Margarita Ride VII Recap

This is going to be a short recap of Saturday's ride with more details to come later.

I rolled out of bed at 5:30 to the sound of a pretty steady rain. Not good. I went straight to the TV to the digital weather station which kindly showed that there was no rain in the area. Hmmmm...must be my imagination then. The wonderful world of the internet showed such little in the way of radar echos that there seemed no way it should be raining this hard. As I loaded Fordzilla the rain started to lighten up.

By the time I hit Pro's, the rain had become more of a heavy mist than rain, but still annoying nonetheless. We had 104 registered going into the day, and although I haven't touched the papers since getting home, I think we registered 28 day of the ride. We had a few no shows, but I think we were right at 130 riders.

We added a 75 mile loop this year, but due to the weather we only had about five takers on that route, which was probably good due to some nasty chip seal that was happening on Hwy 19 from Centerville south to Vermillion. The 45 milers hit it as well, but the sweeper had knocked a good deal of it off the road for that group.

It was different being on the SAG/Support side instead of riding. There were a few people that I want to yell out my window and say "SHIFT UP!!!!!!!" as they pounded along at about 50-60 RPM's. It was painful for me to watch. Other than that, everybody seemed to be doing great, the temp was right and there was literally NO wind during the ride. That in itself is a minor miracle for the plains of South Dakota.

Many recaps from other bloggers are out there. The Hooterville Mayor, CDV, Cathy Jo, Tez, Bald-n-Surly, all have already blogged about the ride much better than I could (especially since I didn't actually ride!).

I'll update the totals once I figure out. Early estimates, thanks to a couple very generous donations, is that we are going to have around $1300 to give to the MS Society! Thanks to all who rode and helped support the MS Society as well. Watch for potential changes next year as we continue to try to make the ride a top notch bicycling event!

Name That Van

Current reader poll open for one week. Top choices are in for the name of the Ford Freestar. You vote. You decide.

Much like the Presidential election, popular vote may not win.

This Day in History - Sept. 11, 1993

Vermillion Bicycling Hits School Newspaper

USD's newspaper, The Volante, ran an article on traffic rules being important for cyclists. I completely agree, even though I'm guilty of blowing stop signs when nobody is around.

I did find it funny that the Vermillion PD Officer interviewed doesn't know the law on DUI's on bicycles. He was quoted with the following:

"As a matter of fact, you can get pulled over for speeding on a bicycle," he said. "Also, if you ride while you're intoxicated and start impeding traffic, you can actually be arrested for a DUI."

I was never a fan of the "No-DUI-on-bicycle" law going into effect, but it beat the alternative they were trying to pass (striking bicycles as "vehicles" altogether).

As far as getting pulled over for speeding...VPD has a short memory as to what happened the last time they tried to catch me!!!!

Bicycle Friendly States - South Dakota 41 of 50

I don't know how much to read into South Dakota being ranked 41st of 50 states in the "Bicycle Friendly States" on the League of American Bicyclists website. After all, being such a sparsely populated state where over 1/8 of all the population is in one city (Sioux Falls), how much needs to be done in cities like Vermillion where I live. After all, a city of 10,000 people isn't that hard to navigate on bike.

Sioux Falls is making great strides with bike lanes and bike paths. All the Sioux Falls bloggers need to get on board and try to garner a "bicycle friendly city" status. I will have to read into this more and see what things I can do down here to help South Dakota's overall status as well.

Below is the information that can be found HERE:

South Dakota

State Rank: 41 out of 50.

Reasons for Ranking: South Dakota has state funds for bicycle education programming but also has discriminatory mandatory bike lane law and no accommodation or complete streets policy.
South Dakota's Bicycle Friendly Communities

Currently there are no cities in South Dakota that have been designated as bicycle friendly communities. Your city can be the first. To apply for BFC designation, you'll need to review the materials at www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/apply.cfm.


What do some of you South Dakota bloggers think? What can we do to make South Dakota more bike friendly? Sioux Falls has a good start. What can smaller to mid-size cities like Vermillion do to be considered bike friendly? Looking at the application I don't see very many cities in South Dakota being able to get past Part I of the application. Not many places in South Dakota have a "Bicycle/Pedestrian coordinator". Of course, maybe this application is a way of saying, get off your butts and push local government to think about it. Sounds like a job for Biking Brady! Did I really just say that? It's Friday and I'm delirious. I need to sleep on this. Comments/thoughts are always welcome.

Injury Update

Nine days after I dumped my bike and I'm not exactly impressed with my progress. As a matter of fact, today had a couple of really painful moments for no particular reason. The kind that had me drop 1000mg of Tylenol.

I took a couple of pictures, but it's hard to see the bruising I still have. The amazing part of the bruise is that it bruised on BOTH sides of my arm. Currently the most daily pain I have is putting my socks on. I can't explain it, but it is just brutal. The pain shoots all the way to my shoulder.

The other thing that caused excruciating pain was when Carson got on the Trail-a-Bike yesterday to go to school before I was ready and it shifted left. I had to hold it up or I would have dumped the bike with him on it. It's been a long time since I have come that close to crying. My arm throbbed until about noon and that might be part of my issue today. Whatever the case, this sucks and I want to go for a REAL ride, not just commuting/errand miles. Can't you just sense how crabby I am?

This is the side I landed on. Tough to see the big brown bruise through all my man-fur.


This is the back side. A couple days ago it had all the colors of the rainbow.


I shall return...soon.

Somebody Shot a "Laser" at My Deathstar!

I'll spare you the details of what happened to the Deathstar (frequently known as a Ford Windstar). I like to sleep in my bed so I'll just say that the poor van has been beat up over the last few months. Yes, I was to blame on a couple of occasions. I didn't manage to total it out though. That comment should get me some couch time. Oh well, it's a comfy couch.

Enter the Ford Freestar. The new official vehicle of the Biking Brady's.






The fold down disappearing seat was a major selling point for Laura. It's a decent replacement for the Deathstar, but needs a nickname. I'll need some help here. By the way, the roof mount bike rack was spared and should fit the Freestar nicely. Oh Deathstar, you hauled so many bikes. You will be missed.