Official Lug Bros & Co. Van

Here is the "official" Lug Bros & Co. support vehicle. Actually, someone here in Utica owns this cool old VW bus and they always park it down by the river. I have wanted to get a picture of it for awhile and while out doing a short ride this evening, I stopped to take a picture it. I actually took the picture with the camera on my new cell phone. Honestly, I am surprised at how well it turned out. It is not quite as clear as our regular camera, but hey, it is good for a small 2 megapixal camera on a cell phone with no zoom or flash capability.

Lake Michigan

The last day trip we took up was to go to Lake Michigan for the afternoon a couple of days before we left. We went to Otter Creek, which is in the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, and spent a couple of hours there just hanging out. Only my Mom and I went swimming as the water was pretty cold, and once again, I was reminder of the fact that I am probably the worlds worst swimmer (I have a feeling that if anyone was watching me from shore when I attempted to swim it probably looked more like drowning due to the way I flay around). Anyway, we went for a walk up the beach and discovered the elusive Michigan black sand, just like they have in Hawaii, only not as plentiful. The sand actually has hemotite (some sort of iron deposit), and that is what makes it black. It is a lot heavier than regular sand and we found that it was pretty cool to through clumps of it into the surf to watch it break up.

Farm Fest and Prius Offroading

Britta was busy with concerts this week, and Kate, Dad, and I went to see her and her music partner, Alex, play at a folk festival called Farm Fest which was up in Johannesburg, about a 2 hour drive north west of Cadillac. On our way over, we had to take the Prius offroad to get around a road block. This is probably the first time in the history of hybrids that one has gone off roading. After I miss read the directions and sent us down the wrong road one time, we found the farm and got to watch Britta and Alex perform. Their band (duo) is still nameless and B refuses to listen to any of good suggestions I have for a band name, such as "Boiled Wort." And, no not like the skin things, but wort, the stuff from beer making. She kind of likes the name "Master Stanley and the Infinite Sadness" but I can see how that does not really fit a folk duo.

Benzie County & Kaleva

This first shot is special for Mom since she pointed out the cool effect of the sap on the pine cones. We went up to Gwen Frostics (of course) in Benzie and also stopped at Bedazzled, a bees wax candle store. The highlight of the trip for Dad was showing us where they had taken out the old tank farm in Elberta. On our way back to Cadillac, we went through the small village of Kaleva, which I guess is famous its glass house. This is a house (now museum) that all of the walls are made of glass bottles, most of which seem to have been made right in Kaleva.

LUG BROS RIDE IN MICHIGAN

Here are a few shots from the ride that Dad, Britta, and I took on our trip up to Michigan last week. We rode around Lake Cadillac a couple of time. The weather was amazing, and it was fun to see all of us out in our orange jerseys.

Lug Bro No. 2 Is In The House...

...instead of out on his bike, where he ought to be! Actually, I did take a short ride just before dark. Short like around the lake, but without the lake for a cool breeze and a pretty view. It was good to ride again, though, since bikes are such terrific inventions and allow us to move so, well, swiftly. No pics, as it was getting dark, but I wanted to say that once again I really liked your photos Luke. Southern Indiana might lack the sophistication of southern France (and the ocean, of course) but it's nice land.

And the backyard looks great! Good work.

New backyard

Kate and I owe a big, big thanks to Sandy for coming over to our house and doing a bunch of landscaping today while we were cleaning up the inside. The backyard looks amazing. Oh, and yes, that is a new back fence too, I finally got around building a new privacy fence and putting in a new gate too.

Mid Summer Ride

It has been a while since there was a new post on the blog, so here goes.

Last week the we had the hottest weather so far this summer, we had our first 100F day last Saturday, but luckily, this weekend was anything but hot. The last few days have been wonderful, with tempratures in the 70s and 80s, and bright sun.

Yesterday I drove out to Lanesville, IN to do a 60 mile ride with the local club. It was fun to ride on roads that I have not ridden on before. Today after a day of cleaning the house since Kate was hosting her knitting group, I headed out for what I hoped would be another long ride. I had hoped to make it up to some of the knobs, but as I got out on the road, I found that the it was far windier than I had thought.


In the end, I rode up to Deam Lake, a recreation area between Sellersburg and Borden. The sky was an amazing blue with big cumulus clouds.
I have been reading one of those DK guide books about Provence that I brought home from my library, and one of the areas of Provence is called the petite Luberon, and so the description of that area in the south of France was on my mind when I took this picture of knobs from a field on the road to Deam Lake.

Here is a pic of my bike with my new wheels on it. They are a set of Easton Tempest II. I got these wheels for a set of lightweight, fast race/hard training wheels, and so far they have been great. The spin up fast, hold speed well, and are much lighter than any other wheelset I have ever had.