6 May 2007: Excess Miles & No Memories
E Lansing to Mt. Pleasant: 80.6 mi; 60s, cool breeze from SE
Today I covered six more miles than yesterday, in the same amount of time. I must be hitting my stride. Of course, seven or eight of those miles came courtesy of the MI highway system.
I had mapped out a route that took me nearly due north, requiring only a few miles on the area's main highway, US127. When Old-127 merged with that highway, though, big signs barred all bicycles. I bopped back a quarter mile to the last E/W road and asked someone about the best parallel route. After all, roads hew to the mile-square grid here.
True, he said, but all the farm roads heading north every mile quickly turn to dirt. He gave me the bad news: I had to head west six miles to find another N/S paved road. That forced me to then backtrack a mile or two east (into the wind) to reach Alma. (This, of course, violates US DOT regulations, which state that limited-access roads must allow bicycles if there is no adjacent alternate route.)
This was my return to my old haunts. Thirty-one years ago during college, I spent one summer vacation living in Alma and working outside Mt. Pleasant. So far, it's a bust - I haven't seen anything that stirred any specific memories. Sure, I vaguely recalled the main drag in Alma, a road that the local teens cruised up and down every Friday night. I also saw a sign for Woodworth Ave, which sounded familiar -- is that the street we lived on? Otherwise I'm drawing a blank. I know that it has been three decades. I was here in a different era, before the freeway bypassed the towns, before the internet and cell phones, before WalMarts proliferated into every corner of the country.
It's ironic, I guess. When I spent the summer here, I sold books (not my own) door-to-door. Now, I hawk books (my own) school-to-library. Has life really come full circle?
Today I covered six more miles than yesterday, in the same amount of time. I must be hitting my stride. Of course, seven or eight of those miles came courtesy of the MI highway system.
I had mapped out a route that took me nearly due north, requiring only a few miles on the area's main highway, US127. When Old-127 merged with that highway, though, big signs barred all bicycles. I bopped back a quarter mile to the last E/W road and asked someone about the best parallel route. After all, roads hew to the mile-square grid here.
True, he said, but all the farm roads heading north every mile quickly turn to dirt. He gave me the bad news: I had to head west six miles to find another N/S paved road. That forced me to then backtrack a mile or two east (into the wind) to reach Alma. (This, of course, violates US DOT regulations, which state that limited-access roads must allow bicycles if there is no adjacent alternate route.)
This was my return to my old haunts. Thirty-one years ago during college, I spent one summer vacation living in Alma and working outside Mt. Pleasant. So far, it's a bust - I haven't seen anything that stirred any specific memories. Sure, I vaguely recalled the main drag in Alma, a road that the local teens cruised up and down every Friday night. I also saw a sign for Woodworth Ave, which sounded familiar -- is that the street we lived on? Otherwise I'm drawing a blank. I know that it has been three decades. I was here in a different era, before the freeway bypassed the towns, before the internet and cell phones, before WalMarts proliferated into every corner of the country.
It's ironic, I guess. When I spent the summer here, I sold books (not my own) door-to-door. Now, I hawk books (my own) school-to-library. Has life really come full circle?
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