Due to some inavailability of internet over the past few days we haven’t been able to update the blog until now. Apologies.
We’re three days in and I think each rider would agree each day has been better than the previous. The first day around the bottom of the Lake, through the industrial cities of Gary and Michigan City, were highlighted by a few great trails, oil refineries and one unfortunate accident. About 90 miles in Matt hit a patch of gravel and lost control of his front wheel. He took a nice tumble and Evan, who was drafting right behind him, also took part in the action. Chris and I are glad Matt wasn’t leading the pack 
. Gratefully, neither rider nor machine were damaged badly (See pictures above).
Day 2 — We got a late start — didn’t get out the door until 9:30 am, and immediately celebrated by stopping for a full breakfast at country kitchen. Despite the late start we made fairly good time. Each of us began to “click” with the other riders and we began to cycle cohesively as a team. Each one of us takes a turn “pulling” the other riders while the other riders follow behind. Having four of us really makes the trip a lot easier because we all share the load. This day we began seeing the first hills, a feature we’re not used to seeing in Chicago. Around 8:00 pm we finally pulled into Bree and Colin’s house. (Dinner and breakfast were AWESOME!)
Day 3 — Today was our first “short” day — 70 miles. Colin kicked us off with a good pace to start — 18 mph for the first 6 miles. We’re glad because we continued a great pace all day. Today, at Colin’s suggestion, we only took 2 mile turns in front and it work out really well. Monday we averaged 14.5 mph, Tuesday we bumped it up to 15.4, and today we rocked 16.5. The saavy cyclist will know these aren’t Tour de France-type speeds, but for us it’s a pretty good pace. We were able to get into Baldwin this afternoon just before 5 — that leaves us plenty of time to take a dip in the Baldwin River with a couple a salmon. The locals tell us their coming up early this year because of cool Lake Michigan temperatures.
Highlight of the day — a friendly gentleman named Eric introduced him self and pointed out a few great place to eat. He left the restaurant we were eating at before we did and picked up the tab for us! We’re greatful for all the hospitality we’ve been shown in the great state of Michigan.
Beautiful roads today, lots of hills.
September 10, 2009 at 1:26 pm |
Nice work guys! Thanks for the updates.
September 11, 2009 at 5:04 am |
Love reading your updates. Matt and Evan, so glad you weren’t injured in the crash! If you want to swing by Salt Lake City, we’ll cook up some yummy meals for you, too!