Four times every year, I write about my favorite season. The fall is not only good biking, it’s also soccer season. I began my coaching careen in 1974 with a team of 9 & 10 year old boys. A few weeks ago, while riding, I came across a woman and her kids in a park with a soccer ball. That got my attention, and I stopped briefly to watch. She grew up in the old neighborhood with one of my kids, and lit up when she saw me. “HELP. “I need help coaching a team and have no idea what to do.” I agreed to stop by their first game, but made no commitment. They got stomped 7-2.

I saw the potential in this group and offered to be the “technical trainer” emphasizing that Coach Laura was the “gaffer”. (Head coach). Before beginning my first training session with the kids, I told them that if the worked hard in practice they would not lose another game. The season is coming to an end next week and if we win, they will have a seven game unbeaten streak and end the season at 6-1-1. The kids became good friends on and off the field. Practice was filled with work and laughter. That translated to hard work during the game with lots of laughter after.

BTW that team that beat us 7-2? We beat them 10-3 and 7-3 in the next two meetings.

It took 46 years for me to come full circle in my coaching career. After coaching this group, I may take a couple more laps.

We are the Galaxy.

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Send… more… bikes… We’ve teamed up with Pvd Bike Jam to reanimate some of that holiday spirit. Zombies on bikes roll out from Burnside Park, in Downtown Providence, at 7pm on Friday, October 29th. BYO braaaiiiinnns.

Lighthouse Ride

Sunday, October 17, 2021 10:00 AM

Where: Meet at Staples in Fairhaven 17 Plaza Way.

Time: 9:45 for a 10 AM wheels up

Join local New Bedford historian and expert biker John Sullivan, from Ned’s Point Lighthouse in Mattapoisett to Palmer’s Island Lighthouse in New Bedford for a 14 or 24 mile ride.

We will ride to Mattapoisett and visit Ned’s Point Lighthouse. After a short visit we will return to Staples in Fairhaven with 14 miles completed. Some may want to end the ride here. The rest of us will return to the Phoenix Rail Trail and ride through quiet seaside neighborhoods taking us to a biking friendly bridge to the New Bedford historic waterfront and fishing piers. There we will continue on a shared road to the south end, where Palmer’s Lighthouse marks the start of the Covewalk or Saulnier Memorial Bike Trail. If our timing is spot on, we will visit Palmer’s Island at low tide allowing anyone who wishes, to walk onto the island for a short walk around before our casual ride back to Fairhaven or Mattapoisett.

Be sure to bring your camera. There will be some spectacular sights.

Cost: Free

For more information

Email: jennings@savebuzzardsbay.org

REGISTER HERE

Here is a previous ride.

I traveled to Austin to attend the United States World Cup Qualifier vs Jamaica, with #3 son who lives in the city.

A packed Q2 stadium rocked the city as the Yanks overwhelmed a determined physical Reggae squad. From the opening whistle no one sat, except to get a brief rest. I have been to many stadiums, and none compared to the atmosphere of US Soccer fans in our full glory.

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It’s Austin, TX. Everything is dry except the watering holes.

I met up with A Dude A Bikes on Tuesday to ride the Town Lake trail in West Austin. On Friday we rode a section of the Walnut Creek Train in East Austin. A section of the trail you ask? It’s all in the video below.

Today was the annual Ride For Clean Water sponsored by the Buzzards Bay Coalition. Participants had options of 100, 75 or 35 miles. In the past I was one of two SAGs. My job was to drive my car near the back of the pack and offer maintenance or if needed, transport a rider. This year however, Velofix, a mobile bike shop, and Yesteryear, a local bike shop, took over that task. Me?…. I was asked to be a turn guide.

For four hours, I found myself standing on a sidewalk, fifty miles from the end of the ride, (but a mere 4 miles from my home), tasked to point as riders approached and yell, “TURN RIGHT”. I set up at around 9 AM and waited…….at 9:30 a rider approached. She was doing the 50 mile ride but left the start point 90 minutes before the designated time. “Had things to do” she said. A few minuets later, three more early start rides approaches. Then I waited….. Around 10:30 AM the fun began.

A steady flow. Some in large bunches, some in smaller groups came at me. “Turn right”. “Follow them”. and my favorite. “Your two hours behind the leaders. I doubt if you will catch them”.

Normally, I’m on my electric assist bike, riding in the pack filming. I’ll sprint ahead and get shots of riders approaching. Sprint to catch them, and often ride side by side interviewing as we ride. Today however….”Turn Right”.

Across the road from my spot, the town firemen were landscaping the Welcome to Fairhaven sign. They had to do double duty when one of the riders told me there was a serious crash a few dozen yards back. I yelled across to the firemen and two of them ran back to aid the victims. A few scrapes and cuts and one broken finger.

Near the end of the ride, a woman stopped and told me a rider had been hit by a car. I sprinted the 1/4 mile to the bridge and found the police on site. An ambulance arrived shortly and transported the rider to the hospital for a check up. I could almost see the dollar signs floating around his head as he was “about to be taken away, ha ha”. (If your old enough to remember that song on AM radio).

The video below is the best I could do between “Turn Rights”, being bound to one spot. For four hours. (Did I already say that?)

A fundraising bike ride in support of the South Coast Bikeway Alliance.

After morning pickleball, Sue and I decided to ride around Myles Standish, located one town west of Plymouth, MA. The video says it all.