And the winner is…

Thank you to everyone who took the time to offer me your opinion about which bike ride I should do for my century ride this summer. To refresh, the options were all 100 mile rides in Michigan, on in Ann Arbor, one outside Grand Rapids, and one outside Kalamazoo. Here are the results:

All of you were on board with riding somewhere other than Ann Arbor. Rationale for this included statements like “go see something new” and “you know [Ann Arbor] all too well.” The one vote for the Kalamazoo ride was based on one lovely friend’s happy experience on the west side of the state and her love of the scenery there. The rest of you were wooed by the covered bridges. You made comments like “Bridges! I mean, seriously” and “the scenery will be the best on this one” and overall emphasized the loveliness of the bridges and of that part of the state. One person suggested that covered bridges were “so Iowa,” but did not leave a name for me to follow-up about this assertion. And then there was my mom. She left a treatise on the various tourist attractions around Grand Rapids, including a knit shop she likes nearby and an exhibit at the Gerald R. Ford Museum she thought was worth checking out. I love you mom.

Aside from these useful comments, I also learned that it is a good idea to use a free text box that asks “who are you?” because while some of you put your names, others of you use descriptive phrases that include childhood nicknames, obscure and anonymous comments about how well I knew/know you, or read entertainingly to the point (i.e., “your mother”) and a full quarter of you used smiley faces in your identification response. This made me happy. Thanks!

I make no commitment to the Covered Bridges ride just yet, but I’m leaning strongly in that direction.