Fun ride - bit of inspiration and funny inside stuff on Daily Show

[Ray]

Did a relatively easy 35 miles today (not that any 35 is all that easy for me yet this time of year - this was about my 4th ride this year and the other three were a few weeks ago). At a local orchard shop that's a common rest stop for cyclists, I saw a woman about my age sitting with the oldest looking guy I'd ever seen in cycling clothes. Looked a good bit like my Dad did when he died at 88. Got into a talk with them and it turns out the guy is 83 - they were out doing a 40 mile loop. He was riding an old lugged bike with DT shifters (no doubt friction) and just a baseball cap on his head. His name is Rich something (I had it but spaced it before I could write it down) and he was the Pennsylvania Cycling Champion in 1958 (I think he said on the track), which he just celebrated the 50th anniversary of last year. I told him I was always on the lookout for role models and that he just became one. He said that he didn't feel like he really lost much until he turned 75 but he's lost a lot since then. But he still loves it and plans to do it for as long as he can. I started off with them and he has gotten very slow (when someone seems slow to ME, they're slow), but he was quite steady and looked very comfortable on the bike. Really really cool. Very sweet old guy and an inspiration.

I also came upon a jogger that it turned out I knew. He used to be one of the County Commissioners I'd worked with pretty extensively, so I slowed down to his pace and talked for a while. He's an extremely conservative Republican and I don't agree with him on any national issues, but he was great to work with on the local stuff we dealt with. Anyway a nice enough guy, who was unfortunate enough to get skewered on the Daily Show about a year and a half ago in his current role as the head of some advocacy group. I remember watching it and thinking, 'Colin is too smart to fall into their trap', but he fell RIGHT in it. And I was really curious about how they set these things up to get otherwise intelligent people to look like total idiots. So, after exchanging 'howyadoins' for a couple of minutes, I asked him about it and he was real upfront about how his ego got him in trouble - he was sure HE wouldn't get nailed and took it as a challenge. But the way they set it up was to instruct him to just play it cool, to be unflappable. As the reporter (the hilarious British guy, John Oliver) would ask more and more outrageous questions, he was to stay calm. This appealed to his sense of himself and he figured it would make him look good and Oliver bad. But, of course, with barely any editing, it has the exact opposite effect. He's being asked all of these outrageous questions and appears, through his coolness, to be unable to answer any of them, while any rational person would be going after the question for its absurdity. He was embarrassed but amused by the whole thing. It was pretty cool to get that inside perspective - I've always wondered how they DO that.

I always seem to have more fun when I get out on the bike than when I don't. The ride was OK too, considering how out of shape I am.

-Ray

[Mshue]

Ray, two great stories in 35 miles - I'd say it was a highly productive ride. Thanks for sharing.

[Steevo]

Nice stories, especially story #1. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd still like to be on the bike (2 wheels) at 83.

[rounder]

I had not ridden for over a month but went out today because it was so nice. Anyway i was riding by a farm pond with about 20 geese floating around when i saw an eagle standing on the edge, I got off my bike and watched it for about 10 mins. I don't know whether he was checking out the geese or whether there were fish in the pond, but he basically stood there without moving. At one point, he hopped into the pond and then hopped back out. After awhile, i got back on the bike and rode. I have seen occasional eagles on the Susquehenna River, which is nearby, but never saw one on the ground.

[Ray]

Nice stories, especially story #1. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd still like to be on the bike (2 wheels) at 83.
Yeah, me too. I remember running into another older guy on two supported tours I did several years ago. The first was a VERY difficult cross-state ride here in Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh to Philly. The next was maybe four years later in the Finger Lakes. In the first one, he was 74 and I could barely hang with him. By the second, he was I guess 78, and he couldn't hang with me anymore, unless I slowed down to talk with him, which I did whenever I got the chance. Really nice old British guy who also had an extensive cycling background and was out pitching his tent every night and riding 50-60 miles per day in some big hills when he was approaching 80!

They guy today said that as recently as when he was 74-75, he was still doing extensive solo touring with plenty of 90-100 mile days. Its only in the last few years that he's realized that doing it more doesn't translate to doing it better for him anymore.

Man, I hope I'm STANDING on two feet if I'm lucky enough to reach that age. Riding still would be such icing on the cake of life!

-Ray

[rounder]

Me too. Hope i am still standing at that age. Some of the guys around here are retired and ride their bikes everyday. I don't know that any of them ever raced, much less be that distinguished on a bike, but it gives you something to look forward to. Sounds a whole lot better than riding around in a cart playing golf.

[Steevo]

I'm thinking & hoping the best way to get there (riding in one's 80's) is to keep riding until you get there. I met a guy today at the Signature Cycles event who was 70 and looked and seemed a good 10+ years younger. I thought to myself, "I'd like to be in this kind of shape in 20 years". Bike riding is simple great!

[RPS]

Much of my early cycling interest was due to an uncle who will hopefully be turning 100 in a few months. :)

[bironi]

Great stories Ray. That is a great day on the bike.

I rode our typical fixed ride with my two best friends and riding partners on fixed gears. The weather sucked for a bit, and our group of six got a bit ragged at times, but a good day it was. Good beer and conversation followed. As far as riding to a ripe age, I felt fortunate when I got passed my father's passing age of 49. I'm living on the icing now (57).

Byron :beer:

[Ken Robb]

A couple of years back I was sitting at Mother's atop Palomar Mtn. when an OLD guy riode up on a bicycle. I admired his bike. He asked me to watch it while he phoned his wife from the booth nearby. He said he always had to call her when he got to the top because he was 83 and she worried about him. Then he got his frozen yogurt and we chatted. He rides up from Valley Center regularly. This is the South Grade that the pros moaned about on the Tour of California. I don't remember what he had for gearing. I can only make it on my Ducati.

[rounder]

Good story Ken. I was on Cadillac Mountain in Maine a few years ago and saw an elderly couple driving up in a Model T (i believe). When you are getting old (yes there is life beyond 30) and see stuff like that, it is inspiring.

[Ken Robb]

:)

I also came upon a jogger that it turned out I knew. He used to be one of the County Commissioners I'd worked with pretty extensively, so I slowed down to his pace and talked for a while. He's an extremely conservative Republican and I don't agree with him on any national issues, but he was great to work with on the local stuff we dealt with. .

-Ray

Please don't take this as anything like a call-out but just an interesting observation/question. You think this guy was great on local issues but you disagree with him on national issues. Is that because local issues are "your money" and national issues "our money" or even "their money"?

Was he a big spender on local issues but too stingy on the national scene? Was he stingy on both sides but that only appeals to you on a local basis where you can more directly equate expenditures with local tax rates?

I know I feel that I have more influence on local taxes than federal taxes. The farther away from me the body that sets the rate the less influence I think I have.

I wish we were sitting at the same table with a bottle of red to share for this discussion to be really fun. :beer: :)

[PCR]

Great stuff here Ray, I enjoy your posts. I run with a few older gents and hope I can follow in their footprints when I reach their age.

[Ray]

:)

Please don't take this as anything like a call-out but just an interesting observation/question. You think this guy was great on local issues but you disagree with him on national issues. Is that because local issues are "your money" and national issues "our money" or even "their money"?

Was he a big spender on local issues but too stingy on the national scene? Was he stingy on both sides but that only appeals to you on a local basis where you can more directly equate expenditures with local tax rates?

I know I feel that I have more influence on local taxes than federal taxes. The farther away from me the body that sets the rate the less influence I think I have.

I wish we were sitting at the same table with a bottle of red to share for this discussion to be really fun. :beer: :)
I like the idea about the table and the bottle of red. Most of what we deal with wasn't 'spending related' per se. The Counties back here have VERY little taxing authority and almost no authority over land use (every square inch of Pennsylvania is carved up into individual municipalities with their own little fiefdoms), so Counties are just kind of organizers with limited powers. Our Planning Commission essentially acted as consultants to help the townships and boroughs with their own planning work and to coordinate some of their activities so they weren't acting in a total vacuum (although sometimes they preferred to anyway and we couldn't do anything but try to persuade them). The only money stuff we got involved with was trying to make sure we got our share of the regional transportation money, but that was usually not tough to do since our share was legitimately pretty small given our size, population, etc in the context of the Philly region. And we also had a fair amount of influence in prioritizing the projects those funds got spent on, coordinating the myriad proposals the local municipalities put in for their own projects.

They guy I'm talking about was just a very pragmatic thinker in dealing with planning issues. Good strategically, environmentally, understood the local politics of the different rural and urban areas he was representing, grasped both the technical and political tradeoffs of a situation very quickly, and came up with some good creative solutions to some of the problems we'd run into. Bottom line, he was very adaptable to reality on the issues he actually had to deal with. He postured and preened on national issues in a highly ideological way partly because he never had to deal with them, partly because he was thinking about running for either state senate or for congress at some point. Neither ever happened. But he also believes in it - I'm not accusing him of being phony. He was very conservative on social issues, "patriotism" issues (flags, english as primary language, wars, etc). I'm not sure where he was on taxes or spending, to be honest, but I have a hunch. These things would always come up in campaigns but never in actual governance. Oh, there was a zoning issues over Planned Parenthood once and they all got out there and made a lot of noise on that about abortion, but the Borough the clinic was located in had to make the decision - the Commissioners were just making sure they got to make noise on it.

I'm not being partisan either. We had a Democratic Commissioner who was equally outspoken and ideological (and frankly, a little nutty) on national issues and equally smart and pragmatic on local issues. He actually made it to the state senate though, and now he's gotten pragmatic on a whole different set of issues. And you might be surprised to know that Rick Santorum, who was an ideological polar opposite from most that I believe in, was also VERY good on a lot of local economic and transportation issues. But, as a senator, he also had a real influence on those bigger national issues, so I was more than happy to vote against him in 2006 and very happy to see him lose. But i kind of miss his voice on the local stuff. These guys are rarely simple characters, even though they often feel the need to develop very black and white 'personas' to help get elected and appeal to certain constituencies.

-Ray