Never Mind

Ludington to Manistee was a good ride.  We left early and had a nice lunch in downtown Manistee.  There, we bumped into a couple of other riders that just graduated from college.  They had left Ohio headed for the West coast (eventually) as they visited different organic farms.  They picked up another guy who was riding part of their leg and were having an awesome ride together.  Wishing them safe travels, we headed North. 

Never mind what we said about hills.  If anyone has ever driven M22 and passed from Arcadia to Frankfort, then you know the scenic lookout area.  Even still, riding in a car does NOT do it justice.  After our bodies were completely spent (and we do mean completely) from 50 miles of hills, we came to the steepest and meanest 3/4 of a mile we have ever seen.  The grade was insane and was 1/2 mile just to the lookout area.  We had no choice though.  We were in a hole and the only way out was up.  It took several stops to climb and we quite literally doubted we could do it.  One peddle at a time, 20 feet at a time in some cases, we made it.  We were so wiped I completely forgot to take a picture.  Add to it, we still had 10+ miles to go before we reached Frankfort.  Now, even the flats were painful. 

We are now in Frankfort and took a day off to rest.  Truly tired.  However, we are enjoying the local restaurants and ice cream and have a nice hotel on the lake.  This is a beautiful lakefront town and the people are great.

We have decided to slow things down a bit since these days are consuming the beauty of the ride.  We have yet to camp and we may not.  LOL.  We are far from avid riders and after these rides and getting done at nearly 8pm at night we want a hot shower, food and sleep.   Charlie rides to swim and his rewards for his amazing effort need to take place or he will certainly burnout. We always remind ourselves that its OK to change the route or plans.  After all, life is a journey.  We can attempt to plan it it, but its going to happen by design regardless.

We are having great family time with the slow down mindset now.  As I said in the beginning, its hard to slow down.  We have been programmed to go go go.  Slowing down is taking effort.  Today we ate, swam and walked the pier.  Perfect recovery.