Heading to Moab

Thursday morning Ian and I are heading to Moab, Utah as part of the Blue Monkey Adventure group. It's a four day adventure trip that will find us mountain biking, hiking in Arches National Park and visiting Canyonlands National Park. Blue Monkey Adventure is a new adventure travel company in which I'm a partner. We'll be posting photos and videos over on the Blue Monkey Facebook page. Check it out and see some of the other exciting trips we have planned.

Ian's New Bike

Since Ian outgrew the bike he rode last year we had to go get him a new one. That meant a trip to our favorite bike shop VeloCity Cycles in Holland. Mike Clark hooked Ian up with a Cannondale Synapse. Ian selected the black and yellow color scheme. It is one sharp looking bike. It's also a 61 frame, the biggest one Cannondale makes. Ian doesn't turn 16 until June, but he's already almost 6'1" and wears a size 13 shoe. Hopefully this bike will last him a little longer than a year.

Registration Day

Today is the day we have been waiting for all winter. I'd love to say it's the first warm, sunny, snowless day of the year and we rode 30 miles on our bikes. But that day is probably a few weeks away. Today is the day we got to register for the 2011 JDRF Ride! Yippee!

The national JDRF staff did a great job redesigning the web site and making it very easy to register. Mary, Ian and I are all signed up and heading back to Death Valley. This will be Ian's 2nd ride and the 7th ride for Mary and myself. A lot has changed since 2005, but diabetes is still with us, so we continue to ride.

This seems like a good time to give any new readers a once over on this web site. I'll be providing commentary over the next several months about how our training and fundraising is going. I'll post photos and videos of West Michigan team rides and other fun, cycling related stuff. The left side of the page has links for donating, links for sharing this page with friends, links to our friends pages, a mileage tracker and slide shows from previous year's rides. We also welcome your comments, so let me know what you're thinking.

This year Mary, Ian and I have each committed to raising $4,000, that's $12,000 for our family, to help find a cure for diabetes. You can help by clicking HERE to donate to Tom, HERE to donate to Mary, or HERE to donate to Ian. You can also click on the links to the left. Thanks for your support.

222 days until we ride in Death Valley.

Bike Rush Hour

The Netherlands has a huge cycling culture. 33% of all traffic is bicycles. This video is of rush hour in the country's 4th largest city. The video was sped up so that 8 minutes of action goes by in 2 minutes.