This morning was great! I rolled out of Falwell after a great night's sleep, and feeling on top of the world. My new bike computer was working fine and every thing was looking good. We had 82 miles to cover and I was on a roll. There was 5 miles of narrow road where they were working on repairing the shoulders of the road. However it was early and the traffic was light.
After that section was passed I turned off on to the Pere-Marquette bike path. It was the finest bike path I have ever seen. Yes I have said that before however this one is the hands down winner. The path was completed in 2008 so it is brand new. The pavement is soooooo smooth it just seemed to make the bike roll on it's own. Wait maybe that was the tail wind we enjoyed. The edges of the trail were mowed, there were toilets every few miles, beautiful road crossing markers, little turn outs were you could look out at the scenery, benches to sit on and rest, it had everything. Sailing along was great the only sounds were the birds and the hum from my tires. I could have stayed on that path all day. However around the 40 mile mark we were back on the road but only for 4 miles and then it was picnic.
I vacuumed up a bunch of fresh fruit at picnic and headed off. The wind had picked up and even though the road was really busy, sailing along with a tail wind was great. However, that came to an end when we turned south and now the wind was hitting me at about the 2:00 o'clock position. The road deteriorated and it was getting hotter all the time. However as there was only 23 miles to go it was time to just grind it out.
About 12 miles out I came up on Micheal and he was hurting the wind had done him in. So there was only one thing to do and that was to get him on my wheel and pull him in. Micheal could only do about 12-14 mph so that's what we did.
The town of Frankenmuth was originally founded by fifteen German ministers who came to convert the natives. Later the the town was settled by German immigrants. If you Google it you can get the whole history. Wikipedi says it is 98.6 % white with only 1.4% minorities. There is something like 53% of the people are of German heritage. So the town is built to look like a Barvarian village. There are quaint towers, fancy shingles, wall murals, etc. Frankenmuth also lays claim to having the worlds largest Christmas store. I don't know but it looks like a tourist trap to me, history and population notwithstanding.
Lets Ride!
Terry
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