A Stormy Morning but Beautiful Day

Day Six: Daykin to Tecumseh or beyond

Daykin, Plymouth, Beatrice, Filley, Tecumseh

67.5 miles, 5 hours in the saddle

You may recall that night before last, Mark and I put the tent on the north side of a tree instead of the west, thus subjecting ourselves to the blazing sun in the morning. Well, last night we were determined not to make the same mistake, and found the perfect spot in the park in Daykin...flat, sort-of dry grass (no sprinkler), just near enough but not too near the bathrooms. And that would have worked great if Mother Nature hadn't chosen this morning to bring in a big thunderstorm. Oh, well.

Jim came over about 7 a.m. to wake us up, and wheeled my bike over to the picnic shelter (thank you, Jim). Mark and I moved everything else into the shelter, where Bob and Noelle, who had also tented, were already quietly packing and rearranging stuff...quietly because Hajdu, Ohio Mike, Kentucky Jim, and Tricky Al were still sleeping. We sat and listened to the drum of the rain on the tin roof of the shelter growing louder and louder as the storm came through. The wind picked up and we moved away from the west end of the shelter (west! potential tail wind!) to keep things dry.

Bob enjoys a pipe break in the treehouse.

A few rolls of thunder accompanied the worst, then it gradually let up and we considered taking off...until we saw this:

So we decided to wait just a bit more, and watched that incredible bank of clouds roll on by...didn't dump on us, but sure was a lot of wind.

Packing up after the storm.

Mark and I headed to the co-op to get some ice for our cream cheese, and the rest took off in what I thought was an enormous tailwind. After eating an egg and cheese biscuit (and forgetting all about the ice), Mark and I took off for Plymouth. The wind was still strong, but had changed to more of a northwesterly direction, so we had some tail and some side. Turns out the others had had quite a bit of side to deal with which had been a bit of a challenge.

In Plymouth (population 447), I was struck by the selection at the convenience store...precisely one of each thing. “Well,” said Mark, “it does say toothBRUSH.”

On to Beatrice, a big town with over 12,000 people. I figured I could find some wi-fi there, and sure enough, the locals pointed me toward a coffee shop in the back of a pharmacy, where I spent a frustrating half hour trying to make it work...no go. But at least I had a nice coffee drink!

Downtown Beatrice.

Met the others at the Orange Bowl and Lounge (bowling alley), where Bob and Noelle helped me fix my bike (again)...fender and brake problems. Mil gracias otra vez. And Mark got a cooler at the Pamida across the street! Woo hoo.

We had a nice, fast ride to Filley because Mark was listening to some kind of rock in Spanish. Music really does make all the difference. In Filley we had an official birthday celebration for Ohio Mike, presenting him with a card and birthday cake...okay, well, Rice Krispie treat. We love you Mike!

Leaving the bar...careful there, Mark!

Getting ready to leave Filley, where Ohio Mike regaled us with a Stan and Ollie joke.

We left for Tecumseh, a 20-mile leg, en masse mostly (Jim and Tricky Al came later) and had a beautiful ride at my favorite time of day, when the sun is low in the sky and the colors are so brilliant.

In Tecumseh, we had a surprise visit from Bernie and his daughter, who joined us at Vic's Steakhouse while enroute from visiting family out west.

Bob, Noelle, Ohio Mike, and Hajdu rode on to Johnson and possibly Auburn, while the rest of us holed up at the Super 7...yes, 7...in Tecumseh. And that's where another weird thing happened: I was starting to give my phone number to reserve the room, and the gal at the desk said hey, I recognize that area code, that's an Oregon number, and I grew up in Portland, Oregon!

I said, “Really! Well I just moved from Portland to Michigan in November!” She asked me where I had lived, and I told her, and she said, “Well, I grew up on 36^th and Belmont,” and I said, “Really! I used to teach at a Sunnyside School, just a few blocks from there!” and she said, “Well I graduated from Sunnyside School!”

!! How about that. Tecumseh, Nebraska, and here is a gal who went to school at the same school I taught at for five years in Portland, Oregon. Turned out she'd met a navy guy at the Rose Festival who'd whisked her away to Nebraska 37 years ago.

Small world, indeed. :-)

Space-age technology tells use how to get to the Super 7.