Bikes, Winter, Puppies

You have to scramble for bike rides now. But on New Years day the Cycling Saddlemen sponsor the First Dozen bike ride in Dearborn. Twelve miles, all in Dearborn. One municipality, one police department, one road commission for snow removal. I admit I don't preregister, but I've ridden it most every year. This year they will have homemade soup made by a volunteer at the end. I'm starting to check the 10 day weather forecasts.

In my last post I said that I was getting used to the winter cold. I was wrong: it got down to 18 degrees on Friday. My hands got so cold that I could barely turn the key in my front door lock. I've got a ways to go. On the brighter side, we have a puppy who has never seen snow and we were worried about her reaction. She is pretty high energy and if she couldn't go outside during the winter, we were in trouble. We found out she loves snow and that cold doesn't seem to bother her. Now if I could just take after her.

I was looking at the LMB website. They've revised and updated it. While I was there, I went to their Routes and Maps page. Click Route 1. It's a route across Michigan along the very southern part of the state. You can download a map and commentary on the route for free. If you check out the route, they go through a lot of cities that we've gone thru or had as sites during our southern routes: New Buffalo, Dowagiac, Colon, Constantine, Sturgis, Three Rivers, Coldwater, Hillsdale, Adrian, Hudson, Tecumseh, and Luna Pier. There is a lot of good information on self contained touring and the history of the area. The website itself has a slideshow of 75 photos that the people who created the map took while they were riding the route. They also agree that Monroe County has the worst roads in the state. Check it out.