The four of us (Mom, Dad and twelve-year-old twin boys) are bicycling from Alaska to Argentina. When we reach the southernmost tip of South America, Davy and Daryl will become the new Guinness World Record holders as the youngest people to cycle the Pan-American Highway!

Wow. It makes me think about long bike rides that Paul and I have gone on. Let’s just say that Paul now carries some cheese to go with my whine. Now add 2 kids, whoa. Then doing school on the road–they call it roadschooling, like homeschooling–get it!? HA! Again, I think about nights at the table with Anna and/or Tyler with their homework. Tears flow, voices are raised, frustration abounds. Then add on prep with no supplies except that which you find on the road or carry on your bike?!

Lastly, eating. Paul is a frickin’ saint. Anna won’t even eat turkey on her sandwich anymore. Mayo and an American slice of cheese on bread, with the crusts cut off of course. Tyler can change his mind 3-4 times about liking something within the span on the same dinner. Can you imagine traveling to other countries on a bike (talk about a Very Hungry Caterpillar!) then get off and there is no Harris Teeter to go get skim milk, hormone free chicken or ingredients to even make tortillas (not that they have a kitchen to make stuff in anyhow). Don’t even think about access to McDonald’s, Domino’s, etc.

Surfer Laird Hamilton says he lives his life well by doing something to scare himself every day. Whether you prefer scaring, inspiring, motivating yourself, I think it is a good message. This family is a good example of this.

On Sunday Susan and I went to Hanging Rock for a ride. About 3/4 of the way up Sauratown Mountain Susan had a asthma attack. Usually when this happens she takes a shot from her inhaler and is fine, but this time she still didn’t feel good after she took it. After she got her breath back we turned around and rode back to Hanging Rock. Knowing how stubborn she is I was expecting a fight when I told her she had to wait at the bottom of the mountain while I went and got the car, but she must have been feeling pretty bad because she just said OK.

Yesterday was my turn for the bad luck. I went out for a short ride after work, and in full lean through a sharp turn I had my front tire blow. I’m still not sure how I was able to keep myself from falling, but somehow I did so I consider myself the lucky one in the group. Since I was only about a mile from home and I was going put a new tire on anyway I decided to walk the rest of the way instead of changing my tube and wasting a CO2 cartridge.

So that is three rides in a row cut short by bad luck. I can’t wait to see if the luck continues for our next ride!

This is week 4 of the 2010 Bike to Work Season. My goal is the same as last year—1 round trip per week. So far I have 6 trips in the 4 weeks! I actually save about $5 and burn 1600 calories for each round trip based on the calculator things online and my heart rate monitor. Which is great because I seem to have ripped 5 pair of shorts in the aforementioned 4 weeks. That’s right—FIVE! All in the place where the chamois part is sewn into the shorts and it rubs against the seat. So I clearly need to 1—lighten up on the ole calories and 2—buy new bike shorts. My random thought today while I was riding in is this:

I started cycling lots about 3 years ago when I was training for Ironman Wisconsin  therefore, I bought several pair of shorts at once. I cycle my clothes meticulously (I will blog about this another day) so they wear at the same rate. Which is sucky (and expensive) 3 years later when they all blow out at the same time. Luckily, through one of my professional memberships/certifications I get a huge discount on Pearl Izumi gear, which is a fav of ours. We went to the outlet in Utah on our honeymoon and spent more there than we did for the entire rest of the trip (disclaimer: we did use FF miles for 1 plane ticket and had free lodging when camping and at Dub and Betsey’s)! So we will be ordering today. Paul only has 2 pair of bibs (what boys usually wear instead of shorts).

Anna is playing softball again this spring. She is on a team w a different coach, but a couple girls are the same from last year. Funny thing about softball–the socks. One is purple and one is gold. The purple one went missing (wherever missing socks go) after 1 game. Instead of just wearing regular socks, she wore the gold one and a regular sock. Didn’t want you to think it was a gang sign or anything.

PS–the purple sock turned up this past weekend (after about 3 weeks on vacation). It was under our bed.  Imagine that–a dirty sock 2 feet from where the clothes got pulled off and dropped. Who would have thunk it??

Anna rounds 3rd on her way home.

Tyler is playing baseball (T ball really). He is the only kid who gets overhand pitched to and he SMACKS it every time. He has a great swing and really crushes it. He gets that from me I am sure. The main thing he has been doing though is GROWING! This past weekend I think he ate and laid around the entire weekend. He even put himself down for a nap (normal for me, NOT for this 6 year old boy).

What do growing 6 year old boys and lazy 77 year old dogs have in common?

A few weekends ago Paul and I went to see Simplified play at the Blind Tiger again. Their songs are great and it is always a good time (made better by the recent legislation banning smoking in bars and restaurants). Turns out the band’s drummer broke his wrist so they had a new kid who did ok. Just a little different vibe since he was new.

We like that band so much that their song, “Home,” was the one that we walked down the aisle to at our wedding. Lyrics:
Never thought I would be the one who,
Found someone to make me feel like you do,
It’s true I dreamed of you,
And you came in right on cue,

At the Simplified concert April 16.

Tyler and I were playing basketball one afternoon (which means I was rebounding for him–I am allowed 1 shot per 1 million Tyler shoots). All of a sudden he stops and runs over to the yard by the fence. He wanted to pick me flowers and insisted that I put them in water right away so they would last. Here is a photo of my gift:

What more could a girl ask for?

I have been reading quite a bit lately (Paul would say “as usual”). I recently finished House Rules by Jodi Picoult. She could make the phone book a best seller. LOVE her writing style. I also finished Walking on Broken Glass. It was ok. I am part way through The Irresistible Henry House. It is quirky so far. Henry House is an orphan who is adopted by a Home Ec Dept of a college in the 40′s so his 6 “mothers” rotate weekly for a semester, then he gets a new batch of mother every 4-5 months. It follows him through life to watch how messed up this makes him. It is supposedly fiction, but I think these programs really did exist. I introduced Paul to Bill Bryson and Dave Berry. That’s right, Paul is STILL reading! He even said his next book will be FICTION. Imagine that!!!

We have been riding a lot more now that the weather has warmed up. We are doing our first mountain ride this weekend. Can’t remember exactly how much climbing, but its a lot. Hopefully the bike Garmin will work to measure climbing feet like it is supposed to. Last weekend there was such a drastic change in pressure w that big storm that it said at one point that the incline we were on was 850% grade! WHOA!

Saturday was a little cooler than it has been but still not too bad so we were able to get in 38 miles.  Susan said that she had a new route that she wanted to try that she had driven the other day.  I was feeling adventurous so I said sure.  For those of you that don’t know, letting Susan pick a route and having her do it from memory is a BIG risk. She is still convinced that I am taking her new ways when we do our “normal” routes from the house that she has done hundreds of times now.  All and all the ride turned out nice.  We only spent about 4 miles on a 4 lane highway, and I only had to overrule her turn choice once. When we got on the highway I asked her if she knew this was coming and she said “no, I was listing to NPR on the way and not paying attention” which didn’t give me to much confidence that we would ever make it home. After we got off the highway was when I had to overrule the turn choice. I knew we were east of our house and she wanted to go east. Normally I would have gone with it because we could have gotten home (it would have just been a lot longer) but we didn’t bring food or money so we probably would have starved to death. For those of you that haven’t notices we aren’t exactly spindly little climbers and I proved this when we got home by eating a pizza and a half. Probably not the best way to lose weight before a ride like this but I still have plenty of time .

Sunday morning we went out early to try to beat the rain that was coming in. Of course as soon as we pulled out of the driveway it started raining. We decided to keep going and at least get in a short ride. In the end we made it 12 miles (we were originally planning on about 30), but we felt pretty good about it because 45 degree rain isn’t all that fun to ride in.

SICK

I stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday of last week (9/28 and 29). At first I thought it was flu, which means automatic 7 days out of work. Luckily (?) it was only a sinus infection. I am finally feeling back to normal today (10/6) 1 week later. It has indeed thrown a wrench in my training and weight loss progress (more later). But as of tonight (great run!) I am back on track. Paul and the kids had gotten the respiratory funk a couple times in earlier weeks. I think we all are on the mend. I got my flu shot and the H1N1 flu vaccine will be at our site in a few weeks at the latest. Because I am a high risk person (asthma) in a high risk job (healthcare), I am near the top of the list. Which I feel mixed about since they are still looking at long term side affects. I did also get a pneumonia vaccine free at work b/c of the high risk thing and the fact that the H1N1 tends to affect respiratory system and turn to pneumonia.

HEALTHY

So Paul and I have been in a weight loss contest of sorts w each other for a couple months now. My goal is 11 pounds, Paul’s is 7 (I think). So we weigh in every Wed morning and if we have dropped weight we get a certain amount of money we chose put towards the kayaks that we want (but cannot afford). If we did not lose, but we did our workouts for the week (training for the 1/2 marathon in Dec), we put 1/2 the money back. So far I have lost about 6 1/2 pounds. This means that I am under the cut off for what our life insurance company thinks is high risk. So once I can stay there, I will get re-tested and save us some money!

KIDS

Tyler had a hard time w getting used to school and its routine/restriction/discipline, but he has been doing much better recently. He lost his 2nd tooth yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night (ok, 10:30) and heard him rolling around, then nothing, then…”yessss!!!!” He had found his quarter from the tooth fairy.

Tyler's first lost tooth

Anna is kicking butt in school. She has her dad’s spelling prowess so we have been working on that, but she has aced her test each of the last 2 weeks. She is very much into mermaids right now.

Both kids love riding their bikes, Tyler prefers trails and Anna the road. Tyler wants to play hoops this winter. Anna changes her mind daily, but did decide she wanted to do a craft from a book she got from Miss Sallie, one of the triathletes I coached through Team in Training this season. Sallie works at Edward McKay, a local used bookstore we LOVE LOVE LOVE. Anna got to go a couple weeks ago and pick some books ($3 worth) b/c she got to 10 on her reward chart (for following the rules at school and home).

FUN

Paul read one of my books about Michael Jordan–its about his retirement and (first) comeback. I recently read 2 books my mom brought me: Never Change (Elizabeth Berg) and Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen). Now I am reading Seven Summits–it is about the first 2 guys who climbed the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents. Next comes 2 books I got in Wilmington at one of my favorite little shops, Two Sisters Bookery. My choices are Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work (Jason Brown) or Breakfast with Buddha (Roland Merullo). The weekend of Sept 20th (our anniversary!!) Paul and I went to Wilmington for the race that my TNT peeps did.

L to R: Tom, Sallie, Kathy, me

The weekend after that my parents came down and we had lots of fun, especially at the zoo w Paul’s mom, sis and her kids.

Mom, Dad, Susan, Paul at lunch at Fishbones

Tyler stylin' in my cap while he fixes my hair (at the zoo).

Girl time at the zoo!

Then last weekend Paul and I went to see B.B. King in Myrtle Beach’s House of Blues. It was SO KICK ASS! I will let him tell the rest. No new real house projects in progress. Saturday will be an easy weekend at home so we will have chore day (shhh–Paul and the kids don’t know yet).

Anna has been getting more and more into riding bikes lately but her bike was too small for her. About a month ago I took her up to Paceline to look at new ones but told her we were just going to look. She found a bike that she fell in love with and I told her that if she showed us she would ride it she could get it. We took her back up there tonight and told her that she was just going to look again (we knew we were going to get it for her tonight though). When we told her she could get it she was so excited. When we got home we went out for a ride and she kept saying “I love my bike”. Unfortunately a storm came in so we didn’t get to ride as long as we wanted, but she still had a great time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Top of Pilot Mountain--half way done!

Something similar could be said about the ride too. Last summer I tried it and got half way up Pilot Mtn and bonked and cried. This time I was determined (see post from last week).  Well, I cried again (twice), but I did finish. This was the hardest physical accomplishment of my life. Harder than the Ironman Triathlon. On the way up the last mtn, literally the last mile of the ride my legs cramped. First it was just my quads, but then my calves cramped trying to clip out as I weaved to the side to not crash. I made a small move to stretch and my hamstrings cramped. Paul rubbed out my thighs and I just stood there looking up the switchbacks that seemed to reach into the clouds like Jack and the Beanstalk. You know Paul is a man of few words… “zig zag,” he said. So I did. And I made it.

You know some of the fun that has been had already. This week the fun ratchets up a notch!

Thursday: Paul bought tickets to the taping of NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” in NC. I am a HUGE fan. Being a contestant on this news quiz show is on my bucket list. Paul downloads the radio show for my iPod and let me tell you–it has gotten me through MANY  miles of running. Oh, and we are going to dinner before that. Not sure where. Oh, and we are leaving work early.

Friday: Since this is such a big b-day for me (see above), I want to do a significant physical event. I used to do bike a mile, a situp and a push up for each year of my life. But then I did an Ironman Triathlon and a 35 mile bike ride does not seem such a big deal. So this year is the Triple Hump of Death Birthday Victory Bike Ride: The ride that will spank me 35 times…and one to grow on. (all trademarks apply to that name) We will be riding on Friday. It will only be 95 degrees, bummer. Then we have our first Team in Training bike-run workout. Then Paul is going to Bryan’s house to play guitar so I can hang out at home by myself (this is a wonderful thing!).

Saturday, The Day: If Elli cooperates, I become an Auntie!!!! But, being the older sister, she will probably deny me my only wish in life. I plan to SLEEP IN. Then Tyler has his last Tball game. We are a little unsure of events on The Day. Option 1: stay home and finish some house projects (put cages on the ‘mater plants, paint the trim, touch up some walls), and for My Meal we talked about a growler of Red Oak beer and a bag of Doritos. Option 2: Training swim in the lake and 1618 for a fancy dinner. We will see.

Sunday. etc.: Not sure, but on June 26 My Sister’s Keeper (the movie) comes out. I am hoping to talk some of my girlfriends into going w me to cry through, I mean see, it.

proposing that the upcoming Transportation Bill, which is currently being drafted by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, promotes and funds alternate transportation options.  He is asking his colleagues in the House of Representatives to increase federal funding for bicycling and pedestrian programs.    Everyone reading this is either a cyclist, is related to a cyclist, or is friends with a cyclist, or else you wouldn’t be reading our blog , so take a couple of minutes to let you representative know that you support making things safer for us.

The League of American Bicyclists has set up a place on their site where you can very easily send a letter.  It will even find your Representative for you so you don’t have to know who it is.  You can get to it here.

Below is a copy of the letter being circulated:

May 14, 2009
Dear Colleague:

I invite you to join me in sending a letter to Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman
Jim Oberstar, Ranking Member John Mica, Highway and Transit Subcommittee
Chairman Pete DeFazio and Ranking Member Jimmy Duncan urging increased support
for bicycling in the upcoming surface transportation authorization bill.

There is growing national interest in bicycling, and there is a wide array of public
benefits that are derived from non-motorized transportation. Increased bicycling
opportunities can reduce congestion, improve mobility, enhance quality of life and
livable communities, and promote recreational and healthy activities. While federal
support and program integration for bicycling has improved greatly since 1991 -
increasing above one-percent of funding in recent years – the new authorization of the
surface transportation program provides an opportunity to build upon this progress.

The letter I am sending makes four specific policy requests. First, the letter urges
inclusion of a Complete Streets policy in the reauthorization. This would ensure that the
planning and development of new transportation infrastructure projects with federal funds
includes and integrates safe, measurable and enabling opportunities for non-motorized
transit options. Second, the letter requests better physical integration of roads, sidewalks,
bike paths and transit systems in order to create seamless networks that are safe,
accessible and effectively link communities together for all transportation users. This
would enable more trips – for pleasure, to work or school, for shopping, etc. – to be safely
made by bicycle. Third, there is a need to better distribute highway safety funds in
proportion to fatalities. Bicyclists and pedestrians comprise 13 percent of roadway
fatalities, but less than one percent of highway safety funds are allocated are targeted to
these modes of transportation. Shifting funds to programs that support bicycling safety,
education and infrastructure improvements can reduce non-motorized roadway accidents,
and will make these forms of transportation safer and more viable. Finally, it requests
increased funding for the Safe Routes to School program, as well as some program
improvements, that will enable safer and expanded bicycling opportunities for student
travel between home and school.

I appreciate your consideration of joining me in promoting bicycling in the surface
transportation reauthorization bill. In order to sign on to this letter, or if you have any
questions, please contact Eric Lausten of my office at 5-5701, or via email at
eric.lausten@mail.house.gov.

Sincerely,
DANIEL W. LIPINSKI

Member of Congress

Paul and I took Tyler [Anna was at riding lessons w Robin] mountain bike riding today. Let’s just say he get’s his skill from Paul. Being the southern gentleman he is (really, Biz!!), Paul only once uttered, “C’mon Susan–a 5 year-old can do it!” Tyler liked it, but got thirsty (we had already hiked 3.5 miles that morning).

Birthday month continues… I did get my Cold Stone treat this week. I ordered the wrong thing though. Cake Shake is what I wanted, I got some other cake thing. But cake batter is NEVER bad so I didn’t really feel that sorry for myself. Paul also made my FAVORITE cookies of all time–Oatmeal Scotchies from my mom’s recipe. I ate most of them over the past 5 days, including the rest of the dough Friday for breakfast. This week my treat will be returning to strength training classes at the gym, plus a pool trip w the kids, mountain biking w or w/out kids, and a long ride on Saturday. Paul and I have plans for birthday week proper. He has done most of the planning: June 18: NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me will be taping in Chapel Hill and Paul bought us tix for my birthday; June 19: we are taking the day off (open water swim anyone!!) and going to see the Connells (rockin’ band) play in Chapel Hill that night w his friend Jay; June 20: The Ride–it is called the Triple Hump–9,000 feet of climbing over 3 mountains in 63 miles. I have made 2 of the 3 before. I have attempted the 3rd, but cried 1/3 way up. I will make this as a 35 year-old.

Paul resurrected his “1,000 Mexican Recipes” book for tonight’s dinner. He made us Sangria w the last bottle of wine from our wedding, homemade pico de gallo (from his head, not the cook book), avacado and tomatillo sauce for the grilled chicken, and horchata. Horchata is a dessert-like drink I originally had a surf camp in Mexico in 2007.  Tyler is a HUGE fan (we had it in Boone after the bust of a camping trip) so we are making it for him. You have to soak rice for an hour so we will have it ready next time they come (Tuesday night).  All of this food makes me love him even more!

I also have an upgrade for my Memory Manager software. I am sitting here in the kitchen while Paul cooks and we listen to music on the stereo. This software will allow me to share pix w others w this version (hi, Lauren!!!). It also interfaces better w my scrapbooking software so I am pretty excited!

We did some yard work today too. Since we are broker than broke, we planted more food. I had to take a nap (see above, 5 year-old kicks my butt) so Paul stopped at Southern States after dropping Tyler at Robin’s. He accidentally bought “bundles” of tomatoes. Each bundle is about 20 tomato plants. Oops. We planted one bundle, MORE cilantro, basil, thyme, serrano chiles to compliment the oregano and 3 tomato plants we already had.

I uploaded some photos of family randomness.

Goals–yes, I have quit setting them, but I did already set the goal to mountain bike this year. CHECK!!! We went last night and tonight and will go tomorrow night. I cried twice last night and wiped out pretty bad (scraped and bruised leg to prove it!). Tonight was MUCH better! Paul just decided to take me to the toughest trail in Greensboro for my first time last night.

Work had been difficult at best. I had a wonderful review and received the maximum raise. Although raises are frozen for management (which includes me). I had to eliminate a position and I had that meeting w the person and the staff today. I cried again. Paul made me cheese grits though and it helped.

K, that’s about it. We are up WAY past our bedtime! G’night!

There are a lot of rolling hills on the roads between Hanging Rock and Sauratown and as we were getting close to Sauratown I told them that the climb would be starting soon and I got a few worried faces since what we had already done was not considered climbing. The climb up Saurtown is around 3 miles with the second half of the climb being much steeper than the first half. I had warned them about this before we got on the climb, but as soon as we rounded one of the corners where you can see the grade go up I heard Bryan saying “Oh man!”. Everyone made it to the top and at that point Bryan and Tamara weren’t so excited about doing the second climb. Luckily we had parked at the top of Hanging Rock so I was able to tell them if they wanted a ride back home they had to get to the car . Once you get off the top half of Sauratown it is a really easy decent without any real curves but right in the top third of the mount there is  a really tricky switch back corner that I had warned everyone to be real careful through. Susan and I made it down the mountain first with Tamara right behind us. Bryan showed up several minutes later with a few tears in his eyes because he had scared himself so bad through that corner .

On paper Sauratown is the harder of the two climbs but Hanging Rock always feels much harder to me (even when I do it first). Susan and I have ridden there several times and she thinks the same thing. Apparently we aren’t the only ones because Bryan and Tamara both about died on that climb. Bryan got so tired and wobbly that he went off the road at one point and decided that since he was already stopped he would take a quick break. Tamara said she wanted to stop but couldn’t get her foot out of her peddle so she just kept going (a good thing for her since it is very hard to get started on a hill like that). In the end we all made it and had a great time.  OK, that was my take on Saturday…here is Tamara’s http://memosandlovenotes.blogspot.com/2009/05/mountain-climber.html.

Sunday we went on a ride with the Blues that was suppose to be a easy 35 mile ride. None of us had done this ride before but we had a queue sheet so no problem. We took off and all went well at first. Eventually it started raining and then there were a couple places in the queue sheet that were wrong. In the end our 35 mile spin turned into a wet 50 mile ride. Fifty miles wouldn’t have been a problem if we had brought enough food for a ride like that but we didn’t so added in with our ride from the day before I was starving by the time we got done.

Sunday’s ride was a much more relaxed ride. We were going out for a walk with the kids and Tyler wanted Susan to ride her bike with him. Anna knows how to ride but has always been scared to and would never do it so I was going to walk with her. All the sudden before we left she decided that she was going to ride also. We rode all around the neighborhood and Anna did great. She has outgrown her bike so she had a little trouble with banging her knees on the handle bars but she was excited to be riding.

Monday morning Susan had be at work early and the kids and I slept in. I slept until 7, Tyler slept until 7:30 and Anna got up at 8. Normally I am up by 5:30 or 6 and Tyler is also so Susan wanted to know why we can’t do that when she is there. As soon as Anna got up she wanted to go out for a ride again. We rode around for a long time and Anna was asking for a bigger bike. I told her we could go to the bike store and look but that we couldn’t get one right now (I couldn’t pass up a opportunity to go to the bike shop ). They had a couple of bikes that would be good for her and of course she wanted the more expensive of the two. Of course now she has her heart set on the bike so it should be fun until we are able to get one for her.

When we first got there Susan and I were getting our stuff ready and the kids found a little puddle that was full of tadpoles. They had a blast catching them and letting them go. Once we got things ready we went off into the woods and were having fun. We got to where we wanted to camp and I set up the tent while the kids played in the river and caught more tadpoles. Then all the sudden the rain started. It was pouring so the kids and Susan crawled in the tent while I finished getting things ready. After a few minutes the rain stopped and I started getting ready to cook dinner. Of course the rain started back after a quick break and this time even harder than before. I got in the tent with them and we played in there for a little while, but at this time it was starting to get late so we had to make a decision on if we were going to stay or leave before it got dark. At about 6:30 we made the decision to go home. The rain had gotten a little lighter. If it was just Susan and me we would have stayed but we were pretty sure things were going to get wet inside with that much rain and didn’t want the kids cold and wet.

When we opened up the tent to get out there was basically a river running straight under the tent from up the hill because of all the rain. We decided then that we made the right decision because there was no way the tent was going to hold all that water out. Luckily when we got out the rain stopped…only to start back in full force when we made it back to the car.

We were able to get the kids to leave without much of a fight with the promise that we would stop and get Mexican food for dinner. Anna was hungry and wanted me to somehow go out in the pouring rain to start a fire and cook her dinner so she was OK with going. Tyler was a little more reluctant but agreed. So we drove into Boone and had dinner with two tired kids (by the time we got everything packed up, hiked out and drove to dinner it was about 8:30) which is always fun. As soon as we got in the car after dinner the kids were out and we drove home. We made it home around 11:30 which is EXTREAMLY late for Susan and me. At this point the kids probably think that camping means you go out, set up a tent, it rains a lot while you sit inside for a while and then you pack up and go home. Hopefully we will be able to get out again soon and actually make it through the night without bad weather.

To make things worse, by Sunday the rain had made it to Greensboro and it had also gotten colder so our 50 ride with friends that afternoon got cancelled. We are both tired of the rain now and ready for some nice weather!

P.S. – We took pictures and I will post some as soon as I have a chance to get them off the camera.

Just got this from George Hincapie’s Twitter Stream:

“1000 dollar fine here in SC for any motorist that harasses, taunts, or maliciously throws objects at direction of cyclist. Great new law.”

Can’t seem to find anything on this online yet, so must be hot off the presses.  The $1,000 fine is an increase from the original $250 fine in a SC law passed in 2008 that contained an Anti-Harassment Clause stating any motorist who harasses a bicyclist, such as by taunting or maliciously throwing an object, could be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, be fined not less than $250, or be imprisoned for not more than 30 days, or both.

In an older Post & Courier article, Attorney Peter Wilborn of www.scbikelaw.com notes that the old law didn’t make that a crime and adds, “Now, get the tag number, call the police and file a criminal complaint against those drivers who ‘harass, taunt or maliciously throw an object’ at you. The jerks can go to jail whether they hit you or not. An injury or crash is not a requirement for prosecution.”

We’ll post more as we get it.

Please Contact Senator Burr (R-NC) Today Regarding Co-Sponsoring the Safe Routes to School

Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina is considering becoming a lead co-sponsor on legislation to reauthorize the federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program.  The bill would expand funding for SRTS to $600 million per year, include high schools, simplify regulatory compliance to improve project delivery, and strengthen research and evaluation.  All of these changes will make SRTS grants more widely available, and help more North Carolina schools and communities make it safer for children to walk and bicycle to school and get into healthier, greener habits.

But, to get Senator Burr on board as a champion for SRTS, we need your help. The Senator needs to hear from his constituents in North Carolina that they value SRTS and would like to see the program grow as part of the next transportation bill.

As a North Carolina resident that cares about Safe Routes to School, we hope you will take just a few moments to follow the steps below and express your support for SRTS.  Time is of the essence – please take this action TODAY-or at the latest, this week.

After you have taken action please send a quick email to Margo Pedroso, Policy Manager, Safe Routes to School National Partnership at margo@saferoutespartnership.org to let us know that you submitted a comment to the Senator.  Include your name and contact information so that we can collect the list of supporters and share them with the Senator’s staff.

Thank you so much for your assistance – with your help hopefully Senator Burr will become a champion for Safe Routes to School!

With me just getting back and Susan being sick I am not sure if either of us would have finished the race. Skipping the race allowed me to get in some easy training and get some work done around the house. It also allowed Susan time to sleep and get better. Even though I wish we could have done the race I think we made the right choice. Now the goal is to get Susan 100% as soon as possible. We have our first ride in the mountain planned for Saturday the 23rd. Her asthma gives her a hard enough time in the mountains without a cold.

My friends Tamara and Bryan from work also did the race with us and they both did good also. This was Tamara’s first triathlon and she looked strong when she finished, even sprinting it out with a guy that was trying to pass her. This was Bryan’s second triathlon and he looked like he felt much better this time. All and all a good race day!

Around 1 we went out for a 64 mile bike ride. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. Our plan for the day was to go exploring new roads which is one of my favorite kind of rides. We found a few new good roads to add to some of our current rides and a few dead end roads (but they were still nice to ride down). When we got home we did a easy 1 mile run which went well.

After the workout we ate grilled salmon, asparagus, and couscous (all at Susan’s request). On a side note, when Susan’s parents bought their new house they no longer needed the grill they had at the Crown Point house so they gave it to us.  This is the first time we have had a chance to use it and it was much easier to cook on than our old one which was really nice. We sat outside to eat, relax and enjoyed the weather.  That is about as good as a day can get!