If information is power, then we hope to energize you with this email! Here are some important topics of interest:

Our friend and sweetheart, Beth Rawls, will have major surgery for breast cancer on June 25 at Woman’s Hospital. Beth continues to be our most avid cheerleader here at RideSouth, and we know that you will want to cheer her on while she is climbing this difficult hill. Captain Johnny will be by her side, and we will all be praying for a good outcome from the surgery. We have a special card here in the shop for you to sign. We will have pink ribbons for you to wear on our Saturday Bread Ride before the surgery.

Doug Morgan is in Oceanside, CA this week to captain the Bacchetta support group for the four person Bacchetta RAAM team. Beth Rawls had planned to join Doug and the others on the support team before she learned of the breast cancer. The team will race non-stop across America to Annapollis, Maryland, beginning this Saturday, June 16. Those of you who participated in the RideSouth Signature Ride last March, got to ride with John Schlitter and Jacquie Hafner, two members of the Bacchetta team. We will be cheering John, Jacquie and the entire Bacchetta team and support staff to win their division . . . and maybe establish a new course record!

The RideSouth shop will be closed July 2-4. We are heading to Alabama for a family reunion. We hope to return by 1:00 PM on July 5. We have a new shipment of Hobie kayaks in, including the new Pro Angler 12. You have about a week to purchase your July 4 fishing machine or we will be taking it to Alabama, so don’t miss out! See our website for more information.

Also check our discussions forum for more information on securing a, for lack of a better term, Cycling License. RideSouth is moving forward on a grassroots program we discussed at the Urban Planning meeting in March. We feel strongly about this and would like to partner with other shops to make this happen. We have ordered the first batch of decals with the ID numbers RSH001 through RSH999. The decals will fit on a safety triangle, if you have one, or a small 15×4 cm lightweight, high-vis card. Anyone wishing to support this program with legal, insurance, instructional, printing or bookkeeping assistance will get their license issued free, after attending the 30 minute course on cycling at their local bike shop. We will be hosting a planning meeting in July (TBA). Please check out our Discussions Forum and offer your input.

Like the proverbial watering trough, information is only useful if you actually use it to nourish and motivate action. We have had a good group of cyclists here almost every morning this week drinking from that trough and enjoying the benefits and fun of group riding. Come and join us for our rides and support our friends during their trials. Thank you.

When I was six years old, my uncle showed me how to fly fish from my great-grandfather’s homemade fishing boat. My uncle put a small Coke bottle under my armpit. He told me if the bottle fell out when I would cast the long fly rod, then I was doing it wrong. He taught me to use the wrist and forearm to time the flip properly, laying down the fly rod hula-popper lure precisely at the desired location . . . just under the overhanging branches of a tree alongside the lake.

Today, as I was unpacking Hobie’s new Pro Angler 12 in the shop, I was reminded of the blunt bow and stern of that heavy fishing boat that Pa Law had crafted from an oak tree. I recalled the weight of the oars that were whittled from long, straight branches of the same tree. They were almost too heavy for me to lift, much less row that huge boat with! I remember standing up in the boat easily, and feeling very safe and secure. The new PA 12 gives the same impression, with a very modern twist! Yes, you can stand easily in the boat, but you might want to sit some and enjoy the new adjustable seat that is easily removable to use as a camp chair! It doesn’t take four strong men to lift the Hobie either! One person can easily handle this boat with the plug-in cart! Heavy, clunky oars and oarlocks of my namesake’s boat, have been replaced with a lightweight paddle and the modern Mirage Drive. Now, you can easily pedal with your feet! You can even sail this boat!

These days I am busy in the shop with repairs, sales, assembly and all the other duties that make our business interesting. I know your life is full as well, but wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, silently pedaling along a lake shoreline somewhere? The solitude only broken by a huge, large-mouth bass exploding out of the water . . . with the rubber band legs of my green and yellow hula-popper sticking out of his mouth! So, if you come to the shop to see one of these fantastic boats, don’t be surprised if they are already gone. And, don’t be surprised if I have decided to take a visit back in time . . . in the boat of the future. Because I just might be going fishing!

“I LOVE AMERICA!” and “GO USA!” were just a couple of comments from motorist and other cyclist as the long line of decorated trikes and bikes crossed the spillway and rode into Madison county. Everyone on the trails smiled and responded to “Happy Memorial Day” from trikesters, some who had driven many miles to participate in the first Memorial Day Trike Tribute event. The group made several stops along the 22 mile route, and even toured the Renaissance shopping center before heading back to the shop.

Lane and Louis had cut their ride short to prepare a great Memorial Day feast of Natchez BBQ, potato salad, beans and dip that quickly revived folks. Iced tea and other cold beverages soon got folks in the mood to have a ping pong, king of the hill tournament, that grew into some spirited doubles play! Lane produced a special send off cake for Drez, and everyone seemed to have a great time. We plan to have this event again next year to keep celebrating the freedom we owe to our brave men and women in uniform who have sacrificed for us. Thank You!

Last Sunday, Michelle and I were cycling back from a ride up the Natchez Trace on a beautiful afternoon, when a motorist in a white pickup pulled alongside me and said ” You be careful . . . a cyclist was killed on the Trace a few weeks ago.”

A couple of weeks ago, while talking to a local doctor in the examining room, I asked if he knew Dr. Gary Holdiness, the cyclist who was killed on the Trace. With an affirmative answer, the doctor commented on another cyclist he had seen riding on Northshore Parkway one morning, and he asked me “Why that cyclist was riding on the road and not on the adjacent bike trail?”

Now, if these uneducated comments from well meaning people wouldn’t get your back up, you are not a cyclist! Well, it took ten times longer for me to almost get through to the good doctor that the cyclist was riding on Northshore Parkway because he had the “right” too, than it did for him to diagnose a slight torn cartilage in my chest! I tried pointing out that crossing the busy road two or three times was much more dangerous than riding and merging “with” traffic. I had to argue that the roadway was ours as well, just like the trail was his, also!

We don’t always have that ten minutes to formulate the best response to comments from folks like the gentleman in the pickup. In fact, because we are focusing on the important task of operating “our” vehicle in a safe manner, we hardly have time to comment at all! The correct response was more than, “Yes, I knew Dr. Holdiness and it was very sad and tragic”. In fact, after he had slowed to fifteen mph on the busy Trace to make his point to us, and then sped off along his way, we longed for more time to try and educate the motorist a bit. We wanted to point out that it was a distracted “motorist” that killed Gary, and almost every other cyclist fatality! We wanted to remind him that this was “our” road, too! We would have quoted the government statistic that he is over 4000 times more likely to die from a motor vehicle accident than we are from a bicycle accident.

Just like the nice trail along Northshore Parkway is available for the good doctor and the pickup driver to ride their bicycles on, the roads and Trace are available for us all to ride our bikes on. Of course, safety rules and should be the first task. Wear bright shirts and helmets, use lights and reflectors, leave headphones at home and obey traffic laws. Our safety on the roads is all important. More often than not, it is dependent on careful driving by the motorist. So to all you folks driving on our roadways . . . you be careful out there!

Remember our special Memorial Day Trike Tribute Ride and Party on Monday, May 28. We will leave the RideSouth shop around 9 AM and explore the Madison County bike trails until about 11:30 when we will head back to the RideSouth shop for Natchez BBQ, beer and fixings. We will also have the ping-pong table set up should you want some more exercise! We will have flags for your bikes, but you can decorate in red, white and blue also! Come join us for the fun! Let us know so we can prepare better!

No, you didn’t miss six months of what will be an eventful summer! It is still May, but it is time to give thanks to some folks who have influenced us and made a difference in our business and our lives. First of all my wife Lane, who has supported me in spite of some of my wild ideas and actions. Lane is retiring from teaching this year and will be making a difference in other ways, I am sure! Although in Alabama, my Mom, sisters and family continue to show support, and for that I will always be grateful, too! Our Shop Manager, Drez, will be leaving us too soon to pursue a masters degree in Geography in Texas. We will miss the help and support in the shop he has offered for the last two years, and are grateful for the time we have had together. Captain Johnny is still on board, when he is not on a banjo gig somewhere, and we are grateful for the productive shop time and cheer leading support he and Beth continue to provide for RideSouth! We hope he will continue to enjoy working with us! Our newest staff member Elizabeth, has made a difference in the way our shop looks for sure, and we are thankful for her time here. We have many needs, and hope she can find the right formula to help us meet our goals!

Thank you to Doug Morgan, our friend and riding buddy, who is riding the Ride of Love again this year! We are supporting Doug financially and hope you will too! Please get your contributions to him this week, as the ride is Saturday! As Doug pointed out, this is the only charity we know of that the kids with cancer are there waiting for you to finish the tough 150 mile ride to Camp Smile-A-Mile! Thank you to our loyal customers, some of whom have supported us for the fourteen years we have been in business! What a blessing to have so many Friends-of-RideSouth! And, thank you to our first time customers who have begun to trust that we really are looking out for their best interest! We value your trust greatly!

Coming up on Memorial Day, May 28, we are organizing an event to give thanks to the many men and women in uniform who have sacrificed everything for our freedom. What a great Thanksgiving Day in May! Help us honor their memory by riding in the Trike Tribute beginning at RideSouth by 9:00 AM, Monday, May 28! We will have American Flags for you and many are decorating their trikes in red, white and blue! After the ride, join us for some great Natchez BBQ and ping pong action at the shop! Let us know if you are coming and we will be able to prepare better. Thank You!!

Last Thursday evening, RideSouth hosted a gathering of cyclists, city officials, professionals and educators for a great presentation on Bicycle Friendly Urban Design by Dr. Evandro Santos. Some excellent slides, movies and charts helped to make the point that good design begins in the neighborhood. Dr. Santos has had worldwide experience helping other communities develop the vision to plan for the inevitable . . . accepted travel by bicycles. Interest was high in accelerating plans to connect additional areas of our state by bike trails, and discussion about improving bike lanes in our area was on the table. We also presented the group with a new topic for future discussion, bicycle registration. Stay tuned for feedback from all of these topics!

Thanks to everyone who helped to publish this meeting and thanks to the attendees for your interest! A special thanks to Dr. Santos for spending his vacation time with us before going to Brazil for the winter. Everyone loved the Chick-fil-A nuggets and we appreciate the donation by our friends at Chick-fil-A! Please let us know if you would like to see more community events like this.

May 2012 is packed with events that you are sure to be interested in! Here are just a few for your calendars:

Saturday, May 5; Rise and Shine Bread Ride from the shop @ 7:30 AM

Thursday, May 10; Bicycle Friendly Urban Design Presentation by Dr. Evandro Santos at RideSouth @ 6:00 PM

Saturday, May 12; Ridgeland Century Ride at Old Trace Park @ 7:30 AM

Saturday, May 19; Ride of Love for Camp Smile-A-Mile in Alabama (go Doug!) Also Bread Ride at RideSouth @ 7:30 AM

Saturday, May 26; Rise & Shine Bread Ride @ 7:30 AM

Monday, May 28; Trike Tribute @ 9:00 AM from the RideSouth shop. A special Memorial Day tribute ride on local bike trails, including BBQ and Ping Pong!

Here are a few notes about some of the events.

Please invite everyone who is interested in making our community more bicycle friendly to the presentation on the 10th. Dr. Santos is a passionate speaker with tons of information that will improve our community. This is a great opportunity to network and learn!

We are dedicating the Ridgeland Century to our friend Gale Lovelace who recently passed away. In spite of difficulties brought on by diabetes, Gale maintained a wonderful disposition and beautiful smile right up to the end. Her husband, Jim Lovelace will be here from Slidell riding his Bacchetta Bee and we will be riding with him! http://obits.nola.com/obituaries/nola/obituary.aspx?n=gale-t-lovelace&pid=156839561&fhid=14935

We will also be cheering for Doug Morgan and his Ride of Love this year. We hope you will too. You may leave donations to Camp SAM here in the shop. We know Doug and all the kids at Camp SAM will appreciate it!

Ending an eventful month will be our first annual Trike Tribute on Memorial Day. A long line of trikes (and bikes) will leave the shop around 9:00 AM on Monday, with decorations and flags waving! We will make a slow tour of the bike trails in Ridgeland to return to the shop at noon for some excellent Natchez BBQ. Top off the day with some spirited ping pong!! We hope to grow this event in the future, so be in on this inaugural Trike Tribute at RideSouth!

Our shop manager, Andrez Aguilar (Drez), will be leaving us to continue his education in Texas. Drez is a Navy vet and we are happy, as taxpayers, to help him learn more about geology and geography so he can help to make the world a better place. We wish him good luck in pursuing his masters degree, but will miss him in the shop! The Trike Tribute will have a dual purpose as a send-off for Drez & Brandi. We hope all of you can make it. Please RSVP by May 26 so we can have enough food and drink!

If you have questions about these or other events, please call the shop or come by and see us, and remember the Way to Ride . . . RideSouth!

Sponsoring an event requires two very important elements, good people and good weather. First of all, the GREAT team of Lane, Louis, Beth, Johnny and Liz were the best SAG team ever! They were always there, at every turn it seemed, to provide for the riders’ needs with snacks, liquids, transportation, lunch, shuttle service, and motivation! Lane picked up the chicken minis and other items from the store, and Louis was indispensable with providing assistance at the launch, lunch, and reception. Louis also picked up the Chick-Fill-A sandwiches, fruit and brownies that were a big hit. Many thanks to Louis, Chad, Lane and others that provided shuttle service for folks and bikes!

The weather was picture perfect the whole weekend! A recent storm had cleared much of the spring pollen and the temperatures were ideal for shorts. At the RideSouth shop, we made the effort to leave right at 7:00 AM. The fantastic HP motor patrol escort was truly awesome in blocking traffic for us at every intersection and providing a safe event for everyone all the way to Prentiss! Thank you Captain Johnny for organizing, and thank you officers for superior support!! We visited the familiar places on the way down, including the Texaco, Shell and Harrisville Baptist Church. Thank you Pastor David for opening the church for us! This year we added a new stop at Pinola Baptist Church. Thank you Pastor John, Johnny and Beth for organizing another first-rate rest stop before climbing the Pinola hills!

By the time folks got to Sullivan’s Grocery in New Hebron, the group began to separate a bit, but all made it to Prentiss in time for lunch. Thank you to Dudley, the Hattiesburg ride leader for collecting the necessary paperwork and launching a large group of riders on the HB end of the Longleaf Trace! We got over the initial dismay of not having another mass start in Prentiss with the realization that the Signature Ride has evolved. In planning for a possible future event, we are considering organizing the ride a bit differently. If we have an organized start in Hattiesburg, we will move the start time back to the original 10:00 AM. We could just eliminate the mass start in Hattiesburg and have folks leave on their own. We will not plan for a launch in Prentiss. Prentiss will be a lunch stop only with no organized shuttle service. That way, all riders can leave when they are ready and waivers would be required only for the RS launch. The ride fee will increase to help cover costs and we will have some cool new tee shirts.

The reception in HB was a big hit, as usual! Lane and Louis did a great job in refueling the riders with the necessary fluids, cheese, sausages and sandwiches. Everyone enjoyed meeting John Schlitter and Jacquie Hafner while relaxing after an entertaining day of riding! John and Jacquie had been gracious enough to offer some long distance riding tips at the well attended clinic on Thursday. Thank you guys for helping and participating in our event, and thank you Bacchetta Bikes! These guys had no trouble showing off your products and their prowess on them!!

Sunday was another near-perfect weather day! The north wind helped to keep us cool on the climbs and the routes were lightly trafficked. We stopped at Bryant’s Grocery, the Piggly Wiggly, Shell (Magee), and Texaco, with the Johnny & Beth paparacci at every turn! We are sure there will be a full length movie from all the photos and videos taken! Of course Johnny had ridden the full 117 miles on Saturday so he was doing double duty driving the well used SAG vehicle loaded with fluids, bars and extra sunscreen. Way to go Johnny and all those who bettered themselves on Saturday and Sunday! And of course the biggest thanks goes to all you riders who pushed their envelope, even a little bit! We appreciate your support this year and hope you are planning to do even better next year! So now everyone has a jump start on their cycling year and we expect to see more folks figuring out the Way to Ride . . . is RideSouth!

Note: See pics on our photo gallery!