2013 Midwest Tandem Rally-Ohio

Thursday, August 29 through Sunday, September 2, 2013

Thursday, August 29, 2013

We arrived in Fairborn, Ohio, early Thursday morning and were allowed to check into our hotel room at the Wingate by Wyndham for some much needed rest after driving 12 hours through the night. We then connected up with other MTR attendees that arrived early and went for supper at the Texas Roadhouse. A great start to this exciting weekend.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Morning Pre-Rally Ride: 45.90 miles
TANDEM Pedal Time: 3 hours 39 minutes, average speed 12.4

Arriving early had its benefits. We were able to gather with Kathi and John from Wisconsin and Sally and Gary from Missouri to bike one leg of the Miami Valley Bikeway system. We parked at the Beavercreek Station and headed east towards the Xenia Station. The weather was great and we were all excited to start pedaling.

Lunch was enjoyed at Roosters, an unusual diner along the bike trail. We would definitely return to this area to bike more of these great trails around Greene County Ohio.

Back at the host hotel, things were beginning to gear up for the opening of the 2013 Midwest Tandem Rally—Let the Rally begin! Organizers were rushing to complete their final tasks before registration was declared officially open. Dennis and I were visiting the vendor booths when we were asked to model for the local newspaper doing an article on this tandem event. We rode a tandem around the bike storage area wearing the official 2013 MTR jersey. We left our names with the reporter but never did find the published piece but it was fun to have had a glimpse of fame for just a moment.

MTR Day #1: 12.06 miles
TANDEM Pedal Time: 1 hour 3 minutes, average speed 11.4

At 2:00 p.m. we met up with Michelle and Alan Andersen to bike the official ice cream route. We stopped at Graeter’s for a quick and delicious ice cream treat and then continued pedaling through the town of Fairborn back to our hotel.

MTR is all about gathering with friends you haven’t seen in a while. We love to get everyone together to take advantage of every moment. The rules: Pick a time, invite teams to attend, get drinks and pass the hat for pizza. The party began at Veerkamp’s hotel at 6:00 p.m. We had a wonderful desk attendant at our hotel that offered use of the outdoor patio for our event and suggested we try the local pizza company—great pizza at an awesome price. Seven teams arrived and we all enjoyed kicking off MTR with this social event.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

MTR Day #2: 68.97 miles
TANDEM Pedal Time: 4 hours 52 minutes, average speed 14.1

The mass start began promptly at 9:00 a.m. and Dennis and I lead the group of 346 teams towards the countryside. With that many teams following you want to make sure you know where you are going and getting out of the parking lot can be a challenge sometimes.

Lunch was served at the Young’s Jersey Dairy under a large shelter. The use of our name badges again provided a very organized way to feed this crowd efficiently. We were blessed with wonderful riding conditions in the morning hours but by noon the temperature became rather uncomfortable. Our water was getting low and the sun was emitting some fierce rays. We arrived back at our hotel by 3:00 p.m. and gave in to exhaustion. Water was handed to us as we slouched to the ground. After regaining our strength, we gathered again with a few teams to return to Texas Roadhouse with plans of using our dinner discount tickets this time. Following supper, we stopped to visit with the Wisconsin COWs in their hospitality room then onto Kathi and John’s travel seminar—they always do such a wonderful job sharing their travels across the USA. We wrapped up the evening with a visit to One Eye Jacks where we joined six teams already involved in the celebration of another fine MTR day.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

MTR Day #3: 49.71 miles
TANDEM Pedal Time: 4 hours 4 minutes, average speed 12.2

With Saturday’s struggles behind us, we looked forward to another sunny day of riding. We did, however, break from tradition and gathered a group to bike the Miami Valley Bikeways instead of biking the planned route for the day. High temps were expected and we opted for the shade provided on Ohio’s wonderful trail system. We biked from the Xenia Station to the town of Dayton and enjoyed the beautiful RiverScape MetroPark.

Back at Xenia, lunch was waiting for us in an air conditioned building at the Fairgrounds. For a few more biking miles after lunch, we picked up the Ohio-to-Erie Trail out of Xenia.

This hard-working group of Ohio natives was partly responsible for making MTR 2013 a huge success. We missed them on route this year as their duties kept them from joining us. Thanks to all the Ohio MTR volunteers for making this a very enjoyable rally—not bad for this newly organized club!

Banquet day always gets us back to our accommodations early to fancy up for the main event—ha, ha. Actually, I offered my help to photographer, Miles, who was challenged with putting together the evening slide show. He repaid me with his thanks and allowed me to pick out a photo of my choice at no cost. The banquet meal was super and the variety was immense. Entertainment included a presentation by Tom Hinkle of the Bicycle Museum of America. He brought with him an antique bike display and educated us on many facts about bicycling over the generations—did you know that Schwinn never built a bike? Huffy was commissioned to build for Schwinn—very interesting.

This ended MTR 2013 for us. We would be off to West Virginia in the morning on our 13 eastern states adventure. We said our good-byes to all except Kathi and John who would be joining us on this journey east.

MTR 2013 Ride Statistics

33 states and 3 countries were represented (USA—11 from MN and 17 from WI, Canada, Brazil) totaling approximately 346 teams

65 teams enjoyed their first MTR; this was our 8^th MTR

The state with the most teams in attendance was awarded to Ohio with 73 registered riders; Michigan came in second with 49 teams in attendance

Our Total MTR 2013 Biking Miles: 176.64

Upcoming MTR Locations: MTR 2014—Fort Wayne, IN; MTR 2015—Rockford, IL

Mesabi Weekend–August 8 to 11

Day 1 Mesabi Bike Trail—Virginia to Gilbert: 18.80 miles TANDEM Pedal Time: 1 hour 43 minutes, average speed 10.9

Our Mesabi Weekend began with a drive to Babbitt, MN for a stay with my brother, Paul. He made us some awesome blueberry pancakes Friday morning and then we were off to Soudan to tour the Underground Mine.

We put on a hard hat and ventured a half-mile into the earth at the Soudan Underground Mine. The $12 ticket was well-worth the cost. Our tour guide, Karl, did an awesome job helping us see, feel, hear and understand the impact of mining on the lives of these northeastern Minnesota settlers. His introduction to the mine got our attention as he began speaking to us in Dutch. He explained later that most miners here would have also been frustrated trying to understand a co-worker. As an ex-miner, Karl was able to help us understand the sacrifices this line of work requires—not only medical but emotional as well.

Our 90-minute tour started 689 feet below sea level and 2,341 feet below the surface at Level No. 27. The cage ride down held 10 adults closely together but the miners would have been packed tighter and the door to the cage would have taken up precious space so was not installed in the days of operation of this “Cadillac of Mines.”

The Soudan Mine opened in 1882 and was Minnesota’s first iron ore mine. Operations went underground by 1892 after numerous accidents. When technology changed, the ore from the mine was no longer needed. Low-cost ores of the Mesabi Range took over. The Soudan Mine stopped mining ore in 1962.

Our two-night stay at the AmericInn in Virginia put us close to the 115-mile, paved Mesabi Bike Trail. We checked in at 3:00pm, paid $10 for our 3-day Wheel Passes and suited up to ride. We pedaled from Virginia to Gilbert, stopping to see the Rouchleau Mine and outdoor equipment display at the Mineview in the Sky.

As we pedaled away from the Mineview, the sky began to darken. We reached Gilbert but did not feel we could make it to Eveleth without getting wet so we turned back towards Virginia and celebrated rolling over 20,000 miles and our 33^rd anniversary with a wonderful meal at Adventures. We started out on our ride with temperatures in the 70’s which dropped into the 60’s by ride’s end. The few raindrops we did get did not hinder our enjoyment of this day’s riding.

Day 2 Mesabi Bike Trail—Virginia to Hibbing: 63.27 miles
(mile markers 71-40) TANDEM Pedal Time: 5 hours 24 minutes, average speed 11.6

What a beautiful day for this planned bike ride. Paul joined us at 10:00am and we pedaled out of Virginia towards Hibbing. We quickly passed through the small town of Mountain Iron and then through the town of Kinney without even realizing it. At Buhl we stopped to view an abandoned open mine pit—a fabulous view.

Our next stop was in Hibbing for a patio lunch at Zimmy’s. It was getting late and we were hungry. The food was worth waiting for and the rest was needed. We were now as far west as we would go on the Mesabi today.

Our next stop was at the World’s largest operating open pit mine—the Hull-Rust-Mahoning—known as the “Grand Canyon of the North”. The area’s first mining lease was awarded to Frank Hibbing in 1891. The village of Hibbing grew up near the mine pit and in 1918 the heart of the community was mounted on steel wheels and moved two miles to the south to make room for the mine's expansion. The combined Hull-Rust- Mahoning Mine and Hibbing Taconite open pit covers 5,000 acres. The view here was breathtaking!

Heading back towards Virginia, we came upon Chisholm. We stopped to walk across the Bridge of Peace which was proudly flying the flags of countries world-round, representing the cultural diversity of the area’s residents. We did not have time to tour the Minnesota Museum of Mining this day so will have to return north another time to bike more of the Mesabi.

Supper was at Grandma’s back in Virginia followed by a few card games with Paul before we collapsed for the night. We truly enjoyed touring along the Mesabi Bike Trail on this beautiful day. The trip was made even more special with the company of my brother, Paul.

Day 3 Mesabi Bike Trail—Hibbing to Nashwauk: 32.52 miles
(mile markers 40-25) TANDEM Pedal Time: 2 hours 29 minutes, average speed 13.0

Today started with a drive to view the Laurentian Divide just outside Virginia. The Divide runs along the crest of a ridge of low rocky hills known as the Giant’s Range. These hills separate the headwaters of streams that flow north and south. Streams on the North Slope flow through Canada to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. On the south slope streams flow into Lake Superior and the Atlantic Ocean or to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The rocks of the Laurentian Divide are more than 2 billion years old.

A drive to Hibbing put us back on the Mesabi Trail. With our bike trip of 32 miles today, we were able to bike through the small villages of Kelly Lake, Keewatin and Nashwauk giving us a weekend total of 47.5 miles one way on this well-designed bike trail in the north.

We will return to bike the remaining miles someday soon and look forward to spending more time on the Range.

Minnehaha Falls Burley Biking

West River Parkway–Minneapolis: 11.84 miles
TANDEM Pedal Time: 1 hour 8 minutes, average speed 10.2

This tandem/Burley adventure took us to the West River Parkway bike trail along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We started at the Minnehaha Park and Falls and progressed north towards the University of Minnesota. We saw many great sites along this 12-mile journey. Of course the falls were spectacular and Kennedy enjoyed the boats on the river.

Minnehaha Park is one of Minneapolis’ oldest and most popular parks, attracting over 850,000 thousand visitors. The 193-acre park features a 53-foot waterfall, limestone bluffs and river overlooks and has been on my “must see” list for some time. I was grateful to see it this day when the water was flowing rapidly over the rocks.

We stopped for a short snack at the Bohemian Flats near the University which also gave Kennedy a chance to explore the authentic paddle wheeler, the Minneapolis Queen. We then pedaled back to the Falls where we had lunch at the Sea Salt Eatery—very enjoyable!

Kennedy’s biking miles for 2013 now total 73. She is slowly getting used to these trips with grandma and grandpa pulling her behind in the Burley.

MTR 2012 – Middleton, WI

Friday, August 31 through Monday, September 3, 2012
Friday, August 31, 2012–Rally Day 1

We spent many months planning this event along with a host of volunteers from our Couples on Wheels (COWS) tandem club. Our club presidents, Joan and John Laabs did an outstanding job organizing committees and attending meetings with the Madison Chamber and a variety of others to make sure each aspect of this “Olympic” biking event was addressed. The time has now come, so let the show begin!

We left home early Friday morning for the 3-hour trek to Middleton, WI. We had a Post MTR Tour errand in the Dells prior to meeting up with our club presidents in Middleton. We arrived at the Middleton Marriott mid-morning and our room was ready. We were upgraded to a corner suite in this up-scale establishment and this was a real treat. The Marriott was a wonderful place for this event and the staff was at our beck and call throughout this holiday weekend. We lunched at Sofra’s Family Bistro with John and Joan and then boogied back to the Marriott to get ready to ride. We had a window of 2 hours free time to get our Friday route in before our 3-6 p.m. bike storage duties which were then followed by a 5-7 p.m. assignment at registration—just a little overlap here.

We biked with the Andersens for this hilly and hot 13-mile ride. We were so happy Alan and Michelle were sharing their first MTR with us this year.

A variety of volunteers worked many months to put together this Tandem Rally in Middleton, Wisconsin. Our Co-Chairs, John and Joan Laabs, designated the following committees to aid them in making this MTR a success: Vendors & Seminars headed by the Whites, Bike Storage headed by the Peters, Registration headed by the Jordans, Decorations headed by the Olsons, MTR Booklet headed by the Petersons, SAG and Finance headed by the Dobbersteins, MTR Post Ride headed by the Veerkamps and the MTR Routes headed by the Gabelts and Bill Hauda – It all came together this Labor Day weekend.

This busy day ended with a jersey purchase in the vendor area, supper at Claddagh’s Irish Pub with 9 couples and a visit with Michelle and Alan in our Marriott room. Lights went out in room 401 at 11:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 1, 2012–Rally Day 2
We were up early for a McDonald’s breakfast before attending to our Bike Storage shift scheduled for 7-9 a.m. Marsha and Bill excused us a little early so that we could join the mass start beginning at 9:00. Many tandems (approximately 425) were in line awaiting final announcements, the police escort arrived and we were off. We chose the 50-mile route with its 2200 feet of climb which took us to Lodi for a delicious lunch.

Tandem bikes lined the roadways as they were escorted out of the Middleton area towards Lodi. The weather was perfect and winds were minimal which made for a fun day of riding with this amazing mass group.

Dennis and I had little time to visit at the rest stops. We needed to get back to the hotel and collect photos as riders finished their miles for the day. These photos would be used in a movie to be run during the social hour on Sunday evening. Many stopped by to share their photos of the day’s ride and I was happy with the variety of shots received. Michelle Andersen was at my side lending support for this project.

This first day of mass riding was a delightful success with miles of smiles and colorful conversations as riders reconnected with tandem teams of years past.

Today’s route ended in downtown Middleton at the site of the Mustard Museum. Many were sampling mustard and purchasing their favorite flavor wrapped in our very own MTR mustard label.

After the riding was done, a special event was planned from 3-5 p.m. at the Capital Brewery. I sent my camera over with Joan and Kathi and the following was captured while I was busy collecting pictures for the movie.

A variety of seminars were offered this evening beginning at 4:00 p.m. My favorite topics included YOGA STRETCH FOR TANDEMISTS taught by Susan Pribyl, GOING WEST & GOING EAST by Kathi and John Johnson and finally the ABC’S OF TANDEM MAINTENANCE by Jack Goertz. Following the seminars, our group of 18 gathered at Spreckers for an entertaining evening meal. With us were the Johnsons, Andersens, Hughes, Solomons, Paulsons, Petersons, Whites, and Michelle & Steve.

Lights finally went out in room 401 at midnight after some work in preparation for the Sunday Social.

Sunday, September 2, 2012–Rally Day 3
This morning began with a call for help. A detour was being announced for the medium and long routes because of road resurfacing. Dennis and I were biking the medium route from the remote start in Cross Plains so could offer help by making sure each rider leaving from this location had the route update. We finally began biking the route at 9:45 a.m. and had little time to visit at rest stops but we did get another wonderful lunch and a chance to get our picture taken with the Sauk City parade cow before heading back to the Marriott on an altered route.

We encountered many hills and lots of wind on route today but we were also surrounded by many friendly riders from many different states across the USA.

We were back at the host hotel by 1:30 p.m. to begin setting up for the production of the MTR 2012 movie to run at 5:30 p.m. during the evening social hour. Ryan from the Marriott was very helpful and knew what needed to be done to get the show up and running and promised he would be near when the doors opened to the live show. I was also thankful for the support of Gary Solomon—tandem friend and movie maniac. As the riders entered, many showed their appreciation with words of thanks and positive reviews. How special they all made me feel.

The MTR banquet was well attended with approximately 50% of the riders paying the extra $30 per person to enjoy the music, food, conversation and get the inside scoop on upcoming MTR locations. The evening was still young following the banquet allowing another gathering at Spreckers. We enjoyed winding down around the fire pit out on the patio where we discussed our future biking plans with the tandem teams we have come to call our close friends. As the evening went on, Dennis and I began to realize that we would not be able to bike our traditional sunrise ride on the last day of MTR 2012. We were exhausted and we still had the Dells Post Tour to attend. After a goodnight to all, we rode the elevator one more time up to room 401 and fell into bed for another good night’s rest.

Monday, September 3, 2012–Rally Day 4
As MTR 2012 was winding down, we watched riders getting ready to bike the breakfast route. Dennis and I met Joan and John at Sofra’s one last time before heading to the Wisconsin Dells to set up for the Post Ride. MTR 2012 continues to gather accolades as teams send their thanks for a well-run event. Way to go COWS!

MTR 2012 Ride Statistics

Riders of MTR 2012 represented 25 states and Canada (37 from MN and 55 from WI)

The state with the most teams was awarded to Illinois with 67 registered riders

A total 425 teams were in attendance as of August 31, 2012

Our total MTR 2012 ride miles: 96

Future MTRs:
MTR 2013—Fairborn, OH
MTR 2014—Fort Wayne, IN
MTR 2015—Illinois
MTR 2016—Quad Cities, IA

Western Biking

New Biking State—MONTANA: 42.27 miles
TANDEM Pedal Time: 3 hours 13 minutes, average speed 13.0

Our plan today was to get some biking miles on in Montana so we headed to Bozeman, MT where we knew a bike shop could be found. We entered the Bangtail Bike Store and inquired about road biking routes in the area. We thought a bike store would be willing to help fellow bikers out but not so here at the Bangtail—we were on our own. I did bring a route map of a possible route near Livingston, MT so we left the Bozeman for the quieter village of Livingston, 26 miles east, to begin our first Montana biking miles. The route took us from Livingston to Emigrant between the Gallatin and Absaroka mountain ranges and beside the Yellowstone River. Stopping at the Livingston Visitor's Center proved very beneficial. We were assured the route was sound and parking could be found near our start.

We started pedaling in the heat of the day but only planned on putting on a total of 24 miles. We climbed for the first 5 miles and then the road leveled with a few ups and downs but the heat was killing us. Kathi and John called to check on us and we asked for their support and prayers that we would get through this torturous ride.

Once we were 12 miles into the route, we realized that the predicted total of 24 miles was only a half-way point and when done with this route we would have closer to 40 miles on the bike. A kind minister watched us struggle as we passed his church. He got in his truck and followed us to a bridge where we were stopped looking at a map as if lost. Before I could even ask him for area information, he began an inquiry about our bike. He did finally inform us that a pub with good food and cold drinks could be found in Emigrant just 5 miles down the road. His suggestion was a life saver—5 minutes after entering the River's Edge Bar & Grill, hail hit.

We waited out the storm in Emigrant enjoying the local company. The food here was fabulous—my first elk burger was mouth-watering. We learned that Montana storms like to sneak up on unsuspecting visitors and as quick as the storm came upon us, it was just as quick to dissipate. We were back on the bike and totally refreshed; ready to bike the remaining 20 miles back to the van waiting at the Carter’s Bridge landing. This Montana route was beautiful but seeing our van at route’s end was an awfully beautiful sight as well.

This was our last bike ride for this western vacation. We were able to add 4 new biking states during this trip to give us a total of 22 biked in since 2005. The 95 miles we added to the bike on this vacation were some of the most scenic and adventurous we have pedaled. The rock formations and wildlife kept us entertained throughout our travels in these western states. Our next adventure will be to coax our old van to get us back to Minnesota.