Skip to main content

End of Summer Update

Summer will be officially over in a few days so thought I should bring things up to date.

After returning from vacation time just flew by.  We brought mom out the day after we returned and had a nice visit.  That night we slept really well and missed church on Sunday.  Then it was back to work.

On Saturday, August 27 we hosted a group ride from the house.  The plan was for a 25 mile ride on the back roads and then a BBQ feast after.  That morning I woke up and everything was wet.  A quick check of the weather showed rain most of the day.  The group started arriving shortly after 1:00pm.  I was starting to do some grilling so things would be ready on our return.  By 2:30pm the rain was very light and we decided to head out at 3:00pm.  The ride ended up being 17 miles and a little sloppy.  The food was excellent and everyone had a good time.  It was great to reconnect with everyone.  Some we had not seen in a few years or longer.

L-R: Steve Karlsen, Kyle Stange, Don Mller, Don Stange, Me, Raymond Leach, Craig Morris, Mark Abbe

Next was Labor Day weekend and then Brendan was back to school.  He started 5th grade which is the first year of Middle School here in Birch Run.

I did an upgrade on the Sarma Vortex fat bike.  I put a set of Avid DB5 hydraulic brakes on it and rotors.  I weighed it while I had it down and it is at 30.15lbs.  That includes bottle cages, pedals and Garmin mount.

I pulled the Farley down this past Saturday and finally cut the steer tube down on the Bluto fork and gave it a quick once over.  I also weighed it while I had it down.  31.15lbs with the Bluto, cages, pedals and Garmin mount.  I took the Farley to the Taymouth Twp park yesterday and did a little riding to test it out.  I will be racing the Bear Claw Epic in Cadillac on Saturday.  Going to make the trip up with Raymond.  I am not in good shape so will only do the Beginner Fat Bike class.  After my race I will head back out and take some photos with the new camera and lens.

That pretty much brings us up to date.  Look for a race report this weekend.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Summer Vacation Day 4: The ER

Day four started out with beautiful weather.  We had breakfast and Michelle took Brendan fishing.  I decided I would take a ride on the bike and do a little recon for a family bike ride. I set off east to ride toward Rapid River.  I rode around the the edge of the bay and took a few pictures. Dunes on the edge of Gladstone. This was around 4-5 miles out of town in a small subdivision. The photo above is of a small river I crossed, unfortunately I cannot remember the name.  I thought I found a bike trail that would be nice for all of us.  Unfortunately it was swampy and not kept up.  I headed back to Gladstone and met Michelle and Brendan out on the fishing dock. I sat with them for a while and Brendan caught this. This is a Gobi.  An invasive species of the Great Lakes. After a few minutes I started back to the house.  On the way I started to have some chest pain.  After showering it had not let up. ...

Summer Vacation: Day 8, Marquette

Day out started out cool, cloudy and windy.  It would stay like that the entire day.  After Michelle got up we took a little walk in the park by the bay.  It was very cool and returned to the house.  The plan for the day was to go to Marquette to visit Raymond and his family and have dinner with them. I received a text from Raymond that informed me the weather was not good there and it had not been for the entire week.  It had been very cold and windy.  He told me to bring warm clothes and we would probably be inside. We arrived at there location just after 3:00pm and it was cold and windy.  They told us it had been worse earlier in the day.  After talking for a while Angel started to make burgers and hot dogs on the grill.  We walked down to the beach with Raymond to discover that the beach was not really there.  The water has been so high this year and the waves were coming in so hard there was no beach.  They said they h...

Vacation 2016, Days 3 and 4

Day 3 was very uneventful.  We spent the entire day at the Resort.  Spent the first part of the day by the outdoor pool.  The second half was spent in the arcade (read that as kid Casino!).  We got to bed at a decent time so we could get on the road the next day. Day 4 was mostly travel.  We had a light breakfast in the room and then packed to head out.  We stopped at a rest area that had a scenic view. Very steep cliff down to the river bottom. We got back on the road and soon we were on the highway through Cleveland.  First time that I seen this. Heavy traffic through downtown and shortly after getting out of town we stopped and had a quick lunch at Burger King.  We got back on the road and Michelle took one of her famous vacation road trip maps. Everyone but me missed this! And this! We were soon into New York and stopped at a Travel Center to stretch our legs.  We then headed for downtown Buffalo and...