Saturday, May 17, 2008

Bicycling Butterfly


So many bike rides, so little time! I had to choose between three different bike rides today:
1. Bunyan's to Bob's (Vermillion to Martinsberg, Nebraska)
2. Siouxland Cyclist's Crofton ride (Sioux City to Crofton)
3. The inaugural Biking Viking Ride in Viborg
The Siouxland Cyclist's ride was ruled out quite early when I remembered we had obligations to attend some graduation receptions.
So I was committed to ride the Bunyan's to Bob's ride - but I changed my mind at the last minute and bailed. I personally didn't feel comfortable with the truck traffic diverted to the Newcastle bridge with the load limits on the Yankton bridge and the "milled" road surface and no shoulder on the Nebraska roads. I really did want to ride with the LaneHogs - just not on those roads. I'm looking forward to hearing all the stories from the ride, I'm sure they will become legendary very quickly!
So I rode my bike this morning to Viborg (12 miles) and met up with the Biking Vikings for their first ride and bike club meeting. We had a variety of bikes and bikers; road bikes, hybrids, recumbent, and even a Bike Friday. We rode the 10 miles to Centerville and had a great breakfast at the local cafe and talked about the club and bike rides in the area this summer. Coming back against the wind was tough, I turned off a few miles out of Centerville onto Frog Creek Road and headed back to Wakonda. Had a total of 37 miles, not too bad considering how windy it was (~22mph from the NW).
Since I worked in Viborg for 10 years it still feels a connection to the community and it's great to find people just to the north of me who share the passion for riding. I will always be a LaneHog - this group has truly inspired me and taught me so much (and they put up with all my whining!) but once in awhile I like to be a bicycling butterfly and mingle with another group!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice! I've been trolling the blogs for news of today's ride too. I will have to keep my eyes open for rides to the North too. Glad you had a good day.

bikingbrady said...

Oh, it was a legendary ride. Just wait....many blog posts to come...

CDV said...

We missed you, it was a great ride.

elogue said...

Mom-two words: you. rock.