MS Ride - Day 2 - Part 2 of 2

Joe Vandal’s Perspective – Alright, already!

Bill is standing over me with a yard stick making me finish this tale of bicycling mayhem.

The last thing Bill and Steve were doing was resting at the turnaround rest stop. After resting they decided to head on back to McCall.

I should pause right here and say that I was never offered a snack along the way. I was not offered the smallest of morsel to keep me going on this ride. I was not even offered any water. You would think that these two people would have thought of offering this poor mascot something for his effort during this two day ride. Oh, the humanity. At least I did not have to peddle the bike.

As we rode out of the resort we saw quite a few other bikers heading towards the turnaround. Steve and Bill chatted as they made their way. Don’t really recall much of the conversation that they had since I was busy worrying about what everyone was thinking of when they passed by us. I also had different questions that went through my mind: was my hair messed up; did it look weird with me riding in front of this jersey; is bicycle riding actually fun…?

We did see Deb riding towards us. She was looking good as she headed towards the turnaround. We just kept on going towards the Donnelly. Every so often Bill or Steve would have to pull in front of the other to let cars go by. We continued to see other riders heading out to the turnaround. We finally made it to Donnelly and had a little rest.

We crossed Highway 55 to follow our bike tracks back to Roseberry. This part of the ride was more of a chat session again. Bill said later that it was nice to have Steve ride with him on the way back. We passed all sorts of things on the way back: Cows, horses, old buildings, a Finnish Cemetery, and European Fallow Deer. I don’t remember seeing these things on the way out. It might have been that we travelled at a much greater speed then when we came back. We did have a little bit of a head wind so it did make it a little slower going.

We stopped at the final rest area at the turn off for Jug Mountain before finishing up the ride. They did not need a snack here so Steve and Bill got back on the bikes and headed out. The rest of the ride was pretty good. The climb up the back side of Bethel Hill went pretty good. Bill said that this is the fastest he has gone up it. Ride down the other side and take the turn to head over towards the middle school. Then back across the highway to follow get towards Alpine Village.

It was a great sight to see the finish line for the ride. This meant that I did not have to be riding along for a while and that we would be heading back up to Moscow a little bit later. Bill and Steve waited for a while to see if Deb was coming but she had rode back to the house since she had bonked (hit the wall, ran out of energy) part way back to McCall. When Bill and Steve heard that she was at the house they went ahead and ate lunch and Alpine Village and then wondered back over to the house.

Bill and I will do this again next year and I think he wants to take me on the 4 Summit Ride next July. I think that will be quite the ride. He tells me that it is quite a bit more climbing then the first day of this ride.

MS Ride - Day 2 - Part 1 of 2

Joe Vandal’s Perspective - Do you really?

I did not have to get up early on this second day of the ride. I slept attached to Bill’s Camelbak on the floor of the living room. Not a very comfortable position to sleep in. Deb and Steve had dog problems during the night. Lucy decided that sleeping was not required. Bill said that he had a very good sleep. The beer and massage must have really helped.

Bill’s dad made up a bunch of sourdough pancakes the night before which Deb, Steve and Bill ate. Nothing like wonderful sourdough pancakes to get a person going in the morning.

Water bottles were filled. Air was checked on tires. The bike that Bill has is pretty cool. Deb and Steve came out dressed in their Vandal gear. To my horror Bill came out with a jersey that made me kind of throw up in my mouth. He explained to me that his cousin Summer had been wondering why he never wore anything with blue and orange. He said that if she came up with $200 in pledges for MS he would wear a BSU jersey. So she ended up getting the $200 and Bill had to wear a jersey on the second day.

Before I continue with the tale of the second day, Bill wants to share a little something he wrote with the help of Victoria.

Orange and blue I wore
Pledges from Summer condemn
My silver and gold

The wonderful thing is that the only clothing on Bill that was not Vandal was the jersey. Bill even had his Vandal bike for this day of the ride. Once Bill put on his Camelbak I was able to overshadow the bronco on his chest. This was going to be an interesting ride.

Deb and Steve went ahead to the starting area in search of some coffee, while Bill waited for Amy and Todd (a couple who live in Moscow that came down to do the ride) to drop their kids off. Victoria and Rachel were going to hang out with them while everyone was out riding. After getting the kids all settled in, Amy and Bill rode over while Todd drove over. The air was a little cooler but the sun was out and ready to warm everything up.

I couldn’t help thinking back to the start from yesterday and hope that all the right turns would be taken today. Steve and Deb were waiting with coffee in hand. Pam arrived to take a picture of all of us and wish us a safe ride. The time was getting close to get on the bikes and ride. Deb, Steve and Bill moved to the starting area and then they were off. Everything went perfectly. No wrong turns and no bikes dropped in the middle of the road.

Steve and Bill headed out with Deb following behind. I could tell that it was going to be a faster ride then yesterday. We went by the airport for the third time this weekend. This time after crossing the highway we ended up turning right to go to Elo Road and onto Farm-to-Market Road. The first challenge was coming up called Bethel Hill. Bill actually stood up and peddled past a few of the bikers. He said that most times he would get stuck behind somebody as people passed him. Down the other side we went. Tucked down and watching the road.

We came to another climb and Bill didn’t stand up on this one he just sat back and peddled up it at a pretty good clip. After the climb it was pretty flat to get to the first rest stop where Steve was waiting for us. Steve and Bill rode together for a while after the rest stop then Steve started gaining ground. Bill kept a pretty good pace. He wasn’t going so fast that I could not see what we were going by. This is a pretty area to ride a bike.

We finally got to Roseberry and turned right to head towards Donnelly. There were two bikers riding in the middle of the road and Bill hollered out "To Your Left" and one of them said that he had scared them. Good thing it was him and not somebody in a car because that would have been even scarier.

Finally we reach Donnelly and the second rest stop. Steve is waiting and they get some snacks for the ride out to the turn around. I was hung on Bill’s handle bar at this point so that he could use the port-a-potty. When he was finished we got back on the bike and headed out towards Tamarack Resort. This time Steve and Bill rode together. They made pretty good time especially when Steve was in front setting the pace. Bill followed pretty closely and was almost swallowed up by some of the manhole covers that are littered along the roadway. Steve would point them out and Bill would miss them just in the nick of time. They arrived at the turnaround rest stop and rested for a little while.

To be continued ...