Bluegrassing and Biking in Michigan

Today's Tracking via Ham Radio and APRS

We've been triking since we left on our Round-the-Country Grandkid Roundup.  We spent a couple days camped in Sherry and Ben's yard in Piedmont, OK.  They were wonderful hosts but we left them after 2 days and went on our way to meet Jacque's Uncle Bob and "Uncle" Marilyn at the Eaton County (MI) fairgrounds for the annual Charlotte Bluegrass Festival.  The fairgounds where we parked were soaked and muddy from all the recent rains and I supposed we wouldn't get the chance to do much, if any, trike riding.
We're carrying the tandem recumbent Terratrike on our recently purchased 1997 Ford Explorer's roof rack, while Jacque's Catrike is stowed inside the rear of the Explorer.
We encamped the RV and slogged around the fairgrounds the first day on foot, getting soaked and muddy every time we set foot outside. I saddled up the tandem Terratrike on a whim and found, to my surprise, that it was a great way to get around in the slop without getting muddy myself.  The fenders on the trike did a good job and it had just enough clearance to keep the chain and gears above all the shallow puddles in the roads and walkways.  So I rode it all over the fairgrounds, for food and music visitations.  The area had very poor APRS ham radio coverage, and I was unable to record any of the wanderings in spite of digipeating through the higher-powered ham radio in the RV.  I rode into downtown Charlotte 3 times, which was only a little over a mile each way.  Fun but not real heavy exercise.... :O)
We met some wonderful new friends, the Thompsons and Carl and Jeremy and the band members of the HarbourTown bluegrass group, who actually showed up in our RV klatch Saturday night after the "official" festival was over and serenaded everyone with more toe-tappin' music on mandolin, guitar, banjo, and a thumpin' upright bass.  They made great music in spite of (or maybe because) they were a few sheets to the wind ..... kids, don't ask your Mom what that means.  Jacque and I were very likely the only sober ones in the group.

Stats from today's ride around Holland State Park on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan:

Ride Started: 9:58 AM    Ride Ended:  12:03 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.2   Ending Voltage: 13.2  Lowest:  13.0
Lowest Temp  87 F      Highest Temp:  92 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  2.24
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  3.0 MPH                              5.2 MPH                  12.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 45 minutes                  31 minutes                 46  minutes