As my bike was being worked on yesterday, Tues., 8/15, I was able to spend the day relaxing at my hotel and later on gather for dinner with some dear friends from law school–Ted and Amanda & Curtis. We spent several hours at Ted’s house catching up and having a fabulous takeout dinner from Anita’s Kitchen Lebanese Cafe. It was great to have their support and encouragement for my trip.

I was very impressed by the friendly and accommodating service at Trek Bicycle Macomb Township. One of the store managers drove to another Trek store, in Royal Oak, MI, yesterday to get the right-sized bike tire for me. My bike was ready to go early this afternoon with some new Cinturato Pirelli road bike tires. Experienced mechanic John Miller, who came in on his day off today to finish working on my bike, also made some minor adjustments and repairs and cleaned up some of the road grime I’ve picked up these past six weeks. Here is John behind the service desk.

I met Ed, the guy shown in the photo below, in the parking lot as I was getting ready to leave the bike shop. He was curious about my trip, and we talked for quite a while about biking. He has taken a number of bike trips himself, including a recent trip in Alaska, and used to compete as a triathlete. He said he was at a medical conference in the Twin Cities not long ago where he had a chance to meet cyclist Greg LeMond, who is now fighting a rare form of leukemia caused by a gene mutation affecting his bone marrow. He got Greg to autograph a poster and a jersey for him. He was quite impressed by what a nice guy LeMond is–as I was when I met him 25 years ago.

Given my late start, I was thankful that my route today, to Romeo, MI, was only about 18 miles. Unfortunately, though, the most direct route was on congested major roads with lots of traffic and no shoulder. There were some sidewalks, but they weren’t in the best condition either.

I stopped for lunch at a Dairy Queen on Van Dyke Rd. just north of M-59 (Hall Rd.) and met two cyclists, Bob and Jerry, who were out for a ride on folding e-bikes. They encouraged me to get off Van Dyke Rd. and follow them to a nearby trail along the Clinton River, which I did. My Chief Navigator Trudi has done a wonderful job back home helping me find some good routes and trails, but bike trails in particular are hard to locate online and assess for road bike rideability, and at that point, I didn’t have any option other than my slog along Van Dyke.

Thankfully, Jerry and Bob said they weren’t heading to any particular destination and were happy to help me navigate their trail system so that I could get where I was going. And this was after Jerry, a Michigan State Spartan, learned that I was a Michigan Wolverine. (As many of you know, the rivalry between the two schools can sometimes be quite intense.) They were my escorts for the next 7-10 miles–nice guys! Here they are–Bob on the left, Jerry on the right–just as we were getting ready to leave Dairy Queen.

And here is the Clinton River Trail, which was quite beautiful.

Here is what Jerry and Bob’s e-bikes look like. They generally ride about 35 miles when they go out, which Jerry said is a lot further than they would want to go if they were depending entirely on their own pedal power.

My route tomorrow will be about 45 miles to Fenton, MI. Rain is predicted, but may not start until mid-afternoon, so I’m planning on an early start.