BTT 9/3/11

Jamal, AndyE, AndyS, Will, Lee, and myself met at Hines and made our way to pick up Dearborn Don and Dan in Dearborn. We all made our way to the Fort via Michigan Ave and Livernois.

Jamal and I talked about knocking out at century this day. So I recommended we keep the wheels turning while the rest of the group came together in the parking lot. We made our way to Detroit and discovered the Detroit Jazz Festival was taking place this weekend. More exciting to me, a tent was there advertising fresh smoothies. I told Jamal we would have to come back for one later.

And so we made our way back to the group riding the normal route backwards. We found the rest of the riders but continued on riding to a bakery to get Jamal a breakfast burrito.

We then rode a big chuck of the ride solo and ran across the back-to-school ride group a couple of times. After the cemetery we deceided Eastern Market sounded like a good stop for food and refreshments. We first indulged in a watermelon after the lady loaned us her knife. That was some damn good watermelon, it was a hot one and I was thirsty. A couple of bananas eaten there, a couple more for the road. And off we went to stop by the Brewster Projects to use their restrooms. The place is 5-star all the way.

From here we thought we would make our way to the Jazz Fest and get us a smoothy. No dice, they were still closed. We decided riding up to Grosse Pointe and checking out Lakeshore Drive would make for some good bonus miles. It was a great ride up there with stunning views of the lake and gorgeous homes. We felt strong riding up there. Then we turned around. WTF - that is a strong headwind. And from this point forward a companion until I got home. We finally made our way back to Jazz Fest and were ready for our well-deserved smoothies. As we pulled up, still closed but they were walking up. Luckily they had another tent already up and open in Hart Plaza. Jamal and I got over there quickly and enjoyed a smoothie. But due to the high temps and the crazy amount of ice added, we both suffered some serious brain freeze. Still it was a good treat.

We then made our way home. I felt pretty good until the last 8 or so miles. We were on Paul Street in Detroit by a house with a bunch of lawn decorations out front. The wheels came flying off for me physically. The wind, the heat, did I mention the wind finally added up and took their toll on me. I limped home and finished with 90 miles on the day. Jamal should have ended up well north of 100 miles. Fun day in the saddle. Ride your bike up Lakeshore Drive sometime if you never have, the views do not disappoint.

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Garmin GPS Data