By the way, a "single" is a bike with just one seat. We either go for rides on the tandems or on our singles. Makes sense to us. Quinn and Abbey and Cindy go to school on their singles. Sometimes Quinn rides in the trailer behind Cindy's single. Quinn and I took the singles to the grocery store the other night, but we almost bought too much stuff to squeeze into my pannier. I should have taken two - or the trailer. Quinn crashed twice on the way home. It was late. He was tired. He's just a little guy. At eight, Abbey is quite adept at handling her own bike. She could use one a little larger, but this one's so pretty (and new bikes cost money) that we'll just keep raising the seat. We had to get a longer seat post last year.
Back to my story - On the tandems, we've made some of the usual loops to Lake Lansing, including a couple of new extension on that route. Two weeks ago we made another run to Mason for ice cream. As a team, a group, a family, a spectacle perhaps, we are getting faster and stronger. That's important to some of us. Others are just in it for the ice cream.
Saturday, May 12, 2007. Now we're up to yesterday. We spent Saturday morning completing the installation of countertop on cast-off oak cabinets I got from work. Then we took a nice ride to Lake Lansing on the tandems. It was after that, I think, that Quinn and I took the singles to the grocery store. Abbey had gone over to Rachel's for dinner and a possible sleep over. She had a fun time at Rachel's, but decided some time late that night that she'd prefer to sleep at home. This was fine, we even kind of expected it, but it was late and she often has trouble getting to sleep, even when she's at home.
Mother's Day: The Battle of Waterloo at Chelsea. Sunday, May 13, 2007.
The plan: Ride route number 35, Chelsea Ramble, in Cari Noga's book, Road Biking Michigan. The ride starts in Chelsea, home of Jiffy Mix, and makes a hilly loop to the west through the Waterloo State Recreation Area. It looked like a nice ride on winding rolling roads through a mix of lakes, ponds, forests, and fields. Chelsea is about 40 miles southeast of Okemos. Our plan was to leave home around 9 a.m., arrive in Chelsea around 10 a.m., maybe walk around the town a little while if the temperature was still cool (it was 35 degrees this morning), leave Chelsea on the tandems by 11 a.m., finish the loop by 2 p.m. (no ice cream shops on the loop), eat lunch in Chelsea, and drive home. Simple.
Despite not getting to sleep before midnight, Abbey got up extra early so she and Quinn could fix breakfast for Cindy. They are so sweet and usually have such good intentions. I got up with them and we wrapped the gift they'd selected for Cindy. But Abbey was going on not more than six hours of sleep and we could tell she was tired and on edge.
With the kids getting up before six, it wasn't hard to get the early start we'd planned, even with a little time for the Mother's Day gift. What's an early start? It's relative, I suppose. It takes us a while to gather up all of gear, get the bikes loaded onto the van, argue a little, dish out some punishments, etc. But we did well, and left at 9 a.m., just as planned.
Too bad I forgot my biking shoes. Yup, that's right. We were 12.7 miles into the drive to Chelsea, when it occurred to me that my shoes hadn't been in my bike box, and they certainly weren't in the car. We each have a labeled box (Abbey labeled mine "the bike king") on our bike shelf in the garage in which we keep our helmets, gloves, sunglasses, shoes, and any other miscellaneous gear. In the morning, I checked the contents of each box against the list in my head as I loaded the boxes into the van. But my feet are too big. My shoes don't really fit in my box. I knew that, and even thought about it. My shoes were in the closet by the back door.
I was wearing my sandals in the morning while I loaded up the gear, and kept them on for the drive to Chelsea. I knew my shoes weren't in the box. I just needed to get them out of closet. But I didn't. At 12.7 miles, what are the options? Continue to Chelsea and do the ride in my sandals? Maybe if my bike had some kind of pedals that I could actually stand on. But Shimano SPD pedals just don't work well at all if you're not wearing shoes that clip to them. Maybe for a block or two, but not 25 miles. "Clipless" pedals clip to special cleats on bike shoes. Seems an odd name. There's an explanation, but that's one tangent on which I won't run off right now. We all use clipless pedals, except Quinn. We like them very much because you can push down and pull up on the pedals, greatly improving pedaling efficiency. Unless you forget your shoes.
I was unhappy about this oversight. I slammed on the brakes in the van, cranked the wheel to the left and skidded the van around 180 degrees at 80 mph on the M-52. I popped the clutch, punched the skinny pedal to the floor, and within seconds, we were headed back north. No, not really. It's an automatic. And if I drove like that, the bikes might come off the rack. Most people in this state do drive like that. Most people think I drive too slow.
About 26 miles and nearly an hour later, we were in exactly the same spot, heading south on M-52, but this time my bike shoes were on the floor of the van. And this time Abbey was sound asleep in her seat. Poor girl had a rough night.
We made it to Chelsea sometime around 11 a.m. We wound around the downtown area trying to figure out how to get to the village parking without turning left. Lots of no left turn signs. We found a spot, parked, and walked. It was nice. I should have taken a photo of this: cycling is so popular in this area that they have big bicycle racks right along one of the downtown streets underneath a huge map - painted on the side of a building - of the Waterloo State Recreation Area. We could read the map from across the street at the pastry shop. It was very bicycle friendly. Cyclists were everywere.
As we were getting the bikes down from the car, we could tell Abbey was still very tired, and that we were pushing our luck to attempt this ride. But the air was warming and the sun was shining. Off we went.
We had a little trouble catching the right road out of Chelsea, but we knew our road would run west and parallel to the railroad tracks once we were out of town. We just followed the tracks, crossing them, carefully, twice. The road was nice, once we were on it. A little narrow, but it was in good shape and traffic was light. As promised, the terrain was nicely rolling and the scenery was pleasant. I find rolling terrain much more enjoyable than pedaling the ruler-flat roads around lansing. We passed forests, fields, lakes, ponds, wetlands, cattails, redwinged blackbirds, hawks, and plenty of road-kill.
I started out in shorts, a short-sleeve bike jersey, and light jacket. I was immediately too hot. I took off my jacket and Abbey put it on. She gets so cold when we ride.
Unexpected park along the south edge of Cavannaugh Lake! Since it was likely the only playground we'd see, we had to stop. I'm very glad we did.
Our arrival at the lake coincided with huge mayfly hatch. They were everywhere, covering the ground, the play equipment, and us. It was wonderful! Once they figured out how harmless mayflies are, the kids liked them too. This one found Quinn's helmet.
A dragonfly found Cindy's ankle. Its wings were wrinkled - I'm not sure if it had been damaged or if it was just very newly emerged, having wings that were still hardening. I suspect the latter. We moved it to the presumed safety of a large tree. I should have known what kind it was, but often I forget some of the more import things I've learned.
After the park, we moved a little more smoothly down the road. Abbey was comfortable wearing my jacket over hers. Nonetheless, I had noticed that the 25 mile loop had an option for shortening it to a 17 mile loop, and I mentioned this to the team. To my poorly disguised dismay, they chose the short-cut. A little disgruntled, I led the way. We rode steadily with only a few stops to regroup, take in some water, and check the map. The terrain continued to roll, with some nice fast downhills. Quinn and I practiced riding in the drops with a low profile to the wind to see how fast we could go without pedaling. The hills were small and we only broke 30 mph once. Sometime around mile 13 or 14, Abbey began to perk up, and the girls started catching us on some of the climbs. The hills were fun.
I usually keep the camera in the bag on Quinn's handlbars, so it's not easy for me to get it out on the fly. Here I tried it - taking shots over my head to the rear.
This is us. Whoa... it's no wonder people gawk at us.
We had to do a little time on M-52 on the way back into Chelsea. The traffic was fast and it was a little scary, but for most of it the shoulder was the width of a full lane. As we crossed the railroad tracks coming into town we could hear a train coming. The gates started going down just as we crossed - it's good that none of our wheels got stuck!
It was an Amtrak with passengers all aboard. We pulled of into a parking lot beside the tracks to watch.
Chelsea has big clock tower.
And Jiffy.
Back in Chelsea, we wandered around again, looking for lunch. We should have tried Zou zou's, but it was mostly a coffee shop and we were hungry. The Common Grill looked a little pricey and fancy for us. So we packed up the van and headed back to Okemos.
The day went pretty well, all thing considered. We need to work on Abbey's clothing - should have had her wear her rain jacket today. Her range of temperature tolerance is quite narrow, and the wind really gets through her favorite sweater. She'd probably like wearing tights more than her yoga pants because they'd be a better wind barrier, but I'm not sure we could get her to try them. Mostly, however, she needs to get enough sleep the night before we ride.
Poor Quinn. When we pulled into the driveway at home, he tripped while getting out of the van. He banged his head on the concrete, and it shows. It doesn't show quite so much in this picture, but his eyelid and cheek are quite bruised, too.
Next weekend: Our first club ride of the season! It's already complicated with an almost conflicting girl scout outing in the afternoon that runs into the evening, as well as a casual performance/recital/party that Abbey's piano teacher is giving in the evening. We'll see how it works out.
Hey! Jiffy! Our favorite corn muffin mix! Do they offer tours? Is there a tasting room?
ReplyDeleteCindy, I'm still slicing weenies into the mix (two boxes) and baking in the dutch oven on campouts. All the yumminess of corndogs without the guilt of deep frying!