The Ring Travel Saga

Today was our last cycling day on the Trail of the Coure d’Arlene and the weather today was different than our last two days. It was cooler, in the 60s with a strong wind that we got to ride into all day, and scattered rain in the area. Dave was the MVP of team Ring today. He rode in front of me and broke the wind all day long - that saves about 30 percent of effort for me. He was a machine on the front all day long. All of the people we talked to on the path thought the wind was something. I think the normal blowing was 10-15 miles an hour; when it gusted, it had to be 20-25 miles an hour. The only wildlife we saw was a moose far away, and ... read more

Sunday Our day started out at McDonalds. Little did we know that we were visiting the National Champions of quickest drive thru breakfast McDonalds ... but we were. Since we didn’t know, we went into the lobby. Most of the staff were wearing their National Champion shirts; the high schooler behind the counter wasn’t wearing his, because it is hot. We asked them what they were champions of, and heard the tale of the recent - and undisclosed - national McDonalds competition to determine over a 6 week period, which McDonalds had the fastest drive thru service, well the winner was the McDonald’s on Vista in Boise. Their nearest competitor was in Alaska. Next we headed north. Our destination is St Marie’s, ID. We chose the scenic route, along the Palette River. What a lovely river, ... read more

Catching up. We left Monday to drive out to Yellowstone and meet up with Dan, Matt, Carrie, Luke and Ryan. Our plan was to take our time, explore a little on the way and ride our bikes everyday somewhere new. We need to keep in shape for the week bike ride we have planned in Idaho after the kids go home. So here is what we have been up to and some pictures. Monday: We started out today on our way to Yellowstone. Today we got to Sioux Falls - and we got here early enough to take a short bike ride on the trail by the hotel ... in a 15 mph wind. The part of the path we rode today is on a levee and as you can see for our pictures, it is ... read more

Wow, are we having a great time! On Saturday we managed a 30 mile bike ride between Namur and Dinart. It took a little doing to find an open bike shop, but the very helpful young lady at the Namur tourist information center knew of a local shop that was open. We never would have found the place without her help, but when we got there the owner was ready to rent us two bikes for 29€ and 1 passport as collateral. The last time we left a passport was Zurich, and Andy was not sure that it was a good idea ... Remembering that, we left Dave's passport. As it turned out, we had no trouble getting it back. It was a very easy to follow ride down the Meuse River and back on a ... read more

I am sure you all saw that Michael Goolaerts - a 23 year old cyclist for Veranda’s Willems-Crelan team - passed away Sunday night after being air lifted from the race to a near by hospital. The incident happened about 150 km into the race and the television coverage showed him lying on the side of the road as the rest of the race went by. It wasn't until later than we knew this was something more serious than the other crashes in the race. I saw today though, that his team will race the next race Wednesday. We will be there as well. The rest of the race was grand though. Peter Sagan finally got his Roubiax win - and what a great showing again from Taylor Phinney! Dave and I watched the beginning of ... read more