Look Who's On Two Wheels!

I ended up getting to stay home with the two younger kids this weekend as my Sister-in-law went with Laura to the Black Hills to pick up our oldest and our nephew from Storm Mountain Church Camp. In a moment of semi boredom I asked Carson (age 4 and 11/12ths) if he wanted me to take off his training wheels. He excitedly said yes!

I expected that he'd try it, not be very stable and want me to put them back on. Well, after about 10 trips up and down the sidewalk it became evident that wouldn't be necessary. Below is a picture of Carson padded up for all crash positions. Yesterday he was even more confident and the pads stayed inside.

Tour de Kota '08: Day 6 - Brookings to Sioux Falls

List of excuses:

* The weather sucked pretty much all week.
* Big storm rolled through Brookings last night
* It was 55 degrees at 7 am
* Winds were out of the SW at about 20 mph (we were heading South)
* I've ridden these roads many times on MS Rides and various other times
* I have nothing to prove to anybody
* The bikes looked all snuggly on the roof rack
* I hadn't had a morning latte all week
* I hurt feelings of some by telling them the rules of the road this week
* The other half of Team Man Tandem wasn't around all week
* Nor was Cactus-Eyed Joe
* I wanted to spend quality time at Falls Park with Laura
* I already made Patrick Lalley's Blog
* ..and the Argus Leader on Ride With thE kErnEl Day

End result: I bagged the final 68 miles that I heard from various riders ended up being around 77. Windy and cold until about 12:30 too.

There is some serious debate about next year's ride. Some hurt feelings amongst those who served on the committee this year as well. More to follow on that in a future post I'm sure.

Tour de Kota '08: Day 5 - Huron to Brookings

Good weather FINALLY! Not much to say about the day other than I slept in, started late, and said "On Your Left" a bunch today as I averaged over 20mph for the day.

I said hello to a bunch of guys that included the guy I cornered in Highmore a couple days ago. He didn't say hi back. There's a part of me that hopes he gets over it and there's a part of me that doesn't care as long as the lesson is learned: Get your butt to the side when cars are coming.

Now I'm filled with Pizza Ranch goodness and heading back to the campsite. One more day and it will all be another great memory!

5 mile splits for the day:

Tour de Kota '08: Day 4 - Highmore to Huron

Picture poached from the Argus Leader. I'm second in line proudly wearing a wet CiTyBiLLy work shirt.

We had an official "Ride with thE kErnEl Day" today and we left way later than I would normally leave (8:15ish). In retrospect, I should have talked them into leaving LATER than that. I looked at the weather forecast and knew the wind was going to change from East to West around noon, and we were heading east. Before we even got going, it started to rain slightly and it was chilly and windy. But we headed out and as soon as we turned east on Highway 14, we realized how bad it was.

Light rain doesn't necessarily bother me. Winds 15 mph and under I can live with. Adding them both together can bring the heartiest of riders to tears. There would be no tears in thE kErnEl's peloton however. There were many smart aleck comments, a few jokes, movie one-liners, and even and occasional song or two. The priorities took over. Bar stops. The first of which took place in Miller.

We found a bar, which I didn't even look at the name, and Patrick Lalley tried the door and it was locked. He looked in the window and said "There's movement!" He pounded on the window and in his best voice of utter alcohol desperation said "PLEEEEEAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEE!!!!!". Low and behold, the door came open and we were invited in. Patrick just made the jump to the good friends list. After conversation, a couple of mugs of Blue Moon and some bar popcorn left over from the night before we were on the road again.

As we stepped outside the bar, we noticed that the wind was finally starting to shift from the west a little more and the rain had pretty much run its course as well. The paceline formed once again as we hammered the next 14 miles to Wessington gleefully after dealing with the rain and the wind for the first 26 or so. Only problem for thE kErnEl crew in Wessington was that the bar was not open at all. We ended up having to circle back to the Cenex and grab a 24 ouncer from the cooler. The line was long so we started drinking it on the way and was promptly scolded by the cashier. It didn't really stop us from continuing however.

We rolled on to Huron with a few miles of crosswind, but for the most part nothing but tailwinds for a change. thE kErnEl tried to lead out thE mUsclE for the intermediate sprint points for the city limits sign into Huron (hard to explain to you non-cycling folks) but as thE mUsclE and I were probably topping 30 mph on our sprint we laughed as there was no city limits sign to be seen. With no sprint points to be won in Huron, I captured all the intermediate sprints for the day, although only one was truly a contested race by thE kErnEl himself, but my competitive nature couldn't let him win it, even on Ride With thE kErnEl day.

We found a bar in Huron (shocking!) that also served food. Laura joined us and we enjoyed a beer and good food. We parted ways after a great day on the road, regardless of the weather. Friends old and new further cemented their bonds. Many of the CiTy BiLLy's (Northern chapter) were on the ride so we paid homage to the other founders from Lincoln, eDLoNNie and eDBiLLy by making a phone call to eDLoNNie with a "wish you were here".

Tour de Kota '08: Day 3 - Chamberlain to Highmore

Although it was a chilly day by June standards, it was a beautiful day to ride after being completely brutalized by the wind yesterday. The only problem, for those of you who know the Chamberlain area, is there are a couple of monster hills to deal with early on in the ride. After getting to the top you have the joy of all joys though: cannonballing at breakneck speeds down the other side.

I got into an aero-tuck position and decided to see what I could top out at going down the hill. Then a weird thing happened: I was flying along, catching a guy rather quickly and the whole front of my bike started to shake violently. I seriously thought that either my headset was loose or the tire was not on right. I was trying to brake fast but carefully. I seriously had the feeling that I was about to go down and it wasn't going to be pretty however. Luckily I got it back under control, but needless to say that I feathered the brakes all the way down the next hill which is shorter but steeper. I came to find out at the campsite that others had the same issue on that hill, so apparently it was a speed/road/wind combination or something of that nature. All I know is that I haven't been that terrified in a long time with a "non-cager" incident.

Hitting Ft. Thompson seemed way too easy after the windy day from hell just encountered yesterday. Laura was going to meet me there but was just leaving Chamberlian so I told her just to go on to Highmore and I'd roll on. I downed the rest of my Sugar Free Amp (yes Amp, another plug to your greatness, now where is my sponsorship?!?!) and after a brief chat with a local kid on his Walmart-special bike that was in awe of my "rad ride" I was on my way.

Leaving Ft. Thompson is a hill. Not a bad hill mind you, but a hill that you seriously questioned when the top was going to happen. It seemed to go on endlessly. After that were some pretty decent rolls all the way to Highmore and it was a good, short, but hilly ride today.

My rant of the day is a little more pointed however. I left a little late for me (7:10ish). I noticed I've been doing that a lot more on this tour and I'm sure part of it is that it has been a little colder. Anyhow I was getting increasingly annoyed with people I could see ahead riding 3 or more wide on the road, but not collapsing at all when there was traffic behind. When I could I was yelling "CAR BACK" to try to get them to move over which only worked with one or two set of riders. Even when I went by with an "On your left" was I rarely granted more space to pass them, often going out into passing lane to get by them.

After clearing most of the slower riders things seemed to be getting better. As I was picking up the pace with about ten miles to go I notice that there were three guys up ahead, all riding a decent pace as it took most of that ten miles for me to catch them and I was clipping along pretty good. Understand that this road is pretty much constant rolling hills and the guy in the outside seemed oblivious or just didn't care when a car would come up behind him while climbing a hill. I was getting increasingly upset as car after car had to wait behind them, whereas if they would have collapsed, these cars could have still given them room and passed safely. This was probably a motivational factor for me catching them because I needed to share my displeasure. As I was catching them just a couple miles out of town I realized that I knew the guy and decided that I would wait until I got into camp to talk to him, hopefully in private if possible.

Unfortunately he was by the beer wagon with other people by the time I loaded my bike on the van, but I didn't back down, I went and had a little discussion as calmly as I could. I told him that I like him a lot, but I needed him to understand that as we continue to fight for cyclist rights on the roadways with organizations such as the South Dakota Bicycle Coalition, that the damage he was doing to our reputations on the road is not helping to gain a "share the road" attitude. He didn't say anything at all, but I hope it sunk in a little. I really do like the guy and he is a strong rider for being fairly new to riding and I wish him well. I do need him to use his head a little better and that was my point. There was a TdK rep from the Argus there as I was talking and I discussed the need to find a way to make a safety briefing mandatory like the do on BRAN (Bike Ride Across Nebraska) to discuss such things. We'll see, I know that advocacy-wise that the TdK hasn't heard the last from me on this subject. There is another subject to follow that has quite a few of us upset as well (TdK-wise), but I'll save that for a later time. It will be quite the rant as well.

In other news, tomorrow is "Ride with thE kErnEl Day" so we are not leaving until 8 am and hitting a bar in every town. If that doesn't have disaster spelled all over it nothing does

5-mile Garmin splits:

Tour de Kota '08: Day 2 - Mitchell to Chamberlain

Outside of day three on TdK #1, which by chance I went back home the day before to work that year, I am pretty sure a windier day has never been ridden into on TdK. My Garmin, which pulls weather from weather.com is way full of crap on this day. It says the winds averaged 19.1. Maybe for the first 25 miles that was true. After that it was easily a sustained 25 with gusts of 35. Ask anybody who rode it (and didn't sag in).

I rode solo today because I most of my regulars I ride with were not here and others I trust tend to get out too late (yeah, that's you FAB boys). So, I'm choosing to be a non-social rider for the most part. From Mitchell to Mt. Vernon I had vision of grandeur of still completing the century loop. By Plankinton, the century loop was off my brain completely. By the time I hit White Lake I was thinking that this was a perfectly fine place to call it a day. After hanging out with Laura for a bit I decided to soldier on to Kimball (14 miles) and looked for the first mile marker out of town. I believe it was mile marker 373 and so the countdown began...373...372...371...370...what?? Damn this is a long mile. FINALLY another sign....368...whew..it was 2 miles since the last sign. When I hit a crossing highway I could see a water tower in the distance and the sign said "5 miles to Kimball". What it should have said is "this will be the longest, slightly uphill, five miles of your life. You should consider stopping now and forgo all this pain and suffering". I swear that water tower looked like it kept moving further away instead of getting closer. But finally it did and I made it to the world famous tractor museum in Kimball where Laura awaited me with the sport drink of champions: a quart of chocolate milk.

It is quite possible that a quart of chocolate milk has never disappeared so fast in the annals of history. Although many of your stomachs are probably turning right now, as usual it did the trick and I was ready to finish the ride. I hit a rest stop manned by staff from Cedar Shores from Chamberlain. Not only were they passing out 180 energy drink, they were giving free adult beverage coupons for when we got into Chamberlain. They were put to good use at Cedar Shores along with a couple beverages after that.

I barely remember the trek to Puckwana (home of "Puk U" Bar and Grill) and on to Chamberlian, but I was dang glad to see the campground upon arrival. I was even more amazed to hear there were a handful of people who did the century loop. I figured I have little left to prove with my cycling and there will be many more centuries in my life. Today would have just proved that I'm a stubborn old fart who has a death wish. Especially on a day when a good chunk of people didn't come close to completing 75 miles.

As you can see by my total Garmin time, I took long breaks. Laura will even go as far to say that I was looking for excuses to NOT get back on the bike at a couple of stops. If you can keep a secret, she's right (as usual).

Below is the 5 mile Garmin breakdown. You will notice SLOOOOW speeds in the middle of the ride. I was a fragged puppy.

The Whiskey Creek Experience

I'd be truly amazed if I ever have such a horrible customer service experience as I did Sunday night at Whiskey Creek in Mitchell, SD. Full story follows.

After Tour de Kota day one, which ended in Mitchell, I called a friend who I used to work with at USD who now lives in Mitchell with his new bride. I asked if we could shower over at their place and then go out to eat. The decision was made to go to Whiskey Creek which is fairly new to Mitchell but came with high recommendations.

When we arrived, it was busy, but not overwhelmingly so. Our waitress came over for our drink order. We ordered three different margarita's: Adam had one without salt on the rocks and Maria and I each were to be blended and we ordered four waters to go with it. After about 10-15 minutes Adam asked a passing waitress if our waitress could stop by as we hadn't seen her in awhile. Well, she came with our drinks, two of which were wrong and no water. Adam stated to her that he asked for no salt and she took his drink back and brought one back without salt. Mine wasn't blended, but I wasn't picky so I didn't say anything. We ended up asking for water five times before it finally arrived.

We are not sure what set her off as we were being polite. Was it the drink fiasco? Was it because we asked to see her because she hadn't been by? I have no idea, but she wouldn't say a word to us.

When she came to take our food orders finally, Adam ordered an appetizer along with his order and then we all started to order. When she came to me and asked what I would like for a side, I asked what the soup of the day was. She said "It's Chili but you probably won't like it". Okay, I'll have the fries. After she left we all looked at each other with the 'What the hell was that all about' look.

The meal arrived with no appetizers. When Adam asked about them she said "Oh I forgot to put the order in. Do you want me to do so now?" Adam said that he would just stick with the food without the appetizers. She did come back to refill water glasses after being asked and promply spilled a fair amount on the table and on Laura's plate.

Adam had enough by this point and went to find the manager to discuss her attitude. Long story short, the manager came by in a little bit to apologize (after he talked to her) and said that he was writing off the meal, but couldn't write off the drinks due to company policy. That was the one good thing that happened. I was impressed that he was willing to do that and will probably help me go back again when I'm in town.

The bill came and we decided that we would take it up front as we really didn't want to deal with our waitress anymore. When we did the girl up front said that our server would be our cashier. DOH! Adam asked if there was any way we could avoid that but there wasn't. She did take my credit card back to the waitress. While the ladies waited up front Adam and I sat at our table waiting for her. She came by sat the bill on the table and actually said the following verbatim: "Feel free to not leave me a tip either". Dumbfounded I looked at her and said "Okay" and I didn't leave her one. Quite the opposite: I put the biggest ZERO on the tip column and totaled it.

I'm sure you are either laughing like mad right now or think I'm making this up, but I guarantee you it's all true. Many of you out there know Adam so feel free to ask him about it. It was the craziest thing I've ever witnessed from a customer service perspective.

Adam, I'm sorry that we had such a 'wonderful' experience eating out, but thanks for making my present to you and Maria cheaper! We will do this again sometime soon, hopefully with better results!