Day 44 - Alma to Mt. Pleasant - Two Far 2024 - Courthouse Tour

June 16, 2024

Day 44 - Alma to Mt. Pleasant

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I took the long way around to reach Mt Pleasant. The reason for doing so was to ride the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail. Jeanna & I have ridden the trail for its entire length a of times before, but today I just rode the trail from Alma to Edmore, a distance of about 20 miles. The majority of that distance was spent in "tree tunnels" and I couldn't see much of the surrounding countryside except at road crossings.

Here are some buildings that were along the trail...

The Riverdale Museum. It was closed and I could not find any information about it. I think it may have been a RR Depot

I met Jeanna for lunch in Edmore, and then it was back on roads for the rest of the ride.

This large field looked like it had just been planted with potatoes.

Nearby was another field where the potato plants had just started to emerge.

Close-up of newly sprouted potato plant.

Just past the above potato fields, I was going downhill on a very rough road when my front rack started to make a loud rattle. I stopped to investigate and found that I had broken another support stay. Once again, I moved one of the mounting clamps to span the break and continued on, but I'll have to remove the rack tonight and stow it in the car. I don't know what's causing the problem. I'm thinking that since both breaks occurred on the left side, maybe the disk brake is flexing the fork and putting strain on the rack, but I'm not sure.

Shortly after fixing the rack, I noticed that this bolt had vibrated loose as well. This is the second bolt the has worked loose, so that lets you know how much vibration is occurring in the fork. When I remount the rack this fall, you can bet there will be lots of Loctite involved!

After stopping a 2nd time to deal with the rack, the rest of the ride was uneventful.

A small local telephone company in Winn, MI. I found an article from 2005 that stated they had 2,100 customers.

This corn crib has been entirely taken over by vines...

while right next to it, this crib is totally vine free.

After I reached the hotel, I removed the rack, which also involved relocating the headlight. This entailed making a quick trip to Menards to procure some Zip-ties to secure some loose wiring, but everything is now fixed and ready to roll tomorrow.

Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 1,023 miles (1,646 km)

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