Our 1200km ride, Paris Brest Paris, is less than two months away, so now is our time to train, train, train. Paul and I decided to escape the summer heat in Florida and drive north. Paul has family to visit in Michigan, and I have found all sorts of interesting rides to try in Michigan and along the way. I've made an ambitious plan, but we all know how vacations can unfold in unexpected ways, so for each planned day, I will write up the actual day. Hopefully, all our surprises will be good ones.
Ride from home to Sewell's Point -- about 50 miles
Drive to Ringgold Georgia, just a little south of Chattenooga, Tennessee.
We had a nice ride that included part of my usual before work route. It felt really nice to know a week of vacation was ahead rather than the usual rush into the office. We went out early enough to see the sunrise and avoid the heat.
The drive to Ringgold was uneventful
Ride a pretty 48 mile route from the Ringgold hotel in the mountains on the TN/GA border.
Drive to Indiana, and get a hotel room close to the Nickle Plate Trail
It is raining. Riding from the hotel is a failed plan. We linger over breakfast and find an alternative ride further north, past the rain. The alternate route was a great find. We rode out of a truck stop a little south of Elizabethtown, KY. The roads were all quiet country lanes with rolling hills and farmland views.
After riding, we drove to Kokomo, Indiana, watching multiple firework displays from the highway.
Ride the Nickle Plate Trail. Drive to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit family.
The Nickle Plate Trail was a fun, easy ride. Being a former railroad easement, it is very flat. We enjoyed the section through downtown Kokomo. I think it is called the Industrial Heritage Trail in the first few miles. It began just across the road from our hotel. The trail was underutilized by cyclists. It is surrounded by nice looking country roads that I suspect would be preferred for a fast road ride. The trail was popular with bunnies and chipmunks. Many were laying out on the warm asphalt in the early morning.
We returned to the hotel in time for a shower before checking out and hitting the road.
We met up with Paul's son at the Holiday Inn and all went out for a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Ride from the Holiday Inn in Grand Rapids in the morning. In the afternoon/evening, pick up Paul's daughter and drive to her place in Lansing, Michigan.
Holiday Inn gave us a late checkout at 2PM. Will stay there again! We rode west from the hotel on our planned route. Traffic was a little bad in spots, but most of the ride was very pleasant. We were surprised to find a few miles were not paved. We were glad the road was in great condition and navigable on our 23mm tires.
We spent some time shopping, then headed to Lansing. Paul and I bought new heart rate monitors and spent the drive comparing heart rates and figuring out how to read the ANT+ data from our smart phones. Paul can use his Android phone to read both our heart rates. My iPhone does not use the ANT+ used by the Garmin strap, so I can only use my GPS to read the heart rate. Hmmm..now I have to decide whether I "need" an iWatch or an Android phone.
LOL....here lies another unfinished project. I wrote the page, wrangled the heart rate data, and figured out the HTML Canvas stuff in the van during the long drive home. Coming back to this 6 months later, I don't remember all the details of the trip, but it went well. We returned home safe and sound, then went on to complete PBP, our big goal for the year.
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