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News, commentary and humor about bicycling and other topics of the day

 

It's Opening Day!

Today is Opening Day!

No, not for the St. Louis Cardinals. That already took place.

I'm talking about the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society. Our 2008 season of Wednesday Evening Rides opens at 6 p.m. today at the Metro-East Park and Recreation District offices, 100 United Drive, in Collinsville, Ill. Ride leader Jerry Whittle will be leading us on your choice of routes on the Madison County Transit trail system. All of our Wednesday Evening Rides will be on the MCT trails during the month of April.

Even though it's going to be a touch chilly tonight -- it should be about 50 degrees at 6 p.m., so dress warm -- it will be great to get out with my cycling friends. After the ride, we'll most likely eat at the nearby Culver's Restaurant.

A friend of mine suggested that Jerry throw out the first tube to mark Opening Day. That's not a bad idea!

As for the Cardinals' Opening Day(s), that didn't go so well. All the Opening Day hoopla took place Monday afternoon, the game was called because of rain. The Cardinals and Colorado Rockies reopened the season Tuesday night with the Cardinals going down to defeat 2-1.

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society, St. Louis Cardinals

Roger 0 comments links to this post 1:26 PM

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Think spring!

Today is the first day of spring. Woo-hoo!

Although we're expecting some late-winter temperatures for Easter weekend here in Belleville, Ill, the tide is gradually turning. It's time to be thinking about group rides. Here's some St. Louis area rides to whet your appetite:

• The Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society opens its 2008 season of Wednesday Evening Rides on April 2. During April, our rides will start at the Metro East Parks and Recreation Center headquarters, 100 United Drive in Collinsville, and we'll be riding the Madison County Trails system. We'll meet at 6 p.m. and take off at 6:15, although people may leave earlier if they want to get more miles in.
• Trailnet's Bicycle Fun Club opens its 2008 season on Sunday, April 13, with the Prairie Pedal Bicycle Ride in Hamel, Ill. Hamel is a small community just off Interstate 55 about 7 miles north of Edwardsville. Registration is from 8:30 to 10 a.m.
  
• The Team HopeRide for a Cure will take place Saturday, April 26, in Maryville, Ill. This fund-raising ride for the American Cancer Society includes routes of 13, 26 and 62 miles on the Madison County Trails system. Registration will take place from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of Maryville. The cost of the ride is $15 ($20 day of ride) for adults and $40 ($50 day of event) for families. for more information and to get a flier, contact Mike Green at mjgreen6@charter.net or call Dean Mc Peak at 618-920-3418 or Robin Warfield at 618-781-1075.
• Early registration is strong for the Tour de Stooges on Saturday, May 3, at the ride's new home, Lindendale Park in Highland, Ill. The cost of the ride is $30 for adults and $20 for children, and if you pre-register for the ride, you will get a T-shirt in addition to lunch, rest stops and slapstick comedy. Tour de Stooges is the opening event of the Gateway Council of Hostelling International's new series of recreational rides, which includes the Strawberry Fields Forever ride on May 24 at Eckert's Country Store in Belleville.
• For those of you who love to ride centuries, the Gateway Council's 5-Star Century Series gets started Saturday, May 17, with the Indian Crossing Century in Portage des Sioux, Mo., and continues with the Flat-as-a-Pancake Century on May 31 in New Baden, Ill.
• Finally, there's The Gerry Frierdich Road to Recovery Bicycle Ride on Sunday, June 1, in Belleville. The ride is a fund-raiser for Gerry Frierdich, a Belleville photographer who was paralyzed from the chest down when a pickup truck struck his recumbent bicycle on Aug. 19, 2007.

If you know of any other great spring rides that people should know about, feel free to post them in the comments.

It's time to get out and ride!

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society, bicycle rides, Gateway Council of Hostelling International, St. Louis, Tour de Stooges, Trailnet

Roger 0 comments links to this post 10:43 AM

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Birthday aftermath

After my Jan. 9 birthday post about the cool musicians who share a birthday with me, an anonymous poster asked whether there any photos of me at my current age, 47.

Yes, there is. And I suspect the person who made the anonymous post also was the person (Thomas Carter) who provided me this photo.

The photo was taken Wednesday during the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society's Meet 'n' Eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory in St. Louis.

Although I didn't tell anyone from the group that it was my birthday. Longtime ride leader Arlene Willmann knew it was my birthday, and she proceeded to tell longtime member Bobbie Peduzzi about it. Bobbie then decided to have this cake made for me, complete with the group's mascot, Wiener Man!

The cake and the beverages members Wayne Baird and Keith Rhoades were a pleasant surprise and made the day truly special. Thanks to all!

By the way, Happy Birthday to my niece, Sereana, who is celebrating her 15th birthday today up in Evanston, Ill.!

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society

Roger 0 comments links to this post 10:55 AM

Monday, May 28, 2007

BABES in the news

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch features a story in its Healthy & Fit section about St. Louis-area groups that heed the call of the great outdoors, and the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society, better known as the BABES, happen to be a part of the story.

The print version of the story includes photos of ride leader Jerry Whittle going over the route with the riders and cyclists Glen Peterson and Cecile Desair riding on the MCT Schoolhouse Trail near Collinsville. Unfortunately, the online version of the story doesn't include those photos.

Longtime ride leader Arlene Willmann also is quoted in the story. She does a good job of summing up what we're all about:

"We like to ride. We like to have fun. And, of course, we like to eat."

For those of you who aren't familiar with the BABES, we're a loosely organized group of cyclists that conduct rides in St. Clair, Madison, Clinton and Monroe counties in Illinois. The core of our activities are our Wednesday Evening Rides, which give riders the option of going from 12 to 25 miles. After the ride, we have dinner at a local restaurant.

This Wednesday evening, we meet at 6 p.m. at Scheve Park in Mascoutah and take off at 6:15 to see the "Mountains of Mascoutah" Actually, the hills aren't all that bad on the route. They just seem big because the vast majority of the surrounding countryside near Mascoutah is flat.

During the month of June, we'll meet for our Wednesday Evening Rides at 6:15 p.m. at the Turner Hall parking lot in Smithton and take off at 6:30. You can visit our Gateway Council of Hostelling International. Our rides are free for members of the organization and $3 for non-members.

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society, cycling

Roger 0 comments links to this post 9:55 AM

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Odds and ends

This post may be a bit longer than normal, but that's OK. Over the next three or four weeks, the posts will be few and far between because of the work I'm doing on Tour de Stooges and Tour de Grape.

So far, about 250 people have signed up for Tour de Stooges, and we're expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 people. I just hope we have enough parking for everyone because McKendree College will be having several events that day as well, so I'm busy finding some alternative parking spots for the ride. Both McKendree and the Tour de Stooges have experienced tremendous growth in the 10 years since the ride began, so we hope to keep everyone as happy as possible.

There's plenty of spots left for one-day and two-day options for Tour de Grape, so if you're looking for an interesting ride May 12-13 around Ste. Genevieve and Farmington, Mo., and want to help a good cause, this is a ride for you.

Here's some more odds and ends for you:

BYE, BYE COLD WEATHER (I HOPE!): The abnormally cold weather we've had in the Midwest, plus work responsibilities that forced me to work a couple of day shifts, kept me from getting any decent miles on the bike last week.

Today, the sun decided to make an appearance, and the temperatures jumped back into the 50s, so I got in a 20-mile ride today. Because it's spring in the Midwest, it meant it was a windy ride. Rides tend to be breezy around here until the corn grows high enough to serve as a wind block.

Corn also serves another purpose for Midwest cyclists. It provides cover and -- in a pinch -- toilet paper for those times you have to go when you're miles from the nearest restroom. I found out the hard way today that I should be packing a few squares of toilet paper along with my duct tape. I was able to make do with some other paper I had in my bag, but toilet paper does the job much better

Trust me on that one!

BABES WEDNESDAY EVENING RIDES: The Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society starts its 2007 season of Wednesday Evening Rides this week on the trails of Madison County.

The April 18 and April 25 rides will start at the Metro East Park and Recreation Building in Collinsville. If you're looking for a good ride with a good group of people, show up at 6 p.m. and we'll take off at 6:15 p.m. Ride 10-25 miles on smooth trails. Newcomers are very welcome. After the ride, we'll have dinner, probably at the nearby Culver's Restaurant.

SPIRITUALITY ON A SIMPLE LEVEL: Being a Catholic means lots of ritual. I think that's a good thing because it ties us in with the people who have worshiped Christ over the centuries.

My parish here in Belleville is St. Peter's Cathedral, but I rarely go there. It's not that I have a problem with the current bishop here in the Belleville Diocese, the priests at Cathedral or the more formal ritual you get at the Cathedral, but it's more an issue of the Mass times being too early for me. As design editor of the Belleville News-Democrat, I have to work Saturday evenings for our big Sunday paper. That means I don't get to bed until 2 or 3 a.m., so getting up in the morning is difficult. (It's also a big reason why I don't make it to very many of Trailnet's Bicycle Fun Club rides.)

Fortunately, Corpus Christi Church in Shiloh has a 6 p.m. Mass, and I truly get a lot out of it. Corpus Christi is probably the best-kept secret in the area. The church building itself is very small, dating from 1913 the days when Shiloh was a tiny village of about 390 people. The building isn't even half the size of the parish I attended in my hometown of Brighton, Ill. Between 1990 and today, Shiloh has grown from abut 3,400 people to about 11,000.

Monsignor Jim Marguson does a great job of saying a lot with a minimum of words, a quality I appreciate as an editor! In addition, music director Drew Cowell does a great job of keeping the music fresh. He isn't afraid to spring unfamiliar songs on the congregation, but he's such a strong leader that people catch on quickly.

The message was clear: The world would be a much better place if we would learn to accept and forgive one another.

JUST MARRIED: My heartiest congratulations go out to longtime friend Steve Whitworth and Jill Moon, who got married Saturday. Steve, an assistant city editor at The (Alton, Ill.) Telegraph, has been a good friend of mine since our college days at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Steve's not a cyclist, but he is an avid birder. Here's hoping Steve and Jill have many happy years together.

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society, Catholic, cycling, friends

Roger 0 comments links to this post 11:59 PM

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Thank God for duct tape!

Way back in November, I had to buy a roll of duct tape during the BubbaFest bicycle tour of the Florida Keys to keep my bike pump on my rental bike for the trip.

It's a good thing I had that duct tape today.

Several of us from the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society did an informal ride on the MCT Trail system with a finishing stop at the Vintner's Cellar Winery in Edwardsville. It was a bright, sunny day with winds from the west of about 22-24 mph, but the winds weren't the worst of it for me.

When I took the bike out my car, I noticed a small bump in my front tire. I probably should have something about it then, but I thought it would make it through a 13-mile ride.

About three-quarters of the way through the ride, the bump was getting more noticeable. I deflated the tube and found that the Kevlar bands were starting to separate. I figured a couple of layers of duct tape would see that tire through, and I was back on the road.

As I was pedaling north on the Goshen Trail, I started hearing a pinging sound. I thought at first it was a brake pad that was rubbing, but that wasn't it. Less than 100 yards later, my rear tube popped.

While examining the tire, I noticed interior fibers of the tire stick out of it. Sure enough, the Kevlar bands were separating in the rear tire as well. Out came the duct tape again, and I put three layers of it over the gash. Fortunately, my buddy Charles Beil was in the vicinity and helped me get back on the trail.

The tires made it the final three miles back to the winery. It looks like I get to go the bike shop tomorrow!

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society, MCT Trails, repairs, wine

Roger 0 comments links to this post 7:58 PM

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Bicycling and wine in the metro-east

While it's true that the Illinois counties of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area -- also known as the metro-east -- can't be confused with the Napa Valley of California when it comes to wine or scenic cycling, the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society is doing its best to connect cycling with the growing wine industry in Southwestern Illinois.

I spent much of the afternoon in Edwardsville scoping the two wineries in that city, Vintner's Cellar Winery and Springer's Creek Winery.

Unfortunately, the Springer's Creek Winery, 817 Hillsboro St., was closed today, although it's open from noon to 7 p.m.Thursday through Sunday. The good news for cyclists is that's easily accessible from Madison County Transit's Quercus Grove Trail. The rear of the winery abuts the trail at Chapman Street.

In the fall, the BABES visited the Vintner's Cellar Winery, 1017 Century Drive in the University Pointe II shopping center. Although poor weather kept the numbers down, we were impressed with what Vintner's Cellar had to offer. It, too, has easy access to the MCT Trails system; it's a short ride from that winery to the MCT Nature Trail.

The BABES started doing winery rides in the fall of 2005 at the Ravissant Winery in Belleville. After touring the hilly countryside near Belleville and Millstadt, we gather to sample some of Ravissant's wine and enjoy music. Owners Matthew and Kristine LaMons have been most gracious hosts to our group.

Last year, we added the Hidden Lake Winery near Aviston into the mix. The riding near that winery is considerably less difficult than near the Ravissant Winery. While you have to go off the beaten track to find the winery, the trip is well worth it. Hidden Lake is one of two wineries chosen to host this year's Illinois Wine Festival.

We've yet to explore the Lau-Nae Winery in Red Bud, the Black Diamond Vineyards near Nashville, the Piasa Winery, Aerie's Riverview Winery and the Chateau Ra-Ha Winery in Grafton or the Schorr Lake Vineyard in Waterloo, but there's plenty of time for that.

Although exploring wineries and bicycling can be a nice mix, obviously you shouldn't ride a bicycle or drive a car if you have had too much to drink. It doesn't take a lot of wine to get you over the legal limit -- just ask St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society, cycling, wine

Roger 0 comments links to this post 8:38 PM

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Technology: friend or foe?

Generally, I'm a big fan of computer technology, but there are times when it makes me want to pull my hair out. (And fortunately, despite turning 46 yesterday, I still have plenty of it to pull out!)

The case in point: Trying to get the word out about the change of location for the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society's Meet 'n' Eat.

When we made arrangements several months ago, we were not aware of Old Spaghetti Factory's plans to close its restaurant at Laclede's Landing in St. Louis for remodeling. One of our members, Paul Skeans, let us know the he heard about the plans just days before the Meet 'n' Eat, and we moved quickly to find an alternative.

We made an effort to get the word out by updating the group's Web site and sending updated information to the Gateway Council of Hostelling International's online calendar. I also posted a notice on this blog because I know many of our group's members regularly read this site.

We also tried to get the word out via e-mail, and that's where the problems took place. Glitches still remain with our new newsletter program, so many people did not get our recent newsletters. When we tried to get the word out with our old system, the Web site's server would not allow two of our three batches to go out.

I understand why Internet providers and companies that host Web site put restrictions on how many e-mails can be sent at a time, and it's because of the spam that clogs our inboxes. Unfortunately, it makes it more difficult for people or organizations that don't have the resources for elaborate e-mail programs to get the word out.

If anyone didn't get the message and showed up at the Old Spaghetti Factory, I apologize for the problem in getting the word out. I hope to have the problem fixed before we send out our next newsletter.

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society, computers, technology

Roger 1 comments links to this post 9:36 PM

Monday, January 08, 2007

New location for BABES Meet 'n' Eat

For those of you who were planning to attend the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society's Meet 'n' Jan. 10, we have some important news for you:

We have moved the event from the Old Spaghetti Factory on Laclede's Landing in St. Louis to Mariachi's at 400 S. Illinois St. in Belleville. We were forced to moved the event because Old Spaghetti Factory is closed for renovations until the end of the month.

The time of the event remains 6:30 p.m. If you know anyone who was planning to attend the Meet 'n' Eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory, please let them know about the new location.

Labels: Belleville Area Bicycling Eating Society

Roger 0 comments links to this post 2:08 PM