Bikes, Beer and Beef 2012

For those of you who are new-to or friends of Team Hot Dog and haven't quite grasped the time-honored traditions of our secret organization, may I introduce to you the famous Bikes, Beer and Beef. The concept is simple, we ride our bikes out to Holdridge and back (Bikes), we rehydrate at Shaun's place afterwards (Beer) and fire up the grill (Beef) with whatever concoction your little hot dog heart can dream of.

Here are a few examples of pure awesomeness from 2010 and 2011:
http://hotdogracing.blogspot.com/2011/07/another-bbb-in-books.html
http://hotdogracing.blogspot.com/2010/07/2nd-annual-bbb-is-in-books.html

The plan is to start from Shaun's house at 9AM on Sunday, July 1st, head out to Holdridge (easy pace back-road ride 40ish miles) and back. If you wish to participate, please bring a dish to pass. Bonus points for a creative hot dog inspired dish, however, feel free to pick up pasta salad, chips, desserts, whatever. This is a BYOB type of event so bring whatever types of post-ride hydration you want.

Finally, it's not mandatory but it is strongly encouraged that you wear your Team Hot Dog kit during the ride so we get that whole scooter-gang vibe while we're cruising the backroads and biggest hills in Michigan. It also makes the blog photos look pretty sweet (see links above).

Hope to see all of you there!

- Steve

Bring Home the Patch Boys!

 

I'm sure you guys have a lot of running around to do before you make your way up north.  Just wanted to wish Coach, Cooper, Jon, Landry, and Shaun one hell of a race in the Lumberjack 100.  Hope you boys ride hard, have fun, drink beer, and score patch!  100 miles on flat land is nothing to sneeze about, doing basically 3 longer Icemans in a row is an entirely different animal.  We expect a full blog report from someone upon arrival home. GOOD LUCK!! (nobs)

Tour De Cure - 2012 Edition

Me @ Dunkin Donuts on the morning of the Tour De Cure:

Dunkin Donuts Speaker - "Thank you for choosing Dunkin Donuts, What can I get you to drink?"

Coach - "I'll have a Bacon, Egg and Cheese bagel on a Multi-Grain Bagel, an Iced Coffee with Creme and Sugar....and how about a Boston Creme?"

Dunkin Donuts Speaker - "Is that all?"

Coach - "Umm....(after some serious thought about another donut)...Yeah I guess that'll be it"

Dunkin Donuts Speaker - "That will be $XX.XX. Please pull around"

- Coach Drives to the window with bike on the back - 

Lady at Dunkin Donuts Drive Thru - "Oh you going biking this morning?"

Coach (as she is handing me my death bagel, donut and my coffee) - "Yeah I have a charity ride for the American Diabetes Association"

Lady at Dunkin Donuts Drive Thru - "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...."

So, at 7:30, I meet up with JRAD and David and head into Brighton High School to get signed in, get our number plates and line up for the big 62 miler. Surprise #1 happens when I reach in my registration packet and find THIS:

Quest for the patch...Complete? Apparently this is what the Tour De Cure gives out for 6 years of riding....I'm not complaining. So we line up for our official send-off from Ron Savage and he throws a shout-out to Team Hot Dog as we're rolling under the start/finish gate. Bonus!

The route took us on a spirited roll through Chelsea, the Pinckney Recreation Area, out to Hell and back to Brighton High School. But before we go any further...I introduce to you Shenanigans:

and MORE shenanigans...

Ok, back to the riding. We did ride quite a few miles, afterall. Would have been 62 but JRAD said "To Hell With Diabetes, I am going to add more miles!" So after I finally flagged him down and set him back on the right course, we were rollin' again.

The last aid station brought on some emotions that none of us thought would happen. It was a truly powerful moment that I was happy to catch on my camera...

As we rolled back into Brighton High School to finalize our Tour De Cure obligations, we met up with my co-worker Dave who rode the 25 mile course. I'd like to give a big shout-out to him for joining Team Hot Dog for this event. Sounds like he had a blast! As bummed as I thought I would be about Carabbas not catering the event anymore, the Chicken Tacos from Chili's kept my mind off it.

In all, Team Hot Dog raised $1390.00 to kick Diabetes' Ass. That was good enough for 6th place in the Club/Organization Team. I am expecting my plaque in the mail any day now.

Thank you to David, JRAD and Dave for participating in the event, fundraising and putting up with my overly"spirited pace" at times today. The rest of THD, family, friends and co-workers who stepped up, donated and supported us, THANK YOU AS WELL.

The Details:

 Hope to see you all next year,

- "Coach" Steve