Leg 3, Ride 5: Stockbridge to Ann Arbor

Another great day today. Sunny and warm all day. I think this is the first time we got above 80F on the trip. The near-term forecast looks like we're going back to the 60s and 70s for the next week or so, I have no problem with that at all. The longer we can avoid super-hot 90F days, the better.

We stayed at a very old-school roadside motel last night. No breakfast, and no place nearby to get food. So, we had planned on going back into Stockbridge to the diner. But, they were closed (signs on the door indicated they should be open, but the doors were locked). Luckily, there was also a small market that served breakfast sandwiches and pie.

We started the day headed eastbound on an unpaved rail trail. The surface was in quite good condition, so we made decent time on this stretch.

The middle part of our day was on remote back roads. And, let me tell you, we went through hell on this part of the ride. And, by that, I mean we passed through a small village named "Hell, Michigan", which had a bar, an ice cream stand, a novelty shop, and mini-golf, all hell-themed.

This part of the ride was actually quite nice: these roads were very much unlike the muddy roads we had on the way into Lansing. These were in very good shape, and we were going through the forest, not farmland.

In general, we are feeling good and in good spirits. We're working ourselves into better and better shape as we go. One worry I have: my legs generally feel great all day long, and in general, I'm maintaining a faster average speed everyday... but that only applies when it's flat. The second there is a hill to climb, my legs want no part of it. There's nothing "extra" there that I can use to go up hills at speed. So, even on small hills, I'm in the lowest gear, crawling along at a snail's pace. I even walked up one hill today. This is making me nervous about crossing the Appalachians, but Marna has pointed out that we have another full month of training before we reach Troy, NY and the mountains.

As we got within 15 miles of Ann Arbor, we were mostly on the B2B ("border to border") trail, which was a nice paved trail with a lot of people. This trail is not yet complete, and so there was some on-road riding here, but this was no problem, as the roads were nice and low-traffic. There were two closures on the B2B: one (presumably) for construction. In the second case, they had closed an entire park down, just minutes before we arrived. A calf had wandered off from a nearby dairy farm into the park, and so we were stopped and told to go around while they dealt with that.

On the bright side, we thought we might have to briefly ride on a high-traffic road, essentially a highway off-ramp. However, they have built a brand-new underpass on the trail to cross some RR tracks, which let us avoid the bad road. This tunnel did not exist when I was planning this route a few months ago.

We stopped very briefly in Downtown Ann Arbor so I could do some initial shopping for a new rain jacket. There's one more store I will check tomorrow before I decide.

We're staying about 3 miles south of downtown. The chain hotel here was $65 dollars per night, while the downtown places were all well over $200. It's not an ideal situation, but since we're here three nights, we're saving about $400. So, it's worth it, even if it means we have to spend time on the bus, or spend money on a cab to get back and forth. We're in a depressing mall/stroad area near a highway. Dinner options will be, like, Olive Garden or Chilis or Buffalo Wild Wings or Applebees or whatever.