Vacationing at the Red Maple Inn

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Holly and I had decided to give ourselves a two-day stay at the Red Maple Inn in Burton for Christmas. We’ve stayed there on numerous occasions and always enjoy the opportunity to get away to some place extremely relaxing without having to travel half a day. The Inn is beautiful, with tastefully appointed, comfortable rooms, excellent amenities, and a perfect location for exploring the shops of Amish country…something we both enjoy. It only offers breakfast though, and so we have to look in the community for our other meals…which usually means Mary Yoder’s and more overeating. Oh well…

Knowing what was coming, I put in 71 minutes on the bike. I figured I’d have trouble getting in a workout while there…walking would be the only good option…so I had to do a little extra. Then my buddy Todd called. Todd is the friend with whom I did the 1,100 mile bike hike back when we were in high school. He was in town for the holidays and so we decided to catch up while hiking in the Metroparks. He’s retired from the Navy now, but still is a fitness fanatic and particularly likes to ride. He did half a dozen centuries last summer and rode some extremely difficult mountain courses, as well. He told me that he wants me to consider riding with him in Colorado this summer where he will be doing a particularly tough 80-mile ride that goes up and over some wicked passes near Leadville. I’m guessing that means 12,000 feet plus, which would have me sucking for oxygen under the best of conditions. I’ll have to think about that one.

Holly and I arrived at the Inn around 6 p.m. after dropping the jeep off with Dan. We walked to Belle’s …it’s under a quarter mile…for dinner, which is on Burton Square and were a little disappointed. I suppose you shouldn’t expect too much when you’re the only one eating in a restaurant, but there isn’t much to choose from in Burton.

When we got back to the hotel, we went to the basement where they have their exercise and play room. One game of ping pong and a few minutes on the treadmill and we were back to our room where Holly tried to stay awake through a viewing of the movie ‘Elf’. She was unsuccessful. We were both getting hungry around 11 p.m., so we made our way down to the dining room where they had some fruit and cereal set out for breakfast. I grabbed a couple of bananas and a cup of yogurt for myself and Holly had some oatmeal and popcorn. There’s no staff around in the evenings and the kitchen was wide open…but I controlled myself. Between the hike and the ride, I think I managed to burn more than I ate…finally.


Bike duration: 71 minutes. Hike duration: 65 minutes
Training Heart Rate: 130 biking. 70 hiking.
Calories burned during workout: 1065 biking. 350 hiking.