7/2/18 - Golf Game or Bike Ride?

Summer plopped down on us in a big way - 90° with humidity to match. My days are spent working in the yard, riding when I can and hitting golf balls on the range. In addition to my scheduled adventure, I also agreed to participate in an invitational tournament with a good friend in Reno, Nevada. – NEXT WEEK!!

I have not played golf with a purpose in about 4 years. For our first retirement, we sold our home in Atlanta and moved permanently into our lake home in Michigan. I became a truly passionate player. In each of the first few years of retirement, I logged over 130 games per year. Keep in mind that a golf-year in Michigan is only 6 to 7 months long. But the hand of fate is unpredictable, as am I. After a few years of enjoying the good life, I took a mulligan and went back to work in Chicago.

The windy city is a great place to work, eat and drink, but it is a lousy place to hone a golf game – especially without a vehicle. Playing golf around Chicago is an all-day endeavor with lots of travel time. So, at the end of retirement 1.0, the sticks got moth-balled and golf became a distant memory.

Fast forward to retirement 2.0 and I am blowing the dust off my clubs and oiling up my rusty swing in preparation for Reno. My tournament teammate plays at least twice as much golf as I, so supporting the partnership from this end will demand focus. The only hope at salvaging a respectable game is daily practice and/or play. Serious golf eats into available riding time and the reality is that the only way to be ready to play is to put riding on hold which I have done for the past couple of weeks.

Could make for a challenging start to the Superior ride, but those are the choices we make.

Comments

Day 1 7/19/18

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Day 2 - 7/20/18

This blogging stuff is way harder in an iPhone than it is on a Surface. Day 2 is one that I hope not to repeat on this trip. The weather forecast is for rain overnight tonight, continuing into Saturday 7/21. I modified the original plan to accommodate the rain prediction. At the time it seemed like a good idea. Rather than 40 miles to Agatha Bay on Friday and then 50 miles to Wawa in the rain in Saturday I’ll just do the whole thing in one day. So... I start out on a beautiful morning that quickly steams into the 80’s. Up north is not supposed to be this hot or this humid. The gentle hills also turn into killer mountains that strain every inch of gluts and quads. In all a 4,000 ft elevation gain. Several of these “hills” were at grades that forced me into hiking mode. My Apple Watch says that I covered 35, a 000 steps totaling 17 miles - uphill. The day’smileage total was 92. Most of the Ontario Provincial Park is undeveloped. No food, no gas, no hotels, and no stores. A prote

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