Welcome y'all! It already seems to be springtime here in Bloomington. I'm planning on riding this afternoon. I call these winters, "Tennessee winters" about 10 degrees warmer than usual and no snow or ice. I don't think I'll ever have to ride the wind trainer this off-season. We've got plenty of gravel and trails to ride when it's cold, anyway.

I've got rides already planned for 2017, but I've had to change a few things due to some health issues. So, actually 2017 will be divided into two seasons. Season 1: training - riding every chance it's ridable mountain biking, gravel riding, and road riding. Hell Week in March - 1 week of riding in the Austin-San Antonio with up to 100 mi routes each day. My wife and I just love Fredricksburg and some warmer weather. April - a Tennessee scouting trip for a future Heart Cycle trip (www.heartcycle.org) is a 480 loop ride out of Nashville, TN to Chattanooga back to Nashville. Just a few of us from Bloomington are doing this adventure. Then my "health issue" is gonna get cut out, so I won't be riding until late June per doctor's orders. Sylvia and I had to cancel a Heart Cycle tour of Western Colorado out of Grand Junction on the tandem in June. Oh yeah, she's still recovering from a broken leg last October. One week of late June will be RAAM week - four to five days and nights where we captain Time Station 39. Season 2 will start with Flat Fifty Plus on the tandem. This is a ride that I had directed for about seven years when I lived up in Decatur, Indiana. It's so flat and we don't even have an overpass! This will be a good ride to see how I'm feeling. In July I'll probably open my business, doing day trips for people in southern Indiana. Then Sylvia and I will be riding RAGBRAI, that ride of 10,000 riding across Iowa from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River. In August we'll try to do some rides on the tandem in northern Indiana Amish country. Labor Day weekend will be the Tandem Rally in Dublin, Ohio. Finally, the first week in October will be my first Heart Cycle Tour what I will lead featuring Southern Indiana. Overnights will include Bloomington, French Lick, and Nashville.