100,000 Metre (Wet) T-Shirt Ride

Yesterday we rode in our first club ride of the season. We rode in the TCBA's 100,000 Metre T-Shirt Ride, which started at the High School in Laingsburg, MI, about 20 miles north of Okemos.

I don't know why they spell "Metre" the way they do, but I'll bet that you can guess why I inserted the parenthetical "wet" into the title of this post. Very good, very good. When we loaded the bikes on top of the van at 6 a.m. Saturday morning, the first little mist was starting to fall. By the time we left for Laingsburg, a steady rain was falling. The temperature was only around 13 C, so the kids wore their neoprene booties over their shoes, rain pants over shorts, and rain jackets over their cycling jerseys. Abbey even started out with a sweatshirt between her jersey and her rain jacket. We should have found a mid-layer for Quinn, too, because I think he was pretty chilly. I wore my usual summer cycling costume of shorts and some sort of woven plastic jersey, but I added my bright yellow rain jacket to keep me dry. Cindy had to make do with a less-than-waterproof top, because her old Gore-tex jacket we bought in 1991 has finally given up.

We started the ride in a light rain, but after maybe an hour or so it tapered to the occasional gentle sprinkle. Since the sun never quite made it out, the roads stayed wet all day. The fenders on our bikes do a really nice job of keeping the road spray to a minimum. There are no skunk stripes on our kids' backs. The fenders also help keep the grit off the drive train. Disc brakes, which our tandems lack, would be a welcome benefit for rainy day riding. Our brake pads got coated in sand and grit, but fortunately we rarely had to use them.

The 100,000 Metre T-Shirt Ride ride follows a rectangular route clockwise with Laingsburg in the southwest corner. There are actually three routes you can choose: the 100,000 Metre namesake route, a 50,000 and a 25,000 metre route. We didn't do the full 100,000, but opted instead for the mid-length ride. The terrain is nothing short of magnificent, with steep crags, glaciers, and snow-capped peaks. The route is incredibly steep, ascending from elevations of 8,000 to 10,000 to nearly 14,000 feet hundreds of times every mile. OK, right, just kidding. Dreaming of the West. The terrain is just typical mid-Michigan farmland and rural houses. Nice, but on a smaller scale. The road was smooth and followed the contour of the land, so rolling hills were mixed with long flats.

We saw a few things of interest: a baby foal being nuzzled by it's mom, some big fluffy sheep, plenty of tractors, interesting old silos made of red bricks, some unidentified raptors, many other bicyclists without fenders (silly), and best of all, a giant snapping turtle laying eggs in a ditch along the side of the road. We stopped for a while to watch the turtle from a respectable distance. It was one of the largest I've seen, with a shell that I estimated to be nearly half a meter in length (that's about 20 to 24 inches). The 200,000 turtle shell lengths ride?

After the ride, lunch was served in the Laingsburg High School cafeteria. We got to choose from chicken breast sandwiches, hamburgers, meaty lasagna, and veggie lasagna. We chose the latter; not bad, but not Cindy's. There was veggie salad and pasta salad, too, and the kids had popcicles -- popcycles? -- for dessert.

Made it all the way to the bottom of the post? Here's some other news:

Abbey made straight As on her report card. Good, good.

Quinn didn't get any grades, but his more qualitative report looked fine. Almost surprising given how wild and crazy and intentionally obnoxious he can be at home.

Both kids did well at the piano recital last week. They played their duet, too.

Abbey got her braces taken off last week, after about six months. A retainer is on the way.

Quinn starts T-ball tomorrow.

Abbey's baking blueberry coffee cake for us for dessert.

Tonight we're going Playmakers to see a presentation about global warming by polar explorer Will Steger. It's Keen Week at Playmakers, and Keen is helping bring in this presentation. It should be very interesting.

I still have a job, but it's hard to tell how much longer it's going to last. Nothing new there, so no worries, right?

Last weekend we did a 46-mile bicycle ride that culminated with lunch stop at Momma Bear's (a conscious cafe) in Lansing's Old Town. Yummy, yummy, home-baked sandwiches and organic and/or locally grown ingredients.

We're excited about our upcoming trip to visit first the Dobb's Mobb, then David and Laurie, Baltimore and DC, and then spend a few days riding in the Eastern Tandem Rally in Strasburg, PA.

Cindy's still running the Playmakers race series this year. She hasn't won anything, but she's finished every race.

I just made out my training schedule for the Grand Rapids Marathon, which takes place 18 October, 2009. I have 125 days to train, and will need every one of them.

Well, that's it for now.