The Bauer Family

Today I made a little drive and picked up a lightly used Bluto Fat Bike Suspension fork.  This is going to be an upgrade to the Farley.  I should be able to get a front wheel in time to have this up and running for Peak 2 Peak. Bluto

On Sunday Jay Jay turned 18 and Monday I was 52.  So Saturday was our family birthday party.  Everyone came out and mom even spent the night.  Michelle's dad grilled ribs, they were excellent.  We had a great meal and a great time with our family. Yesterday Michelle and I had to work and then we spent the evening out.  We went to G's for dinner. Deep Fried Pickles We started out with Deep Fried pickles and drinks.  We then had a pizza pie that was very good.  After our meal we were off to Midland.  I had won tickets to a Loons game and choose my birthday as the game day. Awesome brownie and hot fudge sundae! Lou E Loon We got to the stadium early and walked around to check out the food vendors.  We decided to get nachos for a snack.  They were great.  About halfway through the game we got our sundae.  We will be going on a diet now.  The Loons won and we had a really good time celebrating my bi...

After Ore to Shore Jay Jay said that he wanted to ride the Fat Bike for the Soft Rock next year.  I brought up doing another race this fall and suggested Peak 2 Peak.  He had rode that a few years back and said he would not do it again.  This was different, he said he would like to do it and wanted to do it on the fat bike! So I took to the bike and shop and changed the Green Machine into JJ's Fat Bike.  The big change is that it is now a 2x10 mix of Sram and Shimano.  This evening was the test ride. We did 9.6 miles and I had to chase off two dogs.  We need to set up a new short route, hopefully with more gravel.  Jay Jay did really good, this was our first ride since Ore to Shore.  He really seemed to like the bike. I have to order another fat bike adapter for the bike rack.  We have reserved our room at Crystal Mountain.  It is actually a condo for the weekend.  Really looking forward to this little get away. ...

The Race:  This has become my favorite race!  I had not done the Soft Rock in about 4 years.  I had forgotten how fun this course is.  It is mostly downhill and very fast when you want it to be.  The downhills are incredible.  This year it was more like a ride to me than a race and I think this made it even better.  I seen a lot of things that I had not seen in the past because of the ride pace.  The best part was riding with Jay Jay and helping him to achieve his goal.  That was worth much more than any trophy! Mission Accomplished.  Photo Courtesy of Don Miller After the Race: My back felt great and I did not feel to tired.  This would be do to the pace.  Jay Jay also said that he wants to do the race on the Fat Bike next year.  So the Green Machine will now become his primary ride.  He asked me today when we would do our next ride.  That will hopefully be tomorrow evening?  I will take pics of the...

Sunday was packing and the trip home.  Michelle and I were up before 8:00am and we started packing.  We were on the road by 10:30am.  We went into Harvey (just before Marquette) and ate at McDonalds.  We were then on the road for the first part of our trip. We got into St. Ignace and had the pizza buffet at BC pizza.  It was really good as always.  Then the traditional trip to Castle Rock. After a long shopping trip in the gift shop we were again on the road.  We would not stop again until we were on the south side of Grayling to fill the gas tank.  We then drove straight through to Saginaw and had dinner at Coco Loco.  It was then the final trip home.  We arrived home just before 9:00pm.  A long day on the road. The final unpacking of the car would take place on Monday.  Vacation was done.

Race day was finally upon us and I wanted to make sure I got up.  I set both my Fitbit alarm and my phone alarm.  I was up before 6am, made coffee and headed out to the garage.  I had put most of our gear in the van Friday night.  I checked the tire pressure on the bikes and loaded them on the rack.  I went inside and everyone but Brendan was moving about.  We had a lite breakfast and headed for Negaunee for the start of the race.  We arrived with plenty of time to get ready and to the start line. Warming up. The wait on the line. Headed for Marquette. There were over 900 racers and we were near the back.  The start was very slow and in the first section of dirt we actually came to a stand still as things spread out. The trail was in great shape and the rain helped the sandy areas. It was nice riding with Jay Jay and I kept reminding him to eat and drink as often as possible.  I wanted to make sure he stayed fueled a...

We woke up Friday morning and did not feel like getting out of bed.  We managed to get up and have a little breakfast.  The sky was not looking good and the forecast was not any better.  Michelle and I decided to take our chances and go on our date.  We headed out on the bikes and rode to the Marquette City limit and back.  It was a nice ride and a great date! Michelle's longest ride of the year. Shortly after returning it started to rain.  It would rain till we went for the spaghetti feed and packet pick up.  We got our race packets and had dinner.  We walked the expo floor a little.  I took some photos but lost them yesterday when I reset my phone.  The best photos were of the Salsa demo bikes. We left the arena and went to the Holiday Inn so the kids could swim and we visited a little more with the Leach's.  We called it quits early and headed back to the house to try and get a good night sleep for race day.

After breakfast we did a little family bike ride.  Brendan and Michelle only did 5 miles.  Jay Jay, Kayla and I did about 10 miles.  We went out the the Lake LeVasseur area and did a little trail riding. On Thursday evening we entertained guests at the house.  Raymond and his family got into town as well as Don and Karen Miller. We had a full house that evening with our guests and a lot of fun.  Had not seen Don since Thanksgiving.  It was a great evening with friends.

I am catching up on the blog today as I was having some issues downloading photos to the blog.  I discovered that since upgrading to Windows 10 I needed to load Google Chrome.  Issue resolved and back to blogging. Day 4 was like the others.  We got up late ate breakfast, lunch and headed out for the day.  We made our annual trip to Presque Isle.  It is beautiful as always.  We spent time in the cove at the black rocks.  I like taking pictures of the people jumping from the rocks. Brendan Jumps and makes a splash! So Michelle took Brendan to the top of the rock and he jumped.  He made friends with some teenagers and they helped him.  One waited for him in the water and swam to shore with him.  He makes friends where ever we go.  They were really nice. Michelle had a hard time watching. We went back to the house and spent some time on the beach with a camp fire and that was our night. Another sunset.

The weather started out on the down side Tuesday. I was feeling tired and took an early nap. When I got up I had breakfast and then we prepared for a day out. We went to Walmart, purchased fishing licenses for Jay Jay and I. We bought another fishing pole and went to Teal Lake. Just so happens that this is the start line for the Soft Rock. So I showed Jay Jay the role out start. We fished for a while and Brendan caught a small mouth bass. Jay Jay also caught a small fish. While we were fishing Michelle and Kayla went to a fruit market and Yooperland.  While they were out they discovered the Jasper Ridge Brewery. So we went to the brewery for supper. They have a very nice (big) menu and the food was good. I would recommend this if you are in the UP. Michelle had heard about Jaspilite prior to coming to the UP. It is a rare mineral/gem. So we did a little research and located Jasper Knob or Jasper Hill as it is called. Here is a description: A bald-topped hil...

It is still cool up here in Marquette. We had a nice breakfast and then JJ and I headed out on a ride. We ended up riding to Presque Isle and back. 28 mile round trip and longest ride of the year. It was a lot of fun. Waterfall in Marquette. Ride Summary. We had a snack after we got home and then headed for Munising. We ate at Johnny Dog's, first time they were open when we visited in the last 3 years. I had the Piggy Dog and Piggy Fries. We then went out the Pictured Rocks National Park. Pictured Rocks.  We also stopped at a small park in Munising before returning to the house. A very nice day. Sunset in Munising.  Today will be some fishing with Brendan. Tomorrow looks to be the nicest day weather wise and it is Kayla's Birthday. Forecast keeps changing for Saturday. Now looking at rain and possible thunderstorms?

I had Friday off, Michelle worked and started getting things ready for vacation. A few errands were run and then I prepped the van. The day was over before we knew it. On Saturday we packed and loaded the van for the trip. Even managed to get the lawn cut before dark. The only thing left to put in the van was us. Sunday morning came early with less than 6 hours of sleep for me. We managed to be loaded up and on the road at 7:45am. A quick stop at the ATM and we were on I-75 headed north. We drove as far as West Branch and stopped at Big Boy for breakfast. After filling up we were back on the road. The sky was getting cloudy and darker as we headed north. We were definitely headed into rain if not a storm. I had Michelle pull up the radar and I could see the heaviest stuff had passed already. Just north of Gaylord we came into the rain. There were a lot of branches down along I-75, definitely some high winds. We stopped briefly at the Indian River exit for a break and th...