Bro racing

July 30, 2021

Today started out cool and sunny. We had an 8 mile ride to Mickey D’s for breakfast. After breakfast we had to ride a few miles to get to the start of the Fred Meijer River Trail. The road to the trail was really nice and we had a nice ride in the fresh morning. We got to the trail and started riding along on the flat trail. The trail was interesting. It was crushed gravel for a majority of the trail. When we would get near a town the trail would be newly paved for about a mile around each town.

Today was a special day for me. Ross volunteered to ride with Janet so I could ride a bit faster with Doug. Doug and I have been riding together since I started riding. We have done many tours together although not any in recent years. Doug was a huge influence to my bike riding especially when I first started riding. Doug is a great bike rider. He was on a racing team for a few years in his early twenties. He taught us how to train and many riding techniques. Whenever we talk we end up talking about bikes. So today he and I could stretch out our legs and put up a fast pace along the trail. What I thought was really neat was there were long sections where I would lead and long stretches where Doug would lead. It was like we turned back the hands of time and we acted like we were younger versions of ourselves tearing up the trail.

We met two people on the trail today. The first one was Ron, a trail maintenance volunteer. Ron was installing new benches along the trail. He stopped and talked to us about how they fund the maintenance and the condition of the trail. He took our picture to post to the trails Facebook page. Of course we took his picture to post to our journal. The second person we met I did not get his name. Doug and I stopped to wait for Ross and Janet. While waiting this guy came up and stopped. He spent the next 10 minutes telling us what an amazing trip we were on and how awesome we were. While I appreciate his comments, they went on for a little bit too long.

We stopped at a grocery store for dinner supplies about 12 miles from our destination. We stopped at Sleepy Hollow State Park and camped in the group camp site. No showers tonight, we cleaned up with the hand water pump. We went into the tents early because the mosquitoes were bad.

Tomorrow we are going to Brighton, Michigan where my sister Colleen and husband Tim are going to host us for two days.