Finally ridin' the ridiculous winds..at least for the most part.

      There was an unusual confluence of events last week.  I had a "Warmshowers" guest stop by Wednesday on his trip from Toronto to California.  After an evening of swapping stories and helping him plan his route, he took off first thing in the morning.

         The weather looked promising although unseasonably cool. I was planning to ride down to the lake shore for the weekend.  We both joked about the possibility of our paths crossing since he was taking a slow northern route around South Haven and down, while I was going to roll into Warren Dunes south of St. Joe.  Odds were slim, even though he was taking it easy on an injured leg, 

I assumed he'd be south of me by Saturday.

     I needed to get the Hunq out for some exercise.  So I took an extra day off and advantage of the barren fields of the Michigan spring time.  I was pedaling my south west last weekend and Friday the winds were notheasterly.   Yeehah, I was sailing along on Friday after noon for a luxurious 30 mile ride to the Russ State Forest for the night.  Motivating 70 pounds will never get you over WOOHOO speed, even down wind, but "Yeehah" is more fun than against it.

    Satuday was a little bit different.  The wind had shifted. It came from the NNW and was very gusty and cold.  I was pedaling predominately south so it helped until I had a 5 mile segment due west and the wind took it's toll.  While I was at Nikki's Diner in Berrien Springs I pondered a couple of things, the remaining 10-15 miles to the Lakeshore would be right dead into the west wind and the lakeshore would likely be 15-20 degrees colder that night.  Then, Scott pedaled past!  I flagged him down and invited him in to have a laugh over running into each other.  He was checking out the campground nearby and talking himself out of the trip to the lake.  

     Not much of a story there, I knew the campground and we made up each other's mind to share a campsite for the night.  It was a better choice, drinks, trading stories around a campfire and not freezing all night was a good option.  It was a good time all around although we didn't have the energy left to party with 6 guys nearby who were playing hookie from their families for the weekend. The wind died down, it wasn't nearly as cold and I got a lot better rest than Friday night.
     Sunday was a moving day.  Scott headed off towards Michigan City.  I wanted one long day behind me and it added up to around 65 miles. The gusty 20 mph winds pushed me over the country side.  There were a  few torturous miles I pushed right against the wall of wind in my granny gear, barely beating walking speed.   The other 55 or so miles were down wind and the day made for a very pleasant  metric century, first of the year.