A Week with the OWLS

May 19 and 21, 2009

By Allan Edmonds

Shelley Bradfield was on tap to lead our Tuesday ride down 446 to Shawnee Bluffs and back. We have been working with the idea of trying to make the Tuesday ride a little shorter and have a little less climbing, with the intention of making the Tuesday ride the best place for a new person to get his or her feet (pedals?) wet. Also we have a couple of OWLS who like to ride tandems with a kid on the back, and some of our longer or steeper routes make it difficult for them to keep up with the extra load. Shelley, being extra responsible, decided to take a run down 446 on Monday just to check things out. That's when she discovered the Chip and Seal operation in full swing. CE and I exchanged messages by email and we put out a notice that we were changing our Tuesday route. After that all hell broke loose on the BBC listserv over the Chip and Seal work. I hope our club can get together with IBC and CIBA and keep the pressure on the state over this.

In any case about a dozen of us had a very pleasant 23 mile ride on what we are calling our Short Airport ride, following a loop along the south side of the Monroe County Airport. Here's a little map of the route.

As usual with these evening rides, the trip out of town is more unpleasant with all the "rush hour" traffic. But by 7 pm or so things have settled down quite nices.

For Thursday CE Taylor planned and led a longer and hillier ride that we call the Shuffle Creek Ride, with three serious climbs: Out on (1) Mt. Gilead, then a long, smooth, down hill on Shuffle Creek to Lake Lemon, up (2) South Shore Drive, and then back the way we went out on (3) Mt. Gilead.

We had a real good turn out of 20 riders.

Greg Alexander was along on his recumbent and did quite well on the hills.

On the way back along Tunnel Road, CE pulled out his cell phone and took an amazing picture of our group, holding the phone/camera backwards over his shoulder. Don't you agree?

The only negative was when Brad Schroeder got a pinch flat when he hit a crater-sized hole on Tunnel. I was right behind him and if he hadn't hit it, I surely would have. Most of our group was already on its way toward home, but several of us stopped while his tube was replaced. Tom Whitehead in particular lent a helping hand and we were soon on our way again.

Dave Lawler and I had fun pushing the pace on the last stretch of 45 back into town. We got a little bit ahead, but by the time we got to Third Street everyone had caught up again. At Third Street three of our group were almost taken out by a car that decided at the last second to make a quick right turn. You cannot afford to let down your guard for second, even when the ride is almost over.