Well. Today I felt like a mess. Definitely not up to my own standards.

Last night wasn’t the best, sleep-wise. As soon as I laid down my legs started bothering me, so I tossed and turned a lot thanks to that. It was also a chilly night, so I woke in the wee hours a little cold but too lazy to do anything about it. After that, when I fell asleep, I was out.

Until the choir of zippers began. Everything to do with tenting on a bike trip involves hundreds of zippers. There are probably thousands of different zippers in this camp right now. And in the still of the night or early morning, zippers are really loud. So when those early birds start getting ready and packing up at 5am, there are some serious zipper noises going.

Champion morning sleeper that I am, I ignored them until the light became suspiciously bright. Then I looked at my watch and realized I was already a half hour behind schedule. This was because I set my alarm for 7am every weekday. Today is Sunday.

I still had an hour before we had agreed to be off, and I did manage to get everything packed and ready, but I missed breakfast. Kris snagged a banana for me.

As I was putting everything on the bike, I discovered I’d left the mount for my front light on my road bike, back in my garage. The guy at the mobile bike repair van used cable ties to fix it to the bottom of my drop bar and that worked well. I seem to have remembered everything else.

So Kris, Bill, and I rolled out at 8:29, right on our agreed upon schedule. We were the last people out, I think. Rest of the riders are rather keen, in my book. Are we not on vacation?

Off we rode into a chillier than expected morning. But it was overcast, which I think is great riding weather. All was good until probably mile nine, when my front tire went down. Fortunately, the tube swap was completed relatively quickly. We were on our way to securing the Last Into Camp title, though.

At the first sag stop the mobile bike place topped off air in the changed tire, and I bought another tube. I didn’t like to think about doing 50 more miles without backup at that point. I had four more new tubes but they were all on the luggage truck at that point. That fortunately was the last of my mechanical trouble for the day.

What didn’t change was my tired out body. It never occurred to me this week to, I dunno, maybe rest a bit in preparation for a long week of riding? No, I’m out there playing… two mountain bike rides and softball. On top of that with only Saturday as a no activity day plus lousy sleep, I was not supergirl. We were a slow little group. Also my lower back was mysteriously killing me for 3/4 of the ride. Like I said, I was a mess.

Still, the ride was enjoyable. Beautiful landscapes, roadside wildflowers, and farmland, plus glimpses of the lake. After the famed Cherry Point store, we were approaching Silver Lake. Last year I remember this being my least favorite part of the ride due to the traffic. Today was way better though. I guess we just got there at the right time. No one driving a huge pickup pulling a “camper” the size of an apartment glared at me for existing. So that was nice. I did get passed by a large white pickup with a decal in the back window reading “Diesel Life” with a skull and two gas pump handles flanking the skull like guns (lol, okay). I spent some time pondering what it’s like to base part of your personality on driving a diesel pickup.

We had some times of sprinkling rain today, but nothing bad. I had my jacket and it was fine, plus it isn’t the least bit breathable so I kept warm. Like condensation inside my sleeves warm.

We stopped for lunch at a little after 1pm in Pentwater and had a proper sit down meal featuring a couple of barley pops. It was a good break, but the drizzle was coming down well and we talked about how nice a warm shower was going to feel.

The only pictures I took today were at the Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant bridge, which is a pretty cool hydroelectric plant you can read about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power_Plant?wprov=sfti1

I’m always amazing by the awesome stuff man can build.

The overcast matched the water today, but Lake Michigan is always beautiful.

We finally got into Ludington around 6pm. The school we normally would stay at is under construction, so we’re several miles out of town at a wedding venue (a metal building with a somewhat rustic barn-like thing going on). A shower truck instead of a locker room is the biggest difference for me.

Getting in late really wasn’t an issue. We had an easy day with lots of conversation, and when we arrived we got cleaned up and went straight to dinner. The meal was good, too! They always have a veggie option and tonight’s veg lasagna was quite tasty.

After dinner we sat outside of Kris’ tent and enjoyed some beverages and chatted. Before I knew it the light was fading and it was 9:30. People were zipping into their tents; time to call it a day.

Tomorrow we’re off to Frankfort. My alarm is set properly for 6am so I can have breakfast, and we’ve agreed to set off by 8am. Tomorrow’s ride is about 10 miles shorter but we have the “Three Sisters” to tackle. More about that in tomorrow’s recap. I will need to dig deep for those.

Which means I’d better get to bed…