Detroit Ride City!
Have you ever heard of Second City in Chicago? It’s a stand-up comedy club that has housed some pretty memorable acts including: Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, Alan Arkin and John Belushi. Thank you to our gracious host in Chicago, Dave Alford, he was able to donate tickets to the B4B team to take in their first Second City show at the famous club. On our last night in Chicago, we laughed and enjoyed “Sex, Love and the Second City.” We recommend it for your next visit to Chicago.
We rode out of Chicago and hugged the Lake Michigan coast the whole way. Very industrial parts in Gary, Indiana caused us to take a bit of a detour to save us from instant lung cancer. But other than that, the ride was pleasant and flat.
Thoughts of another night of no camping were on our minds as well as we rode into St. Joseph’s. Chase’s girlfriend, Deanna, was in a sorority at Indiana University with Karen. Karen was a teacher now, and was pretty excited to have the B4B team come rolling through town. They even made a sign for us! Awesome! Thanks Eric and Karen!
Karen and Eric were great hosts to us and showed us around their cute little town of St. Joseph’s on the water at Lake Michigan. We caught one of our favorite sunsets of the trip. Playing frisbee, running on the beach, hanging with friends and a beautiful view. What a day.
Next stop was aimed to be Jackson, Michigan. There were a couple of cool trails it seemed on the map that we could look forward to on the ride. The Kal-Haven bike trail and Kalamzoo trail were both great rides that we really enjoyed. If you are in the area, get out and get riding!
For each of our rides, we had already created a Google Bike Maps directions in between each major city, which take us through as many bike trails as possible. But, we don’t necessarily look again at the bike maps until the night before our ride that uses the map. People ask us “what route are you taking from Cincinnati to DC?” We kind of look at each other, shrug our shoulders and say, “Through the Cumberland Gap?”
Good news is that there were a couple of nice trails and some nice city stops on the way. Kalamazoo was the half-way point and is the home to Derek Jeter! We had a crazy little stop at a McDonald’s there, which felt like the most excitement we’d had at a McDonald’s all summer long. Nothing in particular, just a lot of people and a bit of chaos. The scene passed without an incident although it felt like pandemonium.
The ride of the day was back roads and trails that led to showing us two things that we didn’t know Michigan had a lot of: golf courses and giant smoke stacks. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d never heard Michigan being known for either of those. But riding through back roads on our ride, it was golf course after golf course that we seemed to speed on by. Sure makes us miss the game of golf. Such lovely weather we’ve had recently in the North. Perfect for golfing. But ya know, riding your bike in great golfing weather, is mighty fine with me 🙂
But the smoke stacks, was a bit surprising.
In Colorado, I don’t believe we have any of these. What is this? A nuclear plant? Just a smoke stack? We didn’t know, but seeing 1 stack was a lot. But in the end, we saw 5 stacks all the way into Detroit! Any ideas as to what these are, feel free to share…
Riding into Jackson, our tweeting had picked up. Dave Hampton, a chef at a local country club, had been tweeting at us and asking to join us for a bit of a ride. We were VERY excited for this.
When planning this whole crazy ride, we had thought that many people would have wanted to join up with us for a few miles as we rode into/out of their town. But so far, not the case. Our host in Chandler, AZ rode out of town with us for a few miles, which was lovely, but that was it!
Dave was going to be our FIRST random rider on our journey. There was a great Rails to Trails route that led into the town of Jackson. He started in the center of Jackson and rode out to us, high-fived us, swapped stories and pics, and then rode back into town with us. He even wore his Mike Sweeney Phillies shirt because he knew we were Royals fans.
That is awesome. What a guy! Dave hung out with us as we ate macaroni and tuna at the Cascade Falls Park. Dave taught us that Cascade Falls Park was actually the largest manmade falls in the country! They only opened at night, so we were unable to see the light and water show, but still cool to know.
After walking around the park and receiving a bit of a verbal tour of Jackson, MI, Dave said his goodbyes via high-fives and took off on his bike. Thanks Dave!
For our place to stay that night, we had to throw a curveball. Adam has some pretty bad allergies via mold, pollen, etc in the air. The midwest is not kind to those with allergies. Ever since Chicago, Karen’s mother had gone so far to call it “Sinus Valley.” Yikes. Well it rung true as Adam’s histamines were flaring up and providing all sorts of sneezing and sniffling on his rides across Michigan. After long rides and the body being tired of trying to fight the allergies, sleeping on the ground and sucking up all of the pollen floating around in a tent all night, sounded like it could escalate the problem. We knew that we had some Best Western hotel stays in our back pocket that had been donated to the B4B team, so we looked up the nearest hotel in Lansing, MI. 30 miles directly north of Jackson. With the distance being roughly the same from Jackson to Detroit, and Lansing to Detroit, we weren’t missing any of our mileage into the city. We packed up our bikes and drove up to Lansing, the capital!, for a bed’s stay in the home of the Spartan.
At least it led our ride the next day through Michigan State University’s campus! They are installing a new video board at the football stadium, which is always big news for a college. Go State!
What was cool about this ride was a part of the ride that wasn’t even riding. Chase was going to call into the ESPN studios to talk with Mark Simon and do an interview with Baseball Today about the B4B journey and advanced baseball stats. Two of Chase’s favorites! Give it a listen here: Baseball Today with Chase of Biking for Baseball Nice job Chase and Mark Simon for having the B4B team on the show!
Being on an ESPN broadcast can strike up some nerves. That’s big time! That morning, Chase hadn’t been able to put down the necessary breakfast to take on a big ride on account of his nerves in anticipation of the interview. We need to eat BIG breakfasts. It is very important that we start our morning’s off right before a ride. The ride into Detroit was the first example of us not being able to eat a good breakfast before a ride, and it showed. Chase did not at all feel well, especially on the last 15 miles into Detroit, which isn’t the best of bike roads. Little to no shoulders and fast-moving cars is always a scare for us.
To add to the pain, Chase had a fall that put a considerable-sized gash into his lower leg that bled till it ruined his sock.
The cut is still working on healing as it appears deeper than it first appeared. Chase is tough though and he’s fighting through it. No stitches have been needed and he’s been diligent about taking care of it. But definitely send some positive thoughts Chase’s way so that the cut does heal well!
But, back to the good news, we made it to Detroit! We were staying with the Ybarra’s in Harrison Township, just north of the city center. The Ybarra’s were friends of Dave Alford’s, who is Chase’s friend and was our host in Chicago. They were also very excited to see the B4B team roll into town and we were equally as excited to have such wonderful hosts for Detroit!