A measure of Quinn

At first I posted this picture by itself, with no supporting text, thinking the image was pretty much self-explanatory. But perhaps a little explanation wouldn't hurt. At school, Abbey has been learning about measurements and units of measurement, particularly length, weight, and volume. This was the product of one of her assignments. They were to select an object to measure using standard and non-standard measurements and create a poster. Obviously, she chose her little brother. What could be more fun than using him in some sort of experiment? Just wait until they start learning about molecular biology and she decides to clone him.

This is winter!!

Now this is more like it! This is why we thought it would be fun to live in Michigan!


Last night the forecast was for 4 to 8 inches of snow during the night, and then another 3 to 7 during the day. Shortly after 7 a.m. this morning Abbey was out of bed to look outside. I think she said, with a nice crescendo, "Whooaaa!!" She and Quinn, still in pajamas, headed out with a meter stick - ok, a ruler - to check the depth on the table on the deck. Right at four inches, but it was still snowing hard.




After coffee, and a quick breakfast of grapefruit and bagels, granola and yogurt, we were pulling on snow gear and gathering the sleds.




We headed down the street and around the corner to the sledding park. We were first on the hill, which was not a surprise since it was only 8:30 on Sunday morning. The snow on the east hill was about six inches deep at the top of the hill, with a drift on the slope more than a foot deep. Being first on the hill doesn't mean getting the fastest sledding, but it's fun to flop around in the powder. Poor Quinn couldn't get back up the hill on his own.


The air was cold and the north wind was fierce. The sun was hidden behind clouds and billions of flakes of now. It looked like blizzard. Maybe it was. The snow plows were out in force. All of the roads in our neighborhood were soon plowed.


It took several slow runs down the hill to pack the snow enough to make a good run, but then it was fast and fun. Quinn's little sled is very fast and tracks well. Sometimes it rolls if it gets into a rough spot. It was given to us by one of our neighbors last winter. Abbey was using a large round red dish sled, also from our neighbors.






We didn't last too long this morning before we headed home to shovel the driveway. After lunch Abbey got a call from her friend, Mya, who lives in one of the houses across the street from the sledding park, so we pulled on our snow gear and headed back to the hill. This time Cindy came, too.

Mya's little brother, Logan, is about Quinn's age, and he joined us on the hill. He's on the left with his red sled in the image below. Mya and Logan had similar sleds, one red and one green. They were toredo shaped and rounded in cross section, so they did pretty well in deep and rough snow.


The sun was trying to shine, and the snow had stopped falling, but the wind was still blowing strongly. We found that the slope on the north side of the park was less crowded and somewhat sheltered from the wind. The snow was nearly two feet deep on the north side, but once we had cut a couple of sled runs, we had a blast. Mya's house is on the right in the image below. You can also see Logan right after a crash.


Even Mom and Dad had good time sledding. This kind of fun is not something you should outgrow. Here's Cindy spraying some snow on the pink dish sled.


Quinn, Mya, and Abbey. Quinn just recovered from another face plant.


We don't have any sleds big enough to hold an adult and a kid, so to ride together we had to make a train.


Down we go!! The houses in the background in the image below are across Hatch street to the south. Hatch, by the way, has a reasonably wide shoulder for cycling.


Abbey and Mya went side-by-side on their tummies on the big red dish sled. It's the best sled for adults because it's big, but it's not real fast.


After an hour or so of sledding, we headed home. Mya came with us and we used some climbing 'biners and some rope to drag the kids home on the sleds. No, not with a car or even a bike. Cindy and I ran like a team of sled dogs, but we didn't get any pictures. Should have given the camera to the kids.

Here's our house in the snow. I had to shovel the driveway a second time.


The view down the street. The road slopes away from our house, making it a nice hill for bicycling and skateboarding, but it's not steep enough for sledding.


Here's the house across the street. It's empty and has been for sale, but at the moment it appears to have been taken off the market. We think it would be nice if we could buy it, or if Grandma Sharon could buy it, so she could move in there. So far we haven't figured out how to make that work.


Well, it's time for dinner and warm cranberry bread, and maybe some hot cocoa.

Bicycling

Back on the bike today. Yesterday, too. At least for the ride in. Just taking it slow and easy along the icy path along Dobie. At 30 F today, with mostly dry roads, it was a nice ride in. I was too stressed and tired after work yesterday to ride home - I called and had Cindy come get me. So much for my low emission commute.

Lots of traffic near the high school at 7:30 but the bike lane helps. Is it not legal for high school students to bicycle to work? Or just not socially acceptable? This should change. Maybe high schools should have cycling teams.

Walking

Today I walked to work again. This time I took the southern route instead of the northern route. I left at 7:15 and arrived at 8:03. Check the last post, but I think that's the same time it took on Friday. We live almost straight east of my office, but there's a river in between, so the only routes are those with bridges. Walking this route was much more pleasant that the other.

It was hardly even below freezing today - maybe 30 F. Just a little new snow. I probably could have bicycled pretty easily. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow. Even the sidewalk on Dobie seemed traversable. Maybe I should resign myself to riding the sidewalk at a near-walk pace, just to see if I can do it.

I got a ride home from Cindy this evening because we needed to get Abbey to her piano lesson.

I'm anxious for spring to get here so we can back to tandeming. I'm thinking about randonneuring again, too, but it's not a very realistic goal for me right now. Maybe in a few years.

Lost man seeks new society

The ride home from work on Wednesday was discouraging. With some additional new snow, my bike lanes on Kinawa Drive were full of brown slush. The sort of stuff in which the front bicycle tire floats around in a very scary way. So to maintain control of the bike, I had to ride on the edge of the traffice lane. Kinawa Drive has a center turn lane, which gives some extra space for cars to go around cyclists forced out of the bike lane by slush. But after Kinawa there's Dobie Road. As I think I wrote in the last post, Dobie is very narrow, has no shoulders, no center lane, and the asphalt is crumbled and full of holes. The sidewalk on the west is a good path for bikes since there are no driveways, but the sidewalk is dark, oncoming headlights are bright, and the layers of snow make it very difficult to ride. There is not sidewalk on the east. I chose the road. There were long lines of cars approaching and behind me. Some cars passed me, forcing the oncoming cars to swerve to the side, honking horns. Some cars passed me leaving no space between their mirror and my head. I like riding my bicycle, and I'm not afraid of riding in traffic. But this was pushing my limits. It's too bad our roads are not designed to accomodate slower forms of transportation. Bikes, velocars, mopeds and scooters, little electric cars, what else?

Thursday I took the bus to work. Left the house at 7:15, arrived at work at 7:45. Faster, safer, and easier than biking, costs $1 a trip. It's public transportation, not a Single Occupancy Vehicle. It fits within my self-imposed boundaries of social and environmental responsibility, but it's not as fun as riding bicycle, and it doesn't provide much exercise.

Today I walked to work because I missed the bus. I guess I haven't fully characterized the variability of the bus schedule, and I cut it too close. The walk was nice. The sidewalks had a couple inches of new snow. I found the constant roar of traffic and spray of slush from the car tires onto my legs to be somewhat annoying. I left the house at 7:15 (same time as yesterday) and arrived at the office at 8:03. Not bad. I will consider other routes that might be more pleasant, but slightly longer, in the future.

Imagine how healthy and happy we'd all be if everyone could just get out of their cars and ride a bike or walk. It would be a better world. What's wrong with us?

Cold and dark winter commute

Winter has arrived and bicycling to work means riding in the cold and dark in the morning and in the evening.

Yesterday morning the wind was blowing with gusts up to 40 mph from the NW. My four mile route to work is indirect; I ride south then west then east then north. Mostly. Riding west into the strong wind made slow going. Riding south the gusts blew me sideways. For warmth, I wore my snug Icebreaker wool top under a close-fitting Gore cycling jacket. On top of that I wore my fleece-lined nylon jacket. On my lower half, I wore cycling shorts under mid weight tights. Neoprene booties over my cycling shoes and PI lobster mitts under Gore-Tex shell mitts - ancient ones from Cindy's days at Outdoor Research. I have a thin balaclava that works under my helmet. It keeps my ears warm through the 20s F but below that another layer is required. Well, yesterday, despite the wind, the temperature was above 30 F. I thought it was colder when I was getting ready to ride. I hadn't checked the temperature. I was plenty warm.

On my way to work, traffic was backed up, I assumed as a result of icy roads. Usually, when traffic is slow and the roads are icy, I just get in line and crawl along with the cars. With the cold wind, however, I decided to take advantage of the wide shoulder to get ahead. Turned out the traffic was piling up because a tree had blown down in front of a car and the car had run into it. A girl on her way to the high school, I think. To get past the wreck, I had to dismount and drag my bike over the trunk. It was not a small tree.

After work, on the way home, the air temperature was around 30 F. The wind was still blowing but was generally favorable to my ride home. I stuffed my jacket into my panniers to avoid overheating, as I had in the morning. Then I spent too much time unlocking my bike and packing my panniers outside with my mittens off, so my fingers were cold before I started riding. Aside from cold fingers that never warmed, the ride home was nice.

Today, in the morning, I checked the temperature before I left. It was 23 F but the wind was not blowing as hard as it had been yesterday morning. I traded yesterday's fleece-lined jacket for a light nylon shell as my outer layer. I was quite comfortable.

There's been some snow and some sleet, so the roads have patches of ice but are mostly dry. The short stretch of sidewalk I use along Dobie Road will soon be, as it was last winter, unrideable. The snow accumulates on the sidewalk as slush, it holds footprints and tire tracks, then freezes. It becomes so rough and hard that riding on it becomes very difficult because the bumps, footprints and tire tracks, force the bicycle's front wheel to turn unpredictably. Even the studded tires don't really help. Soon I'll be riding the road. That stretch of road is so rough and narrow and carries so much traffic in the morning that I usually avoid riding it. When I do decide to ride in the road, traffic gets backed up. Motorists don't like to wait for space to go around me - some get angry and some will pound their horn, other race their engines as they pass. Some wait politely for a clear spot to pass me. Most just ride past me with about 3 inches to spare, as if I weren't even there. It can be stressful. The adjacent sidewalk is wide and runs along a natural area, Dobie Preserve, so there are no driveways crossing the path, which is the biggest hazard to bicycles forced onto the sidewalk. I think this path is very safe, except for a slight risk of crashing into pedestrians wearing headphones or walking dogs, or both, and weaving side to side on the path. But once the snow and ice cover the sidewalk, I'll be on the street.

This evening, my ride home was again cold and dark, but quite pleasant. As usual, I didn't get out of the office until 5:45, so much of the after work traffic had subsided. The wind wasn't strong, and the temperature was around 25 F. When I reached Dobie, I chose to ride the road instead of the sidewalk. The traffic is lighter at this time of day, so riding on the road is generally better. And because the sidewalk is only on the west side of the road, riding to the north on the sidewalk means riding into oncoming headlights. It's very difficult to see the sidewalk. The road seems safer. Tonight the cars were patient, too.

Kite Surfing

With our visitors still visiting, we took a longer drive out to Lake Michigan. The main goal of the day was to see the lake and and country along the way. We stopped at Muskegon State Park, where the wind was blowing harder than a Kansas Tornado. The kite surfers were happy about it. And the kids had a great time jumping in the dunes.

Three Days Visit

This weekend we had three Days visit. Cindy's dad and grandparents dropped in for the weekend. We had a nice visit and spent the day seeing the sites around Okemos and Lansing. We drove out to the Capitol Buiding in Lansing, around the MSU Campus and agricultural areas, and did our Lake Lansing Loop by car.

In the evening we carved pumpkins.

Pumpkin Pickup

Homework, piano lessons, and household projects seem to have taken over, leaving little time for recreational bicycling. Darkness is falling early, too, nearly putting a close on tandem rides after work. Winter is coming.

Last weekend, on Saturday, 13 October, we were in need of pumpkins, as most families are this time of year. We could have picked them up at the grocery just down the road, but we thought it would be more fun to visit one of the local pumpkin farms we've seen on our rides. Since we don't actually own a pickup, we used the next best thing - our old Burley trailer.

Quinn and I pulled the trailer behind the big blue Burley. It was a very windy day, but the trip to Tannenbaum Farm was just a few short miles. It was fun.

Tannenbaum Farm is a large Christmas tree farm, as the name suggests, and the pumpkin patch appears to be a recent addition. In the image below, you can see the lines of Christmas trees.

The farm didn't have any designated bicycle parking, but the white fence at the front of the parking area seemed appropriate. Some of us needed to get out of our cycling gear and into "normal" clothes so people wouldn't think we were weird.

We told Abbey there was very little chance we'd run into anyone we knew, but we were wrong. There was another family picking out pumpkins, and in that family was a boy who is in Abbey's third grade class. Rather than choose our pumpkins from the trailers out front, we joined the other family for a hayrack ride out to the pumpkin patch. Abbey even spoke to the boy, just a little.
After much deliberation we chose a couple of big pumpkins and loaded them into the hay trailer for the ride back to the parking area.

Before we got away, we also selected a couple of little pumpkins and some funky gourds. After shelling out about $7 for all this fruit, we stuffed it into our pumpkin trailer and padded it with a blanket for the ride home.
Maybe this year we'll get our Christmas tree from Tannenbaum Farm. They said they hadn't had anyone pick up a Christmas tree using a bicycle. Hmmm.

Apple Cider Century

Months of planning and training, anxious anticipation of apple cider and apple pie, ended with a sweet and sticky, sweaty and sticky, adventure this weekend. The Apple Cider Century took place on September 29th and 30th in Three Oaks, Michigan. The organizers of the ACC have labeled it as "the most popular century bicycle tour in the Midwest." Without question, it was well-attended. Approximately 5,000 riders participate. It was an experience. A bicycle circus, perhaps, but we had fun. Here's the story.

We gathered up most of the cycling gear Friday night, and we spent some much-needed time cleaning, lubing, and adjusting the tandems. Saturday morning we finished packing and, after using the van to run some recycling to the drop-off, we loaded the van. We weren't trying for an early start because our only goals for Saturday were to drive the 154 miles to Three Oaks in time to take part in the ice cream social and secure a patch of ground large enough to accommodate our tent. The latter was the only thing we expected might be time-sensitive.

We arrived in Three Oaks around 2 p.m. Saturday. Three Oaks is a small, artsy sort of town with lots of little shops and few restaurants. It was even smaller than we'd expected. Most of the event was taking place in the middle of town where the little art shops, fire station, elementary school, and city park were adjacently located and straddling a well-used rail line. Check-in at the elementary school was easy and well-organized (they used the gym and several classrooms). We picked up our t-shirts and set off to find the park where we could camp.

The ride organizers arranged for free camping in a city park near the edge of town, maybe a mile from the start-line and registration area. We expected the campground to be more crowded, but I guess most people opted for other accommodations. "Free" seemed too good for us to pass up. The city park had a playground and some baseball diamonds, and there tents scattered everywhere. It was a little difficult to tell where in the park we were supposed to camp, but apparently we could pitch a tent anywhere we could find space. We erected the tent in a flat grassy field, hoping it wouldn't become a lake if it rained (although no rain was forecast), and pedaled back to town for ice cream.

It must be a big event when they have such a huge banner at the start line.

We found the ice cream social, which for some was probably the most important event on the schedule. There was a folk band, "Dangerous Folk," singing protest songs in the gazebo. They were pulling no punches, either. They'll probably wind up in some off-shore prison. We sat and listened for a while, but the local editor of the paper harassed us with her camera, trying to sneak pictures of Quinn to post in her tabloid. Abbey was jealous. A little later, Cindy was taking pictures of the kids playing on the Dewey Canon, and someone offered to take a picture of all of us. It looks to me like I might have been helping the kids shoot the thing.


After sitting and listening for a while we set off on a warm-up ride south of Three Oaks. The local cycling club has established many routes, and there are permanent signs, color-coded with mileage ranging from 5 to 100, to guide cyclists through the region. It's very nice. We put in about eight miles, attending to some derailleur maladjustments from my last minute tinkering.

After the ride, we planned find some dinner before heading back to camp for the night. But, as I mentioned above, Three Oaks is a small town. We were looking for a nice restaurant serving high-quality, high-calorie, inexpensive, vegetarian foods. We found nothing like that. Taco Del Mar would have been perfect: a Super Veggie with black beans, please. Even the standard small town traditional Mexican restaurant might have worked. We passed Nelson's Saloon, which, at first glance appeared out of place in Three Oaks. Nothing eccentric about Nelson's. A working class bar. Maybe even a non-working class bar. The sort of place you wouldn't bring your kids. In Washington it wouldn't be legal. The sort of place a guy in skin-tight lycra shorts wouldn't want to venture. After we walked up and down the main drag a few times, each time passing the windowless front of Nelson's Saloon, we were losing hope, so checked the menu posted in front of Nelson's, and noted that it had a few kids meals. Must be legal to bring your kids. There was an "ACC riders welcome" sign, too. So we went in. And for the second weekend in a row, Cindy and I ate burgers made with real beef. From the kids menu, Quinn had a PBJ sandwich and Abbey a grilled cheese. Not sure what it means that Cindy and chose the burgers rather than eat meatless from the kids menu, but we didn't want to start a big ride on empty stomachs. To be sure we were full to the top, we finished the meal with some tasty desserts - extra calories for the coming ride.

We pedaled back to the camping area and our tent. The park had a small, reasonably clean bathroom, that was quite insufficient for the number of campers in the park. The toilet paper supply gave out before the sun had set. Given that the park was filled with about a hundred tents, the atmosphere was pretty subdued. I had expected a bit more ruckus, but everyone seemed pre-occupied. We got the bikes ready to go, leaned them together and threw a lock around the frames, then we settled in and tried to get to sleep in the somewhat noisy and well-lit park.


Abbey read while I tried to get Quinn to hold still. He was wiggling and flopping all over the tent. Too much excitement. When the park lights went out at 10 p.m., Cindy said she was the only one still awake.


The pancake breakfast, cooked and served by the local fire department in the fire station, started at 5 a.m. I was glad that we were still sleeping in the tent at that time. A few of the other riders in the campground were getting ready to go. We waited until 6 a.m. before waking Quinn and getting dressed. Quinn usually sleeps between 9 and 10 hours each night, and we didn't want to cut him short before such a long ride. It was not yet 7 a.m. when we left our tent and pedaled over to breakfast. We had pancakes, eggs, and cereal. Not a bad breakfast, really, although the coffee was really quite bad. We couldn't even drink it.

Notice the variety of bicycles parked by the breakfast tables. A really old Schwinn three-speed, a not-so-expensive mountain bike, and a few more typical road bikes in the background. There was a wide variety in use.


Finally, after a few trips to the portable latrines, we set off on the ride. Since riders were starting over a span of several hours, the start of the ride was not particularly crowded. As we pedaled out of town, however, there were quite a few speedier cyclists going around us. Quinn found this unacceptable. He was really pedaling hard for the first half mile to try to keep up. He kept saying, "Daddy, pedal harder, all these bicycles are going around us!!" "It's OK, Quinn, it doesn't matter. It's not a race." He likes to be the fastest. Someday, Quinn, someday.



The route took us north and east of Three Oaks, where we pedaled through rolling, forested hills and some flatter farmlands. We didn't see as many apple orchards as I'd expected. I think there were more vineyards than orchards.

Abbey often sits upright with her hands off the bars. I don't know how she can pedal that way. Ask Cindy about that. Here Abbey's grabbing a sack out of her kitty bag.


The rolling hills were great. In the picture below we'd just finished flying down a long, winding road. I hoped to catch the girls leaning around the corner, but the picture doesn't really give much feel for speed.


The first SAG rest stop was at 26 miles, which is a little longer than we usually go in one stretch. But we only stopped to shed clothes. We didn't need to stop to rest. The wind was light, but had been behind us. Quinn is even getting pretty good at drinking and snacking while we're moving, but I have to ride pretty carefully. With both hands on the water bottle, he'd slam into my back and might fall off if I hit the brakes.

You might notice in these pictures that much of the time we were not riding with a large crowd. There were several routes, 25, 50, 62, 75, and 100 miles. All routes left Three Oaks to the north and east, making a counter-clockwise circle - or a polygon. The longer routes had excursions out further from the center of the circle. There were only two rest areas, and all but the 25-mile route stopped at both. I'd say most riders rode the 50-mile route, because the only time the roads seemed crowded were when we were on the route shared with the 50. It was nice when were were mostly alone, but it was fun, too, when we were in the crowds because we had the chance to chat with other riders - especially those on tandems and those who've been through the kids-on-tandems age and are now back on singles.


The first SAG stop was located at a park where the kids slid down some really tall spiraling slides. We had apple cider, cookies, apples, bananas, and a fruit-nut mix. Once we left the stop, the route turned south and started into an increasingly powerful headwind. It was pretty tough at times.

Shortly before the second SAG stop, we rode through this very nice, old, neighborhood (with terrible roads) that sat along the shore of Lake Michigan. We could often see the lake through the gaps between the multi-million dollar homes. If you're really into seeing the fruits of others' success, I have some pictures of some of the homes. It seemed impolite to post them here.


We hit the second SAG stop, in New Bay, MI, at around 45 miles. By this time the air had warmed from comfortably cool to not-so-comfortably warm and windy. Both Cindy and Abbey wished they had worn a cooler top. Cindy's face was getting red from the heat. Abbey pulled off her under layer, leaving her with just the low-cut long sleeve UPS top that Heather gave her.

This is pretty typical of a SAG stop at a big ride like this. Cyclists of all shapes and sizes and ages sprawled about. A line of port-a-potties off to my right. The food set up in the covered picnic shelter. On my left were bottles of water and sports drinks. Most of the bikes behind me or leaned against sawhorses off to my right. Yellow-jackets everywhere. They love Gatorade.


The SAG stop was at a park right along the bay, with lots of big boats.


With the second stop out of the way and nearly 20 miles to go, we were feeling a little tired, especially as the route headed right back into the headwind. Quinn was starting to ask, with increasing frequency, "How many more miles until we're finished?"

Somewhere around mile 50, we turned back to the east. The head wind was now a cross wind with a little boost from the west. Straight and flat for miles, it was easier but more open. The camera stayed in the bag as we pedaled through.

As our mileage reached into the upper 50s, the scenery changed again. We returned to the rolling hills, with forests to shade us and block the wind. The hills were some of the steepest we'd encountered. We pedaled through a beautiful, thick forest that was part of a nature preserve. It was very nice. Classic, upper Midwest glacial hills, I think.

Here we have Abbey and Cindy, focused on their task, climbing yet another hill, cranking out the miles. Over the course of the summer, they've really learned to work together. Both have become much stronger.


Abbey sitting up proudly in here favorite riding position as she and Mom near completion of their first metric century.


We did it. We finished the ride. We were all completely exhausted, but we'd accomplished our goal. Both kids were quite proud. Even Abbey admitted that she enjoyed it.

So we dropped the bikes in grass at the elementary school and headed for the spaghetti dinner and apple pie.





And then there was the tent. After we ate, we climbed back into the saddle and rode to the campground. Few tents remained. We packed camping gear, loaded the bikes, and got into the van. Tick, tick, tick, tick, oh, no. What's that mysterious ticking noise? We think maybe the phone charger had killed the battery. No lights had been left on. After a jump start from a Jeep, accompanied by another conversation about tandem bicycles, we were on our way home. We're already talking about going for the 75 next year.