Archive for June 2009

« SpringfieldCyclist.com home page
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

I’m a morning person (at least today!)

June 24, 2009

It feels like we’re deep in the throes of summer here in the Ozarks.  With highs in the mid to upper 90′s and lots of humidity, most people are curtailing their outdoor activities.  I don’t really mind riding my bike in this kind of weather, but you’ve got  to remember to drink a lot.  When it gets this hot, the heat does make me really enjoy rides like my commute to the fitness center this morning.

I left the house at about 5:30, just as the sky was starting to get light.  I don’t know what the temperature was, but I suspect it was in the low to mid 70′s and there was no hint of a breeze.  That’s perfect for riding a bike.  It’s also real quiet that time of the morning, so about all you hear is the hum of your bicycle tires on the pavement.  As I ride along, I like to keep my eye on the ever-changing eastern horizon to see what the rising sun will bring.  I don’t know why, but I’ve always been a sucker for a pretty sunrise (or sunset).

DSC04648

Sunrise from the Benton Avenue Viaduct

I did see a couple of fellow commuters this morning.  The first was riding on the sidewalk on Barnes.  The second was on the Benton Street viaduct, and looked like a pretty seasoned commuter.

There was a close call on the way home tonight.  A silly 10-12 year old girl stepped out in the street right in front of me.  Luckily, I was watching her and had room to swerve around her, but she certainly wasn’t looking my way.  I think she was more concerned with the mud and gravel in the road from the gas line construction than she was with oncoming traffic.  Hitting her would have put a bad ending on a perfectly good day!

God bless…

TW

Categories: bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness
Tags: , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Dog days already….

June 23, 2009

Boy, we had some great views this morning as we hit the road on the tandem before full daylight.  The humidity was so high that there was a foggy haze hanging in some of the fields and valleys to diffuse the early sunlight.  Unfortunately, we weren’t in the “stop and smell the flowers” mode, so we didn’t try very hard to take any pictures…Pam grabbed a couple off the moving bike, but it’s pretty hard to get a decent picture that way.

DSC04646

Fog in a pasture

Unfortunately, that same humidity and heat that gave us the good views made for a hot and sticky ride.  At one point, I thought I was going to have to ditch my glasses because they were fogging up so badly.  By the time I got to work after 28+ miles of that, you could wring the sweat out of my clothes.  I know, kind of gross….

They are working on the Sam’s club near our house, and as part of that construction they’ve improved the intersection and stop lights at Sunshine and Eastgate.  That’s become my preferred way of getting past Sunshine Street since it’s been opened since I don’t have to wait for gaps in fast-moving traffic or sit in a long line of cars waiting for the left-turn light.  When the Sam’s work is completed, I suspect it’s going to be the main way in for shoppers and won’t be so attractive on a bike, but until then I’m going to enjoy it!

DSC04647

My new favorite intersection

This isn’t cycling related, but check out  this about a Springfield lady.  I don’t know Tammy Burns personally, but I’ve watched her transformation from a distance at the fitness center.  Job well done!

God bless….

TW

Categories: bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness, heat, tandem
Tags: , , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Note to self….

June 23, 2009

DSC04645

In spite of the fact that your Monday riding plans are limited to an early morning commute to the fitness center and work, followed by a ride straight home after work, it’s not a good thing to leave your water bottle sitting on the kitchen counter when the forecasted high for the day is 94 degrees with buckets of humidity thrown in.

Please remember that…..

God bless…

TW

Categories: bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness, heat
Tags: , , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Opportunities lost

June 22, 2009
mentor

Mentor Baptist Church

For years, one of our favorite places to start a bike ride has been Mentor Baptist Church.  It’s just 5 miles from the house, and is right on a strategic intersection of Farm Road 186, which is the main route out to Rogersville.  From there you can easily get to Rogersville or Ozark, and there are seemingly endless mileage options available to you. 

In addition, one of Springbike’s show and go rides has started from there the past several years and it’s a favorite starting point for many riders around Springfield.  You can rarely pass by without noticing a car or truck in the parking lot with a bike rack on it.

We heard the bad news over the weekend that the church’s congregation has asked the cycling community to stop using their parking lot.  It seems that an inconsiderate few have spoiled a good thing for a lot of people.  The specific problems I heard of were:

  • Trash in the parking lot and lawn.
  • Parking being taken up by cyclists and not available to the congregation for services.
  • Somebody parking under the portico at the front entry on a Wednesday night when they were having a service.
  • Somebody dressed in cycling gear and shoes going into the building to use the rest room during a service.
  • Some idiot defecated behind the building.

It’s a shame that people can be so inconsiderate to not be good guests to a congregation that has at least tolerated our presence for a long time.  I would like to think that the cycling community as a whole are pretty good people, but as with everything, it doesn’t take many bad apples……

On the other hand, I’ve often thought that Mentor Baptist Church was missing out on a huge ministry opportunity.  After all, they literally had people gathering on their parking lot.  What would it have taken to have someone available on Thursday nights to open the building for access to restrooms?  Maybe they could have offered bottles of cold water or gatorade as a post-ride drink?  Taking advantage of opportunities like that to just reach out in kindness to people is one of the marks of a forward-looking church.  After all, I think that’s the example we had in Jesus.

Now, please don’t get me wrong.  I’m sure there are some nice people at Mentor Baptist.  Pam and I even visited there one time to see what it was like, but we walked out of there saying to ourselves, “That’s a dead church”.  Perhaps their response to the situation is a reflection of what Pam and I noticed…..

Oh well.  At this point, about all that can be done is to move on and continue to try to be a good neighbor to the congregation.  We’ll still ride out there, but I guess we’ll be parking up at the Evans Road C-Store or the little church behind it.

God bless…

TW

Categories: bicycle, Cycling, Fitness, Mentor
Tags: , , ,

Comments: 2 Comments

A great ride!

June 20, 2009

Joe and Sue invited us to join them and a few other folks for a Saturday morning ride to Fair Grove and Strafford.  We met them at their house and hit the road about 8:00.  Joining us were Sam (minus Barbara), Cecil and Naomi on their tandem, Kevin and Kathy on their singles, and Gary met us on the road. 

DSC04637

Lots of help this time.

Joe took us on a little shortcut to Fellows Lake that I had never been on.  Before we got to the lake, I noticed that our front tire was going flat again!  Arg.  We suspected that we had enough tire damage from the screw on Thursday that we needed a boot since we couldn’t find any evidence of a rock or anything, but when I pumped the tube up later, I found a pin-hole in a totally different spot from the screw damage, so I guess we actually had two flats on Thursday (since I found that tire down last night), giving us four flats in three days.  Wow, this is getting old!  Oh well, I guess if we ever need emergency money out on the road, we can always pull the front tire off and use the dollar bill we booted that hole with!

Our pace this morning was strictly social.  Kathy rides a hybrid bike, and we made sure we weren’t running off and leaving her, but you know what?  I enjoyed it better than everyone going out fast.  Sam peeled off and rode on toward Strafford before we got to the lake since they’ve got family coming later in the day and he had to get home quicker.

After a pleasant ride to Fair Grove, we stopped at the C-Store and all had a good laugh over the piece of string being used to flush the toilet.  I should have grabbed a picture of it, but I forgot I had the camera at that point. 

Instead of climbing the Three Ugly Sisters, Joe had us go around them and go up what he calls MicroWave Hill.  It’s got a couple of super steep sections, that may actually be steeper than the Ugly Sisters, and it may be as much effort in the long run, but it was a different route than we usually take.

DSC04638

Cresting Microwave Hill

 

We also got on some new roads after we passed through Strafford today.  Instead of going east on the outer road to the softball complex, Joe took us out a different county road.  There was a couple of good hills, and some nice scenery, so we may go that way ourselves once in a while!

DSC04642

Taking a break at Strafford

We made it back to Joe and Sue’s house just a few minutes past noon with 44.75 miles on the computer.  As I mentioned to Pam, it was good to ride with new people, and have someone else plan the route because we learned some new roads and places that we had never been before.  It was a good day!

Here’s the GPS track.

God bless….

TW

Categories: bicycle, Cycling, Fair Grove, flat tire, Strafford, tandem
Tags: , , , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 198 other followers