One chapter of my life involved road biking. Road biking is riding those lightweight racing bikes with skinny tires like the guys in the Tour de France.  I got into it for health reasons and for over 10 years it was a passion.  It greatly improved my health and it took me places I would never have dreamed of or planned on going.

I recently reflected on my biking days as I sold my last road bike – a titanium Litespeed.  I made this short video recounting a little bit about the bikes I owned and how biking changed my life.

After making the video some of the memories of my biking encounters started to float back.  I decided to write this blog post to share one of the more memorable encounters that I experienced while biking.  This encounter happened in the little sleepy town of Sopchoppy, FL out in the Florida Panhandle.

The Ladies of Sopchoppy

In the spring of 2005, I was on a week-long ride through the Florida Panhandle with a group of about 400 people.  The last day of the trip took us to the little town of Sopchoppy – a town of maybe 450 people.  We were planning to stay overnight there and camp in their elementary schoolyard.

Main Street in Sopchoppy

I think we had 50 miles to ride that day and I happened to be one of the first riders to get into the small town.  It was a very big deal for this small town to have 400 overnight guests.  And they went all out to make us feel special.  The town had booths set up to feed us lunch, had a beer tent, and held an evening event that included a dinner, a band concert, and a dance.

When I got into town around noon, several groups had lunches prepared to feed us as we rolled into town.  I decided to eat lunch at a booth staffed by ladies from one of the local churches.  All the women were dressed in their best Sunday dresses and all were wearing hats.  Being the first rider they had seen, they all dotted over me like a dignitary.  All wanted to make sure that my sandwich was just what I wanted and kept asking me if I needed more sweet tea.

As I was sitting near the booth eating my sandwich, the ladies marveled at my road bike which I had leaned against their booth.  I’m guessing they had never seen such a bike with the drop handlebars, skinny bald tires, and narrow seat.  They wanted to know how many speeds it had, how fast I rode, did the skinny tires really hold me up, and how long did it take me to ride from Apalachicola (50 miles away).

It had taken me about 4 hrs to do that ride.  The next question they asked was this – “Sir, do you mean to tell us you rode 50 miles and sat on that narrow little blade of a seat for over 4 hours?”  “Yes” I said.  They all looked at each other with astonished looks.  They touched and rubbed the small seat and could not believe that a human being could spend that amount of time on what looked like an uncomfortable seat.  I heard comments like – “Come over here and look at this thing. This boy says he just rode 4 hours sitting on that skinny seat!”  I assure them that it was comfortable for me and that my biking shorts also had padding built it.

The seat on my road bike – A Terry Fly Gel Saddle

For the next half hour, they asked more questions and I had a wonderful visit chatting with the ladies of Sopchoppy.  Their genuine interest, Sunday outfits, outgoingness, and hospitality left a lasting memory.  You can read more about this 2005 ride in the following blog post  –  Biking the Florida Panhandle

It Ended Up Not Being About The Bike

I probably have a dozen more stories like this of people encounters and hospitality that I experience in small towns that I visited and passed through while biking.   Stories like;

• The motel cleaning lady who opened up a room for me and several riders to take shelter in during a microburst storm in Cedar Key, FL.
• Eating some of the best home-cooked food and chatting with locals at small-town churches as I pedaled across Iowa during the 2006 RAGBRAI ride.
• Meeting friends Larry, Jimmy, Jean Pierre, and Jack from Alabama and Florida and riding with them for several years on Bike Florida rides.
• Playing basketball one night with a group of high school varsity basketball players at a high school in Brooklyn, ME while on a ride of the Maine seacoast.
• Sitting on the porch listening to Miss June Lowery tell stories about running a plantation with her husband in Washington, LA while biking through the Cajun Praire in Louisianna.
• Riding my bike around the Daytona International Speedway race track and being welcomed at the finish line by Brian France (former CEO of Nascar).
• Spending the night telling stories and sleeping on the floor of a Catholic Church that took me and 50 other bikers in during a tornado warning in Apalachicola, FL.
• Getting up early and riding to Mamou, LA so we could see Taunt Sue and be part of the Saturday morning dance party at Fred’s Lounge.
• Riding the entire length of Cape Cod (72 miles) in the pouring rain for an MS fundraiser and being greeted by a woman with MS who stood in the rain at the finish line thanking me and the other 13 (out of 800 who started) riders who finished for not giving up and riding for her in the rain.

Initially, biking was about getting in shape, biking equipment, nutrition/fueling, speed, and distance.  As I got fit and could ride anywhere, I then ventured out.  That’s when biking became less about fitness and equipment and more about the people and places I encountered on the ride.

In March 2000, J. Dawg biking to the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, FL

As I sell my last bike, it’s those memories and encounters that I will relish and remember the most about my biking days.