18. May 2012 by tpritch.

Great weather has blessed us again for this week’s ride. Those in attendance were: Mike Bowen, Cindy Sevier, Charlotte Canida and myself.

The wind was coming out of the east. This made our trip north on Graham Road and West through the Jefferson Proving Ground very pleasant. Heading south was actually good too until we met on W500N and N400W country road. I think you may have heard us talk about this before? Yes the dogs.

When we made our turn on W500N all heck broke loose. It seems like every house had at least two dogs. Making our way down to our turn on N500W we, or I should say Cindy picked up a large black dog. For up to just under 2.5 miles this dog followed behind Cindy. (yes I mapped it out this morning) It was not mean; it just needed a good home? Finally Cindy took the advice of the guy in the truck out in Hanover who said..( I quote from Cindy’s email ) “A man in a truck stopped and told me I would have had to ride a lot faster to get away from that dog” Well she took his advice. Away she went. Behind went Mike and then Charlotte and I followed. As we got closer to S.R.7 Charlotte had concerned about the dog running out on highway and getting hit. She and I stopped to see if the dog had a tag. It did have a tag and phone number. Where we stopped was in front of a house with home owners sitting out front holding their dogs back. Charlotte went up to the house to ask if they could call the number to advise the owner of dog and to advise where it was. I will have to assume that it was done.

After this episode off we went to meet with Mike and Cindy. Doing our cool down session back towards the school, Cindy split off to head back home.

Let me make note again…From our previous conversations about the dog thing, I wasn’t too worried about dealing with the dog issues. These dogs never made any attempt towards me so I had no concerns. I did review some ideas about changing the route to get around them. I even drove my car over this route to see what I could change. The option I was thinking about was not good because part of the road was gravel. So the bottom line is I thought it would be good time to contact Sheriff John Wallace. I faxed him a letter about this issue and a map showing where these dogs are located. I feel like Sheriff Wallace will address this issue. If he should contact me with any kind of response, I will share it with the club.

Hope to see you next week. Once again I feel like we will have great weather again.

Ride Safe..
Tom Pritchard

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11. May 2012 by tpritch.

DOGS, DOGS, DOGS…Unbelievable amount of dogs for this week Thursday night ride. Attending was Mike Bowen, Bud Reed & myself. The weather was a little cooler than I thought but very comfortable. The wind this evening was coming out of the northwest, which provided us a fantastic return. This kind of helped escaped the dog dilemma.

Heading out north on Graham Road we had the head wind. Going through JPG was not as bad and heading south was great.

 Now the dogs.. As I mentioned the dog situation was much worse than past rides. Not sure why, but it was. We approached the intersection of 450 and 500 we encountered our first group, Yes group. Come charging across the field was a pack of around four dogs. I being in the lead I had passed the group and most of the abuse was on Mike and Bud. The owner’s wife was standing at the front door hollering at the dogs. Her husband I guess.. was out in the yard trying to retrieve them. Other than getting in the way, there were no issues. Making the turn onto 500 we intercepted three more. Going down 500 we came across a couple there. Even thou most all dogs approached us in an aggressive way, the bottom line was no particular issues to speak of.  [Let me add a couple comments that I have to say about dog’s verses bike riders… As we all know as riders we have the right to use the road ways the same as driving our car. Long as we obey the rules of the road. In those same rights home owners have the right to have a dog, but not to threating riders as they pass their home. Even in an isolated located way out in the country, the dogs should be contained to the yard area of the home owner. Not to roam the roads and make threats and sometimes attack. What can be done about it I’m not sure. For sure we could change route and call the sheriff to complain. Will this resolve the problem? As club members we need to keep in mind that we represent the “Madison Area Bicycle Club” when we holler at the dogs that means one thing, when we holler at the home owner that is something different. To make threats like “I will sue you if your dog bites”, etc. is not good. Even thou the owner may not know if you are a member of the club they do know that you are a bicycle rider who is making threats. That does not represent the sport of riding very well. Many time cyclists get the bad wrap because of a few acts of others in this manner. So in closing on my rant please be a good ambassador for our club and the sport of cycling].

Now back to the ride. As you may have read in Mikes ride report earlier, we had great conversations during the ride. We talked about family history also about what Mike and my draft numbers were when they had the military draft back during the Viet Nam war. Mike’s number was #1 and mine was #256 Amazing that I still remember. I even still have my draft card. I didn’t burn it. Neither one of us went into the military. Sometimes I regret not doing so. My mother had threatened to cut off my big toe if I would have joined.

When we approached Hutchinson and Cragmont street, Bud split off and Mike and I headed for the school. As always this was a great ride. I hope we can see more attendance the next time. F.Y.I. I will start looking at other options to change the route to avoid the dogs.

Ride Safe
Tom Pritchard

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4. May 2012 by tpritch.

As I sit all broken hearted and wondered where the riders were, along came Charlotte in her trusty stead and Byron came to do the deed….
Three of us did the deed. The weather was great. Not too hot and not too windy. Just about right. Attending ride was myself, Charlotte Canida and Byron Nagle. I received email from Mike Bowen that his wife Sue was having some symptoms of a possible cold coming on so she thought maybe not to ride. I told Mike that with Sue riding around in that fancy convertible beamer is not a good thing.  

After pumping up Charlotte’s tires to around 100 and using what she was told when she and Bob made the purchase for this pump. “ This is the best pump you can buy” we were on our way. Traffic down SR 62 seemed a little heavier than normal but I still felt safe. This time the wind was out of the south so going north on Graham Road was nice, across SR250 was a little cross wind and south on US421 was a little head wind except the tree line in JPG helped. This was the first time we had encountered a car on this highway. This time of day seems to be normally quiet.  As we entered into JPG we encountered two large farm implements, you know those huge high rise crop sprayer machines. You know the type of machine that you would like to let pass right over top of you while you just duck your head. They must have been heading to the next field to spray.

As we started heading south we picked up the headwind and dogs. It seems like riding across 500N is constant dogs. Some seem to become aggressive while other lay there and do nothing. Byron had a good shot at one of them with his spray. (That one’s for you Joe and Dan).

Heading back into town Byron split off and headed to his home. Charlotte and I trekked back to school and parted ways. This was the fastest ride we had done for the year. Our average speed was at 13.7. The intention was not to break any records, it was just the combination of good weather conditions and the comfortable pace set by all.

Hope everyone can make it next week. And remember about Byron’s ride on Monday. He is hoping for better weather conditions.

Ride Safe..Tom Pritchard

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1. May 2012 by tpritch.

If you wish to participate with any of the official club rides for 2012 and have not paid your dues than you must sign a “Waiver Form” . If you wish to join the club you can download the form. You can fill out form and give to the ride leader along with a check or mailed to: Madison Area Bicycle Club, PO Box 951, Madison, Indiana 47250 or bring to next meeting which is on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Hong Hong Kitchen in downtown Madison. The due really help for Insurance, Web Hosting and operating funds.

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29. April 2012 by tpritch.

To All Clubbies,

Great turnout this evening. Those in with us was Bob and Charlotte Canida, Mike Bowen, Dan Holsinger and me. This was Dan’s first ride with the club this year. His work schedule has been very heavy. Tonight he was off because of hearing of some sad health news about his sister-n-law. I believe the ride was a good release for him. Iron man Mike was back in the saddle with us again. His wife Sue was not available because of other commitments. Mikes riding strength has built up nicely over the past couple weeks. After the tortured Monday night rides, he is really coming into it. Glad to have Bob and Charlotte. They were riding their tandem.

 Windy was the agenda for this evenings ride. But for the best thing to say most of the wind was to our back. How nice that was. Heading out on the ride we had a heavy cross wind coming out of the north. Making our left turn onto Graham road and through portions of the Jefferson Proving Ground we had much headwind. Being shielded through the tree lined road leading into and out of JPG property we come to 450. Once we turned left we were home free. Wind to our back almost all the way home. On 500N we encountered more dogs then in the past.

Many great stories swapped throughout the ride. Everything from telling Dan to “turn left” and after he confirmed my direction I said “right”. As he started to make a right hand turn I said NO LEFT…He told me I should have said “correct”. We chuckled about that for a ½ mile or so.
Bob and Charlotte shared with me the big blast they had down by their home. As most of you know, they live next to the Ohio River Bridge. You might also know that a section of the bridge was imploded right in front of their home. The contractors had concern with the big picture windows in their home with the explosion. Found out that it was not an issue. It was just a lot of noise. It was also mentioned that they did not want Bob or Ben to be in the middle of drilling a tooth or giving a shot when the blast went off so business stopped for a moment.

Coming down Shun Pike and heading home Dan took off straight south to go home. As we made our trek down Cragmont street Mikes wife Sue came up along side of us in her fancy Beamer convertible. Nice looking sports car. She followed us back to the school had a chance to talk. Hopefully Sue can join us next week even thou Mike will not be able to be there.

Hope to see others show up next week…Same time/Same place.

Tom Pritchard

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