Ugly Shirt Ride 2014

Ugly Shirt Ride 2014

The Ugly Shirt ride is always a fun ride. The day was beautiful.  Spring in all it's glory.
A new rider Tammy joined us.  This was her first ride on her new hybrid Specialized bike.  The main group headed up to Buffalo Eddy as Tammy and I spent our time playing with gearing and riding the bridges. The Ugly Shirt award will have to go to Roger Staats.  It was really a toss up between Tracy and Roger but as Nikki wanted Tracy to give Mike her shirt when she was done with it, that leaves only Rogers vintage Hawaiian shirt as the shirt no one would want.

I was dealing with the coming and going of Kidney Stones but no sign of problems during the ride. There where several stories about kidney stones and everyone had a lot of sympathy for me.  Hopefully, everything will come through this weekend so I can enjoy the gorgeous spring weather..

Decision, decision

Latah trail/Farmer Market Rider... where's Roger?

Decisions, decisions, what to do?  The Latah Trail is such a wonderful route but it is only 10 miles to Troy.  The Latah trail does extend a mile or two and the foundation has plans to link this trail to the Kendrick trail but for now this is a pretty short ride.  Wanda offered an extension to  a road that winds around the hills behind Troy.  She called this the orchard loop.  She promises that the route is perfect for an Easy Does it route as it is very European and we could make a stop at The Filling Station, wonderful café in Troy.  We had just finished a stop at this wonderful café find.  I tried a granola fruit bar that was awesome and Wanda had a smoothie.  This alone was worth the ride. 

 End of the Latah trail outside of Troy
Roger is in the middle!

Our Latah trail/Farmers Market ride was well attended and we all would have liked more miles, but a we finished we each had to make a decision.  Kelly had it easy, she and her husband where planning a date weekend in Spokane, Mary Lou who rode with Kelly was content to just call it good at 26 miles.  Wanda planned to shop a bit at the Farmer market then off to Palouse to join Jim at the Palouse Music festival and Roger, well Roger just kept pedaling.  He’d never been to the Moscow Market either and he thought he’d pedal over and try to find it.  Anita and I were going to hit the Moscow Farmers market. 

  

This market is well known in the surrounding area.  The mix of people is always fun.  You can truly people watch here.  This community is a college town with healthy collection of alternative life styles.  We strolled around looking at the many booths offering local organic produce, handmade soaps, beautiful Palouse photography, and all types of unusual treats from Egyptian Baklava to vegan dried apples.  Along with the collection of healthy treats, there were little children everywhere.  Parents bring kids to play in the fountain, enjoy outdoor music and lemonade,  and it seemed each one had an ice cream cone.

This was a perfect day for a bike ride anywhere in our area.  I hope you all got a chance to enjoy the summer sun.  If you’re ever interested in what an Easy Does it Ride is all about, try the Latah Trail followed by a glass of raspberry lemonade at the Moscow Farmer’s Market, now that’ how to enjoy the day.

 Moscow Farmers Market

Lesson learned. Don't text while going down stairs.

Corrie and I love to bike

I sat a lot this weekend.  Corrie and I along with 7 other from our cycling group had planned to ride CHAFE.  This ride is a fund raiser for the panhandle education alliance in the Sandpoint ID area.  Corrie and I have riden this ride for the last three years and we both feel it is worth the trip.  The ride goes around beautiful Lake Pend Oreille, and the course is  beautiful this time of year. 

As a cyclist/runner we all make choices about the rides and runs we do.  We look at locations, matching our ability with the course and of course the weather.  Usually it’s an easy choice.  When you wake up and put on your shoes you choose ride or no ride.  Pouring rain usually keeps most of us on the couch rather than riding.   We all can understand choices when you add a planned and paid for ride or run.   If you have put enough planning in the event you can easily choose to at least give the run/ride a start.  Pouring rain and a forecast of more can change your plans.  Sometimes it’s hard to make a decision. 

My plan this year was to ride the 80 mi option with Donna Callahan and Jennifer Block from our TRC group.  We had great fun building up to this ride.  We all felt ready for the distance. 

My choices where made a bit easier by my stupid choice to try texting while going down stairs! My dear husband loves to tease me about multitasking and now he has more opportunity to point out my many flaws.  “Pay attention Linda”, he frequently reminds me.  So, my sprained ankle should have made it easy for me to choose to ride or not.  No, think again.  I crashed on my bike in the parking lot. Wrong choice.  I’m a soon to be 60 yr. old runner/biker who’ll ride/run any chance I get.  Long distance, hills, bad weather, sore ankles, hardly ever holds me back.  I have found running/biking to be my connection to living as a full human being.  I will always make the choice to run/bike.  Life is best experienced while being part of your surroundings in an active way.  The result of my attempts to bike with a sprained ankle, even in the parking lot left me with few choices. 

 I watched CHAFE  this year, but still enjoyed the ride.  I choose to consider my entry fee/donation to be worth the cost.  I found out that the charity for the ride makes over $100,000 for early childhood education in this part of Idaho.  What a great way to help this great cause.  How can I not feel like this was a good use of my $$. 

I had a great weekend in a beautiful part of ID.  I contributed to a good cause.  I got a chance to meet with good friends who enjoy biking and I continue to learn lessons in this wonderful experience of life.  So, to all my friends: don’t text while going down stairs and don’t try to ride a bike with a purse in your hands.  You’d think I would have learned that in 60 yrs. But I get it now!!!

Cristy's and Roger win the 2012 Ugly Shirt awards!

 Vintage TRC tee shirt for Roger

Christy's just plain ugly tee shirt

Sun shining, flowering trees are glorious, children playing baseball, it must be spring.  We're all so tired of the rain, wind and gloomy skies.  Typically the first rides of spring bring out many riders and Saturday's "Ugly Shirt Ride" had good attendance.  We had a good collection of shirts for our competition.  Roger wore his new Spam jersey, Vicky brought out a vintage Wild Wife tee shirt from 1982, I wore my Charlie Brown jersey.  It was tough to choose the winner. The prizes went to Roger Dumbeck for the guy with an old TRC tee shirt from the 80's and Christy Hagel who had just a plain really ugly shirt that was an easy pick.   The remainder of riders; Tracy, Kelly and her mother Marylou,  and Donna promised to make more of an effort next year.  

 

 Dave shows up for the ride

We all enjoyed seeing Dave Tibbels on his first club ride since his health problems began last year.  He was so glad to be on bike and riding well that he couldn't care less about his normal shirt. Dave said he's been able to commute to work and was trying to see how he managed on a longer ride.

Everyone enjoyed the gorgeous day and lunch at Taco Time gave us all a chance to hear about upcoming Easy Does it Rides.  Our next ride will be the Art Ride in May and maybe the Latah Trail in June.  Donna and I encouraged our group to check out the other TRC rides coming up this summer.  Keep an eye on the calender.  The season has officially started!

   

Roger in his new Spam Jersey

A chilly start for the first ride of spring

First ride of spring and it's 37 degrees. Not a perfect start, but at least the snow is miles away. We really couldn't complain. Bunnies scampered along the path and the usual walkers and dogs along the path, so it must be spring at last. The size of the group didn't surprise me, as all of the group had registered. All 12 showed up. Our group included the usual riders; Corrie, Gary and Donna Callahan, Bill Arnold, but sereral new riders joined us this morning: Kelly Haberman and her mom Mary Lou, Gary's friend Roger Staats and his wife Tracy, one of my co St. Joes employees Vicki Vogel and her friend Christy, and finally from Pomeroy, RogerDumbeck planning on enjoying the trail without 60mph traffic. So off we went at 10 am sharp, all bundled up and eager to finally get on the bike. We didn't even mind the usual ride up Asotin Creek.

That's what the first ride is about; friends we haven't seen for awhile plus new ones to encourage, as they first discover a new route and the joy of riding a bike again. We stopped at the Asotin Daly's Bakery for lunch and had a chance to get to know our new riders a bit. As usual I kept the mileage to an easy 25 miles. The Easy Does it philosophy was challenged quite a bit though. Not one of the new riders kept to the 10-12 mph, so as usual I brought up the rear but that was just fine for me. Spring is a time to smell the air and listen to sounds of birds proclaiming, it really is Spring, finally.

Flying down Anatone Grade is always fun!

Gary and Russ aren't afraid to try an Easy Does it Ride!

Despite a confusing start place, our Easy Does it Ride had a good turnout. I had put the idea together quickly after deciding to stay home this week instead of riding OBR this week with Corrie. My mom had a bit of a health crisis last week and she’s really needed me. So grandma pulled the long straw and Corrie has Jim McKracken as a tour buddy this year. I'm sure they'll both have great pictures and stories to tell.

I started at McDonalds this morning for a quick coffee and Egg McMuffin with Bonnie, then off to the corps parking lot to see who might show up this morning. Our riders included Donna and Gary, Russ and Lori, our two newest riders Jennifer and Candice, along with Ellen and her friend Sharon and my dear friend Bonnie Konrad. We had quite a crew and no one seemed to mind riding up Anatone Grade this morning. It’s about 4 miles, so relatively short but, as I was telling some of our newer riders this is pretty similar to all the climbs in this area. The Lewiston Hill, Whitebird Grade, even Winchester, all have the same gently 5-7% grade, but Anatone is probably the shortest. The deal about this climb is that the hill never ends, until you get to Anatone, 18 miles from the base. We all managed the climb and even continued a few miles further up. And of course the fun part is flying down the gently sloping switch backs. Weee as this kid sails down! Lets go again! Well, maybe not until after another Egg McMuffin.

Bike to Work Day begins perfectly

A Beautiful Day to bike to SJRMC
(Picture taken last month, but you get the idea)

It couldn't be a nicer May morning. We've had our share of nasty, rainy weather for sure. Today is national bike to work day and come whatever the weather I planned to ride today. Bike commuting is different then your usual bike ride. It takes planning and coordinating. I've noticed the route I usually take to work, via the bike path will be unridable for the rest of the summer at least. So, I can either plan to ride on the highway or adjust my route to using the blue bridge. That will be complicated too. Riding up Prospect would be my preferred route but it's tough to cross Main Street Lewiston at that point, with no crosswalks from the bridge side walk to Prospect. I'm not sure what I'll do at this point, but you can see how planning is important.
What to take with you to work includes; clothing, cleaning up at work, shoes, lunch, etc. This is usually pretty easily taken care of with a bike pannier system. There are many bike bag systems available, and of course a simple back pack works too.

I have converted my old bike to a commuter bike which has simplified my getting ready plan. I don't like to change shoes for work, so on this bike I have regular pedals instead of the more efficient clip on shoes. I've really not seen a problem with regular shoes as my ride is only 5 mi to work. You have to make it work for you. I'm lucky that my schedule is very flexible. Most nurses are doing shift work of some kind, which makes another issue with night riding etc. Well, no one said bike commuting is as simple as just getting on the bike.

Well, my breakfast is gone, I'm properly caffeinated and the sun is shining. Riding my bike this morning will give this Friday a great start. I hope all of you can get on your bike today. It's a simply perfect morning.

My ride was great. I managed the construction on Snake River Ave. by maneuvering into the standard flow of traffic and progressed to Prospect as I usually do. I had extra time in the afternoon so I extended my usual ride home by going out to Clarkston via the Blue Bridge and Evans road to home. I got a few extra miles in and the weather cooperated. If you want to get into shape... Ride to Work, any day.