And On The First Day...

Six riders, Susan Carlsen, Dale Johnson, Vikki and Craig Rohrer, Bill Mendenhall, and Michelle Williams rolled out of the Michigan City Super 8 in a low grade fog (weather related fog that is) heading for Holland 90 miles north.

The First Day of any tour is a little sketchy as the group does its little shake down of who's going to ride with who, and quelling the anxiety balls that live in the bellies of stomachs, quads, glutes, and gastrocs. Little did I know that the crew/SAGGERS had their share of anxiety balls to quell and shake out, too.

I've watched Lon and Susan of PAC Tour fame crew for the almost 10,000 miles I've ridden with them. But other than being the chief cook and bottle washer in 2007 for Team 60 Going Hard, a 4-man RAAM team I have no personal experience crewing/SAGGING. It would take Kirk and me about 3 days to come up with a crewing model that worked for our little group of 1-6 riders we had on the road. We finally settled on a model that was somewhere in the middle of the two extremes: Randonneuring (no support, but an occasional secret control) and PAC Tour's high-end support with laminated, flawless cue sheets and hot lunches cooked along side the road.

Out of the gate we seemed to have dropped the ball: we lost our riders. Never did find them for 6 hours!!!!!!!!! So, the story goes we went to Wal-Mart right after they left to pick up some needed supplies and re-fuel. We had designated a mile mark for a SAG Stop. We got there and waited for 30 minutes. Based on even a 12 mph speed they should surely have been there by now. They must be way ahead of us, they had to be.

Our hearts would go pitter pat as we saw not one but what turned out to be 500 Shoreline Tour riders. We learned quickly to identify them by their Day Glow, large name tag on their seat pouch. But none were our riders.

Then there was the rain storm from h***with wind and sheets of rain so fierce we needed to pull over. But no riders.

Then they called, Oh Yea!!. They were averaging and elapsed speed of 8 mph which actually served them well as they were behind the storm and never felt a drop. I began to worry, though, with a 1,200 mile trip ahead of me an elapsed speed of 8 mph would be a really slow go.

We finally found them about 3:00 in grand spirits in South Haven but with still 30 miles to go to Holland. It would be a long day.

Our hotel, a Country Inn and Suites was at the back of a totally dead, as in no tenants, mall. Actually made finding it kind of a challenge.

By the time everyone was in, cleaned up, and reloaded in the vehicles nearly all the restaurants were closed (nearly 9:00) or didn't open cuz it was (Sunday), and others never opened cuz they were closed permanently. But, we lucked out and found Johnny Carino's. It was classic PAC dinner time with such raucous laughter inspired by friendship, shared miles, iced tea, and a root beer for Michelle we probably could have been evicted.

Day 1 was in the books.