86: a powerpoint should suffice, old bag of nails, grindhrs, murals, pigs fly, dickens' new line of work, state #11, pneumatic post, michigan highway, field of bliss, drag and drive, sprinkling, green light house, home cooked gizzards, do not cross - My Midlife Crisis - CycleBlaze
86: a powerpoint should suffice, old bag of nails, grindhrs, murals, pigs fly, dickens' new line of work, state #11, pneumatic post, michigan highway, field of bliss, drag and drive, sprinkling, green light house, home cooked gizzards, do not cross
Oregon to Adrian
While eating breakfast, Bryan came over and asked where I'm heading. Because my bike was loaded and sitting in the lobby, and I was wearing biking shorts and a jersey, it wasn't too hard to determine whose it was.
As are a few people I've met, he's riding for a cause. He's a civilian now, but was in the army, and told me how there wasn't any buffer between the time they're in combat and the time they're back in the U.S. One minute people are shooting at him, and the next minute he's in a grocery store deciding which cereal to buy. Well, I say "no buffer," but that 20-minute PowerPoint should suffice.
That's the reason he's riding to raise awareness about veteran suicide. Having worked with veterans, we both understood the depth of the issue: Seventeen to twenty veterans commit suicide every day.
The timing of meeting him was fortuitous. Because he's planning on riding the North Coast Inland Trail, I was able to let him know about the part that's nonexistent. Also, although he told me he rides 50-70 miles a day, I think he was just being nice because I had just told him about my mileage. He had a 150-mile day.
I hope I like Michigan, because I'm going to be in it for about the next 1,200 miles. There was no border sign for Ohio, either when I entered or here, so Nohio.
I stopped at the Subway for lunch and chatted with Adam for a few minutes. His hobby is “Drag and Drive,” something I’d never heard of before. Apparently, it’s 5 races in 5 days, and you drive from race to race (you don't race to get to the races, it's just a lot of driving). He just completed 1400 miles in order to be the “copilot” in a car that goes 165 mph. His real love, though, is snowmobiling, and typically flies across the lake at speeds of 80-90 mph. I believe it. I drove a snowmobile once, in Minnesota, and after skimming across the frozen ice for about 30 seconds I looked down to find I was traveling 90 mph. It was so smooth, and because I was out in the open, not passing anything, I had absolutely no idea of my speed. I throttled back and kept it at a safer speed after that.
