Homeless

Good news for Honi. I think we have found her a new home with a wonderful family, our neighbors the Davises. Jeff and Gail have two sons - Tim, a rising 11th grader headed for the Governor's School for Math and Science in the fall, and Brian, a skateboarding DUDE currently in the 7th grade at Ninety Six Middle School. The Davis home also includes big dog Jack, little dog Lucy and pint sized cat Pearl. Gail dreamed recently about a white bunny. I took Honi over to meet them today and it seems like it's going to work out for her to join their "zoo."

Meanwhile the Burketts are still facing homelessness ourselves. We are set to close on the sale of our Greenwood house May 30th, but still have no plan for where to go from here. Pray for us!

Yesterday we enjoyed celebrating Kaden Hughes' first birthday at Dustin and Lindsey's new home in the Greenville area (Simpsonville address, Mauldin schools). Congratulations to them on the new home!

Honi

Here she is, our new bunny - Honi. Alan rescued her last Tuesday night. She was abandoned in the woods where he rides mtn bikes. Thanks to our awesome friends John & Kathryn Eichelberger for providing a temporary home for both our bunnies.

GTR - We're IN!!

Good news today. We made it into the 2006 Georgia Tandem Rally. And it's not like this is an invitational event. The 150 rider slots for this event filled up in just a few weeks early this year. Before we knew it we were 9th on the waiting list. But we had faith! We went ahead and reserved a room at the host hotel and hoped against hope that enough people would drop out to get us in.

Georgia Tandem Rally Homepage

The 2005 GTR was our first tandem event and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Extremely well planned and organized event. Nice people. Fun rides. Great way to spend a weekend! This year promises to be just as much fun. Yeah for us!!!

A headwind in every direction

It's not often I get off a bike and don't say "Good ride!" Today is one of those days. Alan and I rode the tandem about 30 miles - from our house to Hodges and back on Highway 246 this morning. Averaged over 17mph. It was supposed to be 62 degrees out there, but it felt MUCH colder, thanks to the wind. I don't understand how there can ALWAYS be a headwind. No matter which way we turned. Still it felt good to ride, better than staying inside on the couch.

A few fun weblogs by local yokel bike riders:
John Lake's webpage and ride log
Russ Fitzgerald's weblog

Pendleton Crew

Here is a pic of the group we rode out with at the Jubilee Joy Ride on Saturday. Unfortunately Bill and Connie tangled on mile 7 and we had to call EMS. BIG Bummer. Both are recovering, tho' with some broken bones and road rash. It was a beautiful day for a ride, marred by the cruel fate that awaits all bike riders at some point. Just glad we were there to help.

10,000 steps at The Masters!

Today Alan and I got to experience something "local" and famous that we have never had the opportunity to see before. Our friend Susan GAVE us two free passes to the Monday practice round at the Masters. So we just spent the day with Ernie Els, Tiger Woods and those guys. How awesome is that!

O Captain My Captain

This morning we are headed to Pendleton to ride our tandem in the Spring Jubilee Ride. We'll probably do 30-35 leisurely paced miles. We haven't been riding much lately, because the weather and our busy schedule haven't allowed. So I'm looking forward to being on the bike today.


This morning as I was waking I thought about the Governor's Ride last fall (see picture below) and how close we came to disaster. Thankfully I ride with an excellent Captain (my "backseat" is called the Stoker). Alan did a FABULOUS job saving us from serious injury.


We had ridden about 40-45 miles and stopped at the last rest stop. The traffic had gotten thick on the roads and we were headed into Columbia so it was only going to get worse. We decided to head out in the Governor's group to take advantage of the State Troopers who were riding front and rear of his group, slowing traffic on this four lane road. Before long we are zooming along, over 20mph, in a double paceline with about 60 bikes, all in the right-hand lane. We are near the front, only 6-8 bikes ahead of us in our left/inside line. The Guv is at the head of the right/outside line. We are FLYING along.


Suddenly Alan turns the bike left, into the left-hand driving lane. At the same time I am looking right because bikes and bodies are sliding down the pavement beside me, in between the two lines of bikes. Slowing, stopping, bikes peeling left and right to avoid the accident. My heart is racing. Alan's is too, I notice once we stop. But he stayed calm and cool. He had seen it coming. Just ahead of him, maybe two bikes, he had seen someone clip (touch) the back wheel of a the bike in front. I think there was a manhole cover or something in the road someone was trying to avoid, slowed and swerved and the guy behind him didn't.


No matter the details of their wreck, the amazing thing to me is that WE didn't wreck. In a split second Alan made a great decision. If we had gotten caught up in the wreck and laid our tandem down in the road, we could have been SERIOUSLY injured and taken out many riders behind us. I am so thankful we were in the line with room to our left. If we had been in the other line, we would have had no where to go (there was a curb). And I'm thankful my captain is such a dependable, trustworthy and excellent captain.