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No worries about gas prices when running on human power!
For several years I've been hoping to go for an epic bike ride from my house in Lowell to my parents' house in Ann Arbor, a distance of roughly 120 miles. With my recovering hamstring preventing me from planning any running races, I thought that maybe this year I could squeeze in an all-day bike ride.
However, "real life" gets in the way as it often does and I wasn't able to put in enough training to prepare. Sure I could've pulled it off, but I figure that to do something like riding my bike across an entire state ought to be done right. For example, a decent road bike would help compared to my 6-year-old "comfort bike".
Yeah, that's what my Giant Cypress DX is called and it's since been "tricked out" with a new seat (twice), bar-end hand grips, new pedals and second-hand pedal clips, bottle rack, speedometer, rear rack, and a cheap bike computer. It has served me well over the years on the roads, mountain bike trails, and even in adventure races. But it's not a fast bike.
A few years ago I bought a 25-year-old Peugot road bike for $65 just to see what a road bike feels like. Despite being an old 10-speed I easily averaged a full 1 mph faster on my standard routes. That bike is now in need of repair so the Cypress is all I have, meaning that a 120-mile ride would take 10-12 hours including food stops whereas a nice road bike could shave a few hours off of that time.
Ready to ride despite the rain.
Instead I planned a ride that traveled 55 miles, starting near Lansing and finishing at my parents' house. Last Sunday Amanda dropped me off near Webbersville at the I-96 exit in a heavy, steady rain! I was standing in a two-inch deep puddle as I unloaded my bike from the car and got ready to go. Due to the weather I had to keep all of my gear in a dry-bag bungeed to the rack on my bike and I wore a rain jacket to stay warm. You can see what the weather was like in Amanda's video:
The first 15 miles of my ride were solo as I pedaled my way to Stockbridge where I would meet Dad. It took me about an hour despite a strong WNW crosswind on my southbound road and the steady rain blurring up my sunglasses. Believe it or not I found the glasses to be of help because they kept splashes and road grit out of my eyes, but also being polarized it really cut down the glare from the wet road.
No frogs here, yet...
Worse than the wind and the rain were the frogs - dead ones. The shoulder of the road was littered with hundreds of dead frogs! I don't know why so many were trying to cross and getting hit and why they ended up on the shoulder but I was constantly weaving my tires among the slimy amphibian bodies, not wanting to get a taste of frog leg sushi kicked up into my mouth!
Finally I made it to Stockbridge and rendez-voused with my parents. Dad's raincoat was rather heavy - it's meant for field work, not cycling - so Mom offered him the $1 "emergency poncho" that she keeps in her car. He was quite pleased although the poncho went down to his knees and he just about fell over trying to hop on his bike when the plastic caught on his seat! Mom had to trim off a foot or so of plastic and after the obligatory photo, we were on our way.
Dad and I are "waterproofed" prior to hitting the Lakelands Trail
Our route took advantage of the Lakelands Trail, a linear state park created as a Rails to Trails project. The first several miles of the trail were packed dirt that was rather rough in some areas due to horse traffic. We'd had several days of rain here in Michigan and the ground was wet but not soft. The bumpiness was pretty rough on me as Dad kept looking back wondering why I was lagging behind. I think his fresh legs had a bit more pep that mine after having ridden for an hour just to meet him!
Soon after starting down the trail the rain stopped and since the temperature was already 70 degrees even in the rain, we were plenty comfortable. It was actually splendid weather for a ride with overcast skies, a now NW breeze and warm air temps.
When my water bottle ran dry we stopped in Pinckney at a gas station to refill and we also chomped on some food: a Power Bar for Dad and some Clif Bloks for me. When planning the ride we talked about stopping here for food but we both were feeling very good and decided to just continue to our "dessert stop", a Dairy Queen in Hamburg.
For quite a while I was telling stories about the interesting politics I've been getting involved with in Lowell, only to be occasionally interrupted when Dad would point out one of "his" many projects in the area - a water tower, a subdivision, a boardwalk, and more - he's a land development civil engineer with lots of handiwork in Livingston County.
Suddenly Dad said "Oops!" It turns out he completely missed the turn for Dairy Queen! We'd been distracted by the conversation and since I've never been on the trail before, I was relying on his navigation. We only went about half a mile out of our way so it wasn't too bad, and when Dairy Queen is the destination you don't lose any motivation to get there.
At the DQ Dad got a large chocolate shake and I ordered a Blizzard with M&Ms, but asked if they could use chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla. The guy at the counter suggested their "Chocolate Extreme" flavor - chocolate ice cream with hot fudge syrup, fudge brownie chunks, and pieces of hard chocolate mixed in. Awesome! Yes, I love chocolate, but I also learned that even I have limits - a large Blizzard more than filled me up, but it was worth it.
Sitting at the outdoor table at DQ my dad whipped out his Blackberry and showed off some coolness, like how he can pull up a weather radar image. Days before our ride he had mentioned this and I teased him, saying "How would that help us on the ride? Are we going to see imminent rain and decide to pedal faster?"
We'd been riding precipitation-free for hours but looking at his Blackberry the radar image showed that a ton of rain was right upon us despite the bright but overcast skies. Wouldn't you know it... five minutes later as we pulled out of the DQ parking lot some big, fat drops of water started to fall! We could only laugh at the irony and besides, we'd been soaking wet since Stockbridge.
Soon we were at the end of Lakelands Trail and heading south on back roads near US-23 on our way home. The skies never did manage to open up - occasionally it would sprinkle a bit but then stop. Since the rain was coming from the NW and we were riding south I think we were keeping ahead of the weather.
Recharged with chocolate I was feeling pretty good but Dad was starting to tire out and we took a couple of extended water breaks on the side of the road to rest the legs. With about five miles to go our quads began to cramp up - both of us at the same time! Yet fortunately a couple miles later our legs relented and allowed us to finish our ride in comfort.
All smiles after dozens of miles.
But not in style - the first thing Mom said when we pulled into the driveway was "Wow, you're muddy!" Actually I didn't think it was that bad, but Mom insisted on a "rear-end view" photo nonetheless. Dad explained how only a two mile stretch of Warren Road was to blame - the rest of the entire route was paved or puddle-less dirt.
If Mom thinks this is "muddy", wait until we go mountain biking!
Dad and I also discovered that one or both of our bike computers isn't calibrated correctly - mine had logged a couple more miles than Dad's over the same course! I used MapMyRun to determine that my Webberville-to-Stockbridge solo ride was 15.2 "mapped" miles compared to 15.4 "computed" miles so it seems mine is a bit off. However, it's hard to say for sure about the rest of the ride since our double-back for missing Hamburg can only be guessed for distance.
All told my computer showed 55.3 miles, so assuming that it's off by 0.2 every 15.4, my total distance would be 54.6 - not a major error. I'll just call it 55 miles and be content.
Soon after getting home the "Blackberry rain" arrived and it began to pour cats and dogs. Two of the dogs were mine - Haven and Beacon arrived with Amanda and her parents, as did Ryan and Megan. We all (except the dogs) went to dinner at Red Robin where it rained even harder and the restaurant even lost power for a couple seconds before the backup kicked in! Perhaps it was a good day to not be riding 120 miles after all!
Overall the ride was a total blast and surprisingly "easy" if 50+ miles can ever be deemed easy. The route was pancake flat except for a few short hills between Hamburg and Ann Arbor and traffic on the non-trail roads was never a problem. My legs were sore for the next couple days but I never felt bonky or worn out. I'm already thinking about doing this again! But not this weekend. :)
T'was a busy weekend. Awake by 0600 on Saturday for the Reeds Lake Run, then get ready for my little brother Ryan's bachelor party! I had about two hours at home between the race and getting back in the car to drive to Midland for his celebration which included grilling out on a softball field, playing frisbee golf, taking in a minor league baseball game, then hitting the cursory bar for a few drinks. Poor Ryan had to wear a plastic ball and chain around his ankle all day (amazingly he was still good at frisbee golf while wearing it!), a giant sombrero, and a t-shirt with a picture of a pinata and the caption "I'd Hit It". I wish I'd remembered to take a photo! I didn't get home until after 0300!
Sunday Amanda and I took Eddie to meet his future "parents" and otherwise tried to take it easy. However, Haven and Beacon started giving me those soulful looks of "let's go do something!" so I decided to take them to the river. After all, the weather was perfect - upper 60's, sunny, and a light breeze. My legs were a bit tired from Saturday's two races but good enough that we bypassed the river access near the parking area and jogged half a mile on the trail up and over a large hill to the prime river access point.
Rather than throw sticks for fetching, this time I took the dogs for a walk, or rather a "wade", up the river! The recent dry spell had lowered the water level enough that I could walk the 50 yards across the river without getting deeper than my knees. Even the dogs were mostly walking or bunny-hopping in the shallow water. We waded about a 1/4 mile upstream to a section of small rapids where there were a couple "nozzle" points that had rather strong flow. It was strong enough that I had trouble standing and the dogs had to swim as hard as they could just to stand still. We had fun playing in the rapids - I walked up the "nozzle" then back through while the dogs went for a theme-park-like ride through the chute!
Finally we jogged back to the parking area, a dirt cul-de-sac next to an old boy scout cabin. Haven loves to eat weeds (I have no idea why!) and there were some nice, long, un-mowed weeds in back of the cabin. As she bent down to grab a bite I was about to scold her when suddenly a whitetail deer fawn sprung out of the weeds! Haven was startled for just a split second before she gave chase, and Beacon soon joined her as they pursued the poor little deer around the building.
The fawn was a bit taller than my dogs, but clearly much scrawnier and probably only weighed 50 lbs to my dogs 65-70 lbs each. As the trio rounded the corner I heard the fawn start bleating like a goat, crying "Mmmaaah! Mmmaaah!" over and over - I feared that my dogs were going to kill it! I sprinted around the opposite side of the cabin, hoping to head them off and get between the predators and the prey to prevent serious harm.
To my surprise, when I rounded the cabin the fawn was nowhere to be seen! My dogs love to scarf their food, but no way did they eat that fawn. :) Beacon was in the parking lot scanning every which way trying to spot the deer. Haven, however, was one step ahead - she was sniffing underneath a wooden staircase. I walked over to grab Haven when the fawn clambered out from under the stairs right past Haven, who merely sniffed it as it started to run away again.
Seeing it run excited my dogs enough to give chase. While faster than me, the fawn wasn't nearly strong enough to outclass adult canine speed and my dogs closed in quickly as the fawn raced down the road. Knowing I couldn't accomplish anything by chasing, I ran back to the car and opened the back door, hoping to signal my dogs that it's "time to go" - usually they'll jump right in. Then it occurred to me... What if mommy deer hears the bleating and comes after my dogs? Luckily I was the only "adult" around!
When I turned back to the action, I saw one of the most improbable sights of my life - the fawn was standing frozen with Haven and Beacon motionless on either side of it!!! I so wish I'd had a camera right then. The fawn must've tired out or realized it couldn't outrun the dogs. Haven and Beacon started to sniff the fawn when Bambi decided to go on the offensive - it reared back and head-butted Beacon just like a goat would do! Beacon was startled and jumped back. Bambi lunged again and Beacon got down in a dog's "play bow" with his front paws down and butt in the air.
Beacon put a couple juke moves on the fawn, feinting left and right and when Bambi went for another "attack" Beacon ran away back to me for safety! I was really cracking up at this point. A little fawn put the smack down on big bad Beaks! Confirming my idea to open the car door, Beacon jumped right up onto the seat and I quickly closed the door to finally contain one dog.
Looking back to Haven, she was trying to sniff the fawn just like she would greet a new foster dog. She was trying to make friends! But the fawn was understandably less trusting and kept trying to head-butt Haven, moves that Haven was easily able to dodge. Finally I think Haven got tired of this belligerent potential pal and she came running back to me to see what happened to Beacon. I got her in the car just as Bambi turned to lope out of sight down the road.
Amanda couldn't believe me when I told her the story and she really wishes she could've seen it. I'm still amazed that the dogs didn't injure the fawn, but even more incredible is that they wanted to play with it! That image of Haven and Beacon standing either side of the fawn is permanently etched in my memory... Classic. I'll probably never see something like that again, but still I hope that someday the dogs will encounter another fawn and try to play with it. My dogs never cease to amaze!
Alas, I was not a Detroit Tigers ballplayer this weekend, even if it would've meant sitting on the bench as we got swept by the division rivals. Instead I rode a different type of pine, rolling along the White Pine Trail on my bicycle with Amanda and my parents.
My dad and I have long been planning to do a 50-mile ride on this trail, and Saturday was finally the day. Initially I was hoping to ride the entire 92-mile trail to achieve one of my "wouldn't it be cool?" goals for 2007; however, complications involving car repairs altered my plans and I opted for the logistically simpler plan of just riding 50. Not that riding 50 miles is ever simple...
In fact it was only 49 miles, but my dad and I aren't ones to nitpick. :) Mom and Dad drove to our house, loaded up my bike, and the three of us drove to the trailhead in Big Rapids where Dad and I began our journey. Since it had rained all morning we brought along our raincoats but seeing clear skies in the north, we chanced leaving them in the car. I was well stocked with 4 liters of water (planning to give my bottle to Dad, since he brought just one) and tons of munchies.
Three of those liters were in my Salomon Raid Race 200 (bought two years ago for my first adventure race) that I converted into a hydration pack. In contrast my dad went old school, wearing a vintage REI knapsack with felt-lined leather shoulder straps, a wedding gift from 1974! Aside from the handy waist-belt pouches, my pack didn't seem any superior to his - both were lightweight, comfortable, breathable, and durable. Impressive!
The first mile was easy pedaling - all paved. That soon gave way to a dirt two-track for the next, oh, 30+ miles that had been softened by the morning's rain. While some sections were harder-packed than others, the soft dirt just sucked the kinetic energy right out of our tires, much the way EMAS slows down aircraft that overrun a runway. Both of our rides were hybrid bikes with relatively narrow tires that the soft ground swallowed up. We kept wishing for some good old 2" mountain bike tires and I finally tried to emulate those fat knobbies by lowering my tire pressure from 70 to 45 psi. It helped quite a bit, but we'd already ridden 20 miles at the higher pressure so the benefit was minimal.
The weather held up for us terrifically. Temps hovered in the 60s while the sky remained overcast yet without rain - very comfortable! Every 45 minutes or so we'd stop and have a snack. By the end of our ride we'd consumed four energy bars, one bag of dried fruit trail mix, and half a bag of Combos - I later calculated our pit stops to have totaled about 1000 calories for each of us! I swear we burned it all, too.
We were amazed at how far down the trail we could see in some places. The trail is a former train track - straight and flat - and at times we could see two miles ahead of us! It was weird to see a road intersection way in the distance, ride for five minutes and look up to feel as though we didn't get any closer! 33 miles along the trail we spot this pink thing in the distance - minutes passed before we were able to confirm our guess that it was Amanda, who had ridden up to meet us from Grand Rapids. She had to pedal 16 miles to reach us!
Now our group was 50% larger as the three of us slogged through some loose gravel on the two-track. All of this soft terrain was wearing on Amanda's legs and she had one goal in mind: pavement! Half an hour later we finally hit Russell Road, which marks the point where the rest of the trail south is paved. Ahhh! Our average speed jumped a few MPH as cruised along the blacktop. Another 30 minutes and we reached the town of Rockford, our temporary finish line.
In Rockford we met my mom, who had ridden the four miles up from Grand Rapids to meet us all for lunch. We found a pizza restaurant situated in a 100-year-old house that was cramped, but the food was served quickly and it really hit the spot. That pizza joint has the world's smallest bathroom - imagine fitting a toilet, sink, and towel dispenser in a space the size of an outhouse!
Loaded up on food, we walked around the Rockford dam for 15 minutes to digest a bit before hopping back on our bikes for the 4-mile ride to our awaiting parked cars. A mile into the ride it began to rain and quite honestly I welcomed it - after 4 hours of cranking the pedals and getting sprayed with sand and pebbles, the rain felt refreshing! At the very end Dad and I sprinted ahead to see how high of a max speed we could hit on his bicycle computer - he reached 24 mph while I was still gaining on him. It felt fast but then again, Olympic sprinters can run that speed!
We got so carried away we almost missed the parking lot! Dad and I racked up 49 miles, which was his longest ride since a 100-miler in his youth on Belle Isle. This matched my longest - last June I rode the same section of trail but in reverse, going solo from Grand Rapids to Big Rapids. Amanda notched an impressive 32 miles, topping her longest lifetime ride of 28 miles that she did last year, also on this trail. Mom finished at 8 miles, which isn't bad considering that her longest ride in ages was 9 miles a couple months ago. Who wants to go again? :)
How about run 500 miles? Back on April 25 I ran my 500th mile and on May 3 I went for my 100th run of the year. Just 500 more until 1000... "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more..."
Today was a 9.8 mile long run - I ran to Meijer where Amanda met me and we went grocery shopping afterwards. Before and after the run I felt really good and somehow managed a 9:17 pace despite thinking that I was taking it easy - walking up a half-dozen hills, stopping to enjoy a couple scenic views along the river, etc.
Later today we took all three dogs - Haven, Beacon and foster dog Honey - to my Grandma's pasture to run around. We spent two hours hiking around and the dogs are completely worn out now! They got to have a ton of fun - they chased a rabbit, two nesting turkeys, a ruffed grouse, a deer, and a pheasant! Amanda will post the pictures as part of her DITL for today.
Yesterday I put a nifty new post on Why Run? about the physics of speed, pace and energy. I started thinking about it when Katiebell described some frustration when treadmilling recently:
"I was shocked to find that the difference between 5.4 miles per hour and 5.7 was negligible, but bump it to 6.0 (a mere ten min mile) and I could barely keep on pace...6.5 and I was struggling."
Thursday I was on the treadmill doing speedwork and it dawned on me how explain the physics of this phenomenon. If you're curious then check out my Why Run? article which even has a couple of cool graphs!
For my birthday last month Amanda planned an outing to a Tigers game. Last weekend it finally came to pass as Amanda and I were joined by eight family members to enjoy a perfectly sunny day at the ballpark. I still call it Tiger Stadium even though technically it's Comerica Park; not so much out of protest as much as out of habit. Speaking of which, I miss the old ballpark - I was lucky enough to attend the 4th to last game ever played there. On our way to the new park we drove past the old one:
It's sad how the city of Detroit and the Tigers franchise are allowing this historic stadium to rot away when there are so many folks willing to do what it takes to preserve it as a museum and/or exhibition ballfield. At least Comerica Park is a beautiful place to attend a ballgame and in my opinion underrated among the MLB ballparks.
We arrived early to watch batting practice, however the Tigers were already done by the time we arrived - despite arriving right after the gates opened. It always amazes me how normal ballplayers look - we stood about ten feet away from Joe Mauer as he warmed up and he doesn't seem any more fit than I am. Then you see him (and every other player) throw effortlessly and watch the ball rifle 150 feet and pop into a teammate's glove without having to move an inch. Wow.
Before taking our seats we wandered around the park, ending up among the statues of Tiger greats. We watched a few players warming up before taking our seats.
Our seats were great - upper deck front row along the LF line near the foul pole. It was a great view of not only the field but also the Detroit skyline. Amanda took a couple photos of the first batters before putting away the camera to enjoy the game.
And what a game! Johan Santana has been the best pitcher in all of baseball over the last three years but Mike Maroth matched him. Bottom of the 9th inning Brandon Inge hits a solo HR into the bullpen right in front of us and both the crowd and the Tigers dugout erupted in cheer! ROAR!
Some baseball observations:
- Joe Mauer is amazing with the bat - in BP he would hit the ball on a line in every direction seemingly at will.
- Justin Morneau has wicked bat speed, clearly a step above any other Twins hitter.
- Magglio Ordonez was born to hit - he looks so comfortable at the plate, he makes it look easy. Fielding... no. He was born to DH - he never seemed to read fly balls well and on one play Curtis Granderson had to run all the way from CF to attempt a catch that was ten feet from Ordonez the statue; Granderson missed and Ordonez didn't back him up, forcing Granderson to run after the ball that became a triple.
- Gary Sheffield is over his slump - aside from one pop-up, he hit every ball hard - he had a single that two-hopped to the RF and I swear the ball was never more than five feet off the ground.
- Carlos Guillen is barely a passable SS - not only did he make a few bad throws, but his footwork looked as stiff as some of the 50-year-old guys on my softball team.
- Mike Maroth doesn't throw hard - 88 mph was his max - which made it cruel on the Twins when Joel Zumaya relieved him and started throwing 100 mph.
- Pat Neshek has one of the most unique deliveries you'll ever see - it's not your typical sidearm. Even better, Neshek has his own blog that he started when in the minors.
- Jesse Crain... he gave up that HR to Inge, but I'm surprised that Crain isn't a more dominant pitcher. He had a 94 mph fastball to go with a 74 mph off-speed pitch, a combination that normally is quite deadly.
How about "the sport that got away"... Earlier I wrote about my "Sophie's choice" of sports in high school, wondering what may have been if I ran track instead of playing tennis. Finally I did run track after quitting the tennis team junior year, but I'm afraid I never tried the one event I was born for...
When I joined track I started with hurdles because the coach thought my long legs would be suited for it, and I also did high jump because 1) my friend was a high-jumper, and 2) a very tall and pretty girl did high jump, too. :) Even though my vertical leap was probably strong enough for me to clear 6'6", I never actually cleared more than 5'4" because my form stunk.
Early in the season I strained a hip flexor that prevented me from running hurdles so I moved to the distance events, finding that I most enjoyed the 400m and 800m races. By the end of senior year I was a decent 400m runner - my PR was 60 seconds. My dad watched one of my last track meets and afterwards he was reminiscing about his days as a high school track star, where he set (and still holds, I believe) the long jump record for his high school at something over 20 feet!
After the season one weekend I jogged from my house to school (about 4 miles), noticed the long jump pit and thought, hey, I should try this. I sprinted down the runway and took off - it felt good! Stepping off the distance, I estimated that I soared 17 feet! The best guys on my track team were jumping 17-18 feet, the state champ was doing 24', and this was just my first attempt. As it were, it was also my last.
Alas, what could've been? Had I started long jumping right off the bat, I might have been winning a few meets and who knows, perhaps I could've competed at the state championships just like my dad had done. Maybe I could've topped his "family record", too! With my dad's genes, was I born for long jump? I guess I'll never know, but clearly I let the opportunity get away.
After playing hockey on Sunday, we headed over to Megan's family farm to cut wood. Before that, we were treated to a yummy lunch of homemade mac and cheese, homemade dill pickles, and some flavored hot cocoa (among other things). Satisfied, we dressed into our cold-weather gear and hopped on the wagon as Megan's dad Greg towed us with his tractor out to the trees.
We were clearing dead trees from a swamp, a task made much easier since the water was frozen solid so it felt like dry land under all the snow. In fact, you could hardly tell if you were on land or water most of the time. Greg brought two wagons out for us to load up, and among the group we had three chainsaws to put to work. Most of the work, however, was the arduous task of hauling the cut logs from the swamp to the wagon on the other side of a fence.
One of the highlights of the evening was Amanda using a chainsaw for the first time in her life! I made sure to take a few photos and also caught the event on video:
A few hours went by and slowly but surely we loaded up both wagons with wood. The sun was setting and it was time to head back to the farm, where yet another meal awaited us.
Haulin' out. Left to right are:
Eric (head barely peeking above wood, far left)
Megan (pink scarf)
Ryan (dark yellow hat)
Amanda (gray brimmed hat)
Kenny (bright orange hat)
Greg (Megan's dad, driving the tractor)
Heading back to the farm with the first load of wood.
Megan's family farm - the little tractor is towing our first load of wood.
Looking back across the field as we haul our last load back to the farm.
Before sitting down to eat we took a little tour of the farm, visiting some of the resident cows and calves. Those calves can be pretty cute!
Amanda gets a friendly greeting.
One of the cute calves at Megan's farm.
During the farm tour we noticed a neat phenomenon: steam hands! We'd worked up a sweat chopping wood and hauling logs but with the sun below the horizon, the air cooled off quickly. Add in a hot human hand and a well placed light bulb, and see the results:
Ryan proves to Megan that he's one hot dude.
Dinner was yummy, of course, this time with tuna casserole, chicken salad, pickled beets, more flavored cocoa, and finally a "taste test" of the frosting for Ryan and Megan's wedding cake. Naturally we started talking about weddings and us elder folk provided Ryan and Megan (and Eric, since he's getting hitched a month after Ryan) with some cynical wedding advice. Basically we explained how we don't remember any of the details that seemed so important back then. Plus, all the stuff that got screwed up, it didn't really affect anything. My mom had the best tale: "My dad missed my wedding - he spent the day in jail for driving drunk and my mom was too angry to bail him out! But I didn't mind."
At work last week I got a call from my brother Ryan inviting Amanda and I to the farm of his soon-to-be in-laws to help them chop some wood. It's always fun to be a lumberjack so I agreed to go. Then Ryan added: "You might want to bring your skates - we're gonna play hockey first!"
Last time I saw my ice skates I was vacuuming mouse turds out of them... They've been sitting in the basement forever. I hadn't skated in seven years! I warned Ryan about the potential for rust - both on my blades and in my legs - but he didn't seem to mind. Would I remember how to skate?
Honestly I wasn't worried that I'd forget, but I was afraid I was going to be pretty sloppy. I used to skate a lot in high school and college, although I rarely had a hockey stick in my hands. Mostly I just skated for fun - I loved to zoom around on the ice. While other kids played hockey on the neighborhood pond I instead would shovel a winding race course on the snow-covered ice and then pace myself in time trials, trying to go faster every time around.
Sunday morning there I was trying to squeeze my size 14 feet into the size 13 hockey skates that I got in high school. After puttering one lap around the rink, my other brother Eric handed me one of his sticks along with the advice: "It's easier to balance if you lean on the stick." Gee, thanks!
All six of the hockey players; left to right:
Megan (sky blue coat)
Ryan (green sweatshirt)
Andrew (black jacket)
Kenny (orange hat)
Eric (gray shirt)
Dad (blue jeans butt)
Mom is walking in the background, camera in hand, between Eric and Dad
Eric, Ryan and I never played any organized hockey growing up. However, Eric has been playing in men's rec leagues the past few years and now he actually looks like a real hockey player! He brought his friend Kenny along, and Kenny IS a real hockey player - he played in high school and still plays in men's "A" leagues (I think Eric plays in "D" leagues). Ryan, Megan, Dad and I just do our best to stay upright when chasing the puck. It didn't always work.
Getting up after taking a spill into the "boards" at the edge of the ice.
I had more than my share of tumbles. Once I fell into the snow bank, turning my black fleece jacket into a white one. Another time I was chasing the puck and looked up just in time to see Megan doing the same thing - from the opposite direction! WHAM. Somehow I landed hard on my knees so they're all bruised now. Other than that, my falls were relatively harmless.
Despite being about twice Megan's size, I was the one worse for wear after we ran into each other! My knees hurt, so I figure they must've hit her head when she jumped. ;)
After an hour of horsing around we decided to make a game of it. Eric, Ryan and I banded together as the "Three Brothers" against Kenny, Megan and Dad, who Megan dubbed "The Champions". Needless to say, she's pretty competitive for a hockey player who wears figure skates!
I don't think anyone kept score. At one point I scored three goals in a row (my only goals of the day), which really annoyed Megan because when we were practicing beforehand I was lucky to get the puck within five feet of the net whenever I took a shot. She exclaimed "Since when did you learn to shoot?" I save the good stuff for when it counts!
Eventually we decided to play "next goal wins". The mighty Three Brothers got the puck in front of the net when Megan swatted it to clear it out; however, Ryan intercepted her clearing shot and put it right into the back of the net for the winning goal! The Champions got chumped.
Notice the smile on Ryan's face as he redirects a nice pass from Eric that Megan and Kenny were unable to block. I was backing up Ryan just in case he whiffed. :)
After getting our skates off we headed over to the farm where Megan grew up, but I'll tell that story in another entry...
Saturday my parents drove here from Ann Arbor to take Amanda out for her birthday dinner. We did far more than that, however! A little after 9am we meet them at Grandma's pasture to go hiking. Dad brought along Uncle Bob while Amanda and I brought along the dogs. There wasn't any real purpose to the hike - we just started walking and whenever we thought of something interesting to check out, we headed in that direction.
First was passed through Tarzan's Jungle (named by all the grandkids when we were very young), a dark, tree-lined stretch of two-track with a mucky stream beside it. As we exited the "jungle" Beacon spotted three deer about 200 yards away and he took off like a Navy jet catapulted off an aircraft carrier! Haven didn't notice and by the time I got her attention pointed in the right direction, she was 100 yards behind.
Those three deer saw Beacon coming and bounded away easily, but out of sight to the right were five more deer that neither saw Beacon, nor did Beacon see them until he was right upon them! The deer bolted in the direction of their herd-mates and Beacon was right in the middle, getting within five feet of one deer with two more behind Beacon! Alas, poor Beaks, the deer were too fast. Haven got there just in time to make a show of giving chase. After making sure no more deer were hiding nearby, Haven and Beacon returned to us - very tired and very happy.
We hiked past our woodpiles from last week's lumberjacking then maneuvered among the long rows of pine trees, following the many highways paved by deer hooves. There were plenty of turkey tracks to be found as well, and finally we caught up to them after about 90 minutes. Haven and Beacon ran in pursuit as we watched the clumsy birds crash among the tree branches trying to fly away. The dogs were so tired by now that their chase only lasted about a minute!
Lastly we trekked through a marshy area of the property that we usually don't venture into because it's usually rather wet and ill-suited for vehicles. It's a nice setting back there with occasional clearings and stands of thornapple trees - quite different than other parts of the pasture. After chatting briefly with Bob and Therese (and Gabe) we headed over to Grandma's (dad's mom) house to go over some WWII information about Grandpa.
Dad and Mom are compiling some info about Grandpa's military service for a local historical group and they wanted to let Grandma check it over for accuracy, etc. They also wrote up stories for Grandma's four brothers, each of whom served in WWII with a different branch of the military: one each in the Army (Air Corps), the Marines, the Navy, and the Coast Guard. Grandpa himself was in the Navy as a mechanic, and Grandma worked at a factory building ailerons for aircraft. As Grandma put it: "After Pearl Harbor, everybody supported the war effort. You didn't worry much about how it affected your life. We just did what needed to be done."
We continued to discuss life during a war, then and now. Mom asked how 9/11 compared to Pearl Harbor. Grandma explained that they were similar, but noted that "nothing really changed" in our quality of life after 9/11. During WWII there were gas rations; for example if Grandma and her friends wanted to go hang out, they had to find someone with enough extra gas rations and pile into her car. There were collections of surplus metal, war bonds to purchase, and everyone's job converted to supporting the war. Grandma's factory where she worked stopped making springs and started making ailerons. Grandpa joined the Navy.
Speaking of which, Grandma noted that her parents were unable to attend ANY of their five children's weddings! She took the train to San Diego to marry Grandpa while he was stationed out there. Her four brothers also married far from home; the closest was a few hundred miles away and her parents didn't have the gas rations available to attend "so they just couldn't go - that's the way it was" says Grandma.
As we found out later, that's the way it was for my other grandma, Grammy. Spur of the moment we decided to pay a visit to my mom's mom following lunch at a deli in Ada. It didn't take long to start looking through old photos and we soon found a wedding photo of Grammy and Grampy. She also traveled west, to Los Angeles, to marry my grandfather while he was on duty out there. Ironically, both sets of my grandparents got married in California despite living in Michigan all their lives! That was life during WWII. They also directly supported the war - Grampy taught navigation using Link Trainers while Grammy installed hydraulic lines in bomber cockpits. Was anyone not involved with WWII during that era?
Grammy also showed us a photo of her grandparents and other relatives of similar age. I don't remember when it was taken but those people were probably all born between 1850 and 1875! One of them is related to Commodore Matthew Perry, but I forget exactly the relation; I do know that I'm not a direct descendant of him, but he's somewhere in my family tree.
I forgot to mention that on the way to Grammy's house we took a little tour of Grand Rapids, driving by: a house that Amanda and I almost bought; the first house I lived in, also the first house my parents bought together; the first house my dad lived in after college, right on the Grand River; and a few other curiosities.
Finally we made it back home where we played a few rounds of a board game called Compatibility, where each player has a deck of cards with photos on them. A word is read (e.g. "retirement") and then you have to select, in secret, 2-5 photos that you feel best represent that word. You play with a partner, so the object is to pick the same photos as they do. So for "retirement" do you pick the photo of the old man, or the dollar sign, or the sunset, or the card that simply contains the word "happy"? A very fun game. Amanda and I managed to win both rounds by just one space on the game board!
I went running with a couple guys during lunch hour and we really loved the "winter" weather! Nice and sunny, 42 degrees with a stiff breeze. I wore shorts and felt very warm by the end of the run. We talked a lot about Gerald Ford (he was buried here in Grand Rapids today; his motorcade drove past my office yesterday), Howard Hughes, and military strategy. By the end of the run I was the only one talking - it was a very easy pace for me but not as much for the other guys. I sprinted the last 1/4 mile to burn up some energy.
The highlight of the run was being spotted by my cousin, Ana! She goes to college here in town and recently started a part-time job at a storage facility that we run past. I'd completely forgotten about that when suddenly I hear someone yelling "Andrew!" way behind me, and I turn to see her waving in the distance. We had a brief shouting conversation before I turned to catch up with the guys.
Yep, you can find flying tigers (on pink WWII fighters, no less!) at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo! Amanda and I visited this aviation museum yesterday and we thoroughly enjoyed it. They have several real aircraft plus many more replicas and mock-ups. While the entire history of flight is covered, the emphasis is on World War II aviation. Some highlights...
Missions Theater - an old half-cylinder hanger was converted into a theater that shows 3D movies - not IMAX but the kind where you wear 3D glasses. It featured the story of a WWII B-17 crew on a bombing mission and the film was great.
Flight Simulator - a popular attraction is their full-motion three-axis simulator; you won't find this at Putt-Putt! You're strapped in as tightly as you would be on an inverted roller coaster, although at 6'4" I barely fit. "Full-motion three-axis" means that you can fly complete 360-degree rolls and full loops where you physically go all the way around! What a blast. However, there's a delay with the control input - when I push the stick left, there's a half-second where nothing happens, causing me to push the stick further left and suddenly were doing a full-rate barrel roll. Classic control delay causing pilot-induced oscillations. I got more used to it but it was still a very difficult simulator to control.
Simulation Station - a collection of real cockpits that guests are allowed to sit in. This was quite fun because you're able to get a hands-on experience with the controls, instruments, and what it feels like to try to fly one of these things.
I'm going to let Amanda further describe those and other highlights of our trip because I want to focus on one of them: the Link trainer.
I won't try to explain the history of the Link trainer when the Air Zoo already did it so well (see photo above). Basically it's a small cockpit mock-up with real flight instruments and some pitch-roll-yaw motion to train pilots how to fly without visual reference; i.e. flying just from the instruments. In the photo below you can see me sitting in one at the Air Zoo.
The reason I find these things so cool is because my maternal grandfather (we called him Grampy) used to teach pilots on these simulators! Grampy was in the US Army Air Force during WWII and was assigned to train future pilots. I don't know how he got selected for that - he's wasn't a pilot himself and never had an aviation interest that I'm aware of. My maternal grandmother (aka Grammy) recently dug up his duty records, which showed that he was sent to Indiana or Illinois (I forget which) to be trained in flight instrumentation and celestial navigation. After that he spent time training future pilots.
Interestingly, Grammy was also involved in the war effort as a "Rosie Riveter" - she didn't actually do rivets, but rather she installed hydraulic lines in the nose section of a bomber aircraft, but I don't know which model. Grammy has registered Grampy at the National World War II Memorial (a great site to check out sometime).
FYI, my paternal grandparents - we simply called them Grandpa and Grandma - were also involved in WWII. Grandpa was in the US Navy a diesel engine mechanic on board a landing ship, an LST I believe. Grandma worked at a factory assembling ailerons or artillery shells.
In these next two photos (above and below) you can see a more complete Link trainer than the one I sat in. The complete one has a hood on top to complete enclose the cockpit, giving the pilot zero reference to the outside world which simulates flying in the clouds or total darkness (real Link trainers didn't have a window like this museum piece has). There's also a gimbal mechanism as the base, which can move the cockpit to simulate the motions caused by various control inputs and simulation conditions (e.g. engine out or turbulence).
Particularly interesting to me, the Air Zoo had an instructor's station for the Link simulator. This is where I assume Grampy would've sat when teaching the student pilots! Unfortunately we didn't get a better photo of the desk. On the right side of the desk is a data recorder which kept track of the student's actions during the simulated flight. On the left side are some flight instruments that show the same values as what the student is seeing on the same instruments in the cockpit. On top of the desk (you can't really see it in the photo) is an aeronautical chart where the instructor could plan simulated missions and track the student's progress.
It's always so fun and enlightening to take a walk through history, especially when there's a personal connection.
Ryan has to tell us his new jokes before we get started.
A few months ago my dad and I discussed going on a bike ride sometime this summer. We used to go for 12-20 mile rides on occasion back when I lived in Ann Arbor during college, but haven't ridden together since then. We decided to go for a ride again this year on 4th of July.
While my dad focused on getting back into shape, I scouted out a route that would take us from my house to my grandma's (dad's mom) about 21 miles away. Similar to the rides of my college days, I planned to stick to dirt roads to avoid traffic and spend more time in the countryside. Then Dad called a few days later to boast about his first training ride that totally wore him out... he had gone just 12 miles!
I decided to schedule our ride such that we would stop after the first 13 hilly miles in a small town called Smyrna. There we could recharge at the ice cream shop and give Dad a rest. Soon my brothers, Eric and Ryan, heard of our little expedition and decided to join in. When Eric reclaimed his mountain bike from my parents' house, Dad suddenly found himself without a ride! It turned out to be a perfect excuse to buy a bike, getting a great deal on a quality hybrid from the classifieds.
Soon July 4th was upon us and by now my cousins Gabe and Adrienne, plus Adrienne's friend Rean, were planning to ride out to meet us near Smyrna (they live near Grandma). My family arrived at my house right on schedule and we proceded to prep the bikes - we pumped up the tires, adjusted seats, and I cleaned about 15 years worth of dirt from Ryan's drivetrain! Ryan was using my trusty (and a bit rusty) old bike that I used in college.
After posing for a photo, we were off! Well, as soon as Ryan finished telling us his two new jokes. My favorite: What does a snail riding on the back of a turtle say? "Wheeee!" This would later remind us of dad riding his bike... ;)
Right away we climbed an 80-foot hill (pretty big for Michigan) and my three wingmen were already grousing about the ascent! There would be a tougher climb later on. Eric has been keeping in decent shape by playing hockey while Ryan maintains his fitness with tennis and basketball. My dad plays basketball, too, but he doesn't have youth on his side. We joked that Dad will win the 0-to-60 drag race... to 60 years old, that is.
One of the cool aspects of the route is that it took us across two historic covered bridges: Fallasburg Covered Bridge and White's Covered Bridge. If we'd started 15 miles southwest of Lowell, we could've added the Ada Covered Bridge, too. Maybe next time. We also passed by an old grain silo that had been converted into a sort of lighthouse along the Flat River just north of White's Bridge.
After about an hour we met up with our cousins, and twenty minutes later we reached Smyrna. The ice cream shop offers sizes of "baby", "small", "medium" and "large". We all ordered "small" and found ourselves trying to down a pint of ice cream each! I wonder how big "large" is, a gallon? Holy cow. It was good stuff, too.
Moving on, most of the last 8 miles were fairly flat and straight and entirely on dirt roads. Gabe used to road race and brought his road bike for this ride, which was a lot to handle on the lumpy gravel roads but he easily kept up. Everyone was doing pretty well, actually. Adrienne and Rean in particular were well trained - they had just completed a two-week long bike ride along Lake Michigan and Lake Huron totaling about 800 miles!
The home stretch was probably the most difficult - a mile riding through Grandma's old pasture, an energy-sapping section of two-track full of weeds and rough terrain. Finally we made it to our destination: my aunt and uncle's house, which borders on my grandma's pasture. After cooling off with a garden hose we were treated to a 4th of July BBQ on their screened-in porch. We even celebrated Grandma's 85th birthday, which is July 6.
After dinner we started looking for something to do. My uncle brought out a three-person slingshot designed to launch water balloons! Two people hold each end while a third "shooter" loads the balloon, pulls back, and lets fly. These grenades were sailing 50-100 yards across the lawn and reaching over 150 feet high! Every once in a while a balloon would explode upon release, showering the launch crew with water.
Ryan and Amanda took up safe positions behind trees to capture some cool photos while Gabe and Rean went downrange with a shovel handle, trying to swat the balloons before they hit the ground. After launching for a while I joined them, and we all managed to hit a couple "homers" before the balloon supply was exhausted. What a fun day!
Kevin and Todd hold firm as Dad prepares the "grenade" for launch.
Todd launches one downrange (using Dad and I as the "cannon") towards Gabe and Rean, who are waiting with a big stick...
Focused on swatting the incoming water balloon!