More miles in Michigan than in Minnesota this month

Considering that the month was off to at least an even par start before I left Minnesota it constitutes something of an achievement for the blue Michigan bicycle to move into first place for miles ridden this month.

And that's not even my major bicycle achievement of the day.

We rode down through the woods with the intention of trying to get close to the water on the other side of Pine Creek Bay.  We got sorta close but really not very.  I had my cheap pocket camera with me.to try for a photo.  That camera has a mechanical zoom and a digital zoom.  The results with the mechanical zoom are fairly predictable but I have never, ever gotten a decent photo with the digital zoom.

Still, here it is, a full mechanical and probably about half digital zoom of a place where people we know used to live.

We rode out towards the old horse pastures at the end of the point.  No horsies, just really expensive houses.  We passed this.

Well, yeah, OK, but why even put up a sign saying "cottages" if it is private?  Couldn't you just go with "private" or even with nothing at all.  The sign seems like an invitation to come in and then turns into an invitation to stay the heck out.

Seems not very Minnesotan to me.

Which is probably not unreasonable here.

The GRider has a rental bicycle with Shimano 105 components.  She reported to me (and I could occasionally hear it happening behind me) that the rear derailer often was declining to shift the gears of the bicycle, particularly when she was moving towards the larger cogs on the rear cassette (the gears easier to pedal in).  I can and have done some Campagnolo wrenching but not really any Shimano.  However, based just on over 50,000 miles of being on and around bicycles I was pretty confident that there was going to be an adjuster on the rear derailer.  When we stopped for the turn back point I took a look at her rear wheel.  I noticed right away that the derailer did not seem to be in alignment with the cogs on the cassette and that there was an adjuster right there where the cable joined the derailer itself.  I knew from Campagnolo that turning the adjuster towards the hub of the bicycle should move the derailer body in that direction.  Because shifting in that direction was the primary problem I was pretty confident that moving the derailer in that direction would cure the shifting problem.

A couple of turns of the adjuster screw later the derailer body lined up with the cog.

She rode back to the mountain, the derailer without any incident shifted the gears to what she needed to get back to the top of the hill and she made it home easily.

We rented a bicycle and while we had it under rental I fixed it.  THAT's my major bicycle achievement of the day.

Here is what happens when you arrive early on a Sunday and park your boat and trailer not in a trailer parking area but way, way down at the end of the car parking area.  I assume he did it because parking there is free (Dieppe reference, GRider will get the joke, probably no one else).

Parking may be free but on a Sunday that street side parking area eventually gets parked completely full and sometimes even spills over into the neighborhood down there.

Boat or no boat, people are going to park and that boat is stuck there until those two other drivers come back or until he gets a crane to lift it out of there.

At least the parking was free.

FC Nantes lost today.  The game report says that they had a "lack of precision" that they will need to remedy to avoid a direct return to Ligue 2 next season.

*sigh*