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Showing posts from July, 2019

Ride Report: the Blue Ridge Parkway

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Fancy Gap to Front Royal in 6 Days with Adventure Cycling by Pat Boling This is an account of a trip I went on with Andy Hirsch to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive in Virginia in early June. The group met on Saturday June 1st at Fancy Gap, Virginia, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was surprised to see so many people: 5 guides (one a bike mechanic), 2 cooks, and 20 cyclists, all of whom were ready to go. Sunday morning we got on the road bright and early (that’d be about 7:20 or so), with a glimpse off to the west of smoky blue ridges coming up right away. Whoah! Some great vistas to be had! The first day wasn’t too bad, 44 miles to Floyd, VA with a transit through Meadows of Dan and Mabry Mill (a lovely site, everybody took photos there). Lots of birds singing in the trees, tranquility reigned. The descent into our lunch spot scared me a bit, because of cross winds that made my bike shake. I knew ahead of time I’d be more worried about my ability to de

Closing the Gap On: Lenny Lavin

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The Wabash River Cycle Club's "Closing the Gap On..." blog series is a brief minute spent getting to know your diverse cycling community! If you know of someone who wouldn't mind sharing just squeaks of information about their cycling life, please contact us at  wrccindiana@gmail.com  to nominate them (or... yourself!) What is your name? Leonard (Lenny) Lavin What town do you consider your original hometown? Indianapolis What kind of work do you do? If retired, what was your life’s work? Residential Real Estate Appraiser Do you engage in any hobbies when you’re not cycling? No, nothing in particular. What is your cycling background? Have you always biked? If you got back into cycling as an adult, how did that come about? I’ve always biked but really started to ride more consistently about six years ago with the Monticello group. Do you lead any WRCC rides? If so, how do you plan your routes? Yes, I do lead WRCC rides. I typically plan based on wind directio

Conversations With US: Great Lakes States by Chris Register

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A Book Review by Melissa McCurley Do you know what book darts are? Book darts are flat, paper-thin metal line markers. Fastidious types will appreciate the ability to mark a page in a book—or even a specific line—without resorting to highlighting, underlining, or dog-earing the page. And unlike sticky notes or sticky flags, you don’t have to worry about glue drying out and the post-it falling off. Book darts slip onto the page, but unlike paper clips, book darts are thin enough not to leave an impression on the paper, even if kept in a closed, heavy book for a long time. The label on the tin asserts that book darts will not stain pages either. Why am I blathering on about book darts? Well, when I started reading Conversations With US: Great Lakes States, I kept my tin of book darts at hand so I could mark any bits that I found noteworthy or delightful and might want to quote in a review. Reader, I emptied the tin. There are well over two dozen book darts deployed through my c