jimsjournal

jimsjournal

A long bike ride -- 08/30/07

How long is long?

How about 105 miles?

How about 105 miles across Death Valley?

That's long!

No... not me. Twenty miles or so is about my longest ride (although I'd like to work up to doing longer rides) and I doubt I've done any rides this summer of more than twelve miles.

It's my brother and his son who are planning on taking part in the annual Juvenile Diabetes fund-raising Ride to Cure Diabetes. This will be Team Chad & Dad's fifth Death Valley ride. They first did it in 2002, repeated their feat in 2003, 2004, and 2005. They took a break last year, but they are going for it again this year.

Charlie has been training for the ride and hit the 100 mile mark in a recent training ride. (If you are not a regular reader here you may not realize that Baby Brother Charlie celebrated his 61st birthday on Monday... and he has a pacemaker.)

Team Chad & Dad (2003 picture)

Training for the ride has been a bit easier for Chad. He lives on bicycles He has been a competitive bike racer since childhood and a few weeks ago took 2nd place (30 - 39 age group) in the 2007 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships at Mount Snow in Vermont. In previous rides in Nevada, Chad would usually finish an hour or so ahead of Charlie and then double back onto the course to keep his father company for the last part of his ride. (Chad has been diabetic since infancy and wears an insulin pump.)

If you should happen to feel an impulse to make a donation to JDRF, you could add to Charlie's total or to Chad's total. Also, Chad's sister Melissa is taking part in a fund-raising walk.

Jill's road trip.

They spent a couple of days visiting with friends in Oregon (and got in a visit to a beach on the Pacific Ocean) and then went camping at Smith Rock State Park. Overnight lows there were around 36° F (about 2° for those of you who believe in metric temperatures) -- it can get quite cold at night in the desert -- but in the afternoon temperatures were in the upper sixties (around 20° C) and they even went swimming. They are now in Seattle, Washington. (Eli is originally from that area.)

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