the roof rack worked out great. We did get a lot of attention on the road, though. I guess the mark of a cycling fanatic is $3 Grand worth of bikes on a $1000 car.

Well, it was a great trip, and I did have a lot of fun. The weather was spectacular and I even got in some sailing.

I've found a new to me sport! Snowshoeing!

Man, it's a blast! The followig is a bit of video and stills from our trip to Michigan over the MLK long weekend. It's also a great whole body workout.

What I did on Vacation, a Ride Report!

Well, as you know, I did two rides over Spring Break....one unofficial, a 34 mile ride in Chattanooga and up Lookout Mountain.



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The Lookout Ride was a killer for this Indiana Flatlander, with 1800 feet of HARD climb! I was still hurting from it when I started Tour de Pike. Chattanooga, though, is turning into a Cycle Friendly town, it looks like. There are even sensors for bikes in the Tunnels on Brainerd Rad that activate flashers and tell auto drivers to move to the left lane and not crowd a cyclist.

And off to Georgia we go. I met up with ModoVincere for the ride, a fellow BFer.


Tour de Pike kicked off with a bagpiper, by the way. He's also one of the local lawyers. Not a bad Piper either



All in all, it was a nice ride! I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to be able to go again next year! Now, here's some better video from the ride.



Any of you Clyde's and Athena's in the southlands might want to join me next year!

PS: As an after thought.....the dirt roads are the roads that Google Maps routed us in to Barnesville on (Where we were staying for the ride....closest motel!) The Country Hearth Inn in Barnesville also is the only public access Internet in the area with their High Speed Wireless.

Some more images from the Bicycle Tour!

Short post: Riding a bicycle to Paradise! (Michigan)

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Above was our route over the weekend.

Our route tomorrow! The Bike tour commences. No more internet for a few days, see ya later!

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Looks like things are coming together fast for our Tour de UP!

I have parking arranged for the van, a hotel to homebase out of between loops in St Ignace, MI, and all is well with the world! Looks like we got us a bike tour all worked out!

Our planned ride loops:

Whitefish Point

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

The Mystery Spot in Manistique

Macinac Island (For a day at least!)

Newberry, MI

Houghton, Mi

Bicycle camping is cheap and easily available through the Natl and State Parks and Forests, so that isn't an issue either!

Wildlife

It's apparently Bear and Mountain Lion country, so we'll have to practice Bear country camping techniques, and hopefully, we should get some great pics of wildlife. and all. If any of you have advice about where to check out, feel free to post into my comments.

We're Back!

Well, all I can say is that the cycling in Michigan is spectacular! Here are a few highlights of the weekend. First, we stayed at the Old Harbor Inn, in South Haven and it was great! They upgraded us to the top of the food chain to a suite.....it seems the manager reads my blog! We got the best suite in the place, with a 3 acre bed and an in room Jacuzzi for the price of a basic room!


Some of the views from the private balcony





The Barista at Bear Claw Coffee Shop. Great coffee, by the way!



Now, for the cycling! Michigan is Cyclists paradise! The drivers watch for us and the infrastructure is great. We did a lot of riding between South Haven, Saugatuck, Holland and Grand Haven, and the terrain is fairly flat. The weather couldn't have been better, with a daily high around 75℉. We did decide one thing though, we're changing touring plans. We're going to drive up to the UP, and park the van in St Ignace and spend May and June in Michigan up in the UP. There are campsites galore up there and it looks to be fairly cheap. They have State Park and State Forest camping about every 30 or so miles and it sounds like a blast, so we're going to do it!

Holland State Park



Holland/Grand Haven Pathway



South Haven Beach at Sunset



Saugatuck, Michigan: The Keewatin.

This ship was built 4 years before the Titanic, and was in service through the Second World War in passenger service around the Great Lakes. She's a museum now, floating at Red Dock between Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan. I wis she was open, but the museum doesn't open until after Memorial Day.



Last but not least; PIE!

We have a Bicycling Weekend planned

We're going up to do some cycling along the Lake Michigan Shore this weekend. Our destination is South Haven, Michigan and will be doing a getaway cycling weekend. We'll have pictures when we get back, you know, the usual mini vacation kind of stuff as well as our impressions of the Michigan shore.