Just the Facts


Wes gives the data for the trip.

The first questions that we are normally asked are how far and where. My first blog entry since our return will try to answer those basic questions. That will leave Brian and I lots of space to hang our ever so slightly embellished stories on a framework of the basic trip. Please remember that facts are a relative thing and can vary with the person espousing the facts. Brian and I will have slightly different facts because he is taller and I ride a recumbent bike. Here is a breakdown of my daily mileage:


DAY RIDE MILEAGE AVERAGE
6/18/2006 ALGONAC STATE PARK 71.7 12.1
6/19/2006 LAKEPORT STATE PARK 37.7 11.4
6/20/2006 FORESTER COUNTY PARK 30.8 9.9
6/21/2006 LIGHTHOUSE COUNTY PARK 30.9 13.2
6/22/2006 SEBAWAING COUNTY PARK 52.2 10.7
6/23/2006 PINCONNING COUNTY PARK 55.5 11.6
6/24/2006 TAWAS POINT STATE PARK 59.7 12
6/25/2006 HARRISVILLE 51.8 10.9
6/26/2006 ALPENA 45.1 11.9
6/27/2006 ROGERS CITY 47.8 12.5
6/28/2006 MACKINAWCITY 63.9 12.4
6/29/2006 PETOSKEY 57 11
6/30/2006 TRAVERSE CITY STATE PARK 70.2 10.6
7/1/2006 LEELANAU STATE PARK 44.5 11.1
7/2/2006 FRANKFORT BETSIE RIVER CAMPSITE 74 11.1
7/3/2006 LUDINGTON (ANN'S HOUSE) 61.2 10.3
7/4/2006 WHITEHALL(LOTZ'S BOAT) 52.4 11.3
7/5/2006 HOLLAND STATE PARK 64.7 10.9
7/6/2006 YANKEE SPRING S STATE PARK 51.3 11
7/7/2006 MARSHALL(MOTEL) 52.8 10.8
7/8/2006 BROOKLYN (DAD'S HOUSE) 54.2 10.9
7/9/2006 FLAT ROCK (BRIAN'S HOUSE) 71.4 13.4

The total route mileage that I recorded was 1,200.8 miles. The overall mileage that I recorded was 1,238 miles. The difference is because we did not count the miles to go to a restaurant or laundry after we had reached our campsite. I also reached a personal milestone when my recumbent turned over 10,000 miles during the trip.

We camped 12 nights of the 21 nights that we were on the road. The trip took 22 days but we decided to sleep in our own beds on the last day. We stayed in motels for the 5 days (Harrisville through Petoskey) when our wives were traveling with us. One night was spent at a friend’s house in Ludington, one night was spent at my parent’s house, and one night was spent on a boat. The boat story will wait for another entry. It is way too cool to dilute it in this article.

We had rain on many days of the trip but we were fortunate that most of the rain occurred after we had the tents up and before we were ready to ride. There was only one day where we were forced to ride in the rain. Twenty-one days of dry cycling out of twenty-two is pretty good for a trip like this. Brian did learn a valuable lesson about putting the rain fly on his tent before going to do laundry on our second night, but that’s another story.

We had no mechanical problems with the exception of flat tires. Brian had more of an issue with this than I did. He managed to fix all seven with a smile on his face. I, on the other hand, cursed the flat that I got because I caused it by pulling my pump off of the valve at an angle and I ripped the valve. The only other mechanical issue that I faced was how to unlock my bike after I had lost the key (yet another story).

Now that this task is out of the way, I can write some stories and not worry about the facts getting in the way.

 

Wes

Posted: Wed - July 19, 2006 at 03:20 PM      

©