Last day together

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6-21-10 Day 17: Assyria, Michigan to Edmore, Michigan: 71 miles in 3:55 hrs: Rt 66 the whole way.

Last day with Judy and Jared. The previous night at the mosquito campground, and let me tell you that this place was a real dump, we were prisoners of our van and the tent. I mean other than cookikng dinner that was it – no more outside. This place had some of the rattiest trailers and RV’s we ever seen, all situated on Thompson Lake – nice lake but not by our campground. Nope, surrounding the beach was a virtual litter box of goose poop and algae. And the shower room……ouch! Wow what a dive

Anyway we literally couldn’t get out of the car once evening set in, and before we hit the hay I tried in vain to eliminate every blood sucker that got in the car when we were opening and shutting doors during our stay. Well, I got them all………but one. And that one damned mosquito just buzzed my head for a good hr. I was swinging a T-shirt in the dark hoping to score a kill but with no luck. Then a saw it, silhouetted in the rear window, just flying around ready to buzz us again, and I took this giant swing with the shirt – and silence. I had hit it, like turning on a fast ball, knocking it from the rear of the van to the front. And alas – sleep!

Got up in the morning and rather than suffer the bites of a gazillion skeeters if we were to make breakfast on the picnic table, we loaded up the van and headed to Nashville – Michigan – for a mom & pop breakfast place. Hell, Jared ended up with several quarter sized bites on his dome just taking down the tent. Ate at a nice little place and then drove back south to Assyria where we ended yesterday. Judy and I began with Jared doing the van, and low and behold we had a pretty nice little cross tailwind out of the southeast so we were able to really jam up Rt 66 with temps of 80+ degrees. Here 66 is still fairly flat to rolling, with these super long false flats that tend to get you out of the saddle just to stretch your legs out.

Made great time for 2 hrs with Judy up to the town of Ionia and then Jared took over on the bike. He pulled at 20-24 mph the whole time and I watched our average go from 16.5 to 18 over the course of the next 2 hrs. Most of the time we had great berm that was 5 feet wide with a rumble strip just off of the lane, and then occasionally it would narrow to 3 feet or so with no rumble strip. But nonetheless this is a good road to ride.

We made amazing time to my day’s destination of Edmore. Now with the 10 miles we rode ahead of schedule yesterday, that made today’s ride really a cake walk of 71 miles in 3:55 hours. I mean we were done at 1:45 pm. I felt like I’d just done a bloody warm up. But this worked out great for Judy and Jared to get on the road early and head back to Ohio. I opted for a cheap motel in Edmore where we could just unload my junk and take it to a first floor room. Worked out well.

Ended our trip together at this little gas station/store/restaurant right next to the motel where I got the “lunch buffet”. Ahhh yes, buffet, a word that brings tears to my eyes, especially when I’m riding 5+ hours each day. Yep, had 3 plates and soup of the day – cream of ham and potato. Well, the good time had to end, and they ended with a wonderful road trip with Jude and Jared to share some of my adventure across the US. Hugs and kisses to Judy and a big bear hug to Jared, aka pup, and they were off.

Sitting here in the motel room right now catching up on skype and emails and feeling like I’m ready to really put it down going solo with the yak and all my junk. Forecast is for chance of rain for the next couple of days, more like the afternoon thunderstorm kind of stuff, so hopefully I can just ride through it. Anyway, here we go, for 6 weeks of adventure. Talk to you soon…….Pete