Additionally, the Prostate Cancer Foundation donation page I set up a few weeks prior to the ride raised $790 $810! That is amazing, and well beyond any expectations I had when I first got the idea of using the ride as a way to raise money for a good cause. To everyone who donated and/or helped spread the word, I truly appreciate your generosity and was inspired by it throughout my journey.

Here’s The Story…

Day 1: Friday, May 7 (78.5 miles)
The first day got off to a bit of a late start. I had hoped to leave at around 8 or 8:30 in the morning but there was a thunderstorm unleashing its fury on Chicago, so I decided to wait until the worst of it had passed. At around 10:30, the skies parted and the sun came out. The weather radar for the Chicagoland area indicated that this good fortune would not be permanent, but I seized the opportunity and started the trip anyway.

Within a half hour, the cloud cover returned. Though the sky got really dark, the rain held off for a full two hours. I made it into Northwest Indiana (just north and west of Gary) without incident, roughly 30 miles from home. But as I was cruising down Industrial Highway, all of a sudden my back wheel locked up and started skidding across the pavement. I had no idea what had happened, but I could no longer pedal forward. Right before I came to a stop, I heard a loud POP that I knew was my rear inner tube. I got off the bike to survey the damage, and saw that I had somehow gotten one of those ‘S’ hooks from the end of a bungee cord caught on my frame near the rear brake caliper, and it was positioned perfectly such that one end of the hook dug into the side of my tire and left a 6-inch gash. I had two extra inner tubes in my CamelBak pack, but no spare tire. I’ve punctured many tubes in my years of riding, but nothing like this has ever happened to me and I admit that I was not prepared for it. As I sat there realizing that I was screwed and trying to figure out what to do about it, the rain started up again. Hard. I used my phone to do a Google Maps search for the nearest sporting goods store, which was in East Chicago, IN, 2-3 miles back the other way. I called the store to find out if they had what I needed, and of course they didn’t. I explained my situation to the guy who answered the phone and he suggested that I try Ridge Cyclery, which is “just down Cline Ave. a little ways” It turns out that Ridge Cyclery was actually about 9 miles away, but at this point it was my only option. Before heading south, I remembered that I’d packed a few feet of Gorilla Tape (think duct tape on steroids) into my bag, and thought I’d channel my inner MacGyver and try to rig something up that would allow me to ride to the bike shop to get a new tire. I pulled out one of my spare tubes, installed it inside the ruined tire, and inflated it to about 20 PSI. Then I wrapped the Gorilla tape tightly around the tire and rim where the gash was and put a little more air in the tube. It looked pretty decent, but I could tell that the tape’s adhesive wasn’t sticking very well since everything was wet. Still, I had hope. I started pedaling and my god, it was actually working! My face must’ve looked like that of a kid’s who just took his first few pedal strokes without training wheels. I thought my day was saved! But then, the tape gave out and the tube came shooting out of the cut. Damn! Out of ideas and unwilling to call anyone in Chicago for a bailout, I started walking. The first few miles were uneventful aside from the rain, but as I was looking at my map I saw that I was going to have to cross I-94 to get to the bike shop. The intersection of Cline Ave and I-94 is one of those big clover interchanges, not exactly pedestrian-friendly. Google Maps showed that I could walk yet another mile out of the way (and another mile back) to a road that went over the expressway, or take a shortcut that involved walking along a couple miles of railroad track. Naturally, I chose the shortcut. Luckily my bike frame is aluminum, so carrying that weight on my shoulder wasn’t a big deal. After a total of about three hours of hoofing it in the rain, I finally made it to “Northwest Indiana’s Largest Bike Shop” which was not very large at all, and bought the LAST TWO tires they had in the size I needed. I also bought a couple more tubes for good measure. As I was changing out the tire in the parking lot, I noticed a woman walking toward me from the direction of the business next door. As I looked up, she handed me an unopened bottle of water and said “Here, you look like you could use this.” Things were finally going my way!

With the new tire on my bike, I plotted out a new route through Gary that would take me along the city’s south side and eventually up to US-12, my original route out of Gary. Apart from having to ride on a few streets with drainage problems so severe they looked like mini lakes, I made it out of Gary pretty easily.

A few miles down US-12/Dunes Highway, the rain started to let up. This road is tree lined and fairly low-traffic, so that was nice. Unfortunately though, I’d lost about four hours to the tire fiasco and it was quickly getting dark. I did have my head/tail lights on, which most certainly kept me alive but as I’ll explain later, I discovered that I made a poor choice in selecting my headlamp and was delayed even further by having to deal with that. I planned on making it to Niles, MI by the end of Day One, but I was only to New Buffalo by 10PM and riding along US-12 when it’s dark out is unnerving to say the least. So, I decided to call it a night in New Buffalo, hoping that the weather would be nicer to me to me the next day and I could make up the mileage difference then.

Day Two: Saturday, May 8 (140.5 miles)
Though I was hoping for nicer weather, I certainly didn’t get it. I woke up at 6:45AM to the sound of the wind howling outside my window. I opened the curtains and saw the trees outside my window thrashing all over the place, with rain absolutely pouring down. Great. I went down and had breakfast, taking my time, and listened to the weather report. 40 degrees and rain with winds out of the northwest at 25 miles per hour, with gusts up to 40-45 MPH. AWESOME! The only good part about all that was that the thirty miles between New Buffalo and Niles are straight to the east, so the wind would be mostly at my back. At around 7:45, I saw a clearing in the sky to the west(ish). Since the wind was coming from that general direction, I saw it as a great sign. I finished up breakfast, got everything packed into my bag, and checked out at around 8:15. The clearing turned out to be nothing but a tease, however. Ten minutes into the day, the rain came back and would remain until sometime between 4 and 5PM. I made great time on the way to Niles though, averaging over 19MPH, thanks to the wind. I sat up tall in my seat for most of it in order to act as a sail for the wind. Yes, it was cold and I was wet, but it wasn’t horrible.

Then, shortly after Niles I changed directions onto M-60 towards Jackson, which is a northeast heading. The wind was still blowing hard from the northwest, so now it was hitting my left side straight on. During the gusts, which seemed to be happening more and more frequently, the rain was coming down sideways. The temperature was still hovering in the low 40s and I was COLD. My extremities were going numb, and my clothes were completely soaked. Though I wasn’t riding into the wind, it was certainly trying its hardest to push me off the road. I powered on for another thirty or so miles until I got to Three Rivers. There, I spotted a Meijer store. As soon as I saw it, I veered off the road thinking about nothing other than the thermal underwear Meijer surely would have for me. I was to the point where I was shaking and had no control over it, so I knew I had to get into some warm/dry clothes fairly soon. Apparently Meijer stopped stocking thermal underwear for the year since it IS May, so I had to settle for cotton pajama pants, a hooded sweatshirt, and a bandanna. Stylish, I know. I wandered around in Meijer for 15-20 minutes in an attempt to thaw out, picked up some Clif bars, and headed back out to the parking lot. At one end of the lot was an Arby’s which, unfortunately, looked to be my best lunch option.

This is where my morale hit its absolute low point for the trip. As I walked across the parking lot to the Arby’s, I started feeling what I was sure was freezing rain. I checked the weather on weather.com and though it was still 41 degrees, the wind chill was 31. I sat there in Arby’s totally on the fence as to whether I should/could even continue on that day. The thought of turning this into a four-day trip was sounding REALLY good. I was soaked, dirty from road spray, shaking from the cold, and totally unmotivated to attempt the 77 remaining miles left between there and Jackson (Day Two’s destination). I remember saying to myself, “there’s tough, and then there’s just stupid.”

Somehow though, stupid won out that day. I convinced myself that if I could go another twenty miles to the next decent sized town and things still hadn’t improved, I’d check into the first motel I saw and break up the remaining distance to Detroit over the next two days. I went into the bathroom and changed into dry socks/underwear, put my new pants on under the pants I was wearing, and got my new hoodie on over my long sleeve shirt. Dressed for success, I got back on the road.

It was still just as nasty as before, but now I had some clothes that were dry for the time being. Around this time, I started laughing hysterically at the whole situation and how ridiculous it was, being the first week of May and all. I yelled at the sky, challenging it to give me the worst it could muster up. Of course, I probably looked and sounded like a lunatic. It made me feel better though, thinking that things couldn’t possibly get worse and yet I still hadn’t given up. It was right then that I knew I would make it all the way to Jackson that night. Willpower took over and there was nothing that could have stopped me.

Sometime between 4 and 5PM, the rain stopped and the sun came out. I was still 40 miles from Jackson, but I was moving along at an average of about 16.5 MPH so the end was well within reach. Unfortunately, I got a flat tire twelve miles from my hotel in Jackson, but it was an easy patch job that I completed in about ten minutes. Still, during that ten minutes two different people pulled their cars over to see if I needed help. Though I had it under control, I thought that was pretty cool.

A few miles from the hotel, I almost hit a deer. I was flying down a hill on a road with dense trees on both sides, and right near the bottom a buck jumped out not too far in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, and as soon as he saw me he scrambled on the pavement a bit and took off. Though I was at least 15-20 feet from him, that was plenty close as far as I was concerned.

I finally made it to the hotel at 9:50PM, just in time to take a shower and settle in for the Red Wings game. The Wings lost and as a result were knocked out of the NHL playoffs, which was a real bummer. That shower, however, was probably the most satisfying shower I’ve ever taken or will ever take.

Day Three: Sunday, May 9 (78.4 miles)
Day Three started much different/better than the previous two. Though it was cool at 8AM (39 degrees) it was sunny and clear. I ditched the pajama pants but kept the hoodie just in case. By 11 AM I didn’t need the hoodie or the pants I originally brought with me, and it felt good to be free of them at last.

My route from Jackson to Detroit was pretty much a straight shot east. Though it was fairly uneventful, the scenery was gorgeous. A good portion of the route was actually on a dirt road (Joy Rd, between Dexter and Plymouth Township) but it was packed down so hard that it was practically like riding on pavement. Also, there was virtually no traffic so I didn’t have to worry about being confined to a shoulder while on it. There were lots of picturesque farms and fields along this route. At one point I stopped to take a picture of a bunch of horses hanging out in a field. As I took the picture, a group of six or seven deer went running across the road not too far from where I stood. I took it all in for a few minutes before getting back on the bike, ecstatic over how much things had improved compared to the previous day.

Eventually the dirt portion of Joy Rd. ended and I popped out into Plymouth Township. Realizing I was finally into metro Detroit hit me like a shot of adrenaline. There were still something like 28 miles to go, but being back in civilization made me feel like the remaining distance was nothing. I was flying, going over 20 MPH for quite a while.

With only sixteen miles remaining, I put the call in to my dad to come and meet me downtown with his truck. I took Warren Ave from where it intersects Ann Arbor Trail out in Dearborn Heights all the way to Grand River in Detroit. Most of that road was in bad shape and I passed through some really rough areas, but I didn’t care. I had the end in sight and though my knees and thighs were on fire, I was pedaling like crazy.

Finally, just after 4:30 on Sunday afternoon, I reached my goal: the base of the Spirit Of Detroit Statue downtown. It was such a great feeling. Though I certainly would’ve preferred not to have dealt with the weather- and equipment-related issues that came up, it made finishing the ride seem like even more of an accomplishment. I would love to do this ride again, though next time I will probably do it during a month where I can be sure to have warmer weather.

Lessons Learned/Advice

Assume that any/every possible point of failure will become a problem at some point.

BE PREPARED. Bring at least one extra tire (assuming you have matching front and rear tires), 2-3 extra tubes, a patch kit, extra batteries for your lights/charging solutions, extra chain links (or better yet, an extra chain), chain lube, etc. A handy tip for transporting liquid chain lube: empty out a bottle of eye drop solution (I used a bottle of ClearEyes), pull the tip off with some pliers, fill it with chain lube, and then replace the tip. I can’t imagine needing more lube than this on a 3-day trip (I didn’t use any, and it rained like crazy), and doing so will save you a lot of space in your pack.

Always have plenty of water and a quick calorie/carb source on hand.

I started each day by filling my CamelBak reservoir (labeled capacity is 3 liters, but it’s actually more like 2.5-2.75) This was sufficient for the eighty miles I rode on Days One & Three but I ended up adding another liter later in the day during Saturday’s 140-mile ride. Having instant access to cold water is huge. I suppose you could get the job done with a few large water bottles mounted to your bike, but then you have to mess around with reaching for them while trying to keep your eyes on the road, and also they probably won’t keep the water as cold as the CamelBak will. With a CamelBak, all you have to do is stick the hose in your mouth and bite down on the end to get the water flowing. Also, carrying that much water will eliminate additional stops for refills. NEVER be without water!

Next, Clif bars are great. They are around 230-250 calories apiece and typically contain over 40g of carbs. There are a bunch of different flavors so there is probably at least one you’ll like. I’ve had the Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Chocolate Brownie, and the Mountain Mix Clif MOJO bars and liked all of them. I found that whenever I’d start to feel hungry in between meals, it wasn’t long (within minutes) before I’d get lightheaded and absolutely NEED a calorie boost. So I’d pull over, eat most or all of a Clif bar, and drink some water. Usually after a few minutes I’d feel much better. It worked out such that I ate one Clif bar between breakfast and lunch and another one between lunch and dinner. When you’re burning tons of calories on a trip like this, don’t mess around with trying to power through and make it to the next planned food stop. You might end up in a ditch somewhere. My body was quick to let me know when it needed fuel, and I was always prepared for that.

The bottom line is that you never know what your food situation is going to be like down the road, or what kind of shape you’ll be in when you get there. Therefore, have more than enough of whatever energy/hydration sources you need to get further than you think you need to get. It’s not like riding in a car and being able to go on for another hour or two even though your stomach is rumbling. It only makes sense that as you are rapidly burning calories, you’ll want to replace them as frequently as you can.

Even when maintaining or exceeding your target pace, trip segments will ALWAYS take longer than you expect them to.

This was true for me. Maybe your planning skills are sharper than mine, and you’ll be able to more accurately predict the amount of time it will take to go from point A to point B, including all stops, but for me it was tough. And that’s not even counting unforeseen mishaps such as flat tires, strong winds, etc. Water/snack breaks add up, and it’s not good to feel rushed – i.e. the sun’s going down and you’re still fifteen miles from your destination.

Get a GOOD headlamp and tail light.

When shopping for lights, the first thing you’ll notice is that they seem really expensive for something that is relatively simple. I thought the same thing, and I went with what was probably the second cheapest option available to me at the time for each. For the tail light, this worked out well. The one I chose was a red Planet Bike model with 5 LEDs that lets me choose between on, flashing, and off. It takes 2 AAA batteries and though I had it on for roughly half of my trip, it never showed any signs of dying. Though it’s not fancy by any means, I can’t really think of a reason why I’d need a more expensive one. Big? Check. Bright? Check. Lasts a long time on 2 AAAs? Check. The headlight, however, was a different story. The one I bought is a Blackburn Flea which uses 4 white LEDs, is smaller than my bike computer, and charges via a USB adapter. Since I knew I’d have my MintyBoost USB charger with me, I figured I could just charge it up each night and that would be that. Unfortunately, the Flea’s battery life is terrible. I couldn’t get more than 2-3 hours (if that) of use on its dim setting on a full charge. Since it was dark when I finished up on Days One and Two, this became a problem. The first night, when I was unaware of its short battery life, I actually had to stop twice in order to juice it up enough to continue on a few more miles, eating up roughly ten minutes each time. I also had to do this once on the second night, even though I purposely left it off in situations where I’d have normally left it on during the day. Though an integrated rechargeable battery seems like less hassle and is “greener”, I can tell you from experience that the ability to stop at any gas station anywhere and pick up new batteries to power your light is something you absolutely want. Next time, I will pony up and get something more substantial.

Get a portable device with some sort of mapping software and GPS functionality.

Yes, this seems like a total yuppie move and yes, I know that many people have taken longer, more complicated trips without such newfangled gadgets. It is totally possible to get from Chicago to Detroit without a GPS-enabled device, but it will take you longer to do so. Here’s why: Even if you spend hours memorizing your route ahead of time and know it like the back of your hand, you WILL get off-course at some point. I did several times, from having to hike to the bike shop on the west side of Gary to buy a new tire to just flat out missing roads that weren’t clearly labeled. One such road (Blackman Rd.) just outside of Jackson, MI, was basically a hole in the side of an embankment that held elevated train tracks, barely big enough for one car to fit through. When I saw it, it didn’t even dawn on me that it could be the road I was looking for. You could go analog and rely on maps, but this approach is only good if you don’t plan on straying from larger roads at all, or if you plan on carrying a giant stack of maps. For example, between Dexter, MI and Plymouth Township, MI I stayed on Joy Rd. which was the most direct route and also one of the most scenic roads of my trip. Even the blown-up portion of southeastern Michigan on the backside of a current Michigan map only shows a portion of this road as being in existence. Good news for iPhone, Android, and probably most other smartphone owners: the Google Maps application is more than sufficient for figuring out where you are and how to get to where you want to be. Unless you feel the need for turn-by-turn directions a la TomTom or Garmin dashboard-mounted devices (c’mon, where’s your sense of adventure?!) opening up Google Maps will not only show you where you’re at and let you plot a route if you so desire, but it will also let you know what your upcoming food/lodging choices are (assuming you have cell reception) so you can plan your stops accordingly. So not only was my iPhone my line to the outside world and my music/audiobook player, it was also my map.

Appreciate the little things.

This is probably more of an observation than it is advice. When you’ve been riding for hours in conditions that are significantly less than ideal, it’s easy to get bummed out about it. Riding in shitty weather is a lot more stressful and a lot more work than riding in 70 degrees and sunshine. Things that don’t seem like they’d normally be a big deal, such as shifts in wind, inconsiderate drivers, missed turns, etc, get magnified after you’ve been fighting weather for a few hours. Though my first day saw an equipment problem that put me severely behind schedule and it rained for a good portion of the day, it really didn’t bother me all that much since I still had a lot of energy and enthusiasm. The first sixty-three miles of day two, however, nearly broke me. The temperature never got above 45 degrees, it rained constantly for eight hours, and the wind was fierce (20-25MPH, gusts up to 45MPH). The wind chill factor even dipped below freezing for a while. Despite this, there were a few moments that really cheered me up. In retrospect, it sounds kind of silly but there were two or three instances where the sun peeked through the clouds and just seeing a few stray sun rays shine down on the horizon gave me a huge boost, both mentally and physically. Even though I knew it was probably temporary, it gave me hope that at some point the weather might let up (it did, eventually). Another thing that lifted my mood was chatting up gas station/restaurant employees whenever I stopped for food and supplies. Normally I’m not a fan of small talk, preferring to get in, get my stuff, and get right back out. But you run across some of the nicest, most genuine people in small towns who are more than willing to chat your ear off if you seem receptive to it. Talking about nothing in particular with them for just a few minutes really helped lift my mood.

Audiobooks

Though I love to listen to music while riding, listening to audiobooks while doing these 10-14 hour days really helped to pass the time. The stories keep me engaged more so than music does and I feel like the miles go by faster since I am not thinking about the physical act of riding as much. I’d say I probably listened to one hour of audiobook per two hours of music along the way.

If you see something good to eat, eat it.

No, I’m not talking about roadkill. Don’t pass up a dining choice you like just because it’s not technically time for a meal. This is especially true if you have dietary restrictions, such as vegetarianism, food allergies, or something similarly prohibitive. If any of those conditions apply to you, though, you probably already knew that. If you are passing through a lot of small towns, you will typically have two options in each: Ma & Pa’s Family Restaurant or McDonald’s. Ma & Pa’s will always take more time than you want to spend and McDonald’s, in addition to most of their stuff tasting gross, has very few options that are not totally grease-filled, or “heavy”. High calorie count is good, “heavy” is not. Even if you have an Internet-enabled smartphone you can’t count on having a usable signal when you’re out in the sticks, so planning to Google your food choices on the fly is a crapshoot, at best. Now, I’m not advocating stuffing yourself two hours after your previous meal and then getting back on the bike. That will inevitably make you feel like garbage. I found that I could eat pretty much whenever though, since I wasn’t eating large portions and I was burning it off so quickly. If you have extra storage space in your pack(s), order more food than you think you can eat and save the rest as a snack for later.

Be aware of your surroundings.

This seems obvious, but it’s important. Ninety percent of my trip was spent riding on the shoulder of whatever road I was on, with cars periodically whizzing past me at 60+ miles per hour. Some of the particularly inconsiderate drivers would wait until they got right next to me and then lay on their horns. ***Note: If you’ve ever done this, don’t ever tell me about it because if you do I won’t like you anymore. Also, stop doing it immediately.*** Though I was listening to either music or an audiobook the entire time I was on the road, I always had only my right earbud in so that I could hear approaching vehicles on the road to my left. Surprises are the last thing you need, whether you are riding right on the white line or have a 6-foot wide strip of fresh asphalt shoulder to work with. A slight knee-jerk reaction could leave you in the loose gravel to the side of the road and on a bike with skinny tires going 20 miles per hour, that usually doesn’t end well. Look ahead to every road you approach, as far as you can in both directions. Even if cross-traffic has stop signs or traffic lights, never assume a driver will stop. Most people aren’t used to looking for bicycles on country roads and may not see you until it’s too late. Right of way means nothing in these situations. If you’re on a bike and the other person is in a car, you will ALWAYS lose.

I briefly thought about camping along the way, but a) camping gear = more weight to haul on my bike/back, and b) taking a shower and sleeping in a bed after being on a bike all day is truly wonderful. So thanks to some hotel points I accrued a few years ago and didn’t realize I still had, I’ll be staying in a room in Niles, MI the first night and then in Jackson, MI the second night, all free of charge. I know, that’s not very hardcore, but maybe in the future I’ll toughen up.

So what DOES one take on a 3-day bike trip? Here’s what I’m bringing:

Contents of Camelbak hydration system/backpack

• Water (3L)
• Multi-tool (hex wrenches, spoke wrench, flat/phillips screwdriver)
• Tire patch kit
• Inner tubes (2)
• SmartWool socks (2pr)
• Underwear (2pr)
• T-shirts (2)
• Bike pump
• Clif bars (6)
• Energy gel packs (4)
• Crescent wrench
• Tire levers (3)
• Phone/mp3 player
• Phone charger
• Portable AM/FM radio
• Wallet
• Keys
• Sunscreen
• Toothbrush/toothpaste
• Deodorant
• First aid kit

Other clothing/equipment

• Bike computer/odometer
• Lock
• Gloves
• Helmet
• Tail/head lights
• Padded bike shorts
• Insulated long-sleeve shirt

That's all!

What do you think? If any of you have ever done any long-distance riding and think I’m I missing something important, let me know!

Also, thanks to everyone who’s donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation on my behalf over the past few weeks. It’s really meant a lot to me to see the support this has gotten and continues to get. Whether it’s been in the form of a donation or simply words of encouragement (or further motivating me by telling me I’m crazy), you guys are awesome. We’ve raised over $600 so far! Check it out: My Donation Page

For the past ten months or so, I’ve been kicking around the idea of taking a multi-day bicycle trip from my house in Chicago to the base of the Spirit of Detroit statue in downtown D-Town. The distance? Approximately 300 miles.

Toward the end of last summer I set the plan in motion by gathering parts necessary to build a pretty kick-ass road bike that would make such a trip possible. In addition to saving a lot of money by building it myself, I also thought the idea of doing the ride on something I built with my own hands was pretty cool. At the time I wasn’t even thinking about an added bonus to this approach that will actually be pretty huge when something inevitably goes wrong out in BFE, with no cell phone coverage: I know how to fix it!

My trip begins on May 7th and will finish up on May 9th, barring unforeseen delays. If the stars align and there is a Red Wings playoff game that night in Detroit, I will of course have to go to it and proceed to wash away my road-weariness with a cold Molson (or four). If not, I’ll settle for heading straight to a Coney Island restaurant where I’ll eat myself silly.

Last but not least, I’m also using this as an opportunity to raise a few bucks for a great cause: prostate cancer research. One in six American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetimes and it is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among us, fellas. My family has been touched by it and odds are either you or someone you know has too. Anyway, I set up a donor page here so if you feel inclined, a donation would be hugely appreciated. If not, we’ll still be friends.

Info:

• My Approximate Route
• Athletes For A Cure Donation URL

Adam and I went to Hauptbahnhof to buy our tickets (which turned out to be only good for one-way travel… oops!) and had about half an hour to kill, so we went to get food. We ended up finding the perfect hangover meal: pizza and pasta. It really hit the spot.

The train ride was pretty nice. It was a bit crowded at first but most of the other riders got off within a few stops. I fought off the temptation to take a power nap because I really wanted to see the Bavarian countryside leading into the Alps. I’m glad I did, because it was pretty impressive.

I was a bit parched when we arrived at the train station in Füssen, so I picked up a bottle of water from the magazine stand inside. I forgot to look at the label before making my purchase and discovered mid- first swig that I got “table” water, which means “carbonated”. That is a slight shock when you are expecting plain ol’ bottled mineral water, but I drank it anyway.

Out of the train station, we got our first look at Füssen – very quaint, yet resort-y at the same time.

We had to take a bus to get to where the castle tours kick off, which was about a 10 minute ride. When we got there, we found out that all the castle tours were done for the day. This wasn’t a big deal, since we’d read earlier that the tour of Neuschwanstein Castle’s interior was only about 15 minutes long and was not really worth it anyway. So, we left the information booth and started our walk to the castle.

I started snapping pictures as soon as we got on the winding road that leads to the castle, and it dawned on me that the castle still looked like it was really far away and, well… on the side of a friggin’ mountain.

So we walked. Uphill. Forever. The snow had mostly melted and we did have shoes on, but this path was precisely the grade and degree of difficulty referred to in every parent’s famous line: “When I was a kid we walked X miles to school, barefoot, in the snow, and uphill both ways.” As draining as this walk was for us, we had a good laugh at the thought of the poor suckers who had to haul up all the building materials for this castle in the first place, without trucks.

Once we made it to the top, we stopped to soak up the view and snap a few more pictures before heading in to the castle’s courtyard.

Inside the courtyard, there wasn’t really much to do except take pictures of the backside of the castle and a bridge way off in the distance (the castle’s “backyard”). So I did.

Having seen the castle, Adam and I headed back down to the town. This leg of the journey was MUCH easier than the climb, that is for sure. After waiting a while for the bus, we made it back to the train station and decided it was imperative that we eat before spending the next 2+ hours on the train back to Munich. We hauled ass to the first suitable thing we could find, which was a Mediterranean place a few blocks from the train station. Gyros in hand, we ran back to the train and boarded with a few minutes to spare. Seeing as how the next train didn’t leave for another 2 hours, we really didn’t want to miss this one.

On the way back to Munich, a train conductor came around checking tickets. I thought we were fine for the whole round trip using the tickets we bought back in Munich, but they turned out to be only one way. Adam was holding the tickets, and when the guy came around to check and pointed out that ours were invalid, Adam rattled off a fine piece of social engineering (read: feigned tourist ignorance) and after a while of talking in circles the conductor just gave up and left us alone.

Back in Munich, we went back to the hostel to meet up for a bierhall crawl which tours a few of Munich’s breweries and gets you pretty sloppy. For the third night in a row, there weren’t enough people interested so it was cancelled. So naturally, we had some Augustiners while trying to hatch another plan. What we eventually came up with was, as you probably could’ve guessed, to go back to Schwabinger 7.

A return trip was not in the cards on this night though. That’s because AC/DC played an outdoor show at the Olympic Park and it had just let out before we left the hostel. Let me tell you, the Germans love their AC/DC. And they love to go out and party after AC/DC shows. This made going to any rock-oriented bars that night pretty much futile. Scwhabinger was packed, and we were kinda out of energy anyways. Soooo, back to the hostel for some more half-liters of Augustiner!

When we got back we saw “Boston” and “Irish”, who never stopped drinking long enough the previous night to actually go to bed. So, they were going on almost 30 hours of pure boozin’. Insane.

That pretty much wraps it up for Day 4.

Eastern Conference:

1. Boston Bruins vs. 8. Montreal Canadiens: Boston in 6

2. Washington Capitals vs. 7. New York Rangers: Washington in 5

3. New Jersey Devils vs. 6. Carolina Hurrincanes: New Jersey in 7

4. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. 5. Philadelphia Flyers: Philadelphia in 6

Western Conference:

1. San Jose Sharks vs. 8. Anaheim Ducks: San Jose in 5

2. Detroit Red Wings vs. 7. Columbus Blue Jackets: Detroit in 6

3. Vancouver Canucks vs. 6. St. Louis Blues: St. Louis in 7

4. Chicago Blackhawks vs. 5. Calgary Flames: Chicago in 7

The tour’s first stop was next to the former Sterneckerbraukeller where Adolf Hitler was sent by the Army in September of 1919 to spy on the German Workers’ Party (DAP). Here, he ultimately ended up giving his first political speech, in reaction to what one of the DAP members said onstage about the need for Bavaria to secede from Germany and join Austria. This building now hosts a company that sells and repairs Apple products.

Next, we moved on to the private dining hall at the Hofbrauhaus where Hitler delivered many speeches.

According to our guide, the stage and backdrop are the same today as they were during Hitler’s rise to power. As our guide led us downstairs, he stopped us to mention something interesting about the ceiling of the Hofbrauhaus’ main dining room. Hofbrauhaus doesn’t like to advertise this, but at one point in time its ceiling was covered in swastikas that got painted over sometime after the war. Well, the paint they used was cheap and over time has gradually faded so that it is a noticeably different color than the paint surrounding it. The guide told us not to make too big a deal of it since doing so annoys the Hofbrauhaus employees. I was able to take a picture anyway.

Next we headed to the site where Hitler’s infamous Beer Hall Putsch ended, near Odeonsplatz. Odeonsplatz, bordered on the west by the Felderrnhalle, was the site where Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor and was host to many S.S. induction ceremonies and Putsch anniversary celebrations.

From the south side of Felderrnhalle:

After a coffee/restroom break at a coffee shop on the edge of Odeonsplatz, we continued on to the former S.A. headquarters, which is now a bank.

After hearing a bit about the S.A. and how their role in the NSDAP changed over time, we continued on to our final stop of the tour, Königsplatz.

Königsplatz is currently surrounded by Munich’s gallery and museum quarter, but during the Third Reich it served as a site for the Nazi party’s mass rallies. Just to the south of Königsplatz is the Führerbau, which was home to Adolf Hitler’s office and was where the Munich Agreement was signed in 1938. Today, it is the Munich School of Music and Theater.

At the conclusion of the tour, Karol went back to take a shower while Adam and I went back to the Augustiner beer hall for dinner and yes, beer. This time I opted for some “Brewer’s” Goulash, and was I ever happy with that decision. It was a big mess of stewed beef, goulash gravy, and chopped up potatoes and carrots. I didn’t get a picture of this one, likely because I was too busy stuffing my face.

After an hour or so, Karol met up with us and we each put down a few more rounds of beers and soft pretzels.

Later on, we decided to give Schwabinger 7 another try since it seemed like it would be a cool place if we could get there before it hit capacity. So we did, and this time was a lot better. We managed to get seats up at the bar and had a good time chatting with the bartenders. Our battle stations manned, we settled in for a night of cheap drinkin’ (relative to other places we’d been). The verdict afterwards was that Schwabinger 7 was easily the coolest bar we found while in Munich.

After finishing up at Schwabinger 7, we headed back to the hostel for some much needed rest. Well ok, maybe we visited the hostel bar one more time before bed…

After getting cleaned up, Karol and I headed out to stroll around town for a while. Adam was nowhere to be seen, so we took off without him. We all had working cell phones so I figured we’d meet up eventually. We stayed mostly south and west of the Hauptbahnhof, which is an area I hadn’t explored the last time I was in Munich. Along the way we passed some pretty cool-looking buildings like this church:

Before long we were thirsty/hungry and happened upon the Hacker-Pschorr Bier Hall. This beer hall is MASSIVE, though it was virtually empty since we were there so early. Karol and I promptly ordered beers (of course!); he had pumpkin soup with pretzels and I had a goulash soup that was truly awesome.

Also, it’s worth noting that Hacker-Pschorr has the largest bathroom I’ve ever seen and probably will ever see in my lifetime. It’s square footage dwarfs the dining rooms of most restaurants in Chicago. No, I don’t have pictures.

From Hacker-Pschorr, we slowly made our way back to the hostel. Unfortunately, it was snowing at the time.

In front of the hostel, we just happened to run into Adam who had woken up only about a half hour earlier. By now it was late afternoon and we headed into the hostel bar, armed with Karol’s computer, in order to look up things to do that night. We found a handful of bars up on Munich’s north side that sounded interesting and after hanging out for a few hours, decided to check them out.

First up was Schwabinger 7. Though the atmosphere in there was cool, it was totally packed and we really couldn’t make it very far into the place. Note to anyone who visits this bar: Watch out for the last step on the way in! I was the first one in the door and got almost up to the bar before stumbling over this hidden step. I recovered though, with minimal laughter from Karol who was right behind me. Adam must not have seen this because he did the same thing, except he went down… hard. I think he face planted into the base of the bar, knocking into a girl sitting unsuspectingly nearby. That was about it for our first Schwabinger experience.

We moved on to bar #2 (I don’t remember its name) hoping it would be a little less crowded. It was. Though the description we found said it was a rock music bar, it had a lounge atmosphere and they were blasting jazz. It wasn’t a bad place, but it wasn’t really what we were looking for at that point. We stayed for a drink, though, and Karol opted for a shot of absinthe complete with melted sugar.

We left in search of bars #3 and #4 which, in hindsight, was a terrible idea. We walked for what seemed like forever in a cold rain/snow mix and could not find either of these damn places. Finally, we called it quits. Since we had fun at the hostel bar the night before, we retreated to there.

Back at the hostel bar, we met three Irish folks (2 girls / 1 guy) and a drunken asshole from Boston, who we just referred to as “Boston”. We didn’t last as long as we did the night before, but put in a good showing nonetheless.

- – -

My plane landed in Munich at around noon on Tuesday, March 24. Unfortunately, I have a really hard time falling asleep on airplanes (yes, Karol and I hit the bar before departure) so I only got maybe 45 minutes of naptime in on the 8.5 hour overnight flight. I was tired but I wasn’t too worried, because hey – I’m in Germany afterall! After Karol and I met up with Adam near the entrance of our terminal, our first priority was to find food. Being the adventurers we are, we turned to the first thing we saw upon stepping out of Terminal 2′s door: Burger King. I know, I know… but we had a train ride ahead of us and didn’t feel like waiting any longer. Unfortunately for Karol, who is vegan, BK probably wasn’t the most attractive of choices. Seeing as how we spent over half of this trip in Bavaria where the staples are meat and potatoes soaked in meat-derived sauces, Karol pretty consistently got the shaft when it came to dining choices.

Anyway, we pulled some Euros out of the ATM (“Geldautomat”) and jumped on a train headed to Munich’s central train station, Hauptbahnhof – conveniently located less than a block from our hostel.

We emerged from the train station completely disoriented, so Adam flagged down a couple walking by and asked them where we needed to go. They courteously laughed at us, and then pointed us back in the direction from which we came.

We made it to the hostel and checked in. Next, the plan was to drop our stuff off and head out for beers. Adam was assigned to a different room than Karol and me, and when he met us in the lobby, he had a Japanese kid named “Shu” with him. Shu was only in Munich for the night and was alone so we decided it was in his best interests to come out and get sloppy drunk with us, despite his warnings that Japanese people typically can’t handle mass quantities of alcohol as well as us white folks. Right then and there I knew this was going to get ugly.

The first stop was the Augustiner Bier Hall. Not sure if the etiquette was to wait to be seated or not, we hovered near the door for a few minutes. It became apparent that no one was going to seat us so we plopped down at a table along one of the walls. First order of business: One delicious LITER of Helles (Lagerbier Hell).

Karol went with the same, I think, and Adam opted for the Dunkel. Shu scaled it back a notch and went with a half-liter of helles. Though I wasn’t really that hungry, I eventually started eating some of the food we had coming to our table in waves. This included a bunch of soft pretzels w/ mustard, bratwurst-style sausages, some sort of sliced white sausage in a vinegar/oil sauce w/ onions, and a pork dish that had a tasty potato dumpling on the side (which we referred to exclusively as “potato ball” for the remainder of the trip).

Though Shu said he couldn’t drink very much, he made up for it in his eating abilities. That kid devoured everything that came within three feet of his mouth. Of course we had to talk about the Japanese competitive eater who set the hot dog eating record all those years in a row, which Shu thought was pretty funny.

After a few more liters, we noticed that none of us had seen Shu in at least 20 minutes. The possibility of a colossal dine-and-dash was ruled out when we saw that his bag was still on the bench next to Adam. Uh oh. A few minutes later, he emerged from the direction of the bathrooms with that unmistakable “I just puked” look on his face. I don’t know if it was the food or the beer (or both) but Shu had just spent the last half hour giving back some of Munich’s finest food and beer to Augustiner via its toilets. This, of course, didn’t stop him from ordering more food (and eating it all) and beer. I think he made a total of three bathroom trips to perform what the competitive eating scene calls a “Reversal of Fortune”.

Once we squared up, it was on to the Hofbrauhaus. Not as cozy as Augustiner, Hofbrau is probably the biggest tourist trap of all of Munich’s major beer halls. We didn’t stay there long, but it was long enough for the liters we previously drank at Augustiner to catch up with Karol and Shu. Still not looking so hot, Shu bowed out and we never saw him again. Karol went into a zone where he didn’t say much and just kind of stared around the room. Once my beer and Adam’s Jager-Coke were gone, we decided to check out an English-style pub a few streets over. I don’t remember how we knew to go to this place. It’s possible that alcohol affects short term memory. Karol was adamant about finishing his beer at Hofbrauhaus, so we agreed that he would meet us at the next place when he was finished.

Inside the pub it was dark and quiet. They had a specialty drink that had a bunch of tropical stuff (I think?) and nutmeg. Pretty tasty, actually. After Karol got there, we hung around for another 15-20 minutes and then made our way back to the hostel.

It turns out that the bar in our hostel is a pretty happening place among Munich’s younger nightlife crowd. The bar was packed when we got back. We ended up staying there for the rest of the night and closed down the bar at 4am.

Day 1 in the books!

A few days ago, my Twitter friend/Detroit Red Wings PR Extraordinaire Shannon Paul tweeted a request asking her friends/followers to submit “Things I Love About Detroit” lists for inclusion in the Detroit Startup Weekend blog. Having spent the majority of my life in that area, I thought it would be fun to look back on what stands out, in my mind, as my favorite things unique to the city. This may read more as a “Things I Miss About Detroit Since Moving To Chicago” list but for the most part, these are the things I can’t get enough of when go back to visit.

So, in no particular order, here goes.

National Coney Island/Phoenix Coney Island

One word: CONEYS. Best post-bar food ever. Sure, other places have chili dogs but I’ve yet to go anywhere that’s even come close to the perfection Coney Island has achieved. Or, if you’re in the mood for something “healthy” there’s the Hani – a warm pita filled with chicken, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sauce. (Phoenix Coney Island calls this the Geno). Either way, you can’t go wrong.

The Abundance of Inexpensive Canadian Beer

Detroit’s proximity to Canada makes Canadian beer an easy find. In fact, it’s an oddity for a bar/party store to not carry Labatt or Molson, and there are usually several varieties of both. This is not the case in Chicago. Here you will very rarely see a bar serving up Labatt, while Molson is virtually non-existent. If you are lucky enough to come across some Canadian brews in Chicago, it’s almost always priced like any other fussy import.

“Hockeytown”

Detroit is serious about hockey. I’ve never been anywhere, outside of Canada, where people cared more about their professional hockey teams(s) or were more involved, in some form, with hockey themselves.

Detroit has a very well-established amateur hockey community. When I was younger, I was fortunate enough to play in organized leagues. However, for me and everyone else I played with (and our friends), it didn’t stop there. When the weather was warm I’d spend the majority of my after-school time playing street hockey until a break for dinner, and then it was back out to the street until dark. When it was cold enough, the game moved out to one of the several ponds in my city. It didn’t matter if some of the kids could barely stand up on skates, they were out there doing it. It seemed like we never had a shortage of guys, especially on the weekends when there would be several games going on at the same time on our pond.

Then there’s the Red Wings. No other team has been as consistently good over the past ten years but even if that weren’t the case, they’d still have one of the most loyal fan bases around. People simply can’t get enough. This is evident every time I go to the Joe Louis Arena and feel like I just made about 20,000 new friends for the night. Maybe it’s just that the beers are bigger at the JLA than they tend to be elsewhere, but compared to other arenas I’ve been to it seems that the average person at the Joe is much more genuinely excited to be at the game.

Saint Andrews Hall/The Shelter

These are the venues I first started going to regularly to see shows. I always thought that St. Andrews was the perfect size venue – intimate enough to get a good view from wherever you’re positioned, but big enough that the acts you want to see don’t sell out immediately. Between 1995 and the early-2000’s I saw more concerts there than I can keep track of and almost as many in its basement, The Shelter. Places like these spoil the experience of having to go see a band you like in a much larger venue, where the sound quality sucks and you’re lucky if you can even make out individual band members.

Better Made Potato Chips

Better Made potato chips are made locally and unfortunately don’t make it very far from Detroit. I prefer them to the major brands such as Lay’s because they’re a not as greasy and are slightly cheaper. My personal favorite are the Red Hot BBQ flavor. The seasoning they put on these are equal parts spice and crack cocaine. The latter ingredient explains why I cannot stop eating them once I open a bag.

Friends/Family

Most of my family lives in the metro Detroit area, so it’s always nice to get back and see everyone from time to time. Though many of my friends have moved on to other places, a handful still remain in the area. I’ve been gone for almost six years, but these are the folks I still consider to be my best, lifelong friends – the kind of people that would do anything for me if I needed them to.

FM Radio

Unbelievably, the FM radio situation in Chicago is a disaster. It’s been over two years since I’ve listened to it. The reason is that while there are plenty of talk, hip hop/R&B, and oldies stations, there is really only one quasi-rock station – Q101. This is a station that has no qualms about going from something tolerable to diving into a 90’s pop-rock black hole with no warning whatsoever. The day I swore it off was the day they came out of a commercial and launched into a string of Spin Doctors, Nickelback, and 4 Non-Blondes. No thanks.

Detroit, on the other hand, has plenty of good options. There’s the ever-reliable classic rock station, 94.7 – WCSX. Though I have to live vicariously through a podcast subscription, 94.7 just got even better with the addition of Deminski and Doyle in the mornings. Then there’s 89X (88.7), which delivers a lot of new, slightly more obscure (at times) music for when you’re tired of the same old thing. 101.1 – WRIF is what a rock station should be. Sure, they play some songs from time to time that warrant a flip to one of the other aforementioned stations, but for the most part the selection is good.

I’m sure other stations have come and gone since I lived there, but those three stick out in my mind.

The Pizza

Jet’s Pizza / Nona’s Pizza – Detroit-style square deep dish pizza is my favorite pizza, hands down. This is something I never fully appreciated until I left. After I moved to Chicago and started making my way around to all the famous Chicago-style pizza joints everyone raves about, I started to miss Jet’s more and more. In Chicago, you basically have two choices: the infamous and obnoxious deep dish that looks like a cake filled with cheese and doused in sauce, or a brittle thin-crust round pizza that is inexplicably cut up into square pieces. If you told me that, for the rest of my pizza-eating life, I was only allowed to order Jet’s square pizza and Nona’s round, I would be perfectly happy with that.

However, if you ask any of Zappos’ repeat customers what makes the company stand out in their minds from the rest, most will say it’s their customer service. As of late last week, I totally agree.

I’ve been battling the Michigan/Chicago winters for the past 8 years or so without a decent pair of boots, so naturally I decided that now was the time to get some. I had a pair of Sorels when I was a kid that I absolutely loved so I wanted to go with that brand again. Unfortunately, this late in the season it’s almost impossible to get the style I want in sizes 10-12 due to the high demand.

I checked Zappos.com and they were completely sold out of my size. I selected the option to have them contact me when a pair of 11s came in, and also tried a few other sites only to find that they were all out too. Bummer, but like I said – I’ve made it this long without boots, so I could probably wait a little longer.

Bootless, I (publicly) sent the following to Zappos CEO and co-founder Tony Hsieh’s Twitter account: “Rats! I was all set to order some boots but you’re out of my size. I’ll just have to be patient.” I wasn’t expecting a reply but 18 hours later I got a direct message from Tony asking me to email him the details of what I wanted so he could forward it on to his VP of Merchandising, Steve Hill. I sent this email at 3:01PM on Thursday. At 3:02, Tony sent it along to Steve (I was cc’d) and at 3:30 Steve emailed to tell me that his buyer for all things Sorel, Bill Johnson, would be in touch with me. At 3:33, he was. Over the weekend, Bill let me know that Sorel was completely sold out of my size for the season, and that I shouldn’t expect them to have any more until next fall. At this point however, he offered to start contacting other retailers on my behalf in order to hunt them down. I declined, since I could just as easily do this myself and figured he probably had more important things to do than track down a single pair of boots that I could’ve already had if I didn’t wait through two months of snow before deciding to pull the trigger.

Just to ensure there were no hard feelings, Zappos even sent me a 20% off coupon code to use on a future purchase.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never dealt with a company of this size (1500+ employees, $1+ billion in sales in 2008)  that treats one sub-$100 purchase with such importance – especially that high up the company’s organizational food chain. Having made only five or six purchases from them in the past three years, I think I’m hardly what Zappos would consider a high-priority customer. Nevertheless, they went the extra mile or two to try to make me happy.

I guess I wrote this because I think it’s important, with all the e-commerce choices out there, to relay these experiences so that someone who’s trying to decide where to spend their hard earned money has no trouble finding information that will help them make the right decision. I am certainly vocal when it comes to horrible customer service experiences (as past posts to this blog will reveal) but I also want to give credit where it’s due.