Today we only had to ride 75 miles and we were all looking forward to an easy day. As I have said before, things never turn out the way you think they will. A friend of Danny’s, Jeff, showed up to ride with him today. It was a surprise for Dan. Dan rode with Jeff when he crossed the country in 1989. They were reminiscing in the parking lot when Dan told us to go ahead and he would catch up. Steve, Mary and I were nearly the last to leave except for the staff and Dan and Jeff.

The morning went well and as we were approaching the first SAG at mile 40, I saw two riders coming up from behind. I told the others and Steve and Mary said, “No way are they going to reel us in without a fight!” I wasn’t positive it was Dan and Jeff, but we took off anyway, and for the next five miles we cooked along at over 20 mph. When we got to the SAG we joked about being pursued by a ghost. It was not Dan and Jeff behind us. It was a couple of staff members. However, Dan and Jeff came along shortly thereafter.

Steve, and Mary and I left the SAG before Dan and Jeff. We took off at a good clip and discussed how Dan would come after us. We knew if we could turn the next corner before he caught up with us, we could hide in some trees. He would think we were out in front of him and pursue us all the way in to Birch Run. Sure enough, Dan and Jeff were coming. We kicked up our speed, made it to the corner, turned and hid. Everything would have worked out fine but Jeff spotted us in the trees. Rats!

We all rode together to mile 60.5. There was a detour sign up at that point. We rode around it to take our chances at getting through. No such luck this time. We ended up putting on about 4 extra miles and were back on track. Dan’s friend had left now to return to his parked car in a previous town. From this point on it was a race to town. Dan and our ride leader, Mike, took off at speeds unknown to most of us. Steve was in hot pursuit and managed to stay with them. Mary fell off and rode in some time later. I hitched a ride behind the Chuck Wagon. This is a recumbent ridden by Charles that we refer to as the Chuck Wagon. Recumbents do really well on downhill and flats, and Charles did. I was toast! I hadn’t eaten anything since the first SAG and was running on empty. I managed to get low enough to allow Charlie to pull me all the way into town at between 20 and 22 mph. What a gift that was! I checked into the motel and walked to Subway for chow and liquids.

When we all finally got together, there were blow-by-blow accounts of all the action. What a great way to play! I just hope we are able to recover by tomorrow for our 90 miles to Port Huron, MI.

Isn’t it nice to think that adults can still have this much fun, even at my age? Well, one more day in Michigan and then it is on to Canada. There are 12 riding days left. The time seems to be going too quickly now. Thanks again for joining me.

Click here to see more pictures from today!