The Bauer Family

My last post was from Michelle and my anniversary celebration.  The day after we returned I received a call from my mom.  My dad was not doing well and needed to go to the hospital.  Michelle and I went to their house and we all took dad to the emergency room.  We had known for some time that he had Pulmonary Fibrosis for which there is no cure.  He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit later that day.  This would turn out to be his final journey. While in the Intensive Care Unit he received outstanding care from the staff at Covenant HealthCare.  Their compassionate care can not be equaled anywhere.  Dad's personality and belief in his creator also helped the staff and us through this difficult time.  During this time Dad was more concerned about us than himself.  He knew that soon he would meet Jesus face to face.  That was his comfort.  I made a promise to him that I would take care of mom and my family, just as he had c...

Today is our 5th Wedding Anniversary!  Hard to believe we have been married for five years.  Doesn't seem like it.  The years are passing way to fast.  Could not imagine being without Michelle and the boys.  It seems like we have been married our whole lives.  Everything that happened before them does not matter.  I thank God everyday for this incredible blessing! Michelle had planned out a very nice Anniversary for us.  We left work early yesterday and headed for Lake Orion.  We stayed at the Palace Inn near the Palace of Auburn Hills.  Not the nicest place we have ever stayed, but it wasn't horrible.  Michelle had got me a gift certificate for 51 North Brewing.  We arrived there in the early evening and found a nice table.  The brewery was different than most we have been to.  It was not very busy and our waitress was very good.  We got our drink order in right away and then ordered appetizers. Our ...

So the alarm clock went off again for our weekday wake up time.  After a half hour I decided to get up and get the day started.  I got a nice fire going and then headed for the basement to get my crunches in.  I was then thwarted by the tv and spent some time on the phone with Charter.  After getting that resolved it was time to make breakfast and get ready for church.  I also made the decision that I was going to ride the Fat Bike home.     We got to church with some time to spare.  We have a few new attendees and a new guest arrived today.  The church is growing!   Scott was rocking for Praise and Worship!   After church I ate a sandwich and changed into my riding gear.  It was around 17 degrees with a wind chill of 9 degrees.  The wind would be out of the northwest at 4 mph and gust to 15 mph.  This was to my advantage as I would be heading NE.   Most of the ride would be on pavement ...

As the sun came up today I could tell it was going to be a good day to get outside and ride. Friday was in the mid 40's and a lot of ice and snow melted.  The plan was to take the Fat Bike out, put on the fenders and get a short ride in.  The temperature was 30 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was out of the NW at 15mph. Still some of the best weather we have had for the weekend. I had aired up the tires to 15+ psi for riding on pavement.  This was a good call and it also took away the self steer of the large tires.  The bike rode great in these conditions and when I got to a gravel road I found all the snow and ice gone.  The tires still went well on the gravel, just a few soft spots.  I will keep experimenting with tire pressure for this kind of riding.  The hardest and most technical part of the ride was navigating our driveway.  I rode for 45 minutes and just under 9 miles.  Just felt good to get outside.  The tempe...

Sunday morning, March 2, 2014 was cold and we had some fresh snow.  It was around 7 degrees when I got up at 5:30am.  I got a nice fires started and woke JJ just before 7am. I had prepped and loaded the bike Saturday night and had all our stuff packed.  We ate breakfast, finished loading the van and headed for Pando Winter Sports Park in Rockford, Michigan.  Rockford is about 15 minutes from Grand Rapids.  The roads were not in good shape so it took a little longer than usual.  I had not been to Pando in over 7 years and had never been there in the winter. I went into the lodge, checked in and picked up our number plates.  I headed back to the van, set up the bike and got into my riding gear.  I told JJ he needed to get changed and I headed out to warm up.  I did a full lap to see what we were in for.  The trail was in great condition and it was 2.25 miles long.  I felt I was ready for this. So the race would start by tubing dow...

So Sunday came around and after church, lunch and some chores I put on some bike gear and took the Fat Bike (dubbed: Green Machine) out for it's first ride.  I managed to make it out the icy driveway without crashing and to the road.  The tires had a little self steer but not as much as I had anticipated.  I had reversed the tire direction to see if I could get more traction on the tires for snow.  Snow tires will definitely be an upcoming investment (at least before the next winter sets in).  There was a strong wind coming out of the west and when I got to Burt Road with the wind at my back I made good time.  I arrived at the Taymouth Township Park which is only about a half mile from the house.  The main area of the park is closed, however my scouting on the way home from church told me that some of the parking lot had been plowed.  I rode around and found that snowmobiles had been all over the park.  So I went off road and started riding t...

I got the bike back from the shop on Thursday.  They had to break the head of the pinch bolt to remove the crank arm.  This bolt was way over torqued and Greg at The Stable thought the bolts were pretty soft and cheap.  So he replaced the bolt that was left and I will be running it for now with only one bolt.  Should be ok and at some point the crank will be upgraded.  So I stripped the bike down the rest of the way and started to build it back up.  I am glad I tore it down as it needed grease in the headset and I also greased all the bolts when I put it back together.     The Samox crank that came on the bike does not appear to be bad.  The chainrings on it were very heavy.  I changed them out and put on a 22 tooth small ring that I had, 36 tooth Blackspire and then added a bash guard.  I may remove the bash guard and add some of the tabs to cleanup the look.  The bike went back together smoothly.  I did decide to ...