Home made cookies and bicycling

There's something about baking that brings back the same kind of memories as riding a bike. At least for me, it's memories from childhood, my first bike ride, the smell of home made cookies or brownies, all hearkening back to simple pleasures (and simpler days). For biking it's the wind in your face, and for baking it's the smells and the taste, that link us to those memories.


So what does this have to do with Pedal The Kettle? Well, one of the first Pedal The Kettle's (then known as The Spring City Annual Tour), was supplied almost entirely with homemade goodies. I wasn't there, but you can imagine that it was probably like the days when you were a kid going to a family reunion. Little if any of the food was store bought (or Fast Food), everything was homemade, from the Fried Chicken to the desserts. Since then, we ask each of our members to supply four(4) dozen cookies, which are distributed among each of the five(5) Rest Stops.

So our goal with Pedal The Kettle is to bring back some of those feelings and memories, from the past, to the riders (our guests) here in the present. It's what keeps Pedal The Kettle a little bit unique and special among so many other local rides.

Safe riding all

A Century ride per week?

The Wright Stuff Century ride was a ton of fun. A small group (three to be exact) from our bike club started and finished together. Initially it was cool and very foggy, so much so that we had to shed our glasses for about the first hour or so, due to the condensation. The temperature swing wasn't too drastic, starting out in the hi 50's to low 60's, but then after the Sun came out I think the peak temp. was in the low 80's. With the clouds and slight breeze, it made for an enjoyable ride, through some very picturesque sections of Dane and Iowa County.

My next Century ride will be a members only event (Sept. 12th), previewing our club fund raiser, Pedal The Kettle coming up on Sept, 20th. This year, we're following the trend of many of the bigger organized rides, with a "Grand Unified map and cue sheet" for all three routes. Here's a sample of the map that I've been working on.

Our All-in-One version of the map

If you're in the area and decide to participate, stop by and say hi, I'll be manning Rest Stop #2 (for the 66/100 mile routes) at Rome Pond Park, just before the 66 and 100 mile routes split.

Safe riding all

Preview of PTK

Even though there was an Air Quality Alert, the conditions weren't that bad yesterday (Sat.) morning. There were four of us starting out from North High School to preview the the routes of the Spring City Spinners bicycle tour: Pedal The Kettle. Jackie did the 33 mile route, I did the 66 mile route and Doug and George did the 100 mile route.

The roads we use are fairly low traffic and over the summer, several segments of our route have been repaved.

All the reservations for parks/shelters have been taken care of, so the preview rides are mostly to make sure there are no obstacles (like major construction) that would require changes to the route(s). The only one we found was the intersection at Valley Rd (Cty B) and Hwy 67, just outside of Oconomowoc. But we're hoping that that will be done in time (Sept. 20th) for PTK.

Rest Stop List:

• Cushing Park - 1st RS on the 66/100 mile routes
• Rome Pond Park - 2nd RS on the 66/100 mile routes
• Whitewater - 3rd RS for the 100 mile route
• Palmyra - 4th RS for the 100 mile route
• Ottawa Park - Only Rest for 33 mile route, last RS for 66/100 mile route

While taking advantage of the Cushing Park Rest Stop, I snapped this picture, bee'ing careful not to agitated the bee.


Safe Riding all