RAGBRAI

      This post is going to be hard to get across but let me try to convey it to you. For those reading that are not familiar with RAGBRAI, it is the Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, started in 1973 as a 6 day ride across the state by two Des Moines Register columnists who thought they were inviting just a few friends along but about 120 people made the trek that year. The next year there were 2000 then the number grew to 10,000.  This year it is said the number is more like 18,000 riders from every state and many foreign countries. The enormity and scope of the amount of all those people on bicycles is whats hard to convey in pictures or words.  It's like a Jimmy Buffet concert, " you had to be there".  We, meaning Bill Hamilton, Ruth Glick,
Cindy and myself started in Des Moines and rode to the start of the ride in Rock Valley then rode to Mason City for a total of 526 miles. If we were to just do Rock Valley to Guttenberg not riding from Des Moines we would have done 468 miles.  On the way we stayed in motels. Once on the ride we stayed in homes of people in host towns that Ruth had set up. The towns really open their arms for the riders, and of course the riders spend lots of money in the local economy. Upon arriving into Rock Valley the welcoming we received was an emotional experience with people lining the streets, sitting on porches waving at us like we were dignitaries or rock stars. And this was the response in all the pass through towns and host over night towns. Best described as a rolling party of 20,000 people with the same interest feasting on all kinds of food and drink, lots of beer, brat, bbq, pie, ice cream, burritos, coffee, fruit, pickles, pie, did I say pie and live music in every town.  Our last town of Mason City featured Bret Michaels.  The town of Boyden is famous for pork as a pig theme was everywhere.
This sculpture in Rock Valley was the best metal work I've seen, the detail incredible.
 It wasn't possible to see or do everything in these towns and finish the days riding.

The ride its self was blessed with the best weather of all that Bill could remember. Aside from some head winds and one day of heat it was perfect.  To crest a hill and look both ways and see nothing but bicycles as far as one could see taking up the whole road which was closed to traffic was an unbelievable site.  The Iowa State Patrol blocked traffic at intersections and had music playing over the cruiser loud speaker as we ride by.  This was a bucket list thing for me and I'm glad for such an incredible experience.

      Woke up this Sunday morning first to a clap of thunder then the rain started falling, so far not drenching but steady.  Tomorrow we leave the camper and the dogs and head for Iowa and RAGBRAI.  The dogs will stay at a friends house and the camper will stay in Cindy's brother's driveway.
      Lately our riding has been on the 2 urban trails around here in Olathe KS, the Indian Creek, and the Mill Creek Stream Way.  Both these trails are full of sharp turns, steep ups and downs, going under highways and interstates, through tunnels under roads and up over the creek and down again.  All this makes for good fun on trikes but not necessarily long mile training for a tour.  Guess we'll do that on the way to RAGBRAI. 

Here is a pic of Cindy climbing one of the hills on whats locally called the mountain pass.  Kind of like an old time roller coaster where you chug up to the top to be let loose to speed down the other side and up over the next hill with momentum, then into a sweeping turn  where you better lean in to carve the corner.  Whats so cool is there is lots of this kind of riding here. No long pedal, pedal, pedal in a straight line.  Oh and it's shady most places.  Makes 40 miles a fun fest and it's always great to cross state lines on a trail, this being Indian Creek and KS/MO.
      That's what we're up to lately and don't know if we'll have time or wifi to BLOG during RAGBRAI.  If not we'll catch up when through.  Time for coffee. 
      

Hey folks! Wow how time flies. Here we are off on our summer sojourn. Where does the time go? We had such a great winter and spring at the Bike Shop. We met so many interesting people this year. We are so lucky to have our wonderful bike trail that brings people in from all over the world. Now we are off to explore some of the trails we have heard about from our customers!
 We started the trip just trying to  get through Atlanta, that's why we left on a Sunday. Our goal was to get just North of it. We found a Passport America park in Adairsville,GA that would be our destination. You know it just takes longer when you are pulling a camper and you have 2 dogs. Seems like you never pass up a Rest Area.
Luna and Jax are great little travelers and they seem to be enjoying traveling too.
  We made it to our very small little campground and grabbed the very last space they had. We got there just in the nick of time, a storm was rolling in. Very dark clouds along with thunder and lightning. It passed pretty quickly. However a couple of hours later we got lots of rain with more thunder and lightning. Guess who ended up in our bed?? Guess the dogs don't like storms.
 We got up early and got off headed to an unknown destination. We just knew we wanted to stop early enough to relax before our next milestone...Getting through St. Louis.  We are on our way to Olathe, KS to visit my family  for a couple of weeks before we head to Urbandale, IA to do RAGBRAI with our friends, Bill & Ruth. My very first bike tour. How great is that??
 We ended up stopping at a place we had stopped before. At Whittington Woods Campground in IL. Near Rend Lake. This place has to be in the top 2 of all campgrounds we have ever stopped at. When you turn in you are greeted with a beautiful garden.

After you get regestered you get 6 recently laid free range eggs! We had not realized that they do that for everyone. Last time we were there we just thought we were special. Well now we know that  the folks that own this place are very special and sure know how to welcome you. They also gave us some parsley, chives  and a lovely just picked onion. Don't you know we will be stopping there every time we are in the area.
After getting hooked up we walked around the grounds to enjoy all the beautiful flowers and the new dog park.

 We were all excited when a new bright and shiny Airstream pulled in next to us.  Of course  Regis could hardly wait to talk to them to ask them about the camper, you know like how long have you had it, how much does it weigh and the most important of all...does it have a walk around bed?
 The couple  much to our surprise were young. Why do we think you have to be old to have an Airstream??? They also had a big friendly dog. We got to talking to them and asking where they were from, they had New York plates. They were from New York City. That was also surprising. I don't think of City folks as campers either. These young folks were just shaking up all my old idealism. Well then to top it off during our conversation we found out the gal was an Actress! Well for heavens sake that is about the last thing I would expect, to be camped next to an Actress from New York City....Regis asked her if she was ever in anything we may have heard of and her reply is well I am on Law and Order right now. I think we both felt kind of stupid at that point. Even though we don't watch TV we are familiar with that show. Anyway her name is Kelli Giddish. She was so sweet and friendly. She was on her way to Missouri to watch her father (who is the same age as me) compete in a Kayak race on the Missouri River. Aren't we off to a great start on this trip!!
  We made it safely through the dreaded St. Louis and are now camped in my brothers driveway.  We made it to our favorite little coffee shop yesterday Kansas Coffee Connection where we met up with my Dad and one of my oldest dearest friends (Nancy and her husband James) It's so fun to be my brothers neighbor! We get to have driveway happy hours every night and catch up on all sorts of things.
 Today we get to ride the Indian Creek Trail. We better get some miles under our belt for RAGBRAI or we will be needing the SAG wagon to cart us around. 
Now I will save the best news for last.  We woke up to 52 degree weather! Now it just doesn't get any better than that. It is usually so freaking hot when I am in KS.  78 for the predicted High.  OMG

Tour De Mellon ride

     Finally getting around to sharing details about the Tour De Mellon ride and water melon festival in Chiefland Fl. and our first time out in our new to us travel trailer the Evergreen Everlite 29fk, that's for front kitchen, and a very spacious usable kitchen it proved to be with plenty of counter and cabinet space and ample light to see by. And in the bedroom a walk around bed, and a very usable shower in the bath.  Aside from lots of storage cabinets the Airstream lacked the other amenities.  Enough about the camper, on to the ride.
     As usually happens before a big ride on a trail, this being the Nature Coast Trail, the maintenance crews are out cleaning, mowing and blowing getting ready for the ride the day before. But sometimes the best efforts are for naught.  At about 2:30 in the morning we could hear the wind kick up  and rain down on our camper roof various detritus of tree branches and acorns which hadn't fallen off last fall and of course all this same trash was blown down on the previously groomed trail making the ride, especially for thin tired road bikes like a mountain bike ride.  Being on a fully suspended trike I did my best to pick up as much crap while riding and throwing it off to the side.  We did 50 miles that day and the weather was beautiful, not overly hot and humid and a light wind of the tail variety on our way back.  Needless to say we ate much water melon, yum!   After the ride we checked out the festival which had the usual arts and crafts for sale and everybody seemed to be enjoying being out on a beautiful day.
      Sunday turned hot and humid for a ride on the Chiefland to Cross City portion of the trail which is a lot of out in the full sun riding. Hay getting ready for RAGBRAI and riding through corn fields of Iowa so good training.  We were told about a place to check out called the Putnum Lodge at the end of the trail that was having a brunch that we decided to make our destination and were glad we did. What a magnificent building.  Used to be a hotel for lumber barons back in the 1920s now a hotel and B&B. The food was good, "Full House Karaoke" provided entertainment and almost the whole interior walls and ceiling was pecky cypress plank which I thought was painted but was told by owner Ed that it was stained by the Seminole Indians from various variety's of berries and still looked new to this day.  Check out this place as a destination or place to stay for a ride on the Nature Coast trail.  Rooms go from 110. to 170. depending on their size, some with kitchenettes, all charming and period decorated.
      Monday was a day like Sunday, hot and humid as FL. summers are and we rode to Trenton for lunch and piece decadent German chocolate cake at the Quilt Shoppe Cafe'.  Lots of sugar for the ride back.  Three days of 50 miles each in the heat pretty good I'd say.
      Next time we hook up  the camper we'll be heading for Kansas for a family visit then Iowa for RAGBRAI.  That will be the end of June so not too far off.
      Till then, Happy Trails!

New Tour Easy

Back in the shop after a long hiatus is an Easy Racers Tour Easy Adventure -expedition in custom color prismatic-transparent green.  Yes custom color means higher price but to be set apart from the crowd sometimes ya just gotta spring for the big bucks. It's equipped with full fenders, bottle cages, Schwalbe Marathon tires. This expedition model has the speed and sport gearing but expedition tires and wheels for more versatile riding conditions.  Change the tires to Duranos and get the speed of the full on speed and sport. Come on in and check it out.  It's size is medium and adjustable.

     Thanks to all the folks who came out on a beautiful day in May to celebrate the opening of the Dunnellon trail and bridge over the Withlacoochee River which will soon be connected to the Withlacoochee trail closing the gaps to make a continuous series of trails from coast to coast.  Such a big boost for eco tourism and revenue for the state of Florida, and making it safer to get around on a bike. 
     We just signed up for the Tour de Melon June 7th which takes place on the Nature Coast trail in Chiefland.  Getting new tires on the Airstream even though the ones on it look good but getting to that 5 year old mark so off they go.  Impossible to find tires not made in China anymore and believe me, I've looked and researched online till my eyes crossed.  Decided to go with Maxis, hey they make nice bike tires and get good ratings on all of the forums.  So we're taking the camper on a shake down to Chiefland for a few days, kind of getting ready for summer.

Ribbon Cutting

Join us on Friday May 16th at 10:30 for the Ribbon Cutting for the beautiful new Dunnellon extension of the Withlacoochee Trail. From 41 go to C.R. 39 in Citrus Springs. There is a small parking lot so come early or ride your bike! Call us if you need any more  details.
Hope to see lots of folks at this event.

A few new messages

A few new messages for spring, now that the weather is about to change and start getting hotter.  Our summer will start with checking off a bucket list wish, doing RAGBRAI.  Then north to MN to ride their trails and on to who knows where. I sometimes envy people who have everything planned out, but even the best of plans can be subverted, so we just bob around having adventure where ever we find it.
      A note of a few good deals at the shop.  We have a 2014 Catrike Road used as a model in a photo shoot in electric blue with a rack for 2525. Also a Pocket in saber green for 1900. These are new trikes with full warranty. Another is a slightly used by Paulo, owner of  catrike, 700 with 16" wheels in front for 2100. Also discount pricing on Trident stowaway and Transport.
      Sitting out in the back yard watching the birds and noticing how the blue bird shares it's worms with cardinals but chases away the red wing blackbirds and thrushes.  I guess he knows the cardinals are not pigs.  Thats all folks, time for a bike ride.

Rally Ho

We hope you will join us in Floral City on  the evening of Feb. 28th for the kick off of the Floral City Strawberry Festival. There will be Music, Beer, BBQ and of course Strawberries.
   Saturday Mar. 1 we will be attending the 10th annual Catrike Rally on the West Orange Trail then going to the New Factory for a tour. Hope to see you there.
   Sunday March 2 we will be hosting a ride on the Withlacoochee Trail. Come early for Coffee and treats.  Line up will start at 10:30a. for pictures and the ride starting at 10:45a. we will ride about 10miles to River Ratz  in Nobelton for lunch.  Then anyone who wants can stop by Floral Park where the Strawberry Fest. is happening.
This will be a fun and busy weekend and we sure hope to see lots of trikers attending.

Four Paws Kingdom and TCT Rally

     The final leg of this summer's trip is to be a stop over in NC at Four Paws Kingdom campground a campground dedicated to dogs and their humans who happen to drive them around, lookout for their welfare and pick up their poop, amongst other things.  The reason I found this particular campground was because of a Tin Can Tourist rally, a rally for vintage RVs which I signed up for.  The CG has just 40 sites all with full hook up, super clean rest rooms and showers and 8 off leash dog parks, 2 for agility work, 1 with a pond, 1 with a creek, a small dog park and a big dog park and a few other free run. The CG is run by Lucy and Belle and their humans and a few workampers.  On Saturday night they had a German October Fest party, beer, wine, food and fun.  One game was to push a tennis ball up your partner's one pant leg and down the other as fast a you can.  This was a fun game to watch. Another was a nail driving contest and a pretzel fishing match.  I participated and won the pretzel fishing. Would have rather have Cindy push a tennis ball in my pants.   The dogs that afternoon got to do wiener fishing aka sausage bobbing and Luna won the small dog heat, chow hound that she is.
      The Tin Can Tourist rally featured many restored and original trailers and 1 bus.  Cool to see the pain staking work that went into some of these units. Too many to post pics of them all but check out the few here.  Of course many were decorated in their period but I didn't decorate ours being i could not think of anything remarkable from 1995 that i brought with us or could have bought. Anyway 95 isn't considered "vintage"
    Now we're home and playing catch up on bills, weeds, shopping and the like.  While we were away lightning struck the big live oak west of our house and blew the circuits in the office along with Deb's computers.  I checked the breakers but the receptacles in that room are still dead.  The lightning blew off not only bark from the tree but chunks of wood, so it must have made a hell of a boom. We did manage a side trip to Chimney Rock and Luna went all the way up and down on her little legs,2480 ft.

Back to the weeds, and hope those of you whom have followed this blog enjoyed reading as much as we enjoyed sharing.

Grand Canyon of the East

Being in the wilderness has it's advantages being without technology as you get left alone to enjoy said wilderness without cell phones ringing or having to check email, face book and the like.  On the flip side you can't call anyone, send email or post on face book either.  That is why BLOG posts don't come regularly, and I actually have to read back blogs to see where I left off.  How quickly the past becomes a distant memory.
     Any way the next stop on the summer trip as referred by some fellow campers was the Grand Canyon of the East in NY.  The PA. Grand Canyon was more of a grand valley compared to this one in Letchworth State Park where the 14,000 acre park was donated to the state of NY by William Pryor Letchworth.  His home is now is now the B&B and restaurant The Glen Iris.  The canyon is carved by the Genesee River and 3 dramatic waterfalls, one of which is 107 feet high, make it one of the most notable examples of waterfall scenery in the Eastern US. A hundreds of feet high railroad bridge, which will be torn down but still used today gave me a perch to get the rainbow in the falls picture.  Of course there were signs advising not to go up there but to me was an invitation to do just that.  There are 66 miles of hiking trails through out the park and a trike ride on the twisty hilly road to the falls was both fun and challenging.  The camp ground was nice with 30 amp. service, and there are cabins to rent, river rafting, and hot air balloon rides.  Not a place to hurry through.
     Now back at my sisters place in Canonsburg Pa. and heading out today for the final leg of this trip to 4 Paws Kingdom Campground in Rutherfordton NC. where it's all about the dogs, for a Tin Can Tourist Rally featuring older restored campers, the vehicles not the people, and then the haul ass home to be open for the annual Withlacoochee trail ride and Bikes and BBQ in beautiful down town Floral City.  

     This trip has been a blast with mostly great weather, and some of the nicest people we've had the pleasure of meeting along the trails we've ridden and the campgrounds we've stayed. Hope to see many of you again in Fl this winter.  Happy traveling, happy trails to you.

Pa. Grand Canyon & Erie Canal Trails

     Sorry so long since last post but being in the boonies as we were a lot didn't lend well to wifi or cell phone service.  Gosh most people up in this part of Pa. still have land lines and there are pay phones just about in every town general store.  We settled in to Pettecote Junction Campground in Cedar Run near the Pa. Grand Canyon and managed to cop a electric site due to a cancellation after only one night boon docking.  Here the Pine Creek trail is 61 miles long, crushed rock through stunning scenery, with little villages and towns along the way. We found a farmer in Wellsboro who sells pasture fed beef and another guy just 5 miles down the road from the camp who sells free range eggs.  So we've been eating primal and clean.  A storm blew through and brought the creek up enough to enable us to get in a kayak paddle, so we took the van south, dropped it at Slate Run, pedaled the trikes back to camp got in the kayaks and paddled down stream with the current with small rapids thrown in for fun.  Stayed through Labor Day and then lit out for New York and the Erie Canal trail. Got a pull through site at Red Rock Ponds Camping Resort.  There are lots of ponds where they quarried for the red rock in the 1800s that is seen on lots of buildings in this area.  Luna has met a friend by the name of Diesel and he is said to be Chihuahua/Corgi mix, and if they could both be let off leash would have a ball juking and cutting chasing each other around. She also met another Chihuahua named Mikey who is so very cute.  This trail is crushed rock until it gets closer to Rochester then we hear it's paved, but haven't ridden that part yet.  We're here till Friday when we'll head south to Alfred to Peter Stull,  The Bicycle Man Shop for a recumbent rally and ride.  Hope to hook up with Bryan Ball sometime this week and will see him at Pete's.  Made a Trader Joe's run today as it was rainy and there was a huge Wegman's store in the same complex.   A monster grocery store on the scope of the GIANT Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh. Hoping the weather clears up tomorrow so we can explore more of this trail and places like Holley Falls. Read a really good book I saw reviewed in a newspaper in Wellsboro Pa.  It's by David Rosenfeld, "Dogtripping".  Very funny true story about a couple who rescue Golden Retrievers mostly and take a trip x country with 25 dogs. Read it in 2 days! Met a guy throwing a stick into the canal for his golden to fetch. Couldn't tell if he said he was 99 or the dog was 9 but his name is George Foster and the dog is Max. Lovin' this cool weather, see ya!

 
                  

Oil Creek Trail

     After a steady rain last night which put out our camp fire but not before the chicken breast was cooked, and a relaxing evening in camp we woke to drive the short distance to the Oil Creek Trail.  Everything was wet and a little slick in places but that just adds to the fun factor when riding a trike.  Nicely shaded some curves and slight ups and downs, mostly down on the way back which is the way I prefer but the trail is only @ 10 miles anyway.  It pretty much follows Oil Creek crossing a bridge or two and ends up at the Drake Well that started the petroleum boom.  Along the way there were many wild flowers and some delicious thimble berries.  It was hard to just ride and not stop to pick and eat which we had to finally say ride on, don't look.  Now in Oil City at "Spilling the Beans" coffee shop since there is no wi fi or cell service at the camp ground.  Tomorrow is laundry and farmers market day in Franklin so we wont be on the bikes. Maybe a bit of mt. biking on the trails in the park.  They were just groomed for a race last week so sounds like fun to me. Just noticed Aug. 27th on placard and that is the day we were there. 

Back to Pa.

     After lots of thoughts of where to go next we dicided to stick with the original plan and head for all the trails in Northern Pa, the Oil City, Allegheny River Valley, and Sandy Creek, pronounced "crik" here in Pa.  As happens every year, leaving Bass Lake CG and yellow Springs area and all the familiar trails around there is a little melancholy, but we're ready to move on down the road. Got a good early start for Two Mile Run County Park in Franklin Pa. but was delayed by a tire blowout on our Airstream.  Road construction had us running down what was once the shoulder or breakdown lane where the right front tire must have picked up something which cut it and caused a delaminating of the outer casing which started flapping against the side of the trailer.  Glad I caught it in time before it tore anything up.  Pulled off to the side to change the tire, dropped and installed the spare as a Ohio State Trooper, Chris Dunn stopped to offer assistance with lights flashing to aid in our safety on the side of I-71.  Of course the spare was low in air so a bicycle pump was employed along with Officer Dunn's, Cindy's, and myself arm power managed to get the tire at 60 lbs. to gets us down the road to Wally World to purchase a new Chinese tire.  Akron Oh. used to be a tire manufacturing area but now everything has been out sourced to China.  I bought a lug wrench back when I bought my first car and still have it and used it to chance the trailer tire.  Bought it a K Mart when such things could be had made in USA.   You can really reef on this wrench without it bending.
     After a bumpy ride getting to 2 Mile County Park CG we got a spacious site in the woods with full hook ups in a very nice park about 8 miles from the Allegheny Valley Trail System which encompasses 3 interconnected trails, all paved except for some short sections where connected.  From Sandy Creek to Allegheny there is a pair of 65 stairs to carry a bike down or up.  These are some of the most scenic trails we've ever ridden.  It's a shame there isn't a campground on one of these trails so we didn't have to drive the 8 miles or more as yesterday to get to Foxbourg to ride the South end of the Allegheny.  There was 2 tunnels on this section of trail which required lights to see since the tunnels curve and it's pitch black for about 1/2 mile.  Also many sections to get off the trail and play in the river which we did and little Luna loves to play in the water. Today we do the Northern section of the Allegheny and tomorrow the Oil City.