On Saturday morning, I was up super early to grab breakfast downstairs, and to relax and read. Paul and I had made prior plans to to meet up early for a class at his local Orangetheory Fitness gym. We each braved the wintery conditions to get to his gym location.
I’ve forgotten how intense and demanding those classes are. It was good but I had some irritating issues with pairing and using competing heart rate monitors. 15 mins in, I was able to pair the Orangetheory chest strap monitor instead, and it worked. Huh? Well whatever I didn’t have time to keep futzing with monitors and watches – I was gonna miss more of the class. I focused on strength training (which was intense) and the cardio (running) was easier for me. I was extremely sore for the next few days.
We met up with friends Sean and Rechana for lunch at the Henry Ford museum, and a tour of the nearby Ford F-150 Rouge River factory. Lunch was nice and then we took a shuttle bus to the factory. We watched one movie about the factory, sat for an interesting laser light 4D show about the truck, then we walked into the factory itself. We had planned to see the factory in action, but the factory floor ended up shutting down for the long weekend a few minutes before we got there. Rats. At least we were able to walk around to see the complexity and size of the place.
Afterwards we tried to see a movie and/or go bowling but the timing didn’t work out for either. We also tried to get dinner at this restaurant called Union Woodshop in a cool little town called Clarkston but there was a 3 hour wait. 3 hours! Next time.
We ended up going to this BBQ place with a shorter wait called Bad Brads BBQ in Lake Orion. We couldn’t get a single large table, so we split up into two tables. While the appetizers were really nice, I couldn’t eat much so I had a salad for my entree. Can you believe that? A salad. Good food, and it turned into an early night.
The Ipes chilled out in the hotel. Overall, I though the hotel was excellent. Very good food, really nice rooms, and excellent facilities.
In the morning, we had breakfast, finished packing up, and we were on the road by 8:30 AM. The rest of the 10 hour went extremely well. Maybe because it wasn’t a major weekend, but we sailed through Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Few cops, no traffic, good weather. We made a few pit stops along the way for an early lunch, gas, and leg stretching. We were home by 8 PM.
It was a good weekend road trip overall. A little disappointing with the aborted or not quite successful parts, but what can you do sometimes. Things don’t always work out the way you want it to be. However, we spent a good 4.5 days away as a family, we got to relax, hang out with friends, and do things we haven’t done before.
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