Weekends of the Past and the Future

This past weekend was, like, 103% bicycle related. Possibly more.

Saturday dawned - wait, no, it was well before dawn when things got going on Saturday.

Saturday started with a few of us gathering at Meinert County Park for the first JDRF incarnation of the One Day Ride Across Michigan. We had about 70 people registered, and between no-shows and day-of registrations, I think we had about that many people actually ride. Comments were overwhelmingly positive - the worst gripe we had was that there were no forks at the finish area cookout. So, count on this becoming a regular thing on the annual JDRF ridin' calendar. It was way cool to see, feel, and generally be around - gotta hook up and ride it next year!

JDRF folks who rode the 147 mile long event were Dawn A., Cindy A., Herb B., and (big shock here) Kaat and MC.

Mad props, y'all!

Some time around 7:30 in the morning, MC, Kaat, and FOMs* Maria and Jan re-mounted bikes and headed back westwards, in the aptly-named MARDO (Mad-A$$ Ride Do-Over) ride. Now, in case that's not quite sinking in, they rode from Lake Michigan to Saginaw Bay on Saturday, and from Saginaw Bay back to Lake Michigan on Sunday. That's pretty close to 300 miles in two days.

Somewhat later Sunday morning, Amy F-F, Stewart, Nathen, Nathen's Dad, my Mom, Kirsten, and I met and rolled northwards for the MOST tour. The MOST is nice and scenic, with some good climbs up some good hills to get some nice views of said scenery. It's all good, y'know?

Sunday afternoon, I managed to meet our MARDOers as they rolled their last 10 miles, 'cause, y'know, someone had to take their picture, right? I'm pleased to report an abundance of Bike Face in that crew, as you can see:

In fact, the whole weekend was Bike Face time.

Now, for the future!

We have a team ride this coming Sunday, August 29, that promises to be another one of those truly memorable events. Linda and Scott (Poeder twin powers ACTIVATE!) (I dunno why that just popped in to my head, but, y'know, my head's a strange place sometimes) will be hosting, not from their house, but from a family cottage in the Gun Lake/Yankee Springs area.

We're going to do the same trick we tried for the last ride, route- and time-wise. We'll start with a harder, shorter loop (which Linda promises will be positively goatish with hills); times aren't yet written in stone but plan on a 9 am rollout. We'll then return to the start point, eat a bit, regroup, gather up some more folks, and re-start for a longer but less hilly loop. If you want to join in for the second loop, figure on an 11:30 am NOON rollout.

Post-ride, we've got a lake to play in. Kayaks? Yep. Floating bouncy house thing? You betcha. Food? Well, our hosts will be doing hot dogs and burgers, so bring any sort of picnicky goodies to share. If you've got kids who'll be doing water stuff, bring lifejackets for them. Someone will be around to keep an eye on reasonably self-sufficient kids will we're riding; extra adults are welcome, too.

This has gone on long enough, so watch your email - we'll have a map to our start location, confirmation of times and distances, and whatever else seems relevant. Since this has more going on, we'd really like to get an RSVP, too, so think about who's coming and when.

Gonna be a great day, hope to see ya there!

did

*Friends of Mike!