Mt. Unpleasant
ABB could advertise this trip as a tour of the ugly side of small town America. At least some of the towns have charming sides. Mt. Pleasant, where we are staying tonight, is actually quite attractive. We cycled through it to its dismal fringe, where all the budget motels are situated. Tonight's lodge is called Baymont Express. It's near the Home Depot and a manufactured home seller that advertises that everyone gets employee pricing. (I wonder where they got that idea. I wonder how many mobile homes they sell to their employees.) It precipitated a discussion of why tornadoes tend to demolish trailer parks. I expressed the theory that they serve as a kind of tornado bait, which makes them desirable things to have a safe distance from your home. But that is not the point. The point is that, once again, we are lodged in a depressing outpost, far from anything attractive or interesting, not to mention any place worth eating. I won't even bother ranting about the dinner at Shoney's.
Of course, as the cliché goes, it's not the destination, but the journey. Today's journey wasn't bad, all things considered. Ferocious storms came through the area last night, but had mostly cleared out by morning. It was cool and cloudy almost all day and there was often a mist and sometimes light rain. We were scheduled to travel 116 miles on nice country roads. Paul decided that he wanted to get the day done as fast as possible. About a mile into our ride, when we were still slow-pedaling to warm up, Paul put on the jets. I sprinted to catch up with him, but it was clear that he had no interest in slowing down, so I let him speed away. I rode with the other young studs. We saw a family of running deer and a hole gaggle of turkeys. Because Tall Paul was not with us, they went unmooned. After Paul destroyed his replacement tube, the SAG wagon appeared and Brian and I rode on. For a second time, we passed almost everyone, which is kind of fun.
Brian and I parted ways when I decided to stop for lunch in Big Rapids. I had a flat just before lunch, but I found a staple stuck in my rear wheel and was able to patch it without removing the wheel, which meant that I didn't get chain grease all over my hands. Big triumph. There was a detour around mile 95, but we figured out that we could avoid adding miles by continuing off the detour onto a dirt and gravel road. The wet road was something of a challenge, but there was almost no traffic and it was pretty. I was a little worried that a dog would come after me while climbing a hill, when speedy acceleration would be hard, but that didn't happen. What did happen was that, about five miles into our shortcut, I got another slow leak in my back tire. I decided I could ride a little further, but then, ping! A spoke broke and my wheel was far, far out of true. With an unrideable bike, I called Mike, who showed up with the SAG wagon and did not comment on the fact that I was in unauthorized terrain. He lent me a spare wheel and I finished the rest of the ride pretty fast. (There was a nice tail wind for most of the day.)
The problem is that my Velomax Orion II wheels are really hard to repair. Before I could shower, Mike asked me to try to find the pipe cleaners, acetone, and cigarette lighter that are apparently needed to remove the detritus of the old spoke and install the new one. Installation requires applying lock-tite to one end of the new spoke, screwing it in, and then waiting 12 hours before applying lock-tite to the other end of the spoke and finishing truing the wheel. When I first read the instructions for spoke replacement of a Velomax Orion wheel, I prayed that none would break during the ride. I give Mike huge points for being willing to try to fix the wheel. Unfortunately, he pointed out to me that all of the drive side spokes of my Velomax Orion wheel were slightly deformed, suggesting that they are also about to go. If another one breaks, I will give up on the (very expensive) Velomax Orion wheel. I should also point out that I had to replace the very same Velomax Orion wheel just before the ride started because cracks had started appearing around the spoke holes. Velomax was very nice about the replacement, which was just before the warranty was set to expire, but I would have expected longer life from an expensive wheel like the Velomax Orion. I had bought the Velomax Orion wheel because many large men had testified on the internet that they are virtually indestructible. Safe to say that they had not tried cycling 2,600 miles on roads of questionable quality with their Velomax Orion wheels. (By the way, search engines like Google rank relevance of web pages to a particular query term, like Velomax Orion, based on the number of times the term--Velomax Orion in this case--appears on the page. So, I'm hoping that people who are trying to figure out whether Velomax Orion wheels are worth the money will find this page. It is certainly relevant to the quality of Velomax Orion wheels. (The internet can be so much fun.))
Today's real highlight was reading our top ten list of fun things to do while cycling, which several fellow cyclists and I composed whilst cruising from Wisconsin to Michigan yesterday. I won't repeat it here, because a lot of it is inside jokes, but it was very well received. Actually, maybe I'll post it on a day when I don't feel like making up anything new.
In two weeks, I'll be home again. I was escorted on my hunt for Velomax Orion repair stuff by a former ABB rider who said that the end of his ride was the best and worst day of his life. He was sad to leave his fellow riders. I'll miss these characters, but I'd rather communicate with them by email than with my family and friends at home. I miss my family desperately, but I also think about how my friends and family ponied up close to $100,000. You guys rock, and I really look forward to seeing you again. (A small, but significant, share was also contributed by generous strangers and my new friends on this bike tour, to whom I'm also extremely grateful.)
Tomorrow we don't start until 8:00. How cool is that?
Cheers,
Len
Of course, as the cliché goes, it's not the destination, but the journey. Today's journey wasn't bad, all things considered. Ferocious storms came through the area last night, but had mostly cleared out by morning. It was cool and cloudy almost all day and there was often a mist and sometimes light rain. We were scheduled to travel 116 miles on nice country roads. Paul decided that he wanted to get the day done as fast as possible. About a mile into our ride, when we were still slow-pedaling to warm up, Paul put on the jets. I sprinted to catch up with him, but it was clear that he had no interest in slowing down, so I let him speed away. I rode with the other young studs. We saw a family of running deer and a hole gaggle of turkeys. Because Tall Paul was not with us, they went unmooned. After Paul destroyed his replacement tube, the SAG wagon appeared and Brian and I rode on. For a second time, we passed almost everyone, which is kind of fun.
Brian and I parted ways when I decided to stop for lunch in Big Rapids. I had a flat just before lunch, but I found a staple stuck in my rear wheel and was able to patch it without removing the wheel, which meant that I didn't get chain grease all over my hands. Big triumph. There was a detour around mile 95, but we figured out that we could avoid adding miles by continuing off the detour onto a dirt and gravel road. The wet road was something of a challenge, but there was almost no traffic and it was pretty. I was a little worried that a dog would come after me while climbing a hill, when speedy acceleration would be hard, but that didn't happen. What did happen was that, about five miles into our shortcut, I got another slow leak in my back tire. I decided I could ride a little further, but then, ping! A spoke broke and my wheel was far, far out of true. With an unrideable bike, I called Mike, who showed up with the SAG wagon and did not comment on the fact that I was in unauthorized terrain. He lent me a spare wheel and I finished the rest of the ride pretty fast. (There was a nice tail wind for most of the day.)
The problem is that my Velomax Orion II wheels are really hard to repair. Before I could shower, Mike asked me to try to find the pipe cleaners, acetone, and cigarette lighter that are apparently needed to remove the detritus of the old spoke and install the new one. Installation requires applying lock-tite to one end of the new spoke, screwing it in, and then waiting 12 hours before applying lock-tite to the other end of the spoke and finishing truing the wheel. When I first read the instructions for spoke replacement of a Velomax Orion wheel, I prayed that none would break during the ride. I give Mike huge points for being willing to try to fix the wheel. Unfortunately, he pointed out to me that all of the drive side spokes of my Velomax Orion wheel were slightly deformed, suggesting that they are also about to go. If another one breaks, I will give up on the (very expensive) Velomax Orion wheel. I should also point out that I had to replace the very same Velomax Orion wheel just before the ride started because cracks had started appearing around the spoke holes. Velomax was very nice about the replacement, which was just before the warranty was set to expire, but I would have expected longer life from an expensive wheel like the Velomax Orion. I had bought the Velomax Orion wheel because many large men had testified on the internet that they are virtually indestructible. Safe to say that they had not tried cycling 2,600 miles on roads of questionable quality with their Velomax Orion wheels. (By the way, search engines like Google rank relevance of web pages to a particular query term, like Velomax Orion, based on the number of times the term--Velomax Orion in this case--appears on the page. So, I'm hoping that people who are trying to figure out whether Velomax Orion wheels are worth the money will find this page. It is certainly relevant to the quality of Velomax Orion wheels. (The internet can be so much fun.))
Today's real highlight was reading our top ten list of fun things to do while cycling, which several fellow cyclists and I composed whilst cruising from Wisconsin to Michigan yesterday. I won't repeat it here, because a lot of it is inside jokes, but it was very well received. Actually, maybe I'll post it on a day when I don't feel like making up anything new.
In two weeks, I'll be home again. I was escorted on my hunt for Velomax Orion repair stuff by a former ABB rider who said that the end of his ride was the best and worst day of his life. He was sad to leave his fellow riders. I'll miss these characters, but I'd rather communicate with them by email than with my family and friends at home. I miss my family desperately, but I also think about how my friends and family ponied up close to $100,000. You guys rock, and I really look forward to seeing you again. (A small, but significant, share was also contributed by generous strangers and my new friends on this bike tour, to whom I'm also extremely grateful.)
Tomorrow we don't start until 8:00. How cool is that?
Cheers,
Len
posted by Len Burman at 6:52 PM
6 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
As a Kansan, I feel compelled to remark on the tornadoes and trailers discussion. The explanation I was always given about this phenomena is that tornadoes tend to follow some paths more than others, which lowers the property value of these paths. This makes for cheap land to put cheap houses on - so it's not that trailers attract tornadoes, it's that people put trailers where tornadoes are more likely to hit.
And to David's comment from many days ago - Ed sure is smart!
You are doing a great thing. A friend of a friend of a friend told me to check out your site. I know you must be sick of the bad hotels and bad food, but remember...you could be in Haiti. It's all relative.
Elaine, your explanation makes perfect sense. I like mine better though.
Anonymous, thanks for the encouragement. The best thing about the ride is knowing how much good my friends' charity will do in Haiti. I know that the food we complain about would be an unbelievable bounty to the people PIH serves in Haiti. And the average Haitian could never think of doing what I'm doing for many reasons: if they took seven weeks off from work, they'd starve; there are no roads that are passable by road bike; they couldn't afford a road bike; and, the typical Haitian dies before he reaches age 51 (life expectancy at birth is 49). Notwithstanding the complaints in the blog (which are a lot of fun), I don't spend too much time feeling sorry for myself.
Len
I would like to say five things: (1) For information on Velomax Orion II wheels, see http://ride4haiti.blogspot.com/2005/07/mt-unpleasant.html; (2) For information on Velomax Orion II wheels, see http://ride4haiti.blogspot.com/2005/07/mt-unpleasant.html; (3) For information on Velomax Orion II wheels, see http://ride4haiti.blogspot.com/2005/07/mt-unpleasant.html; (4) For information on Velomax Orion II wheels, see http://ride4haiti.blogspot.com/2005/07/mt-unpleasant.html; (5) For information on Velomax Orion II wheels, see http://ride4haiti.blogspot.com/2005/07/mt-unpleasant.html.
I can tell you don't feel sorry for yourself...sorry if I implied otherwise! If you weren't well aware of the facts, you wouldn't be doing this, right? :)
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