Football, Golf, Hockey, Football, Parties and Some More Football

It's obvious that my absence from the blog-isphere is palpable every time I get too busy, but fear not I will always return eventually.  (My attempts at wit are quite palpable as well and I hope they don't wound you.)  Freddy has been keeping us hopping but it has been a fun few months.  Football and all kinds of other things made the time fly by.  I'm so used to being busy on weeknights that I have a very sad tale for you.  My mind has become slightly addled by it.  Tuesday evening this week I was driving home from work and I realized this very fact.  

The only way I can give you an accurate picture of what happened in my mind that night is to re-create my internal thoughts.  Stop reading now if my too-long stories bore you to tears, because I can assure that this will most likely drag on a bit too long for most sane people.  I had a pretty normal long day at work and left the office about 6pm.  I was headed north and flipping through the radio stations looking for tunes because NPR wasn't too interesting at that moment.  I was thinking about the creamy leek dish that I had gotten the ingredients for that day and what else I was going to make with it for dinner.  I then realized that Freddy was at practice until 9:30pm and that I had nothing else scheduled for the evening.  For some reason in my brain this was not okay.  I was thinking up errands to run, people to see and things to do...  When realistically I was all caught up on my social calendar, errands and most of the chores about the house.  I began to think that it was going to be such a boring night to be home with nothing to do!  I almost tweeted how boring Tuesday was, when I finally snapped out of it.  I'd been commenting for weeks that I needed more time at home because I'm so busy all the time, blah blah blah.  I finally got it and what did I do?  I regretted it!!  I thought, "What is wrong with me?"  You are supposed to enjoy down time.  I actually had to talk myself into thinking that one night... with 3 hours of nothing at home was okay.  I had to convince myself?!?  If I had remained in the earlier mind frame, I just might have gotten the riot act from my husband when I got home.  Instead of that unappealing sounding option, I thankfully got my wits back together, went home and warmed up leftovers with my hubby and relaxed on the couch.  Whew.

Now back to what has made me slightly addled.  September held the DALMAC, Mike's annual golf vacation with college buddies, a cooking divas trip to meet Tyler Florence,  exciting football games and two bridal showers.  October held more football, a 5k, Mike's first bow kill, homecoming, a MSU hockey game, a MSU football game, making apple cider and a birthday trip to the islands of Puerto Rico and Vieques.  November is almost half way though and we've already had the end of football, the beginning of hockey, a visit from Hilary and Lego Robotics.  And, really these are just the major events.

The great news is that we've really been enjoying every bit of it and especially having Freddy making us busy and having him enjoying our already busy lives.  We have really become a well oiled little family unit in the last month or so.  Freddy makes me laugh more than I laughed all year, and I laugh a lot!  He always knows when to cheer me up and it has been really fun to be a football mom for 3 months.  On to conquer hockey Mom-dom.

Day 4

Despite many bumps and bruises we all made it to the last day.  We got up early and had a yummy pancake breakfast thanks to Mom, Nan and Suzzy.  Freddy couldn't stop eating.  My Mom watched in amazement as he ate pancake after pancake after pancake.  He ate so many that she ran out of pancake batter and switched to making french toast!  I tried to warn her, but she couldn't understand until she saw it herself.  

The weather was much nicer on the final day though a little chilly yet.  With the sun shining on us we were all excited to ride to the bridge.  We headed up to Pellston for our start and we would have about a 22 mile ride into Mackinaw City.  I can't even describe how hard it was to plop my rear down on my cold, wet hard seat that morning, but it was time to finish up our trip.  The ride in to Mackinaw was rather uneventful except for the crazy people driving down the road.  I've never seen people so angry at people who were just riding their bikes.  One car should have been arrested.  They charged Samone and Scott and squealed to a stop just short of hitting them.  Then proceeded to swerve dangerously close o them while cursing them out for riding bikes.  There are weird and awful people in this world.

The SAG crew met us at the bridge and we all had a quick snack before we rode across.  I was very nervous.  The main reason I was nervous was an incident that happened when I was a child.  In 1989 a Yugo was blown off the bridge.  Since I am much smaller and lighter than a car and it was a breezy day... I was a bit nervous.  No one else seemed to be and I still don't understand why.  Despite my worries I got on my bike with everyone and we headed across.  It was truly one of the most exhilarating things that I have ever done.  It was so big and high and long, simply amazing.  I got up enough courage to get my camera out for a few crossing picks.

It was a miserable trip in so many respects, but this made it all worth it.  Ride on.

Auntie-Niece 2010!!

Day 3

Well... to date we had seen some wind, some rain, some wind and rain and some chilly weather.  Unfortunately Saturday, Day 3, was a combination of all of those bad things.  The morning started with a MacGyver-style suiting up session to try to keep as warm and dry as possible.  Trying to configure clothes into being warm, dry and comfortable for a 70 mile day was an important task.  We were not too successful, but Freddy's socks converted into leg warmers were pretty funny.  We started out in the cold blowing rain all together and we were on our first leg around Houghton Lake and then Higgins Lake.  The breeze was stiff off of the water and we were all rather down about another nasty day.  We didn't have too long to commiserate however, because after only a couple of miles on the road we had another crash.  This time it was Stephen, my brother-in-law's nephew.  While winding around the lake a strong gust hit Stephen and blew him sideways a bit causing him to hit Samone's tire and sent him crashing to the road.  Luckily, he didn't take Samone or Freddy down as they were all very close together, but I certainly wish that he hadn't gone down.  When I turned to see what was happening behind me, I just caught the image of him as he hit his head quite hard on the pavement.  I once again slammed on my brakes, tossed my bike off the road and ran back to help.  I'm not sure if Freddy grabbed his bike or I did, but he had stood back up.  I grabbed him and his eyes were rolling around eerily in his head.  I made him sit down and instructed him to lay back as a large cut on his chin began to gush blood.  His mom, Cheryl was right there and had pulled out a first aid kit.  The only other place he had took a hit was on his knee and I bandaged that up quickly while Cheryl held his chin wound closed and Mike, once again, called Joel with SAG.  Joel arrived and we butterflied Stephen's chin closed and covered it with a band-aid.  Then we loaded Cheryl and Stephen into the van along with their bikes so that they could go up to the hospital for some stitches.  Then, as the song goes, we were on the road again.

Despite the rain, cold and wind we kept up our spirits.  Cheryl and Stephen had met up with their private SAG (Cheryl's husband and daughter) shortly after we took back off and they took Stephen up to the hospital while SAG brought Cheryl back to ride with us.  Freddy, Mike, Samone and I pulled away from Scott and Cheryl and we were in two groups again.  We took a break off of Higgins Lake and then continued on in the rain.  I-75 has always been bad luck for Mike and I and it was no different here.  Before we crossed the highway, Mike took a spill.  Nothing too bad we thought.  He hadn't tore his rain jacket and there were no scratches on his legs.  It was actually quite bad we later found out.  He had to have part of it butterflied up and he is sporting an interestingly shaped scar on his elbow now.  Then right when we crossed I-75 the rain started coming down with a vengeance.  You could barely even see where you were with all the rain streaming down your face.  I could have used some glasses with windshield wipers!  Mike had planned on us taking a break when crossing I-75, but instead of an underpass it was an overpass.  That was strike 3 of the day and we thought we were out.  No refuge from the rain there and so we continued on a bit farther until I heard Samone start to make small noises of discomfort.  If I learned one thing riding with Samone, if you push her too far without a break, she won't have energy back again for the rest of the day.  Sensing a downward spiral I pulled us off for a break on a trail in the woods.

It wasn't all that covered from the rain, but at least we weren't riding and we all had a snack and some anti-inflammatories.  We headed back out and the rain eventually let up past our lunch stop at Camp Grayling, where thankfully, Mom and Nan were awaiting us.  We ate quickly and I sat in the car with the heater blowing on me for some time.  I also traded socks with my Mom.  They were dry when I traded her, but then I had to put them into my wet shoes.  I figured, they were at least warmer than the ones I had on and a little less wet.  Stephen was out of the hospital and apparently ready to ride again, so he rode with us the remainder of the day.  Back on the road and we ran straight into big hills.  It was tough and we were all pushing through, somewhat together.  The next thing you knew, of course, we needed SAG again.  This time it was Mike.  His derailer bracket broke clean off and it was un-fixable roadside.  SAG came to the rescue and loaded up Mike and his bike to head to that night's stop where the repairman was.  I was the lone adult left with 3 teenagers, Freddy, Samone and Stephen.  We trudged through the end of the hills and we all really had to push hard to make it into Gaylord.  Mike got his derailer fixed and was headed out to find us, just as we were finishing up.  We all showered up and ate yummy chili.  Mom and Nan made just what we needed after such a long cold wet day.  We were all glad to have Suzzy, Joey and Colby were there to greet us as well as being warm, dry and sedentary.

Then we had a big decision to make.  We had to decide if we were going to ride across the Mackinaw Bridge the next day or not.  For Samone, Mike and I it was an easy one, but not so easy for Scott and Freddy.  The last day you have two options, you can ride the last 60 or 70 miles into Mackinaw City to complete the entire route or you can skip part or all of the ride and ride across the Mackinaw Bridge.  There is a very small time frame that you can go over, so it is impossible to do both the route and the bridge.  Last year Samone, Mike and I rode over 320 miles and didn't even barely get to see the bridge.  It was our goal the entire trip and then to not get to see it or ride over it at the end was a slight disappointment to us in spite of our major accomplishment.  So for us, it was an easy choice... OVER THE BRIDGE!!  Scott had a harder choice to make because it was his first year.  But ultimately we all were together in deciding.  We headed up the road to Wolverine for the night and planned our departure from Pellston the next morning.

DALMAC - Year 2

Well, we started September out with an exciting bike trip.  We rode the DALMAC for the second year.  (Do you like how I just pretended like it's still the beginning of September and didn't mention the fact that I'm a month behind in blogging??  Pretty sneaky right?)  This year Samone selected a new route for us to ride, the 4 day East Route.  Last year, you may remember, we did the 4 day West Route and we rode about 323 miles.  It was an amazing experience and it made us want to do it again this year.  This year on the 4 day East we were scheduled for approximately 260 miles.  We didn't train nearly as hard this year, but seriously, I'm not sure that it would have made any difference whatsoever.  It was a rough ride all around.  We got all prepped in the weeks before.  We rode, gathered equipment, tweaked equipment and generally tried to get everyone organized.  I bought a new pretty road bike, a Dawes Shelia.  We borrowed an older bike for Freddy to ride and we got new tires and all kinds of other miscellaneous things.  Last year it was only Samone, Mike and I riding.  This year it was a large cast including, Samone, my brother-in-law, Scott, Mike, Freddy, Cheryl (Scott's sister), Steven (Scott's nephew) and of course, me.  A much bigger group to wrangle!  We finally got everything together though and Freddy, Mike and I headed over Wednesday evening to pick up our registration information.  Registration was interestingly different for me in comparison to last year.  Last year I was so nervous and worried about the whole thing and this year I barely wondered about our route.

The next morning, Thursday morning, was Day 1!  Freddy had his second football game on Thursday, so he was out for the first day.  Mike and I got up about 5am and got ready to go.  We left much earlier than necessary because we were meeting Hilary and Ricardo in East Lansing for breakfast before we began.  They were in town for the weekend for Hilary's brother's wedding and this would be the only chance we would have to see them.  You know me, always trying to do everything!  So we had a very nice breakfast at O'Neils and then headed towards the MSU Pavilion, where we would begin our journey.  We arrived and the rest of our rag-tag crew was there and ready to ride.  We kissed our supporters goodbye and we hit the road.  We had a nice ride down through the MSU campus and headed north out of town on Park Lake Road.  Mike and I especially enjoyed the ride through campus... just like the old days.  About 30 minutes into our ride, just north of town we ran into our first few problems.  Namely, Samone had something wrong with her tire and it was beginning to rain.  We all pulled off together and Mike fixed Samone's tire by trading it out with his own (foreshadowing).  Off we headed again and Scott and Cheryl were treated to a few small hills.  I'm pretty sure that they were wondering what they had gotten themselves into!!  This first day, we decided to all ride together in the morning to our lunch stop at my Mom's and then we would ride our own speeds and meet up at the stopping point for the night.  We made it all the way to Ovid when the tire that Mike had traded out from Samone's bike went down and I mean way down (See how effective foreshadowing is?).  We waited as Mike then proceeded to change a flat tube.  With the new tube in place, we were up and riding again all the way to lunch at Mom's house.  We had some delicious homemade pizza for lunch.  Pizza on the first day has become our tradition and I plan to keep it on every multi-day ride from here to eternity!  Sooo good!  Mike spent much of our lunch break tweaking bikes with everything from changing tires to adjusting seats and handlebars.  I, on the other hand, spent my break looking over my last minute purchases that were delivered to my Mom's place and eating way too much pizza.  In particular I was excited to see some energy gels in my package.  One that I bought was the brand GU and was Chocolate Outrage in flavor.  I was really looking forward to trying it out.

After lunch we had a nice flat land ride all the way to Midland... in the pouring rain.  It was pretty disappointing to ride in the wind and rain, but as we would discover in the days to come, this was the easy day.  Once we all arrived at the Bullock Creek Middle School, we commenced with showering and eating, two of the most important things to you when you ride over 50 miles in a day.  

Then Samone and I decided that we would be the two elected to drive one hour back to St. Johns to watch Freddy's football game and then take Freddy back to Midland with us.  Samone and I were feeling the days ride on our drive to the game, but we both perked up once we got there.  We had pretty good weather, no more rain and not too chilly.  The team played great and killed Jackson Northwest 34-7.  Then Samone drove us back to Midland while I tried to stay awake to monitor her driving.  It was tough for me to stay awake!  Freddy helped by chatting from the back seat.  Once back, we had a snack and headed to bed.  Mike and I elected to take the tent with the huge queen size air mattress, which was incredibly comfortable.  But it also turned out to be extremely noisy. A huge thunderstorm came through that knocked down tents and trees throughout the night.  We luckily only had to deal with a few drips and the crazy noise.  So to sum up Day 1, late start, crappy weather, lots of delays and a restless night.  You can imagine how much we were hoping that Friday would be a better day...  to be continued.     

 

Auntie-Nephew Weekend 2010

Well I'm a couple of weeks behind, but it's because I've been so busy!  That means I have a lot to catch you up on!  Two weekends ago we had the annual Auntie-Nephew Weekend 2010.  We went to Freddy's football game in Charlotte on Friday and then we headed up to the ORV trails near Baldwin, MI with the dunebuggy and the jeep for Saturday and Sunday.  The crew that we headed up north with included the two nephews, Walker and Joe, myself, Mike and Freddy.

Friday, I picked up the boys after school shopping with Freddy and my mom in Birch Run.  We ran up to the high school because Freddy had to be dropped off for the first football game that evening in Charlotte.  Then Walker, Joey and I all stayed to help with the team dinner.  It's kind of funny, but I really am learning all kinds of new things about a sport I've known my entire life.  I never had a football playing brother, so I guess I just missed many of the things that go along with having a football player.  It's a very interesting learning experience.  I'm also learning all about the St. Johns community and school traditions.  We've lived in St. Johns for over 5 years and you miss out on a whole portion of the community activities and traditions without kids.  I knew that all along, but I guess it's just more fun than I thought it would be.

Let me give you an example.  For the team dinner we worked quickly to get the food all ready for the boys and coaches.  At the appointed time the team all filed in very seriously and silently.  I was very surprised at how quiet they were and then I was quickly informed to be extra quiet as well.  The captain gave the marching orders to the rest of the team as to how they would proceed through the line (seniors first, of course) and said a really heartfelt prayer.  Then the boys came single file through the line quiet and polite, each saying thank you as they got their food.  We gave them more water and they finished up eating.  Then another surprise!  I was quickly told that each player gives each of the Moms a hug after eating.  I stood with a huge smile, told each boy good luck and received about 40 hugs.  I loved it!

On we went to the football game.  It was fun.  St. Johns killed Charlotte 54-21.  Freddy even got to play!  He went in on defense in the 4th quarter.  He got tripped up his first play in and then came out to talk to the coach.  Then he went back in for the next play, where he was actually close to getting a tackle.  But instead of a tackle, he got a 15 yard personal penalty!  He followed the offensive player right out of bounds and apparently the referee thought he pushed the opposing player once out of bounds.  We don't tend to agree, but oh well, at least he got to get in the game.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early so that we could head up north and go offroading!  The boys were bright eyed and excited through the whole 2 1/2 hour drive.  We got to the trails about 11:30, unloaded and headed out.  We had so much fun.  The jeep was a lot to handle with the big tires, so Mike drove it pretty much the whole time and I drove the buggy with rotating passengers.  I had a lot of fun ripping around the corners and up and down the hills of sand.  I must say we all looked pretty sweet in our skull bandannas too!  I think people were jealous.

After a good long day of riding, we "kinda" broke the dunebuggy.  We had a leak and ran out of clutch fluid.  Mike was able to put most of the brake fluid in the clutch pedal so that it would work better, but that left us with no brakes.  Whoops!  Freddy, Walker and I headed out to the nearest service station to pick up more fluid and Mike and Joey headed back to the parking lot with the buggy.  It was evening by then and time to head to the cabin.  We loaded up the crew and vehicles and headed to the little cabin we had rented.  We all had showers (much needed), dinner, a little campfire and then we headed to bed.  

The next morning I made pancakes and the boys packed up the truck.  We all ate and then we decided to drive to Lake Michigan near Ludington to hit the beach.  Mike found this fantastic little beach where the boys found a geocache.  Then we swam in the frigid lake for a few hours and had a picnic lunch before heading home.  Freddy had football practice that we had to hurry back for or else I think we all would have liked to stay on the beach a few hours longer.

It was a wonderful weekend with the boys, we really enjoyed our time with them.  And for the record... Joey and Walker won the cow game, despite my best efforts to sabotage them. 

 

Weekend on Old Mission

One of my favorite places in the world is right here in Michigan, Old Mission Peninsula.  Mike and I were excited to be able to visit it last weekend and share it with Freddy and Becky (Mike's cousin).  Ken and Janet are amazing friends and are always so happy to have us for a visit.  Their home is beautiful and relaxing and their friendship always warms my heart. 

We drove up Friday night as I mentioned in my previous post and on Saturday Mike and I let Becky and Freddy sleep in and we went for a punishing 23 mile ride on the peninsula.  It was tough!  Then after some breakfast we all headed into town to accomplish some things.  Freddy joined myself, Janet and Becky for a downtown shopping jaunt and Mike and Ken went to visit some bike shops and look at boats.  Freddy and Becky found some excellent souvenirs and Janet took me to a great delicatessen shop.  I made a couple of cheese purchases that I look forward to trying out this week.  A peccorino romano and a spanish blue cheese that I can eat!  Yummm.  We all met up a couple of hours later at the famous Moomers.  Moomers is a ice cream place just outside of downtown Traverse that was voted #1 in ice cream on Good Morning America recently.  Quite an impressive resume, so we had to try it.  It was sincerely enjoyed by all.  I had a yummy draft orange soda, as I have ice cream allergies, while everyone else snacked on the creamy ice cream flavor of their choice.  Freddy tested out blue ice cream because he had never seen BLUE ice cream before.  We also stopped on the way back to pick up some bread from a local bakery for dinner that evening.  Dinner was exciting, both because it was delicious and because while grilling the chicken excess grease in the bottom of the grill ignited and shot flames 4 feet high!  Some of the chicken breasts needed some trimming to remove the... umm, charred bit, but it still was delicious.  Janet made a very yummy spinach salad to go along and we had a great dinner on the patio.  Then we cleaned up in a hurry and zoomed off to do a few more errands before we went to the drive in theater!

Our Saturday night activity was a visit to the Cherry Bowl drive in theater.  We saw a double feature of Despicable Me and The Other Guys.  We all loved Despicable Me, but The Other Guys was only so-so.  We didn't get back until 2 am and we all were very sleepy.  

Sunday morning we vowed to take another ride and so we were up bright and early to head out.  We took a flat route this time and it was very enjoyable.  Janet joined us and we rode with her for a bit.  When she turned around we rode on and totaled about 18 miles.  We would have went further, but there were a number of biking events going on and the roads were very congested.  After we showered up, I made us all crepes for brunch.  We put together several fillings and everyone filled their own crepes with the items of their choice.  After packing up and helping Janet a bit more with her computer we left Ken & Janet with many thanks and kisses.  We shot up to the lighthouse so that Freddy and Becky could see it and we waded around in Lake Michigan a bit.

We meandered home taking small highways showing Freddy a bit more of northern Michigan.  We stopped for dinner in Cadillac and then finally made our way back home.  It was an exciting weekend and we all wish we were still gazing out Ken & Janet's windows on to the bay rather than back to work and practice.  We're hoping to get another visit in before the winter.   If not, we'll definitely venture back after it snows.

DALMAC - Part 2

Day 3

Day 3 our trip was from Lake City to Boyne City and it was 92 miles. Day 3 was the day we began to hurt. This was certainly the most challenging day we faced. My knee began to hurt, Samone hurt all over and Mike's toosh was starting to get sore as well. The ride was very rewarding though, for all of the hurting it did. We had lots of big uphills and just as many big downhills. On two occasions we went through huge long chutes that were exhilarating and beautiful. The scenery was great all day. We passed several lakes and traversed lots of wooded backroads. Samone was very ill feeling in the morning and I was worried that our SAG may have to come pick her up. I'm very proud to say that she toughed through it and was feeling considerably better by the time we took our lunch break. I'm pretty sure her illness was due to dehydration from the day before. I began pushing liquids on her like a crazy person when she began feeling ill and it helped tremendously. This day also included the dreaded "Wall". I read someplace that it is like a 24% grade. Let me illustrate... that means that over 1 mile the hill drops 1,267 ft. I also found this on a biking website and it seems to ring true:

What does this "grade" number mean?

• 0% grade is exactly flat (and a negative grade, less then zero, is downhill).

• 2% grade does not seem very steep, but it's enough to substantially reduce forward speed, and for most riders it will absorb more than half their power output.

• 6% grade is enough to cut speed to well under half, and absorb more than 80% of a rider's power output (leaving less than 20% to fight air resistance and rolling friction).

• 10% grade, and anyone who is not a fit and frequent rider is off their bike walking -- and anyone who is not a racer is reaching for all the extra power they've got.

Hmm... Seems pretty accurate to me! Samone and I made it about half way. I think we both could have went a bit farther but I had two problems. I was absolutely terrified of A. the hill (it freaked me out) and B. the fact that my feet were clipped to my pedals and there was the possibility that I would get going so slow that I wouldn't be able to get my feet out and I would fall flat on my face. So I slowed wayyyyy down because of the hill steepness and ended up quitting earlier than needed because I was scared of spiking my face on the pavement. Samone unfortunately was right behind me and had no choice to stop as well because I was blocking her. Mike on the other hand went all the way up and sat down the whole way (not to be macho, but because he geared down too far and couldn't stand up). It was hard to even walk up the hill after we got off our bikes! We were so releived to be done with the Wall that we underestimated the 10 miles we had left. It was a very hard day! We were so happy to get to the RV and the nicest high school we stayed at on the trip. That night we were all aching and sleepy. Mike and I ventured on foot into Boyne and found some ice cream/sorbet while the SAG crew and Samone went to Traverse for a visit with Mom, Dad and the Swansons.

Day 4

Day 4. Why do we look so excited in the picture? Because we made it to the final day! We were up and out about 7:15am and we were excited that it was only a 70-some mile day to Mackinaw. It was an awful wake-up climbing out of Boyne City. Big hills to get out of Boyne and I went from chilly to sweating in about 15 minutes. My knee was still bothering me to no end, but I was hoping that it would subside. The final day was a very pretty one. We rode along all kinds of lakes, including Lake Michigan. It was pretty. My knee unfortunately, someplace in the tunnel of trees, took a turn for the worse. I was trying very hard not to cry. It was extremely painful at every pedal. We stopped for a break and a kind fella taped me up to try to help. At our lunch break I took drugs and on we went. All of us were pretty uncomfortable in our seats. Our bumms had had enough! It certainly wasn't our best pace day. I was having a hard time keeping up. Again, someplace in Wilderness State Park I had to stop because of pain. Some lady (read angel) was breaking there as well and offered to rub my knee for me. I was crying by now because it hurt so bad, but the "angel's" knee rub helped. I was able to make it the rest of the way, plus one more stop and another knee rub by Mike. We were all so excited to ride into Mackinaw HS and we had quite the welcoming committee when we arrived. I can't even describe how great of a feeling it was to hear them hollering for us; Mom & Dad; Suzzy, Scott, Joey and Lisa; Scott's sister and brother-in-law and Stephen and Ashley; and Scott's mom & dad - 12 people!

WE DID IT! 323 miles in 4 days. What an adventure!

Riding into Mackinaw HS

DALMAC - Part 1

I said I would write it and I wasn't lying. Here is a narrative of our extremely challenging and rewarding bike tour from East Lansing to the Mackinaw Bridge.

The beginning is always a good place to start and so there we shall start. For anyone who doesn't know, I take my niece and nephews on a trip every year. We call them the Auntie-Niece and Auntie-Nephew trips. I let the kids pick where they want to go.One day last fall I got a phone call from Samone while I was at work.

She said, "Aunt Becki, I know what I want to do for my trip next year..."
I said, "OK, what do you want to do?"

She then informed me that she wanted to do the DALMAC. I'm pretty sure my response began with, "Do you know that it's like 400 miles on a bike?!" and it was followed shortly with, "Ummm, I guess I need to buy a bike..." So this is how it began.

Samone decided that Uncle Mike could join the Auntie-Niece trip as well and we all bought bikes. Shortly after beginning training, we all bought padded bike shorts. Very needed. We trained for about 2 months and we rode about 700 miles in our preparation. I began to feel pretty comfortable on a bike. This was pretty dramatic for me because when Samone suggested this trip I could barely ride by myself, let alone with people without fearing I/we were going to crash! Training went well and we bought all kinds of things to prepare for the ride. We had spare tires, tubes, electrolyte chews, a bike pump, etc. And then, whether we were ready or not... it was time to go.

We drove Charlie's truck into the MSU Pavilion early Thursday morning with all three of our bikes and plans to meet up with Suzzy and Lisa (German exchange student) for lunch at our house because the route went within 2 miles of our house. We got someone to take a picture of us all before we took off, but it wasn't a great picture as you can see.

Day 1

Day 1 was great. We took off about 8am. We were so excited to be on our way and the lunch stop at home with grilled pizzas was delicious. It was mostly flat from East Lansing to our first overnight stop in Vestaburg and a pretty easy 73 mile day. We were into Vestaburg by 2pm or so and Suzzy, Scott and Lisa (our awesome SAG support that were driving an RV for us to sleep in) weren't even there yet! We beat our support vehicle to the 1st stop! We had a nice relaxing evening getting settled into the RV together and making adjustments here and there after our first real day of riding. Mike, Scott and the girls went to the football game while Suzzy and I had dinner and relaxed in the RV.

Day 2

Day 2 started about 7:45am. We were trying to get on the road earlier, but suddenly it was 7:30 and we knew we needed to get going. This was going to be our first test day. We had 89 miles to go and we were a bit intimidated by it. We headed out of Vestaburg and then we had our first unplanned stop. Samone was riding along and a car that drove by startled her. She went off the road a bit and got a flat tire. We were headed downhill, so she had to shout ahead to me of her problem and I in turn had to shout ahead to get Mike to stop. Mike pulled out all of the supplies that we had spent hundreds of dollars on for this very instance and we discovered we had a problem. The spare tube that fit Samone's tires was not on any of our bikes. Whoops! So we called SAG support-Scott and he lept into action. He headed out of town towards us with the tube and we began pulling things apart to see what we could do in the mean time. We had some patches and by the time Scott arrived we already had it patched and Mike was putting the tire back together. We decided to ride the patch and see how far it got us (foreshadowing.. Man I'm quite the writer, lol.). Off we went patched and feeling good about surviving our first breakdown.

The day continued and was very challenging. The last 10 to 20 miles of all of the days seemed like they took hours and hours and hours to complete. It was of course in these last few miles, when we were all exhausted and excited to rest that we had our second unscheduled stop. Approximately 1 1/2 to 2 miles outside of Lake City, Samone's tire patches gave out. Sweaty, dirty and exhausted we stopped to fix the flat. My suggestion of trying to fill it with air and riding it soft into town was a no-go. It wouldn't even hold air for 20 feet, let alone 2 miles. This time we had the replacement tube that fit and Mike expertly changed it out. We rode into Lake City to finish our day. We were relieved to be off our bikes, looking forward to Suzzy's cooking and a shower, after completing our longest ride yet.

To Be Continued...

Neighbor Dog & Up North

Well, unfortunately last night we found out who the culprit was in the duck massacre 2009. The neighbor has a Siberian husky that got loose and he was kind enough to come over last night and offer to pay for our loss. I thought that was very nice and responsible of him, but it still sucks. To date we only really have one survivor. For the time being I'm going to call him/her Lucky Ducky. Anybody have an idea of a better name???

We had an awards night at the high school last night where Felipe was recognized for being an exchange student and for being a part of the Forensics team. He was the first exchange student ever to participate in Forensics and I am very proud of him.

I got some more things done for the garden last night. I got some tomatoes into the cold frame and also planted some bulbs I had forced indoors. Also the cilantro and dill I had started in the cold frame went out into the herb box. It's so nice to get some things done!! Mike went into town last night and bought a new hose. One of the ones we had was leaking so bad we had to toss it. I was hoping that it was going to rain yesterday as predicted so that I wouldn't have to water the garden, but it didn't. So I stayed up till 11pm so that I could get everything good and soaked. Then, of course, it rained last night or early this morning. That's how it always goes.

Two weekends ago Felipe and I trekked north so that he could see more of what Michigan was like. We went to Jordan Valley pathway where we had a gorgeous hike and then by pure luck we scooted over to stay with Ken and Janet Swanson on Mission Point in Traverse City and had an amazing fun visit with them. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and it was so pretty!! Lastly we made a banzai trip to the Mackinac Bridge so that Felipe could visit the UP (if only for a few minutes). Pictures below...

Up North 05-15-2009