Elroy Sparta

Last night I was watching a show about people becoming super obese and they actually counted calories. One of the people on the show was consuming over 30,000 calories a day! 30,000! If I biked at 20 mph all day, I wouldn't burn that much. That's crazy. That's like 150 bottles of beer.

Anyway, in order to prepare myself for RAGBRAI (by the way, I have to send in registration forms this week, Dad), I've been trying to determine a few big rides I can do before July. I've always wanted to do the Elroy-Sparta trail in Wisconsin because it has mile long tunnels and you need a flashlight in the middle because you can't see the ends. But I've been unwilling to journey 3.5 hours one way to do a ride. Then I discovered, looking at the trail maps, that if you start on the near end, at the Great River Trail, you only have to drive about 2 hours to Winona to get started. That's doable. I pointed out the plan to Ming, The Boss, and Mean Mr. Mustard and they all expressed an interest in going, even though it's 101 miles of biking, one way. Mean Mr. Mustard did, however, question the wisdom of going 101 miles one way, noting that we usually only manage 10 mph on the Bike Classic. But that still means we'd be done in 10 hours, so if we started at 8 a.m., we'd be done by 6:00 p.m. And if we really cranked it up, to 11 mph, we'd be done by 5:00.

I think he's worried about being old. But I've come up with a solution for that as well. I noticed this game for the Wii, Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Before we go on the ride, I can get a Wii and a copy of the game, and practice my roadside emergency surgery and even defibrilation. He'll be perfectly safe!