Day 6: 07/30/16 Fenton to Rochester, MI

We decided to use our Garmin Edge Touring to navigate today. I fired it up and chose the route to Rochester, so far so good, a list of directions materialized and we were off. Within a couple miles however, John suspected we were going in the wrong direction. Huddled under the canopy of Sharp's Funeral Home in the pouring rain, we check the Garmin course. It was 180 degrees off. Apparently, the original route started at a campground, went past our Warm Showers hosts and on to Rochester. Instead of directing us from where we actually were, it was sending us back to the campgrounds to begin, taking us through Fenton again and on to Rochester. To make matters worse, the storm was interfering with our signal, making Google Maps unavailable.

After a serious discussion that included topic such as, Why are we doing this? and Did you see the hotel in town?, we decided to soldier on. The folks in Sharp's Funeral home generously shared their WiFi, gave us hot coffee, and even printed a cue sheet (the same set of directions the Garmin was supposed to provide us with electronically. Grrr) Back out into the rain we ventured, certain it would let up shortly. If 5 hours later is shortly, we were right, otherwise, not so much.

I learned two things today: One, even though I appear to be, I am not so sweet that I melt in the rain. Two, I do not like the Garmin Edge Touring, not one bit. This is by far not the first time it has failed us. I am considering a relationship change from It's complicated  to dumped the darn thing. John is giving it one more chance. I wonder if he'll let me fling it into a swamp  wetlands area when it fails for its last time.

Tomorrow we are off to Algonac, the last Michigan city we will be in for quite a while. Yike.

Day 5: 07/29/16 Perry to Fenton, MI

We woke up to a beautiful day in Perry, a town of a little over 2,00 people. Still in the experimental stage of navigating, we decided to rely on Google Maps in bicycle mode. All went well until we were sent down a dirt road. My fault. Though I checked many of the roads along this route, obviously I missed this one. While riding on dirt does not pose any real challenge to us, it is slow going. After a couple miles we called it quits and rerouted ourselves on to pavement. Google Maps went with the flow and recalculated the rest of the route. We arrived in Fenton around noon, just in time to join the lunch crowd getting a bite to eat.

The city of Fenton has been in existence since 1834. The population is just under 12,000 people, but you would never know it by the bustling downtown. There are multiple restaurants, shops and attractions to visit. Like much of Michigan, there are many lakes nearby. I am told ice fishing, snowmobiling and something called ice boating are popular in the winter. I would recommend Fenton as a weekend getaway. 

We stayed in the historic home of Evelyn and Ken Bearup. They were the nicest couple possible. We arrived to a lovely lunch and were treated to dinner as well. In the morning Ken made us breakfast. Unfortunately, he could not change the weather.

Day 2-4: 7/28/16 Hastings to Lansing to Perry

We have already learned several lessons on our trip. One lesson is that just because you can fit a piece of gear onto the bike does not mean that you should bring it along. Ounces become pounds, and then tens of pounds. Our guesstimate is that we were hauling 135 pounds of gear. Add that to the 70 pounds the bike weighs, plus our own not inconsiderable avoirdupois, and I think you may gain an appreciation of the problem. By the time we reached Lansing, we knew we had to lighten the load. We got rid of all camping gear, about 65 pounds all told. We also fixed a mechanical problem during the day we took off there.

Eagle Monk Brewery, 4906 W Mt Hope in Lansing. A must-visit if you are in the area. Looks like a dive, but the beer is great, the pizza wonderful and the people friendly.

Today we rode from western Lansing to Perry, 30 miles. The route had more hills than the previous two days, and we were two mph faster, with less perceived effort. Fantastic.

Tomorrow we ride to Fenton, another short ride. We did not have time to train before starting this ride, so we are keeping each day to 40 miles or below to "ride ourselves into shape." This is an option I would not recommend to anyone.

Raining cats and dogs outside now. Lots of lightning too. Hope it all clears by the morning.

Day One: 07/25/16 Grand Rapids to Nashville, MI

Plan: John, Jay and I would leave home between 8:30 and 9:00AM, riding our familiar route toward Ada, then veer off and head to Hastings for dinner and later the home our warm showers hosts, Bob and Bobbie. Thinking we would average 10 mph, adding a stops for food, we should be there around 3:00PM - 4:00 at the latest.

Reality: John and I actually pulled out of our driveway at 10:30 AM. There was a lot to do that last day! Well-wishers dropping by, last minute retrieving of forgotten items, and packing and repacking our trailer to fit all the “necessities” we will need.

We hadn’t factored in the heat or the weight of our panniers and trailer. The heat and extra effort needed to move the bike along meant we stopped a “bit” more than planned. Add onto that a couple of mechanical issues, and we finally arrived at the home of Bob and Bobby around 7:30 PM, sweaty and tired, but none the worse for wear.

Bob and Bobbie were wonderful hosts. We spent the evening swapping stories and slept well.

The Plan

You might ask where we are going. Fair enough. The overall plan is to ride east to Brunswick, ME, then south to St. Augustine, FL, then west to San Diego, CA, then north up the west coast at least as far as OR. From there we may loop back down to NV, UT, CO. Or we may continue north to Seattle, WA. In all honesty, the further in the future I look at our ride the less sure I am of our actual track.

I/we fully expect that we will learn things as we ride. As a result of that new information we may decide to shorten, or lengthen, or vary our routes. I am 100% sure we will spend our second night at Pat Harrington's home in Lansing. I am 90% sure we will spend 7/29 and 7/30 at the Colony Motel in Algonac, MI. Beyond there, follow the blog.

Lots left to do

We are working like crazy to get ready for our trip. Most of the work involves emptying our home of over 25 years of accumulated stuff. Our plan is to lease out our home for the year we will be away. The rental agency wants the living areas empty and painted off-white. Empty we can do; we will probably pay someone to paint.

Departure date is Monday, 7/25. For the first few days, we plan to keep distances short. With all the things we have had to get done, we have had scant time to train on the bike. Ah well, you start your tour with the legs you have, or something like that.

We're Almost Ready!

In 2011 John and I cycled from Seattle, WA to Washington DC in 48 days, just shy of 7 weeks. While we enjoyed the cross-country trip, we knew we would do it again at a much more leisurely pace.

We are leaving Grand Rapids, MI in July and heading toward the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.