COMPLETE GALLERY OF DALMAC IMAGES AVAILABE HERE
Last year I did daily live blogging from RAGBRAI and decided to take a slightly lower key approach this year. That approach is to simply journal my thoughts during the trip and then blog about it after the trip. I know this approach is so 2004 but it suits me fine right now. In other words I did not take a laptop computer with me on this trip. I brought my blackberry which allowed to keep the required contact with work and some facebook access but blogging was out.
DALMAC 2008 (East)
Day One – Thursday August 28,2008
Lansing to Bullock Creek (just South of Midland) – Scheduled mileage of 81 miles.
Today was day one of Dalmac East. Today was very mild for late August and I wondered if I should have sported arm warmers a time or two during the morning.
I signed up for Dalmac back in February, when life was much more uncertain. This was chosen as the vacation of the year that would be affordable and I would commit to doing the ride regardless of where I was emotionally when today came. Emotionally I am doing very well and have several recent life changes that aren’t only new things but down right exiting ones at that. For whatever reason even with all the good going on I wasn’t really excited for this bike tour like I was for Ragbrai last year. At time in the previous few days I contemplated just dropping out but felt like I couldn’t do that to the other riders that were planning on me.
This is how we roll! in style…
This morning’s ride over in the bus was uneventful. We arrived at the MSU Campus by 8:00am. Our ‘team’ consists of 4 riders that are utilizing Leon Slikkers Tour bus. The team is Leon, Jim Carson, Ed Speyers, and myself. We also met up with 3 other fellow Holland riders that are bent on staying in tents during the week. Those riders are Jim Mahaney, John Percival, and Mick Doran. By 9:10am we all hit the road leaving the MSU campus headed for Bullock creek.
A few moments on the road and I knew I was glad I was on the bike tour. The Dalmac Tour appears to be well organized. It’s nothing like the spectacle that is RAGBRAI (which I rode last year). I spent a good deal of the morning having a great conversation with myself (think… lawnmower conversation but on a bike). It’s not quite like talking to myself outloud but close. It does get quite annoying when I keep interrupting myself 
Ride Data – Dalmac Day One
Ride #21 – August 28, 2008
Distance: 81.67
Year to Date Distance: 871.20
Time: 4.37.28
Avg. Speed: 17.6 mph
Max. Speed: 29.8 mph
Roughly the same distance tomorrow – and appatrrently I wear a Tennis Skirt and I’ve been told that it’s time to hike it up and get some real mileage in. That’s ok JDRF Ross… keep slingin mudd… your day will come.
Day Two – Froday August 29,2008
Bullock Creek (just South of Midland) to Houghton Lake – Scheduled mileage of 76 miles.
Our team increased by three riders overnight. The three other Holland riders decided that the deluxe accomodations available to them was better than slinging bags and pitching tents. Jim, John and Mick all stayed in the bus last night. In a way I am glad. The banter is only increased and dividing up the expenses 7 ways will help keep my Dave Ramsey plan on schedule!
Today’s ride was nothing what I expected. The group left Bullock Creek at a pretty fast pace and by 35 miles Leon was feeling the effects. I believe mostly that he ran out carbs and basically bonked but right about the time he was feeling less than stellar, the hills for the day arrived. I immediately made my own decision to stay with Leon. We were just taking it easy and also rode with Margaret and Eric Visser (a mother/son duo). Leon said for me to go ahead up the road several times but I just said that I was comfortable going the pace we were at. Eric and I tried to flag down a SAG vehicle and shot up the road at speeds up to 32 mph and got with 25 feet of the truck patting ur heads (the signal for requiring assistance) and the SAG vehicle just road away from us. That was a bit frustrating. A great guy named Vick gave Leon a couple of power bars to help with the lack of energy and we were on our way. We made it into a town for lunch and caught up with the other guys from our team and they had waited about 20 minutes for us to arrive. Jim Carson was feeling a bit whipped and offered to hang back and make sure anyone needing company on the raod had it.
After lunch I picked up my pace a bit and ended the day with a 16.1 average over 77.7 miles.
Ride Data – Dalmac Day Two
Ride #22 – August 29, 2008
Distance: 77.70
Year to Date Distance: 948.9
Avg. Speed: 16.1 mph
Day Three - Saturday August 30,2008
Houghton Lake to Gaylord – Scheduled mileage of 69 miles.
Today was an epic day. We had a very disciplined pace line that started with 4 of us at 21-22 mph and it quickly grew to about 9 riders and others we passed quickly decided that we looked like a fun group to grab onto. We were rotating through at 1 mile intervals and really tried to not let the lead rider push the pace. This resulted in a very comfortable ride that averaged 19 miles per hour by the end of the ride. We did end up missing a turn and adding some mileage that split our group up for a bit as we scrambled to get back on course but overall the ride was amazing.
Ride Data – Dalmac Day Three
Ride #23 – August 30, 2008
Distance: 77.45
Year to Date Distance: 1026.35
Time: 4.03.49
Avg. Speed: 19.0 mph
Max. Speed: 34.4 mph
Day Four- Sunday August 31,2008
Gaylord to Macinaw City (da bridge baybee!) – Scheduled mileage of 101 miles taking the optional Century route.
Today was about beauty. We chose the optional Century route for today partly because I haven’t ridden a century ride yet this year and if you want to call yourself a road cyclist it is requirement (not really but…) and mainly because the optionally century route takes you through some of the most incredible postcard type scenery Michigan has to offer. The section of M-113 known as the Tunnel of Tree’s, the great lakeside towns like Harbor Springs to final destination of Macinaw City and some incredible views of the Bridge.
The morning was very casual with Mick and I hanging with Margaret Visser. We enjoyed the scenery all day long and also enjoyed a relaxed pace. The hills were numerous on day four and quite challenging at times. With about 15 miles remaining in the day we regrouped with Margaret’s son Eric and Mom and son committed to hanging together the rest of the ride. This left Mick and I with a little time to attempt to catch ‘Al’ a woman we met earlier in the week and Mick and Al had been talking smack all day. We hooked up with 3 Wolverine Sports guys pushing a simple 3 man rotating pace line at 21 mph and they let us sit on the tail. They didn’t even want us to take turns pulling. We simply sat on and got pulled for several miles and then rode around them like they were standing still… We caught ‘AL’ and her nephew Marshall with about 3 miles left in the day. We raced each other to the finish line and then took a quit bath in Lake Michigan before piling back into the Tour Bus and returning home.
A great 4 days of nothing but biking and eating, and drinking everything in sight. Perfect.
Ride Data – Dalmac Day Four
Ride #24 – August 31, 2008
Distance: 102.26
Year to Date Distance: 1128.61
Time: 6.01.43
Avg. Speed: 16.9 mph
Max. Speed: 42.8 mph
Skip was dishing out the smack from the background and I believe he had his first “Karma” flat about 5 miles further down the road when his tire delaminated from the casing and had to call for a ride. Jasker, Mike McKay and myself waited until we were sure Skip had a ride on the way… The right thing to do but the main group had continued about 3-4 minutes earlier than the three of us and we foolishly tried to