62nd ride of 2020 - Saturday, 6/6/2020
2020 mileage: 2035.2
What a thrill I experienced yesterday afternoon, when Jack's Bicycle in Dearborn called me to say that my trike was ready! The last time I had ridden before taking it in to be fixed was on May 26. After that ride, I had to do 13.66 miles per day for the rest of the year in order to reach my new goal of 5000 miles for the year. But with my long layoff, as the days remaining in the year decreased while my mileage held steady, I saw that figure creep up steadily until this morning, it was at 14.31 miles/day! But after my big ride this morning (27.2 miles in 3:05), it dropped to 14.25, and now I can keep chipping away at it steadily (I hope).
It was an absolutely perfect morning for a ride -- sunrise was at 5:59, and when I began at 6:00 a.m. it was sunny and 61° (a wonderful temperature that climbed to 78° by the time I finished). I rode over to and looped around St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. That is a meaningful destination for me, as I consider it my ''home away from home." After my life-altering accident on May 22, 1993, I spent the first few weeks in intensive Care at University Hospital. (This was news to me when I learned of it months later, however -- I was in coma the entire time). But then I was transferred to St. Joseph Mercy hospital on June 12, and spent the next 176 days on the rehab ward there, until I was finally discharged on December 7. This picture shows John (just a little guy at the time—7 years old) rejoicing with me on that day, just before I walked out the hospital door.
Anyway, it was a splendid ride, and a nice anniversary day for me, too. I graduated from high school precisely 45 years ago today (June 6 was a Saturday in 1975, too). This picture shows me delivering my Valedictorian address in Kresge Auditorium on that occasion.
Today was such splendid riding weather -- it really could not have been better in any way. Here is a picture I took of the hospital as I looped around it.
What a thrill I experienced yesterday afternoon, when Jack's Bicycle in Dearborn called me to say that my trike was ready! The last time I had ridden before taking it in to be fixed was on May 26. After that ride, I had to do 13.66 miles per day for the rest of the year in order to reach my new goal of 5000 miles for the year. But with my long layoff, as the days remaining in the year decreased while my mileage held steady, I saw that figure creep up steadily until this morning, it was at 14.31 miles/day! But after my big ride this morning (27.2 miles in 3:05), it dropped to 14.25, and now I can keep chipping away at it steadily (I hope).
It was an absolutely perfect morning for a ride -- sunrise was at 5:59, and when I began at 6:00 a.m. it was sunny and 61° (a wonderful temperature that climbed to 78° by the time I finished). I rode over to and looped around St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. That is a meaningful destination for me, as I consider it my ''home away from home." After my life-altering accident on May 22, 1993, I spent the first few weeks in intensive Care at University Hospital. (This was news to me when I learned of it months later, however -- I was in coma the entire time). But then I was transferred to St. Joseph Mercy hospital on June 12, and spent the next 176 days on the rehab ward there, until I was finally discharged on December 7. This picture shows John (just a little guy at the time—7 years old) rejoicing with me on that day, just before I walked out the hospital door.
Anyway, it was a splendid ride, and a nice anniversary day for me, too. I graduated from high school precisely 45 years ago today (June 6 was a Saturday in 1975, too). This picture shows me delivering my Valedictorian address in Kresge Auditorium on that occasion.
Today was such splendid riding weather -- it really could not have been better in any way. Here is a picture I took of the hospital as I looped around it.
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