Update from Nebraska Tour De Cure

Get ready to ride! Each rider that registers between now and February 4th will be entered to win one of two $25 Visa Gift Cards! Winners will be drawn at random on Feb 7th. So if you are thinking about doing this don't delay, register today!! Link to TourdeCure

My favorite car at the 2011 Midlands International Car Show

From Car Show 2011

1958 Belvedere Hardtop. Killer fins!

From Car Show 2011

This was my second favorite. New 4 door all wheel drive. Too bad it burns gas...

From Car Show 2011

Easy Bake

Mmmm...This popped out of the oven last weekend. Hope something equally good pops out this weekend. This was mostly eggs, a little Bisquick, onions, garlic, bell pepper, and good mushrooms (not from a can). All but the egg mix was sauteed in the pan. Poured in the egg mix, seasoned it up and baked for 20 minutes. Just in time to eat up and get outside and shovel!

Going to Hitchcock Nature Center to snowshoe with friends later this morning.

Public Meeting for Road Project for 120th St. - City of Omaha

Last night there was a public meeting at Sunny Slope Elementary School to present plans for widening 120th Street from Roanoake Blvd. south to Stonegate Dr. I met Dave N. there and we listened to presentations from the city planners and the engineering firm hired by the city. It was an open forum meeting with about 40 people in attendance. Dennis Bryers of the city planning parks division fielded questions about the bike path work in conjunction with the street expansion project. There were questions from the audience about access to little league and soccer. The intent was to keep that access open. There were also questions regarding the time frame of the project. Here is a quick summary of information from this 120th Street Expansion Meeting.

• Scheduled
  to start in 2015 at the earliest (if budgeting allows).


• Project
  should take less than 2 years.


• They
  are 30% complete with project planning and in the environmental study
  phase.


• The
  road will be closed to attempt to complete the project as fast as possible.


• The trail in this project currently does not connect to Big Papio Trail (D. Bryers mentioned this would happen after the completion of this project).

The engineering firm working for the city on this is Schemmer. They had large drawings of the current project design on the walls of the gym. There was a Public Comment Form that attendees were encouraged to fill out to express there comments and concerns in writing. This form would be sent to:
City of Omaha
Public Works Department
Jon T. Meyer
Design Division
1819 Farnam Street, Suite 600
Omaha NE 68183
Jmeyer@ci.omaha.ne.us
Ph. 444-4191
After the meeting was over, Dave and I took a minute to go find Dennis Bryers and thank him for approval of the Tranquility singletrack trail expansion north of Fort Street. Dennis mentioned that with the snow outlining the trail, it was easy for him to see what had been accomplished. He seemed impressed with the work that was done this past fall. For more info on the singletrack trail north of Fort St. click here.On this presentation they talk about Section 6f and 4f properties in the area. We were happy to see Tranquility Park and Mountain Biking mentioned.

First Gravel of 2011

I arrived in Bennington, NE to find that I was the only one riding the "North from Newport Ride" today. Oh well, I felt like exploring and I found some nice rolling hills. Turns out it was cold but there was no wind. The warming climbs were much more fun than the cooling descents. There were farm dogs. They would only chase as far as their farm yards. But they kept barking till I was out of sight.

I ran across some other riders just north of Washington, NE. Their rides eat hay and poop.







As I came over the hill at mile 6 I saw the little town of Kennard, NE. The whole town pretty much fits in my lens here.
I finally found the 'Dew Drop Inn'. It's in Kennard.







Nice ride but it was getting cold as the sun was setting.

North from Newport Ride

This Saturday is the day for getting some spinning in and see some countryside. It appears that whatever wind there will be will come from the north. Sunday looks a bit colder with some new snow on the way. I'm planning to drive to the public parking spot north of Bennington Lake accessible from HW36 and ride north from there. A loop around Prarie View could always be added to this ride to make it an even 15 miles. Interested? I was thinking of meeting Saturday 1/8/2011 at 2PM and rolling by 2:10.


View North from Newport in a larger map


Outstanding photo credit goes to http://www.gnatlikes.com/.

New Years Day 2011

I was hoping to get out for a ride to start the new year right. The single digit wind chills had me thinking just stay in and forget about it. Then the wind died down and Dmars and I hit the trail. Our tires rolling over the crunchy granular ice pellet trails were so loud we could hardly hear each other talk. But the grip was surprisingly good. Thanks for the frosty New Years Day ride Dave!