Kirk and I arrived at the Panera in Wilmette on Saturday, August 6th at 1:00 p.m. after having been homeless and on the road for 44 days and 6,200 miles. Michelle arrived at the Panera in Wilmette at 2:00 after having been on the road from Jackson, MS for 2 days and 750 miles.
Mark and Jeff’s garage in Wilmette was our staging area where we off-loaded all the stuff in our van from the first 44 days that would not be needed on the Circle Tour (CT) including (sadly) my bike and related essentials like helmet and shoes. We couldn’t figure out how to build a cleat into my airboot/cast for my broken Right foot. Offloading made room for Mark, Jeff, and Michelle’s Hammer products and gear bags.
Mark and Jeff would drive to Saugatuck and then ride to Ludington where we would meet them Monday evening. They would join us, though, at the Sahara (check it out on Facebook via the Sahara link) in Michigan City for dinner in a couple of hours.
Michelle had sounded the reunion horn to Susan and Dale from Homewood, IL and Vikki and Craig from Ann Arbor, MI; all had been on the Transcon with her a year ago. They, too, would meet us at the Saraha for dinner and ride with us to Holland on Sunday, August 7th, the first riding day.
Bill Mendenhall, one of Michelle’s riding buddies from Jackson, MS has been training up a storm for his first multi-day ride. He, too, was driving to the Saraha in Michican City from Jackson with his college-age daughters and one of their friends. While Dad would be riding along the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, they would play on the western coast of Lake Michigan in Chicago, the scene of Lallapalooza in Grant Park. Tuesday they would drive to Beulah, MI to pick him up and then the four of them would bust it back to Jackson in time for work Thursday morning.
Who woulda thunk we could get all those folks around the dinner table at the appointed hour coming from such diverse points of origin, but, WOOT; it happened.
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