We've been Simpsonized!

If Kate and Luke were characters on the Simpsons this is what we would look like. Find out what your Simpsons character looks like: www.simpsonizeme.com

Hope Ride

Here are the pictures from the Hope Ride that we did with Annie and Jim on Saturday. The ride started and finished in Hope, IN, a small town about 35 miles south-east of Indianapolis. It is true Indiana farmland around there, flat, with the only hills coming from the small river valleys that dot the landscape.

The ride left early (although we did not leave until an hour after the ride "officially" started), so it was nice and cool for the first few miles. The route wound its way around Bartholomew Co (where Columbus is), sticking mostly to small, very rural roads that were not much more than single lanes. Annie and Jim had several friends who they ride with from Bloomington, so we all started out together.


After a while the group started to drift apart as we all started to ride at different paces. At the first SAG stop, Kate and I waited to the others got there before heading out again. There were lots of soy bean fields that normally would have been bright yellow, but were mostly just dull tan, because the weather has been so dry this summer.

We did the fifty mile route, which took us through several small towns and lots of farm land. We passed a nature reserve that would have had an amazing waterfall in it, but the creek was completely dry. The day turned out to be quite hot, so the last 20 miles or so were a little less comfortable than the morning had been.

They certainly took care of us on this ride: we got breakfast, 3 sag stops, lunch, and root beer floats at the end. One of the nice things about the organization of the ride was that it seemed that the whole town got together to put it on.

It was a really nice day, but our legs were tired by the end of it all.

Pentagla

I saw this bike on a trip to Mt. Tsukuba back in July. I thought it deserved a Lug Bros. post. Ever heard of the maker?

Dust

These are the after affects of ride last night for the cyclocross practice, well and also the head first plunge I took off my bike in a sand pit. We still have not had rain for weeks, and the course just gets drier and drier. That of course means, more and more dust. My throat still is scratchy from inhaling all the dust I did last night.

It was not a great ride, I was still struggling to keep up with the front of the group more than I would like. And then on the second to last lap, I started to ride through one of the sand pits and my front tire starting tracking through a deep rut. About 2/3rds of the way through the pit, my front wheel jacknifed and I went flying over my handlebars. I landed really hard on my shoulder and banged my head after that. I was not badly injuried, but decided that was enough and packed it in for the night.
My face was clean compared my legs and arms, but I did not get pictures of those. This last picture was of how dirty my bike was. It was so dusty that there was almost no grease left my bike chain.

Unidentified Family Member

Happy Birthday Dan!

Tonight Linnea and I rode around the lake in honor of Dan's birthday. The Paramount and the Yee Haa were side by side until Linnea requested some space to ride no-handed. She did this, without incident along the pave part of the bike trail. When we got back on the road she held on with at least one hand. The evening was perfect, cool and sunny with a light wind. We saw lots of duck butts sticking up in the air, one sailboat and a few other bikers as we made our way around the lake. The Paramount is a great bike. I like the feel of the shifting very much. Though, for me it is really a five speed. Since we did not go far, I was able to push a bit going up the hill and managed to stay out of the easiest gear. We remembered to take photos after the ride. My favorite fall flowers, jerusalem artichokes, are in the background.
We did talk about the birthday guy as we rode and though of many biking trips from the past. Happy Birthday, Dan

Kate's First Post

Today Luke and I meet Harmony and Brenna over at my parents to go for a ride. The girls were here for the weekend and it was just another beautiful day - perfect for a bike ride. The girls really like riding bikes, but have outgrown the ones they have here so they borrowed Nonna and Grampy's bikes. Don't we look like serious bikers in the first picture?

We only did about 8 miles, through a few of the subdivisions around the neighborhood. Brenna likes to be in the lead, but Luke was hanging with her and he ended up blowing us all away on a sprint to finish the ride (showoff!). If was fun to be out with them.
We then stopped off for ice cream before returning home. Luke added about 50 miles to his day by riding back to our house and then some. He seems to be pretty tired at this point.