2020, Day 4: Re-Energized

Rest Day, Sunday:

Mom and dad take this Day of Rest thing seriously, but not too seriously to enjoy their surroundings.

From Mom, about Sunday:

"We had church in our hotel room....just read some scriptures, watched a "Come Follow Me" video on YouTube while running the massager over Dad's poor legs, fasted, since it was fast Sunday, did some Family History/Indexing, and then decided to go for a Sunday drive down by the water. We came to a beautiful little park that had a rather unimpressive little lighthouse out on a pier. Sooo....we walked down this quite long pier to the lighthouse. It was funny cuz there was a sign that said it was not designed for public access, proceed at your own risk! But everyone was going out there so we decided to go too. It was solid cement with big boulders on the sides for about half the way and then the cement widened out but now it was just the water of Lake Michigan on both sides. But kids were jumping and diving into the water and swimming around. It was only 70 degrees and had a pretty stiff wind blowing, but that didn't bother them! There were steel bar ladders every so often down the pier so they were able to climb back up. Anyway, it was such a beautiful day and we enjoyed our walk very much. We even got to go stick our hands into Lake Michigan...and tomorrow we might even go back to that park and wade around in it. It's pretty rocky though and we have very tender feet so we will take our water shoes! We drove on a little farther and saw another beautiful spot along the lake and we got out and sat on a bench and just enjoyed the view for a while. Then we drove on and came to the town of Charlevoix which is right next to Lake Charlevoix, which empties into Lake Michigan

"We saw another park with another rather unimpressive lighthouse, but got out to take pictures there too. It had blue railings leading out to the lighthouse...I guess that means it was designed for public access, but it kind of spoiled the looks of it. After that we looked for the best way for Dad to do his ride tomorrow...he will have some really rough hills to finish up tomorrow's ride, and he will probably be exhausted, but we will stay here in Petoskey again tomorrow night so we won't have a lot of driving to do when he gets done. Maybe he can rest up for a while!

"...We drove down into a little town called Bay Harbor....unbelievable! We saw how the other half lives...big mansions, beautiful events centers, yacht clubs, golf clubhouses, equestrian centers...with HUGE stables. It is really beautiful, but kind of makes you lose focus of what us really important. Anyway, it was a fun, beautiful day!"

Day 4, Monday:

Happy Labor Day, and leave it to dad to take that as a challenge. After a nice Sunday off from riding and a few massages and knee stretching exercises, dad's knees have caught their second wind.

From Dad:

I was expecting to contend with a lot of wind today, but it turned out to be an aid to me, or a non-factor most of the time.

I started out 4 miles south of Mackinaw City. The road was mostly south for about 20 miles, with the wind around 15 mph from the northwest, so it kind of blew across me and propelled me forward at the same time. Entering Petoskey, it was more of a headwind. However, Petoskey has a bike trail nearly 10 miles long, lined with trees that made a great wind-break. There was a lot of traffic with people heading home after the Labor Day weekend, so it was really nice to get off the highway for a time. Then, heading south out of Petoskey, I rode along a river road that circumvented several steep hills that the highway goes over. I had only ridden for 2 ½ hours, and had completed my goal for the day, still feeling fairly fresh. Se we pushed on another 15 miles to the Highway 32 junction. The final couple of miles had a pretty good hill, by far the longest/steepest of the day. After doing that climb, it seemed a good place to quit. 55.3 miles in 4:20.

After their ride, mom and dad tried to fit in as locals by visiting a local street pub for lunch, and then turned the blend-in strategy on its head by doing the touristiest of all touristy things: donning water shoes and taking pictures while wading in Lake Michigan. Best of both worlds!

This week promises weather forecasts with Multiple Personality Disorder in the western US, so hopefully dad's trip doesn't get interrupted by fires, heat waves, or possibly even snow, and if there are unforgiving wind storms, let's hope they're from the back.