This past Memorial Day weekend, I spent quite a bit of time in Frankenmuth. Friday night, we headed up there to check out the hot air balloons. It was pretty cool being close enough to feel the heat from the fires and watch the ballons take off right in front of us. Henry seemed to be enjoying himself and Susan was able to get quite a few photos using her new camera lens.

Saturday morning was an early day. I sold my road bike last year to build up my fixie/singlespeed cross bike and knew that wouldn’t be a good choice for a road race, so I decided to volunteer instead. It was pretty neat to be on the other side of the table during registration.

Some volunteers didn’t show up and I was asked to be a road marshal. I grabbed a flag, a hi-vis vest, and a map to where I’d be marshaling at. I got to the intersection and noticed there was another volunteer there, but no police. After we chatted a bit, we decided it would be wise to have two marshals running the intersection. It was a good thing we did, when the peloton came around the corner, they pretty much took up the whole road. We always had one person on the lookout for traffic and the other was directing the cyclists. It was a lot of fun!

For volunteering, I got to do the Gran Fondo di Thumb for free. I loaded up my cross bike and headed back to Frankenmuth Sunday morning. Before the ride started, I was talking with a fellow cyclist who asked if I was going to do the ride singlespeed. I replied I was doing it fixed. He took a look at my tires and said good luck with that, pushing those tires will be a lot of work.

We set off just after 8 AM. My training plan called for a two hour ride that day and I figured I’d get to the first rest stop and turn around. All I can say is riding in a pack is a lot of fun. I was able to keep up with the big dogs for about twelve miles. Right before I got dropped, the cyclist I was talking with before the ride told me I was bad-ass for keeping up as long as I did!

I was alone for the next few miles until I heard someone come up behind me. We worked together and were some of the first ones to reach the rest stop. After a short rest, a cookie, and some Gatorade, I was off on my own back to Frankenmuth. I ended up following the wrong markings when I got back into town and had to turn around a couple times to get to the finish line.

On Monday I finally installed two outside GFCI outlets so the A/C folks can come out and install the units. After that was done, we decided to take Henry to the beach. We drove up to Port Crescent and found a nice spot to relax at the state park. Henry wasn’t sure what to think. We tried dipping his toes in the water, but it must have been too cold for him. He shriveled up and was not happy about being in the water.

Even though it was a busy weekend, it was a great weekend!