My friday night

TeamBison goes national

Yesterday's mail delivery to the home of TeamBison included the October copy of Bicycling magazine. On page 99 of that issue there is an advertisement for AllSportGPS.com. This ad touts TeamBison's recording of the route for the July 7, 2007 ABCDesertFoothills chapter ride on the New River Loop. In all honesty, the photo of the back of Captain Flash's head is about the size of a postage stamp but still... The folks at AllSportGPS seemed to think that this route was one of the 5 best on their site at a point in time.

Cheers,

Captain Flash

ABC Grand Canyon Ride

thi is the road we will ride out to the tower on the point!
It was a wonderful sunny day!



Team Bison arrived from Valle in time to start the ride. Captain Flash and Stoker Jack are ready to go..

Last minute instructions are given to the group

Kasidy is listening and ready to roll..

This picture could be call the Before, the hill ready to go to Desert View.



and this is after.. what a view the canyon is so wonderful to look at. We are half way done with the days ride.

Up the hill and ready to rest at the sag, 3/4 of the ride is done.
Fire ahead! The controlled burn has gotten too hot.


After being stopped to allow the fire to burn down we were escorted by a fire truck out of the burn. We finished the ride and enjoyed a chili dinner. This was a fun weekend and I hope we do it again!

Taylor House Ride

It all began with a camp out at Rocky park Rd. We know why it is named that! At 7am we were off screaming down old route 66





About 30 miles into the ride, the first rest stop.



On up the hill and Hwy 89 we went until we got to the turn off for Wupatki Road

With the longest leg of the race not confirmed as being available until just a few weeks ago, numbers were down a bit for Saturday's seventh annual Taylor House Century Ride. But those who opted for the shorter treks were able to beat Mother Nature to the finish line. The sky opened up and rain poured down at Flagstaff Medical Center just after 11:30 a.m., as many cyclists who took part in the 45- or 65-mile rides were enjoying a post-race lunch. But for those who opted for the 95-mile course, they were served a drenching over the final 20 or so miles. "It was like riding in the shower," said 34-year-old Katie Monahan, a recent transplant from Colorado. "That was no joke of rain. There was some hail out there and cars would come by and splash you. But I think it was kind of fun." The noncompetitive event benefits the Taylor House, a home away from home for friends and family of FMC patients. Despite registering nearly 100 fewer than last year, the ride brought in $13,200. "This is a great help, because it gets hard financially on families some times," said Cara Wolf, who works at the Taylor House and participated in Saturday's ride. She crashed about halfway through the shortest leg but was not hurt and was in good spirits about what the benefit had generated. The opportunity to ride for a good cause is what brought out Dave Parbel, 43. "I just like helping out different charities," he said underneath a tent, shielded from the rain, after finishing the 45-mile course. "It wasn't too windy, wasn't too hot. But I'm glad I beat the rain." The lack of times and places did not bother Parbel, either. He had a competition of sorts going with buddy Auggie Robledo. "It was tough," Robledo, 40, said. "I'm a mountain biker. I've never done anything like this before. ... I'll do it again." The 45-mile course went up Highway 89 and briefly onto Sunset Crater Road before turning around. The 65-mile route went farther up Sunset Crater Road before reversing course, and the 95-mile trip continued on Highway 89 to Wupatki Road and looped around on the newly paved road until it met Sunset Crater Road. All three routes showed off some of the best scenery in northern Arizona, as Monahan attested to. "I've never been out there before," said, "but it was beautiful

."We did not finish the ride, we sure did a great job and at least half the team had a great time!

The casters of death and the mysterious sequined box

After what I can only assume was a pretty hellacious trip to Missouri, Kristi returned to Phoenix with a rental truck full of STUFF. We unloaded that truck-load and filled the very modest shop space we have with tools and materials. Naturally, there was spill-over into nearly every part of the house. Still things seemed to be absorbed fairly neatly. Then we headed up to Valle with a few items we thought we could make free to a good home. After getting everything unloaded except the pool table… did I mention “pool table”? I’ve moved pianos before but a pool table is far more unwieldy. More about the pool table later, I promise.

Kristi did her best to accurately describe the magnitude of the challenge that was stored in her two storage units. However, in spite of her efforts, I was pretty much unprepared for what I was to encounter. We started unloading the storage units into the nearly empty truck but had to stop for the night after several hours with the truck about one-quarter full. After a bit of shut-eye at the cabin/cottage, we resumed loading the truck and by late afternoon, we had both units empty and the truck was quite full. It was touch-and-go right up to the end whether everything would fit in the truck. In the end, it did, but JUST barely. Kristi’s eight antique industrial knitting machines represented the most difficult items to move. We tried to use the “casters of death” on some machines where the shape of the machine’s foot was a distinctly bad fit for the caster. In the end, brute strength was practically the only tool we had on-hand and we didn’t have any too much of that.

Upon finally arriving at Anthem, I built a pair of dollies and we no longer had to deal with gravel surfaces so things rolled much easier. Still, fitting a second truck FULL of stuff into the house was quite challenging. At this point, the living room has a very similar appearance to the storage units', before being emptied out. Seven of the knitting machines are on the covered-patio. One of the machines found a home in the corner of the garage. This arrangement provides a post-industrial ambiance to our breakfast room window’s view.

The bad news is that there wasn't anybody prepared to shoot video of me stepping backward into space off the back end of the truck. The good news is that it doesn't appear that there will be lasting damage.

Mini Grand Canyon Tour

Team Bison
Kasidy, Neill and Kristi rode the tandem to Grand Canyon.

The mysterious captain flash pedals his way to the Grand Canyon, a mere shadow of himself.

Stoker Babe and Captain Flash loaded up the BOB this past weekend. This is the same trailer that Flash used on his Blue Ridge Parkway tour in '05. On Thursday Team Bison drove themselves and their gear up to Valle, AZ which is about 30 miles south of the South Rim of the Canyon. The team rode from there to the National Park. After checking into our camp site, the team left the trailer and gear there and did a bit less than 20 additional miles in the Park, along the West Rim Drive. After spending the night in the Park, the Bisons rode back to Valle on Saturday. That made Team Bison's third week in a row of over 100 miles. Friday was Team Bison's longest single day thus far at just shy of 50 miles. Captain Flash says, "The tandem with the trailer is quite a beast but I think that carrying camping gear for two on a tandem would be quite challenging with only bags. We only carried minimal food and no cooking gear. We bought most of our food en route."

As always, Kasidy serves as Team Bison's good will ambassador. She delighted kids and adults and posed for pictures during the Team's visit to the South Rim lodges. The adventures of Stoker-Jack continues!

Neill setting up camp, very efficient just stay out of his way!

Home away from home!

It was a great weekend.

What more could you ask for than this view!

After all of the riding he still wants to hang out with Wilma!

We continue to pedal!

Today we finished our morning ride and here are our totals..

So we have ridden 321 miles! I have laughed allot.. punched Neill a couple of times! What I have not done is lost any weight!! Darn!

Planning is not one of the areas that Neill blows off so. we are planning and testing.. This morning we put the trailer and 2 gallons of water on the bike to take it for a spin..

It makes us a longer rig, the good news is I really did not feel much difference in the bike with the trailer. So tomorrow we will load the sleeping bags and tent and hope we stay dry at the Grand Canyon :-)

Nice looking rig and Team Bison don't you think! Kasidy loves to ride the bike. When we get up in the morning as soon as she detects a ride she is bonkers! Just cracks us up. I just wish we could figure out how to keep her from barking as we ride by Rabbits.. Lizards.. sometime Joggers... and some dogs. Sometimes she ignores it all and other times she barks allot!

Jeremy and Jason

Brotherly Love! I sure miss you all!

Awesome church I look at all day at work

A Stokerarium

Jennifer Rides The Bison as documented on AllSportsGPS.com