21 day challenge

So’s Shawn and I are on a long car ride, listening to radio talk shows and this lady (Kathy Freston) is on talking about a doing a 21 day diet or cleanse. We usually don’t like the crazy diet thing, but this caught our interest. Give up 5 things for just 21 days – not so much a diet – but a challenge to your “stick-to-it-ness” and proof that you are not ruled by certain foods. (Later on we found out it was an “Oprah” diet – I was not so happy about that – but we certainly didn’t glop on to this cause it was Oprah’s doing).

It sounded like a good challenge, so for 21 days, we are giving up: Caffeine, Sugar, Alcohol, Gluten and all animal products.

It was a pretty daunting list, but we are 7 days in and this is not bad at all. I dare say, I am feeling a little more energetic in the morning , and the rest of the day goes great with out all the coffee I was drinking (I was a 4 or 5 cup a day person).

This has been a really good thing, I’ve felt really good. I was worried about not enough protein, but we’ve cooked up some dang good Tofu dishes; I make a mean pablano pepper stir fry with black beans that has been a fav; we ate at a vegan restaurant and loved it; at Chipotle we had a veggie burrito (no shell) and that was great; I’m loving my PB on brown rice bread for lunch; and steel cut oats for breakfast has been a real treat!

We never feel starved. But we are happy we did this time of the year, when there are great fruits and Veggies around – that make snack time pretty easy.

We certainly won’t do this forever and frankly, I can’t wait to get a triple shot espresso on day 22! But I think it’s always going to change the way I look at vegan stuff - I will seek it out now and then. And, I’m going to try to avoid gluten products as well – except for cereal, cookies and beer!

Peace, love and brown rice cats!

We made it!! (Kinda)

Boy, I really learned how hard it is to keep up a daily blog! Much has happened since I last blogged!

I left off when we were heading to McBain. The best highlight from that day is the "Back Alley Bar" in McBain. McBain is a tiny town, there is a party store and a not much more. There are some DALMACers who like to head the party store, grab the drink of their choice and head to the alley to discuss the days ride and plan strategies for the next days ride (yeah right!) . It's all fun and we got to know our riding brothers and sisters a little better.

What a roller coaster day we had on Friday. This is the day we go from McBain to Elk Rapids. It's a favorite day, because it's relatively short - 60 miles or so, and we get to go on Williamsburg road, which is very rolloer coaster like and fun to do on our tandem. We had a riot biking! With the short ride we got to Elk Rapids pretty early, enough time to hit the watering hole - to make sure we are not at the camp too early - when the luggage truck needs to be unloaded...

After relaxing a bit we went to the alternate Elk Rapids showers - Elk Lake! Beautiful swimming there! After a swim we went to a favorite restaurant of ours - "Pearls" we had a nice meal there and headed outside when the trip took a nasty turn....

While we were in the restaurant our tire blew! The tube had a huge hole in it and (the worst part) our rim was bent! Impossible to mount a tire on it. We still don't know what happened the only possibility we can think of, started last Saturday in the rain...When it was rainy, we had lots of road sand and junk on out brakes - I used them one time to stop and they ground like crazy, and continued to grind a tiny bit as we rode. We think that maybe that rubbing weakened the rim enough to cause it to bend over.

Any who (someone on the ride said only Grand Rapids people say that- ha!), We were done riding on our tandem- A new rim for our wheel is a special order and there were no extra tandem wheels to be found in Traverse City. Obviously we were very disappointed. We fretted all night about how we could get to our car in Mackinaw City, How we were going to get bikes to continue our ride, and ... and... and....

We woke up the next morning to some very good news! A group of riders had a problem: The person they were going to meet in Elk Rapids to drive their car up to Petoskey (our next stop) had to cancel. They needed their car moved and they were so happy to have it moved that she said to use the car as much as we like! What a blessing! We would be able to check if there happened to be any wheels in Traverse City and if nothing else, we would be able to get to Mackinaw City to get our car! ( A few riders on DALMAC bring their car with them and keep moving it up as they ride with friends or riders who drive ahead and ride the route (or some of it) backward.)

OK - long story short...No wheels in TC...I drove our Tandem to GR and picked up our single bikes...back to Petoskey where Shawn had our camp set up...we drove to Mackinaw City on Sunday so we could ride across the bridge...we did not break our streak - every time we have ridden Dalmac, we have crossed the bridge! Of course it was awesome - it never gets old to us!

Ferry to Macinac Island, dealt with the crowds there, ferry to Mack City and then home. What a trip! We are already excited about next year. We've got to get those last 70 miles in to complete the round trip!!!


AND - Because you asked - Here's my Rathlips (they weren't too bad at this point)

Day 5 E.Lansing to Mt. Pleasant

Another beautiful day for riding. This was a long day and the weather was
cool so we were cranking away the miles. We got an early start and by noon
we had gone 60 miles :-O. So we had a lot of time to do the last 25. The
Shepard Bar was beckoning us so we stopped in. We were invited to a table
of bikers and had a great time yucking it up with those guys. Any time you
can swap stories about the rains of 2000 and the heat and wind going to
McBain in 2006, you know you are going to have a fun time.

Tonight we are camping at CMU. I hope these kids behave themselves!

Hail Chippawas cats!

Day 4 DeWitt to Lansing

12 miles for us today to get to Lansing. We needed an easy day and it was
nice!

One of my pedals broke today. There was a bike shop near the MSU campus so
it was easy to replace. No biggie. Other hi-lites: we saw the MSU band
practice - so cool! It was pretty neat to see those guys working so hard -
and could they fill those horns!! Then we went to lunch/dinner at el
azteca - Mmmm good margaritas!

We are all registered for the ride, arm bands are in place and our bags are
on the truck. We leave directly from the hotel tomorrow!

Head north young cats!

Day 3 - Clare to DeWitt

Long day, but we made it. - it did not help that this was the 3rd day in a
row that I had the wrong distance. Today I was 12 miles off - oh well :-/
! 1
We're pretty much in the suburbs of Lansing. Easy day tomorrow - 20 miles.
We'll be able to sleep in - we need it!

Started the day in Clare at whitehouse inn a tiny local dive. There were a
1/2 dozen locals on various rants - "I don't like all this credit card
stuff - I'll never own one! - can't get a hotel any where, can't get a
juicer off the TV". "Computers are ruining this country! - can't no one do
math any more!". Who was that fellers name on hee haw - the handsome guy.
Wish I could remember his name...that was good television! You could hear
a pin drop at our house when that show was on. What was that guys name? Roy
something??". It was too funny!!

Its a great place to eat! We can't wait to go back!!

See you at the turn cats!

Day 2 - Waters to Clare

Great day! A little uneventful after yesterdays rain. It was 79.95 miles of
straight south, with winds out of the north. A very nice ride. It was nice
to have Dan and Cynda with us for a distraction from the straight riding.

Lunch was at KFC - a bit of a 3 to 1 vote for a place to eat, but that's
what happens when I don't speak-up. But, it was pretty darn good!

C U tomorrow in deWitt cats!

Day one Mackinaw City to Waters

The first day of our trek south. Spent the night at Mackinaw Motor Lodge -
Great Place! We had a cute little cabin - very nice! It had rained all
day friday and through the night - Saturday was rainy too...all day! And
it was cold too! Miserable day right??
Heck no! We had a 10 or 20 mph tail wind most of the day! It made for a
pretty good ride! Stopped at Libby's in Cheboygan for breakfast - very
good and lunch at the elk something in Vanderbilt. It felt so good to get
our wet stuff off at the restaurants, but we sure got lots of stares from
the other patrons.

When we got to our hotel in Waters, we heard someone shout "look who's
here!" - we looked and it was our DALMAC biking buddy Cinda. She and her
husband, Dan, are the ones that gave us the idea to bike the round trip.
It was fun to see them - we caught up on the years events over dinner
(smokey bar - not so great). Tonight, Shawn and I are watching TV movies -
first up, Edward Scissor Hands.

Chop Chop Cats!