Pre-MUP Lansing Ride

If I were really good blogger, I would have written up each day of the MUP bicycle tour as it happened, and then somehow posted my writing to my blog each day in near real time (that's mobile blogging, and I actually could have done it). But I didn't. I wasn't that organized. Instead, I'm going to retroactively post something for each day of the tour. Also, because I'm going to post each day as a separate blog entry, they'll end up sort of in reverse order. But I'm going to do it that way, anyway. If it bothers you, try standing on your head.

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, the MUP is the League of Michigan Bicyclist's tour of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You can find more info here. We'd been trying to prepare for the ride all summer. We were all very excited about it.

My parents, hereafter referred to as Grandma and Grandpa, arrived on Thursday night (17 July) with their Burley tandem to do the tour with us. Six Roarks on three Burleys. Too bad the acronym isn't a little better. Interestingly, on the MUP tour, we were often called the "Burley Family" by the other riders. We should have had a sign that said "Roark Family on Burleys" or something like that.

I was anxious to start riding, and Cindy had to work at 2 p.m., so we headed out for local ride in the morning (18 July). We rode on the Lansing River Trail to Winkin', Blinkin', and Stinkin', and then on over to Hawk Island Park. It was a nice ride, probably around 25 miles, and gave Grandma and Grandpa a chance to stretch their legs after the long drive from Wichita. I took a few pictures, but they weren't very good - nothing worth posting.