Leg 3, Ride 2: Grand Rapids to Ionia via Lowell

Looking at the stats for today, it seems like an easy ride: 40 miles, half of it on a bike trail. But, it was actually a bit of a slog, mainly because we were fighting against a 15mph headwind all day. Winds generally blow west-to-east here, and along our entire route, but there's always going to be an exception here or there.

This was also our hilliest ride to date (you have to climb out of a valley to leave Grand Rapids), and our bike trail was unpaved and not in great condition. So, this was our slowest day since the first few days of the trip.

There aren't many good biking roads out of Grand Rapids. So, when I was planning this trip, I routed us through lots of shenanigans: Cut across a college dorm parking lot here, use a middle-school access path there, take advantage of a shortcut path through the woods, etc. It's actually really fun when this all works out in real life -- you can't be sure what these will be like when planning them on a computer monitor.

We passed through Downtown Lowell on the ride today, with all its (grain) mills and artist studios. So, we must be getting close to home, right?

We're staying in Ionia tonight, a city that still has two giant downtown furniture stores like it's 1962 or something. They have a cool-looking theater here, but alas, the only movie playing today is "Mandlebrot and The Gringo", which is a Star Trek sequel. This makes me really sad. It's none of my business what other people like, but I mean c'mon. Fifty years ago someone made a good kids movie about outer space, and we're still rehashing that same idea over and over again? Why can't they just come up with their own new idea, and make a movie about that idea? Why are kids today given leftovers from my generation's childhood?

The forecast is looking like tomorrow will be a rainy ride into Lansing. We'll see!