kingston 

Starting a thread for the Mac & Cheese.

The pre-ride starts Saturday so a few of the Great Lakes Randonneurs (GLR) volunteers are meeting in Manitowoc tomorrow morning to take the SS Badger to Luddington where we'll meet up with a few of the Detroit Randonneurs (DR) volunteers for our Saturday morning depart.

I'll try to post a few updates and photos from my phone along the way.

GadgetGirlIL

This forum needs a LIKE button!!! Have a great ride!

unterhausen

good luck. I like the fact you are doing the ferry too.

kingston 

We finished the mac & cheese pre-ride last night. Seven riders stayed together as a group for almost the entire ride which was awesome. You really get to know people riding together for 4 days over 1200k.

The four-hour ferry ride over to Ludington was a great way to start to get to know some of the other riders. We stopped for ice cream on the way over to the hotel for the pre-ride meeting and got ready for bed. The ferry gets in at 7 and we didn’t get to the hotel until 8 by the time we got off the ferry and walked over so be sure to budget some time for that if you’re doing the ride.

The first day is the hardest and longest with quite a bit of climbing, some pretty bad roads for the last 50 miles, and some extra logistics getting the bikes over the Mackinac bridge to St. Ignace, which will be easier for the riders on the real ride. We got to sleep around 4:30 and were back on the bikes at 8:00 for day 2, so a pretty short night of sleep and a fairly late start for day 2.

The second day was the most eventful with a trip up to Whitefish Point which has an interesting maritime museum, then down to Tahquamenon Falls where we stopped for a short hike to look at the upper falls. It was nice to get off the bikes and stretch our legs for a bit. From there, the trip into Manistique had two sections of gravel that were really bad. One had just been covered with sand and was un-rideable. One of the riders had a low-speed crash, and we had to walk our bikes for about a mile. The second was about 6 miles of road that had just been dug up and covered with a thick layer of crushed stone gravel that took us over an hour to get through. We will route around both of those sections for the real ride. We got into Manistique a little after midnight and were back on the bikes at 8:00 so a pretty good night’s sleep.

The third day was a pretty uneventful ride down to Green bay with a lunch stop at a real Northwoods saloon that was fantastic. There was another section of gravel that was rideable but pretty long, so we decided to take it out for the real ride and route people on a busy road which everyone agreed was better than the gravel. We got in a little before midnight and were back on the bikes at 7 so another pretty good night’s sleep.

The last day was really the best. We had strong headwinds from Green Bay north to Sturgeon Bay, but the team worked well together, and we made decent time getting up there. The lunch stop was at a little place called Renards Cheese that the GLR RBA always raves about. She wasn’t kidding. The food was outstanding. Heading south from Sturgeon Bay to Manitowoc we had a strong tailwind for the last 50 miles. Everyone in the group was riding well and we made great time into the finish where we came in around 7 PM. After a quick shower, the group met for dinner at a nice little restaurant in downtown Manitowoc . Those who had ridden 1200k’s before agreed that this was a pretty special ride that was going to be hard to beat for us first-timers.

rhm

Thanks for that report!

Day 1, did you start at 5:00 AM, pretty much on time? How much time went by between when you arrived at the Mackinaw City controle, and when you got to your hotel room?

What kind of tires were people riding?

The bad roads you mention... you mean a bad surface? Or was traffic an issue?

himespau 

Man that sounds like an awesome ride through many places from my youth that I miss so much.

kingston 

We started right on time at 5 AM. I expect the real ride will also start right on time.

Over an hour, but it should be much better on the real ride. There is a restaurant staying open all night for us in Mackinaw City so the riders will hand off their bikes to a volunteer then go into the restaurant to eat. The volunteers will take the bikes over to St. Ignace in a big trailer and we have a big passenger van to ferry people over the bridge when they are done eating so you will only waste 10-15 minutes in the car to drive across the bridge and the bikes will be waiting for you at the hotel in St. Ignace.

Everyone had 700c wheels. From memory I would say 5 riders were on ordinary 25c tires michelin, conti, kenda, normal stuff like that. One rider on 38c Schwalbe Almotion, another on wide 35 or 38c tires (don't recall what kind), and I had 32c compass. Since we are taking out nearly all of the gravel sections, wide tires won't be necessary.

The bad roads at the end of day 1 were full of big cracks and potholes, during the day it might not have been as bad but at night after 200 miles it was tough to see well enough to avoid them. Especially behind other riders, the tail-lights made it hard to see anything until you hit it, so we had to slow down quite a bit. There are a few sections on the ride that have to be on busy roads, but those all have wide shoulders. There are no sections where you will have to ride in the lane with heavy traffic. Michele and Jeremy did a fantastic job with the route.

rhm

Thanks!

Too bad about the gravel sections, I was looking forward to that. Even without them, I'm thinking I'll have the fattest tires on the ride.

kingston 

I'll be the control captain in Manistique and a volunteer for the second half of the ride so please be sure to introduce yourself. There are some photos and updates on the facebook group if you want to check those out too.

GadgetGirlIL

I'm in charge of breakfast on Days 2 through 4 (St. Ignace, Manistique, and Green Bay) so please help me put a face to your screen names! My real name is Regina. I'm also assisting with Day 1 breakfast. I'm driving to Ludington on Wednesday afternoon.

unterhausen

I hope this is not "Steve is going to rip my legs off" climbing, or the "make it stop" kind of climbing we had for the 200k last weekend in Lancaster County PA.

This is a great thread, thanks for the report. My name is Eric

kingston 

The hills will be much longer but there aren't as many of them, and it's the first day so your legs won't hurt that bad yet.

unterhausen

Elevation profiles are so hard to read on a 1200k route. Looks like it has twice the climbing that the 200k had spread over 6 times the distance. That's my kind of ratio. There are a number of 400-500 foot climbs. Which means it's definitely "Steve is going to rip my legs off" sort of climbing. While he's hate-dropping me.

rhm

Well, since Regina asks for names, and faces, and I know where some of them have already been published online, I will take it upon myself to share the following photos by Bill Beck, taken on the BRB 1200k earlier this year (https://flic.kr/s/aHsmiRuFtz)

My name is Rudi, and this is me:


This is Eric:


And here's our friend Steve, whom Eric mentioned:



There are a lot of photos of Steve there, and he is always smiling, presumably thinking of ripping people's legs off.

unterhausen

Kingston, you just wore cycling clothing on the ferry ride to the start? Limited drop bag space has me a little confused about the logistics. I think my MTB shoes will be fine, not sure I want to bother with flip flops.

kingston 

I wore a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops on the boat and carried my bike shoes, helmet, rain jacket etc. in a little packable tote. The jacket was nice to have on the boat since it got a little chilly on deck once we got out in the lake. My day 0 clothes and the tote easily fit in my day 1 & 2 drop sack once I took out the day 1 bike kit. You could also carry your extra stuff in a plastic grocery bag and throw it away at the hotel in Ludington. It wouldn't be a bad idea to carry the flip-flops on the bike on day 2 because there could be a bit of walking around at Whitefish Point and Tahquamenon Falls if you want to check those out, which I recommend. Then you will also have your flip-flops in your day 3 & 4 drop sack, so you have something to walk around in other than your MTB shoes while you are at the hotel in Manistique and Green Bay. I also had two Ziploc bags with toiletry items and two Ziploc bags with charging stuff so I could put one in each drop sack. The drop sacks aren’t huge, but they’re enough for 2 bike shorts, jerseys, socks, baselayers, gloves, toiletries, charging stuff, flip-flops, a little food, and something to sleep in. A few of the pre-riders brought more stuff than they could fit in the drop sacks, which wasn't a huge deal for them since we had the same support crew for the whole ride, but there will be zero tolerance for extra bags on the real ride, so make sure you don't pack too much stuff. I was able to make it work with the separate drop sacks same as you will have on the real ride.

Here’s a picture of me with Michele, the GLR RBA on the SS Badger pulling out of Manitowoc. Michele is awesome and has done an incredible amount of work to make this ride possible. We can't thank her enough.

Kingston and Michele on the SS Badger

GadgetGirlIL

Thanks, guys, for sharing the pictures!

Since I won't be in my cycling gear in my role as a volunteer, here's a picture of me. This is not my cat, just a very friendly kitty at the B&B where we stayed for the KOMA 200K back in February. We do share our house with two shelter kitties who are my avatar on FB.

unterhausen

I am a little slow, I finally figured out there will be extra room in drop bag #1 for the clothes we wear on the ferry after we take out Day 1's clothing. I will probably wear my bike shoes the whole time, MTB shoes for the win.

rhm

All done!

53 riders started, 49 finished. Not a bad record at all!

Writing this on Tuesday evening, over 48 hours after the finish, I feel fine physically, but I have not found the mental energy to write anything. Maybe tomorrow!

Alphamoose

That was certainly a well run event. I haven't had the energy to come up with a ride report either, though others have certainly come up with some nice ones. Lots of you New Jersey folks, only three of us from CA. Certainly was worth the trip!

unterhausen

The organization was superb, there were lots of moving parts and everything worked really well. If I was a volunteer that rode the route and then stayed up while everyone else rode the route I would still be sleeping, so I appreciate all of that effort.

Kudos to iTrod for his quick action after Michelle got stung by a wasp before the start.

rhm

The Mac and Cheese 1200k (GLMC)

Okay, two weeks after the event finished, here's what I remember. I'm posting this Sunday afternoon, September 16. I will add photos as soon as I can; so if you read this and don't see photos, please come back later! --rhm
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I suspect the inspiration for this ride was the simple fact that there's a steamer (and yes, really, it's a steamer) operating as a car ferry across the middle of Lake Michigan. This makes a loop around half of that lake a logistical possibility. Not exactly easy, but possible.


The ferry runs between the small city of Manitowoc in Wisconsin and the even smaller city of Ludington in Michigan. I can't recall whether I'd ever heard of either place before learning of the ferry. I did know about the ferry before this ride came up, though, and had been planning to use it on a cross country tour at some point. So far that tour has remained in the 'pipe dream' stage, which is what happens to most of my touring plans. So when I heard about the GLMC it took me no time at all to decide I wanted to do it.


The ride was announced last fall, I'm not sure when, with registration to open on a set date in January. When registration opened, I was ready, sitting at my computer. I had my registration finished in a few minutes. By the next day, registration was full, though there was a waiting list.


Though those who registered were required to pre-pay the full cost, which was not cheap, anyone who had not done a 1200k the previous year would still need to complete a full SR series in 2018 to qualify for the ride. Those who failed to qualify, or who decided to cancel for any other reason, would receive a partial refund. I was adamant that I would qualify.


For a while I was in doubt about that; in May I had a catastrophic mechanical failure on our 600k and didn't finish.This left me a bit uncertain... nonetheless I was able to do the BRB 1200 at the end of May, so that settled that. Whew!


I made some attempt to find other riders from my area who might be interested in renting a van and carpooling to the start. Ludington is a drive of at least 14 hours from my home, which is not exactly my idea of fun, but is faster than flying; and the bike wouldn't need to be shipped separately. Nonethless it proved that only one local rider Jeff (@jlippinbike) was interested in driving, Oh, well! We took his car. Jeff picked me up at my house at 1:30 AM on Wednesday, the day before the start; and we were in Ludington by 5 PM that afternoon.


This is the first ride I've ever seen where registration fee included the cost of five hotel rooms –one before the ride, three on the ride itself, and one the night after the ride. Pretty civilized! I checked into my room, put my bags and stuff on my bike, got it inspected, went to dinner with Jonathan (@gazer) whom I'd met on the LOL ride the month before. Being dead tired from not having slept much the night before, and a tiring drive, I slept pretty well that night.


Around 3 AM they (@gadgetgirlil, that is) started serving coffee on the lawn outside the motel. In fact this was directly in front of my room. That was a little earlier than I would have chosen, but whatever, once I was awake I had plenty of time to eat, fill my hydration pack with ice, turn in my room key, place my drop sacks (two of them) in the correct piles, have the RBA stamp my brevet card... and even so, there was a fair amount of waiting around before the official start of the ride, 5:00 AM. A little before then, while fifty groggy but excited randonneurs were standing around on the motel lawn, the sprinkler system turned itself on, and people started scrambling to get to dry ground, namely the motel parking lot. I was not among the first to figure this out, and by the time I had got with the program, the parking lot was crowded; so I moved out to the street. That was actually a pretty good thing, because at 5 AM sharp we were given the go-ahead, and I was the first one out of the lot.


I commute by bike every work day, riding five miles to catch a train, and I tend to run a little late. So when I get on the bike, my instinct is to go full speed right away. So though I had no intention of leading the pack the whole way, it was a mile or so before anyone passed me, It was dark, and cold, but the weather was clear. By the first controle, a dozen or more riders had passed me. By this time I was uncomfortably cold, but I didn't bother to put on more clothes (I had them, just didn't bother putting them on).


All through the first day I joined a variety of groups of riders, stayed with some for a little while, stayed with others for longer. Stopped to take an occasional photo. This part of Michigan is very pretty in general, with occasional breathtaking views of the lake, its bays and estuaries, hills in the distance, etc. I don't remember stopping for lunch that day, but I must have. I didn't go hungry, that's for sure. By the end of the day I had settled into a group including Jeff and Jonathan among others, one of them named Gary. We got to the final controle of the day at about 10 PM.

First day photos...


Yes, those are sunflowers.


This final controle, in Mackinaw City, must have been a logistical nightmare for the organizers. There is a long and very narrow bridge from Mackinaw City (on the lower peninsula) to St Ignace, on the UP (that's what they call Michigan's upper peninsula). Bicycles are not allowed on the bridge. So our controle was at a small snack bar in a mall; we turned our bikes over to GLMC volunteers, and went to dinner (served by more GLMC volunteers). After eating, we were filled into passenger vans and driven to a motel in St Ignace, where we would be reunited with our bikes at some point in the future. I can't say I enjoyed this very much; it was too hectic to relax, and I wanted to relax. I would have liked to eat more, but when a van was filling with people, it was hard to resist the temptation to join them. Jeff had taken an earlier van. Jonathan and I arrived at the hotel the same time, so were assigned the same room.


The next day was our tour of the UP. Jeff had left an hour or two before we got up. We (Jonathan, Gary, and I) battled a stiff headwind on a series of long straight roads through scruffy pine forests with gradual low climbs and descents. In fact it strongly reminded me of the pinelands of both New Jersey and Long Island. It's a pretty empty landscape, with little in the way of services, so when we got to a general store where we could buy food, there were a lot of cyclists there. The freshest looking thing I could buy, other than coffee, was a box of a dozen donuts, far more than I intended to eat; so I put it out on the table and told everyone, help yourself, it's fifty cents per donut! That went over well; all the donuts got eaten and I came out a little ahead financially (though I would have gladly eaten more donuts myself ).


Second breakfast at another little town later that morning; while we were in the cafe, it started raining. The rain stopped before we got to the lunch stop, at the lighthouse station at Whitefish Point on Lake Superior. There's a maritime museum there, and a number of other displays. Bagged lunch was served by more GLMC volunteers in an old boathouse. It was unusual to see this many riders in one place!




Leaving there, I found our little team had been absorbed into a group of over a dozen riders, a cheerful and rather fast group who were riding in a rather erratic manner. The group scared me. I don't think there was anything really dangerous about the way they were riding, but I didn't want to be a part of it. I passed them all and took off by myself, thinking at least a couple likeminded riders would follow me. I was wrong. But I stayed ahead of them for a few miles, long enough for them to settle down into a more organized group, after which I rode with them for many miles.


The next stop was Taquamenon Falls, which is sort of a half-scale version of Niagara Falls. Much smaller than Niagara Falls, that is, but still pretty huge. It's a tourist attraction, complete with a brewery and patio for drinking beer, with live music (guy with a guitar). I had a beer, and I wasn't the only one. We got on the road again, I think a somewhat smaller group now.


As we moved south and west, the area got into an area with more people, more services, and more roads. For many miles it seemed like the road we were on was the only option. It wasn't a terrible road, but a quieter one would have been nice. So, later in the afternoon there were more and more options, and this resulted in a few really lovely roads. Nonetheless, there was a busy section of road that could not be avoided due to construction, and the organizers considered it so dangerous that a volunteer was posted to make sure we were all wearing our safety gear –reflective vests and ankle bands-- even though it was bright daylight. For safety's sake I thought it best to ride it alone if possible, and I took off as soon as the volunteer had checked me out. It was just two miles, and I rode it as fast as I could. One other rider passed me on the way; then we waited for the rest. Coming into an area of rolling hills (something to do with the Niagara Escarpment, I think) the group spread out a bit, some riders disappearing in front of me, others behind me. I found myself riding with Gary and Jonathan again. We turned onto a road called “Ten Curves Road” that appeared to go straight as an arrow to the horizon, and we joked about that. Several miles later, however, it curved to the left; so we decided to count the curves, which we did loudly. At curve number seven we caught up with another rider, Phillip, who joined us from then on. The curves in the road proved to be tied to meanders in the Manistique River, just to the side of the road, and there were indeed ten of them... until later, when there were more.



So Philip, Gary, Jonathan, and I now rode the rest of the way into the next overnight, Manistique, as a team. It got dark a couple hours before we got there. I kept an eye on the horizon behind us, hoping for a hint of aurora borealis (Michigan's UP is the closest you can get to the magnetic north pole in lower 48 states), but I was disappointed. We got to Manistique (controle captain: @kingston) around 10 PM again.


Day 3, the same group of four of us left together and rode together for many hours. This included a long section of US Route 2 through the Hiawatha National Forest, miles and miles of pine forest and swampland, a perfectly straight road with a wide shoulder. Not much traffic, but the little there was went by very fast. Dead porcupines flattened out on the edge of the road, occasionally you'd see a little red ground squirrel –like a chipmunk, but red. At the first opportunity, three or four hours after leaving the overnight, we got to a diner where we had breakfast. Other riders caught up with us, but we left before they. A couple hours later we stopped for ice cream, much needed. It was hot! Leaving the ice cream place, we saw a group of ten or so GLMC riders approching, and we ended up riding with them for a little while. I thought we were forming up a paceline of some kind, and I followed two of them who took off from the front before I realized that the rest of my team was not keeping up. So I slacked off and let them go. I was watching the first of them go into a turn, which he took fast, leaning into it confidently, and I was marvelling at his daring when he wiped out, went spinning and sliding across the gravel. Then I watched the second of them go into the same turn, hardly more cautiously, and I was amazed he wasn't on the brakes, having seen his buddy crash; and sure enough, he crashed too. Doh! I came to a stop well before the turn. Within a minute all the riders were there, offering help, asking if they'd hit their heads. Luckyly no one was injured beyond road rash, and of course both were pretty annoyed by the unexpected gravel. They rode a little more cautiously for a while after that, but confidence returned before long. Both of them got to the lunch stop, which was the next controle, well before we; they had survived their ordeal.

The lunch stop was a saloon where volunteers served us bag lunches with pre-made sandwiches, chips, etc. Gary bought me a beer, much appreciated. Phillip, Gary, Jonathan and I all left the lunch stop together, but we had got to a point where our respective speeds no longer seemed to match up. We had been rotating, taking half mile pulls into the wind, then dropping back for the next guy to pull for a half mile, all morning; but now Jonathan was pulling all the time and the others were falling behind. I decided to follow, and quickly caught up.


Going through a little town we passed a cyclist on an old steel bike, not a randonneur, though he was moving at a good speed. He passed us around dusk when we stopped for a controle. Some time later, now in complete darkness, we kept seeing a strange light moving ahead of us, too small and in the wrong place to be a cyclist, but there it was again. We caught up; it proved to be the guy on the old bike, hugging the left side of the road. He had NO lights, just a reflective logo on the back of his backpack. I asked him where he was headed. Green Bay! Yeah, that's where we were headed too, so I suggested if he'd like to ride in the pool of light our headlights were making, and he replied that his tail light had stopped working. So I gave him my spare tail light, and he rode in the pool of light as I suggested for a mile or two. But then he just took off, gradually disappearing ahead of us, so I got to see exactly how good that taillight was. Pretty good! I could still see it when he was a half mile away. This was a cheap Chinese tail light I got on Ebay for $3 or so, so no great loss.


An hour later, as we navigated the city streets of Green Bay about to find our hotel, we saw the same guy, now going the other way. I did not ask for my taillight back.

Dinner was provided to us at the hotel, by volunteers. I cannot remember anything about it, so it must have been prettygood!


Jonathan and I got out of Green Bay around dawn, I think, on Sunday. Michele, the RBA, took my photo just as I was leaving. From there the route followed the Fox River south for a few miles, after which we turned east for some climbing. Sunday's ride was intionally scenic; a direct route from there to Manitowoc would have left us far short of 1200 km, so we zigzagged north and east to Sturgeon Bay, over a lot of rolling hills and sometimes deep valleys. This is the Niagara Escarpment again, not that we actually saw the escarpment. I was on the lookout for sandhill cranes, and saw a few on three separate occasions; not many, but enough to know what I was looking at.


Lunch at Renard's Cheese. There was a table full of GLMC riders just finishing their lunch when we got there, so I took their lunch recommendations and got the cheese and potato soup as well as the lunch special sandwich and a beer. The sandwich came with a soda (I got root beer). But a bowl of soup and half of the sandwich later, I was thinking, what do I do with all this? Just then Gary and several others arrived; I flagged Gary down and offered him the untouched half of my sandwich and my unopened root beer, which he graciously took off my hands. Whew! Jonathan and I headed on our way.


From Sturgeon Bay to Manitowoc it was headwinds the whole way. And often quite hot. Only when we got right down to the lake's edge did it cool off; there was a thick fog rolling in from the lake that dissapated almost immediately on touching land, making for radical temperature swings. Wisconsin is a pretty place! And it was a nice ride, through little towns etc, some with little harbors and marinas, but still that stiff headwind.


Toward the end of the day our route took us on a private road, a large undeveloped area belonging to a nuclear power generating plant. We had been given special permission to ride this route, but we had strict instructions to not stop for any reason, not take a 'nature break' or anything, for 4.8 miles beginning at a certain point described on the cue sheet. Meanwhile the weather was deteriorating fast, and it looked like it might start to rain at some point. In that heat and humidity, we did not want to don our rain gear unnecessarily, but once we were on the private road, we couldn't stop for that purpose. So we preemptively stopped and put on the gear. And then it started to rain. Good timing! But as the rain got heavier and heavier, we kept passing residential houses, and we thought, well, this isn't a private road. We passed house where two young men were sitting on lawn chairs in the open garage, with a couple grills smoking on the lawn, a young boy playing loudly the way they do; so we stopped and asked if we could shelter in their garage for a little while. Sure! They said. That was nice.


Someone with dry fingers used his smart phone to check on the weather forecast, and it seemed the rainstorm was too big to wait for it to stop, but rain had already slacked off quite a bit. So we figured oh, why not... and off we went again. After several more miles of light drizzle we got to the private road and realized the dire warnings about where we mustn't stop, had been cut and pasted into the cue sheet at the wrong spot. Doh! We were through the nuclear plant before we knew it. And then the rain more or less stopped. The last few miles were a bike path by the side of Lake Michigan, with a few dog walkers and joggers but no car traffic. We reached Manitowoc just about at dusk; I don't even remember if I'd put on my reflective gear yet.



Celebration, medals, photos, beer, food... a much needed shower, a short nap, and at midnight we headed over to the ferry. Yet another GLMC volunteer drove to the ferry with our drop sacks, which were just a little more than anyone wanted to carry on the bike, though it was less than a mile. I was asleep in a tiny stateroom on the Badger long before she sailed.


We reached Ludington just as it was getting light. Driving home was an ordeal. Jeff and I repeatedly traded off on driving, somehow missing a turn somewhere... weather was poor, traffic was heavy, and we were in no mood to take mad risks. I got home at about midnight.

Spoonrobot 

Thanks for writing that up - sounds like quite the ride! Look forward to seeing your photos.

GadgetGirlIL

I really appreciate you sharing your writeup! It is nice to hear the riders' side of the event. When I was driving between the overnights, I tried to stay off the roads you were using so as to not contribute more to any traffic you were experiencing.

rhm

And, likewise, thanks for reading it!

Please check back now and then; I am going to edit my report again and (probably) again and again, as I think of more details I missed!

An important aspect of the ride, and one I have definitely not done justice to, is the armies of volunteers that were marshalled for this event. Armies, the plural, because there was an army of Michigan people (Ludington and Mackinaw City) and army of Illinois and/or Wisconsin people (Manistique, Green Bay and Manitowoc). Manistique is in Michigan, but I guess more easily accessible from the west/south than from the rest of Michigan. I wish I'd had the wherewithal to remember all the volunteers, but (I'm sorry!) there's no way. I tried to remember to ask their names and thank them, but my mind was not up to the task. I remember Regina, who ran breakfast every day, and Kingston, controle captain at Manistique and volunteer at Green Bay and Manitowoc; but I already kinda knew them from this forum. There were many, many others, including even the RBA's mother (yes, really!). I am grateful! But honestly I wonder that so many people wanted to staff the ride, rather than ride the ride?

No, oddly, I can't recall meeting any riders from the area. For contrast, on the BRB 1200 with DC Randonneurs this spring, I had the good fortune to ride with several locals, including even a young woman who had helped organize and plan that ride.* I'm pretty familiar with that region myself, having grown up in DC, but even so, her familiarity with the area (not to mention intimate knowledge of the route, &c) was invaluable to me. I would have loved to have similar interaction with Michigan and/or 'Sconsin randonneurs on the bike, rather than the controls, but it seemed they had all volunteered for the ride. I really do appreciate that... but were such a thing up to me, I would have got more of them to join the riders who came from other regions. I would have enjoyed riding with @kingston, @GadgetGirlIL and the rest.


*See our joint write-up in the fall 2018 RUSA magazine.