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Around the horn

The publication design class I'm teaching this semester at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville continues to gobble up vast quantities of my time, thus I've been lax at both cycling and writing about cycling.

Anyone who thinks teaching is easy would be wrong. It would be safe to say that I'm basically earning minimum wage this semester because of all the prep time needed when teaching a class for the first time. Because this is a visual course, I've spent hours creating visual presentations for the students.

For the most part, I think the students have responded well to what I've tried to do. I have one student who probably needs a swift kick in the butt -- figuratively, not literally -- strong words of advice to motivate her to work up to her potential, but the vast majority of students are working hard and trying to improve their skills.

I must say that this has been a learning experience for me as well, especially because this is the first time I've taught a class at any level. I've had to learn that I need to be as specific as possible in writing tests and assignments, and I constantly have to remind myself that these students are still trying to learn a complicated software program, QuarkXPress, that I've been using for more than 10 years.

Here's some other items of note about the world of bicycling:

BUBBAFEST KICKS OFF: When I scheduled my vacation time for 2008, I fully intended to be on BubbaFest, the weeklong ride my longtime cycling friend Bubba Barron puts on every November in the Florida Keys. However, the class and the higher cost of living we've all experienced this year prevented me from making the trip.

One of my college buddies and longtime Tour de Stooges volunteer Doug Kaufman is making the trip, and I'm sure many of my cycling acquaintances are along for the ride. This morning, they are riding 52 miles from Key Largo to Knights Key Campground. After a layover day Monday on Marathon Key, they'll ride 42 miles Tuesday to Key West.

As I write, it's 39 degrees in beautiful Belleville, Ill. By contrast, the temperature in Key Largo is 75 degrees.

Man, I wish I was in Florida right now!

IOWA BOWLING ALLEY WINS COURT BATTLE: A bowling alley owner in Wall Lake, Iowa, who faced suspension of his liquor license after a half-naked customer slid down a beer covered bowling alley during RAGBRAI in 2004 will be able to keep his license, The Associated Press reported.

The Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division threatened to suspend Darrin Boger’s liquor license after the incident at Lake Lanes, but the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled in Boger’s favor. The case revolved around rumors that Boger planned to sponsor a naked beer slide for riders on the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

The man was arrested for indecent exposure and state regulators wanted to suspend Boger’s license for alleged violations of a law that deals with nude peformances.

Court records show a state trooper stopped in Boger’s business and was monitoring the crowd when a man dropped his shorts and ran toward the beer-soaked plastic.

“Having a liquor license doesen’t give you the God-given power to know when someone is doing to take off their clothes,” attorney Robert Tiefenthaler said. “So this was a good win. And it was a long time coming.”

50,000-MILE BICYCLE NETWORK IN U.S. WINS APPROVAL: A few weeks ago, fellow cycling blogger Gene Bisbee reported on his Biking Bis blog that the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials approved a National Corridor Plan that sets the framework and guidelines for developing the U.S. Bicycle Route System.

One of the fascinating facts about the route is that many of the proposed route corridors parallel old Route 66. The proposed Bicycle Route 37 going from Chicago to the middle of Oklahoma, Bicycle Route 80 would take cyclists through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, then Bicycle Route 70 would complete the trip to Santa Monica, Calif. Maybe the people developing the route system should consider calling that corridor Bicycle Route 66.

As you may be aware, the League of Illinois Bicyclists has developed the Route 66 Trail, a network of roads and bike trails along the state's Route 66 alignments. Cycling advocates in my part of Illinois are pushing to create a system of bike trails that link St. Louis and Springfield, Ill.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis-based Gateway Council of Hostelling International is planning a weeklong ride next year along the Missouri alignments of Route 66 that would start in the St. Louis suburb of Eureka and end with a jaunt along Route 66 alignments in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Labels: Adventure Cycling Association, bicycling, journalism, League of Illinois Bicyclists

Roger 0 comments links to this post 10:31 AM

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Think pink!

The most recent edition of Adventure Cycling's Bike Bits e-mail newsletter should have come with a pink background because a couple of the news items feature pink bicycles. I have a couple of friends of mine -- Arlene and Jody -- who are heavily into pink, so this post is dedicated to them.

The Pink Bike Site pays tribute to pink bicycles. Vermont cyclist Crystal Waters told Adventure Cycling: "I wanted to invite your readers to send in photos of their pink bicycles to be posted on my new pink-bike Web site gallery. I started the gallery on my girlbike.com site a few years ago, when it focused on women's cycling. Even though the gallery there is sort of hidden, it remains one of the most-visited pages -- it's so popular, that I decided to put (it up) on its own site."

As you might imagine, women make up the majority of the contributors to the site, but there are enough men who are secure enough in their masculinity that they, too, have pink bikes.

Larry Black of Mt. Airy Bicycles in College Park, Md, who is selling some used pink bicycles, notes one advantage of owning a pink bike: There's plenty of nail polish colors available to touch up frame scratches!

The second item mentioned in Bike Bits is about Tulsa Townies, a project was launched in August 2007 by Saint Francis Health System to promote an active and healthy lifestyle in the Tulsa area.

So what does this have to do with pink bicycles? A closer look at Tulsa Townies' Web site reveals that all of the group's bicycles are pink!

This project is the first bicycle program of its kind in northeastern Oklahoma. Three of the four bicycle rental stations are located at the Tulsa River Parks Trail, and The fourth is located at the Sand Springs River City Park. Although there is no cost to check out a Tulsa Townies bicycle, a credit card is needed for identification purposes and to help prevent theft. Patrons may return their Tulsa Townies bicycle at any one of the locations regardless of where the bicycle was originally checked out.

So if you think you're pretty in pink, bicycling's the sport for you.

Labels: Adventure Cycling Association, bicycles

Roger 0 comments links to this post 9:55 AM

Friday, March 09, 2007

Underground Railroad Bicycle Route

The Adventure Cycling Association recently revealed its newest cross-country bicycle route, the 2,058-mile Underground Railroad Bicycle Route from Mobile, Ala., to Owen Sound, Ontario.

This bicycle route memorializes the Underground Railroad, a network of clandestine routes by which slaves attempted to escape for many years before and during the Civil War.

In Alabama and Mississippi, the route parallels the Tombigbee River, while in Tennessee and western Kentucky, it parallels the Tennessee River. In Kentucky, the route intersects Adventure Cycling's TransAmerica Trail between Carrsville and Sturgis, just a few miles and a short ferry ride away from Cave in Rock, Ill.

The route stays near the Ohio River until Brandenberg, Ky., where it crosses the river into Indiana. At Madison, Ind., the route again crosses the Ohio River back into Kentucky. The route traverses the northern tip of Kentucky. At Maysville, Ky., it crosses the Ohio River one last time into Ohio.

Once into Ohio, it backtracks to the Cincinnati suburb of Milford (and includes a spur into Cincinnati), then crosses the state to the Cleveland-Akron area. The route continues along Lake Erie through Pennsylvania and New York until Buffalo, where it crosses the Peace Bridge into Canada.

In Canada, the route goes through the Ontario city of Niagara Falls, skirts the southern tip of Lake Ontario, then continues to Owen Sound on the southern side of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay.

Adventure Cycling has a short article that gives a good overview of the historical significance of the Underground Railroad, and you can learn about highlights of the route. Adventure Cycling is selling detailed maps of the route for those of you who want to do it alone, and is offering a supported tour of the route from Buffalo to Owen Sound on July 30-Aug. 5.

USA Today did a brief article about the new route today. Besides spotlighting the importance of the Underground Railroad, Adventure Cycling is attempting to introduce minorities to the joys of cycling. Here's a short snippet from the article:

That the predominantly white sport of bicycle touring is spotlighting black history isn't lost on Steven Thomas, director of the Center for Minority Health at the University of Pittsburgh. The center, which works to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities, is using the Underground Railroad route as a vehicle to draw more black Americans to cycling. After three years in development, Thomas calls it "one of the most interesting partnerships to advance minority health and lift up black history."

A tip of the hat goes to my good friend Jeff Herman for pointing out the USA Today article to me.

Labels: Adventure Cycling Association, cycling, tours

Roger 0 comments links to this post 12:01 PM