Crossing the finish line!

3300 miles, four flats, two tubes of suntan lotion, and one tire later, I MADE IT! Woot woot!

I am writing this entry from Ann Arbor! I arrived yesterday evening after my fourth consecutive day of century rides (that's 100 miles, in bike-speak). Yesterday was only supposed to add up to 95 miles, but due to construction in Jackson and getting lost looking for the motel (apparently iPhones aren't a cure for that), I racked up enough miles to brag!

It was a long haul the last four days (on my Long Haul Trucker, aren't I witty?), but the feeling of accomplishment is great.

The riding was actually pretty hilly in spots, except for yesterday, which was mostly flat. Here's a picture near Ft. Custer State Park.



I have been seeing a lot of turtle roadkill in Michigan, which is sadder than other roadkill for some reason. The other day I saw a pre-roadkill turtle crossing the road, and I stopped to take a picture. He pulled his head in when he saw me.



Hopefully he hurried up and finished crossing after I left. As you can see he's very close.

Yesterday it seemed like it took forever to get to the An Arbor city limit, I was so excited.



Today my dad and I walked around campus and did errands. Sorry Andrew, I didn't think to get a picture with Ely when I dropped my gear off at The Battlestar. Next time!



Tomorrow we fly back to Seattle! I'm already excited to start my next adventure. I want to say thank you to everyone who supported me and encouraged me on this journey.

An extra special thanks to my best friend Brittany and also to my wonderful partner Nate. You guys believed in me more than I believed in myself sometimes, and it made more of a difference than you can know.

I'm STILL going to do one more post rating the states, but I'm gonna do it on a real computer, once I get home (hopefully tomorrow).

One leaner, buffer, tan-lined biker chick is heading home to Seattle! Make way!

Location:S State Rd,Ann Arbor,United States

Race To The Finish!

Finally I'm making myself update the blog! The end of the trip is zooming towards me. I'm super excited to come home, but at the same time I'm a little sad that my adventure is almost over (but only THIS adventure).

After leaving Petoskey, dad and I biked a very pretty ride and ended up camping in Barnes Park, which sits on Grand Traverse Bay. We had aimed to get farther, but there were endless ridiculously steep hills that pooped out the pops. It was also so warm that when we stopped by the side of the road for a break our shoes sank into the tar on the road! Sticky.

The next day we had another short day because we decided to stop in Traverse City, which is an ACT. This stands for "Another Cute Town". We realized that we were exclaiming that towns were cute so much that we needed an acronym. Although, I guess it is incorrect to say, "It's an ACT," we should say, "It's ACT." But we don't.

Then we decided to take an extra day in Traverse City, because of weather. At this point we were so behind schedule to get to Ann Arbor on time that we had to change our plan of action.

After much agonizing and hand wringing, my dad decided to rent a car for the rest of the trip. I'm going to do four ~100 mile days to make up for lost time, and so dad is back to cheering me on from off the bike. He met me twice today along my route and brought me lunch and snacks. The purist in me is still insisting that I carry all my gear. However, I did buy a six pack of beer tonight, and I'll let him carry the leftover in the car :)

We saw a really cool and giant caterpillar today when we stopped for lunch:


It's so giant (and check out my thumb tan)...



...and see-through, and green!

Nathan wasn't impressed by this caterpillar when I told him about it. I don't get it.

Now we're camped in the municipal park in Reed City. Tomorrow I'm going to bike ~105 miles to Smyrna (Michigan, not Greece).

Onwards!

PS, I've been reading about fly fishing and I'm getting a little obsessed. I can't wait to find some places to fish around Ann Arbor! I was thinking I could even bike to the fly fishing. That would really look ridiculous.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Howard St,Reed City,United States