In 2004 Steve and I took part in the 485- mile Grand Excursion bike ride, which was done in conjunction with a celebration of the Mississippi River and its various effects on the river towns along its course. The course was also followed, on the river, by the “Grand Flotilla,” a collection of steamboats that…
In mid-September of 2007 Steve and I rode the Illinois Great Rivers Ride, a 350-mile, week-long ride. We started in Chicago and rode a good share of the first morning through bike trails in Chicago which gave us great views of the Windy City (which, fortunately, wasn’t windy that day). The next several days we…
In 2008 Steve and I went to North Dakota to ride CANDISC. This is one of my favorite acronyms, which most rides have, and stands for Cycling Around North Dakota in Sacajawea Country. I’ve always had an affinity for the Native American people and culture so it was special to be riding in a part…
Many smaller communities sponsor shorter rides that will help a novice rider decide whether he or she wants to ride longer rides. Shoreview, MN is one of these communities. Each year toward the end of July the city puts on a bike ride around Shoreview in conjunction with A Slice of Shoreview Days, a nice…
I thought I should follow the TransAmerica updates by answering some questions I have been asked about the ride. First of all, Steve and I bought maps from Adventure Cycling which were extremely helpful. Along the route we experienced many incidents, which I was unable to fit into the updates to my church. These are…
After riding the Ride Across Minnesota five times, my friend Eric, and I decided we wanted to do our own week-long ride carrying everything we would need in bike bags attached to panniers on the bikes. Wanting to see something other than the Midwest, we planned a week-long ride around Lake Champlain in upstate New…
This is a 100-mile, one day ride that starts in Albert Lea, Minnesota and goes around Freeborn County (it’s in the name). I have ridden it three times—twice in the late 90s and once in 2012. The first two times I rode with two friends, one of whom had lived in Albert Lea as a…
I stopped a guy for running a red light on Christmas Eve and had him sit in the back of my squad car while I ran the license check and wrote him the tag (he had run the light badly, almost causing an accident). As I brought out my ticket book he said, “Ahh, man,…
I’m a retired police officer and have, over my thirty-three years on the force, accumulated some funny stories. This is one of my favorites: I was working the late shift and stopped a car as it had a myriad of equipment violations. When I asked the driver for his driver’s license he told me he…
Every year three of my friends—Eric, Dave, Jim—and I take a week-long bicycle trip, with all our clothes for the week and camping equipment carried in bike bags attached to our bikes, somewhere in the country. I should make clear here that we are not fitness freaks training for the Olympics. We are all 50-plus-year-olds…