The ride to Huntington in mid-October 2004 was the last of my bicycle tours for 2004. (The route is shown in the red oval on the map below.)

The first was a June vacation to Drummond Island. On that one I rode 610 miles in 6 days of riding. But it wasn’t six consecutive days of riding. It was an eleven day vacation. On some of those days we did things that didn’t have anything to do with my bicycle.

Day one was a 114 mile ride to Central Michigan University at Midland, where we attended a two-day history/mapping conference called, “Mapping in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region.”

It was wet and drizzly when I left home. I didn’t get my camera out until I was 20 miles from home, where I took the above photo at the gas station at the intersection of MI-79 and Charlton Park Road near the Thornapple River. For history purposes, I usually like to ride south to the good farm country that was being settled at the time of the Black Hawk war. But once in a while I like to ride north, too. I often stop at that place (marked “Tractor” on the map below) when I go out for rides in this direction.

I also stopped there on my way back, ten days later. That time it was sunny and warm. I had got some gas-station junk food and was sitting outside on a bench on the grass to take a break. I was feeling a bit tired by then, but was fairly satisfied with how I was doing, having ridden 124 miles the day before. A young woman on a bicycle stopped, with the same intention. She saw me so before going inside came over and asked how far I had ridden. I checked my bicycle odometer — “About 89 miles,” I told her. “That’s not too bad,” she replied.

So I asked her how far she had gone. She was about at the 200 mile mark for the day. She and her husband had been taking part in some 24-hour event, and he had told her she could finish if she wanted to. I was impressed. If she lived in Battle Creek or Kalamazoo, she was even further from home than I was. When she went inside to get a snack, I looked at her bike more closely. It was very different from mine with its panniers and fenders. Hers was definitely a go-fast bicycle.

Just the same, it was discouraging to think someone could ride 200 miles and not look as tired as I felt. When I got home I weighed myself and my bike. Sure, she was a lot younger than I was, but it couldn’t be age that slowed me down, could it? It had to be the weight of my bicycle, I figured. (I don’t remember just what the weight was, though.)

Each year I concern myself less with distances and speed. It’s too discouraging, and besides, I enjoy stopping to take photos and just take in the countryside. But once in a while I like to see how much I can do.

This week was my first week of riding for the year 2008, and after the first commute home from work, I started pushing a little harder each day. I was glad to see that my average speed for the week got higher each day (not that it’s high enough that I care to say what it was). But I probably should credit favorable winds more than my ability to get in shape quickly. I feel ready to try a 60-mile ride tomorrow afternoon, which would give my first 100 for the year. The winds look like they might be favorable for it. I hope the weather forecast holds.