Start: 11:08 AM

Finish: 1:28 PM  

Saddle Time: 2:11

Ascent: 90 feet

Descent:  103 feet

Miles: 36

Total Miles: 2,631

Highlight: Really strong tailwind!

Lowlight: Constant threat of thunderstorms ahead.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Change of plans today. I got up at 5:00 AM so I could leave early for my 95 mile day and was ready to leave by 6:15 then I looked out the window. The clouds look really threatening and my weather app had strong thunderstorms warnings around my area but not directly over me.  I headed outside to leave but had second thoughts.  The NOAA app showed lightning strikes within a few miles of me so I decided to hold off and come up with a plan B.

I considered just taking a rest day but that would require me to change reservations for the weekend and everything was booked up.  I may have a weather window mid day but not enough time for a 95 mile ride. The town of Pontiac is located to my southeast, slightly off route, but puts me within striking distance of my reservation for tomorrow in Rensselaer (Regeneron people will find that amusing). My bike navigation app says it will be a 105 mile ride while Google claims to get me there in 81 miles.  Google’s route is very direct and only goes through one town which happens to be mid way, perfect for me to grab food and water. It the road choice turns out bad I can always reroute back to the northern tier.

I had a really strong tailwind for my easterly riding. I was in one of my big gears cruising along at 22 MPH with little effort. The last 10 miles were mostly south  but the crosswind made riding more difficult and I could see very dark clouds on the horizon. NOAA called for strong storms within the hour. I made it to my motel with visible lightning strikes just to my south but the storm never made it this far north.  In hindsight I probably could have made the whole 95 miles since the tailwind was so strong at the storm stayed just south of my route but you just never know so I’m glad I changed plans. At least it doesn’t impact my future reservations or add any additional time to my trip. I’ve gone a long time without weather problems, was bound to happen.

The roads were still great for riding but I was just trying to make time and outrun the storm so I only took a few pictures. Since I have nothing else to talk about I’ll tell you about the birds.  For the past couple weeks I’ve been getting attacked by nesting redwing blackbirds.  They fly over my head yelling up a storm with the occasional brave bird dive bombing my helmet covered head. I guess they nest in the corn or soybean field since there is nothing else around.

With such a short day I’ll have more time for route planning tonight. I know where I’m staying out to Fort Wayne Sunday but haven’t yet looked ahead. The route goes northeast from Fort Wayne to Lake Erie just east of Sandusky, Ohio then through Cleveland and on to Buffalo, New York where I’ll follow the Erie Canal to Albany, New York then head southeast to home. I’m thinking about 2 weeks from now so about August 12-14.

I turned comments on for this and the last few posts if anyone has any questions. When I setup this blog many years ago I found comments were just getting filled with spam. I’ll see how it goes.