Park Tour

William Burchfield Park is an Ingham County park south of Lansing that sits on about 540 acres along the Grand River. Burchfield park has, at the very least, nice wooded picnic areas, playgrounds, ponds for fishing and paddling, a canoe rental and float trip shuttle service, a toboggan run (winter only), miles of mountain bike trails, a sandy beach for sunbathing, a swimming hole for wallowing, and lots well-fed folks awallowing. We've been to Burchfield a couple of times previously. Most recently Abbey had a Brownie camp day. Last year on Labor Day, we rode there on the Cannondale and Rodriguez tandems for a picnic. That ride was pretty tough - it was really hot, we weren't as strong, and we didn't pick the best route.

Today, however, we left around 11 a.m., packing a PB&J picnic lunch in our panniers, heading for Burchfield park, feeling confident because we knew it was going to be a good day. The weather was perfect: sunny sky, no wind, predicted high of 80 F. I was pleased that this year, on the road tandems, we burned up the 17 mile ride to the park pretty quickly, and everyone seemed comfortable and happy. The kids started running low on something around mile 14, but we stopped along the road, watered them, fed them some red, squishy, fish-shaped candies, and they perked up for the rest of the ride. We enjoyed our lunch at the park and the kids played on one of the shady playgrounds while Cindy and I checked out the wildlife sunbathing on the grassy slopes and sandy beach. We humans have a great degree of phenotypic variability.

We left the park around 2 p.m., heading not for home, but for Mason. We asked the kids if they would prefer to head home or to ride to the park south of Mason. Even though it would add another 10 miles to the ride, they were certainly up for a two-park day. The ride from Burchfield to Mason took us through some scenery we hadn't seen before. Nothing unusual, just a bunch of cornfield we hadn't passed before. Burchfield Park is mostly west of Mason, so we were riding east on roads we hadn't tried before.

Once in Mason, we pulled into the ice cream shop in the old downtown square (this is a different ice cream shop than Dairy Hill where we've stopped before). But we weren't looking for ice cream. I was in the mood for big glass of real lemonade. Oh well, a lemon-lime slushy was as close as we could get. We hung out at the outdoor tables and watched the bikers (motorcycles) and old cars cruise through town. Mason must be on somebody's auto tour route.

A nice speedy downhill run, past Dairy Hill, and we were at park number two. Raynor Park, this one's called. It's more typical of a large city park, with a pond, soccer fields, picnic tables, and a large medieval-style wooden playground, castle, fortress, sort of thing. We played for maybe half an hour before jumping back into the saddle and to ride home.

To save a little time and distance, and to avoid one of the narrower, busier roads, we diverged from our usual route home just a little. That took us past a Leek Cemetery, a nice shady spot where we have occasionally stopped before for a short break. It's an old cemetery, fairly large and well-kept, with a couple of narrow paved roads that loop through the stones. When we've stopped before, we've usually stayed on the bikes but grabbed a quick swig of water and a little snack. This time Cindy parked her bike and sat down in the grass for more significant break. The grass looked cool and shady and we all joined her. We began reading names and dates engraved in stone, and noted that Jack Roark lay not far from where we sat, having done so since 1930, at which time he would have been 59. We wondered, of course, if he might have been a distant relative. We didn't see Lord Voldemort, much to Quinn's relief, and we left for home at around 5:30.

The alternate route home took us into Okemos on Okemos Road. We've usually avoided this road because it's four lanes, and there are entry and exit ramps were it crosses the highway, making traffic potentially a bit worse. Traffic was worse right there at the ramps, but compared with the long stretches of narrow two-lane highway we were trying to avoid, this was probably better. It had a wide shoulder, and even with lots of debris and dead animals, I think it felt a little safer. Getting from Lansing, East Lansing, and Okemos across the highway to the south (Holt and Mason areas) is not fun on a bicycle. There are few good options for crossing the highway. There are several roads that used go north south, but must have been elimiated when the freeway went in. The bridges across the freeway were built without consideration for pedestrians or cyclists. It would be great to see either a widening of some of these bridges or installation of pedestrian and cycle bridges where some of the old roads were removed.

Maybe it was the weather or little squishy red fish candies, or maybe it was some combination of fitness, experience, and planning, or perhaps it was just luck, but today's ride, all 7 hours and 43 miles of it, was one of the best we've had. Quinn never got fussy - he was happy and bouncy the entire day. Abbey was in pretty good spirits, too, although she didn't abandon her job as the whiner, her complaining almost seemed tongue-in-cheek. We came home exhausted, but happy and hungry and a little sun-burned.

Oh, yes, and we forgot the camera today, so no pictures.

Rain, rain, rain.

You'd think we were in the Northwest in January, except that the air is warmer and feeling muggy. I do enjoy a good spring soaking, but it interferes with bicycling - or at least makes it a wet experience.

I wanted to ride today. Exercise and escape. I really wish we had a four-seater, four-wheeled velomobile or pedal-car with a full shell and windshield. I'm perplexed by the absence of such vehicles. I can see where they would be a challenge to operate in hilly locations, but in many places they'd be great. There are people around the world working on pedal powered vehicles, but their focus is often on single-occupancy vehicles designed to go very fast. Like this. Some of them are big enough to use as commuting transportation. One of the coolest looking machines is the Go-one. There is another on on the way, I hope, that looks practical in design and is intended for touring and commuting use, the Lightfoot Cycles Stormy. I really like the Stormy, and I'd love to have one to use as my wet- and cold-weather commuter, but we can't afford one right now, since they're several thousand dollars - although cheaper than a Go-one. Lightfoot also makes some multi-person vehicles, but none of them have a shell. I'd like to have something like the Lightfoot Cycles Duo, but I'd like to have it set up for four pedalers, and I'd prefer a more reclined seating position that would allow for a low-profile, sleek, aerodynamic shell like that of the Stormy. It should have a large cargo area and a trailer hitch, too. In our neighborhood, we could make good use of such a vehicle for getting the kids to school and running to the grocery and hardware store. All without using a drop of gasoline. We might have to eat more, of course, to offset the caloric drain of pedaling everywhere. That would be OK.

This weekend passed without the turn of a pedal. We've been trying to do all of our routine local travel by bicycle, including all trips to work and school, piano lessons, and the grocery store. We kind of fell of the bicycle this weekend. The only cycling activity was to put the orginal slick road tires back on the Burley trailer. Just before we left Washington we'd put knobs on it for trail use. But now they're just noise makers, and Quinn can't hear us when he's in the trailer.