Friday, July 21, 2000

Today we rode from Howard City MI to the junction of Highway 66 and Interstate 69, just 7 miles south of Ionia MI, a distance of 56 miles. We chose this ending location because we again had the problem of finding a motel. We called ahead for a motel where we planned to stay and found that they did not have any empty rooms. After talking to the owners of the motel in Howard City, we called this motel located south of Ionia and found a room. To get to the motel we had to leave the Adventure Cycling route. We probably will not get back onto the Adventure Cycling route until Sunday.

Today again was mostly a cool riding day. It was foggy when we got up and most of the days we had dark clouds but no rain. The high today was around 72 and the first couple of hours it was in the 60’s. The good news was that the cold wind was from the west and most of the day we were going east. We did stop at the grocery store in Smyrna and bought a Birthday Card for our son Mark.

The very good news, the route was quite flat and we did not have any mechanical problems. However, we have been having trouble shifting into the lowest rear gear from the middle gear in the front. After looking at the rear derailleur, I determined that the rear derailleur was set so that it did not have enough clearance to allow the chain to get into the lowest gear. I adjusted the derailleur and it is now shifting into all of the gears.