The Adventure Begins

TDK (Tour De Kentucky Eight States in Eight Days 724 Miles on a Bicycle)

This is my first blog entry for this and it comes with some great news. First I thought I would give some background.

Last spring Steven my then 9 year old son decided he wanted to ride in the MS150 Bike the Bluegrass bike ride for Multiple Sclreosis with me. I originally thought he wasn't truely serious and did not understand what was required. Boy was I wrong. He was serious and completely up and capable of the challenge.

We first went on "The Mayors Hike and Bike" 24 mile bike ride on mostly flat ground. He did great as my Stoker. (On a tandem bike the person in front is the captain and the person in back is the stoker.) We then tackled the MS150. At the end of the first day I was afraid that Steven would change his mind about the second day. He didn't. He was more ready for it than me.

While staying at the hotel on the end of day 1, Steven met David Graeser at the hotel pool (yes Steven even wanted to go swiming after the ride). David told Steven about the TDK and from that point on Steven was determined to go. Later that night we also by chance met Bill Turner who organizes the TDK.

Steven became the youngest person to do the MS150 two day ride, that the MS Society was able to find. On the MS150 Steven earned his nick-name "Snack Boy" for his tendancy to load his jersey pockets with snacks to consume between SAG stops. I think he might be the only person to gain weight on these rides.

Steven kept bringing up TDK all summer and into the fall. I contacted Bill Turner (who organized the TDK) and asked him what he thought of Steven and I doing the ride. He was for it. So I started to find out if that would work with school. His teacher was not opposed to him missing a few days of school for this, as it was the second last week of school,after testing and no new material would be covered during that week.

I then talked with Steven's mother (she and I are no longer married). Here's where I made my big mistake. I should have talked with her first. She was not all that excited about it. She rightfully was concerned about Steven's well being on such a big endevor and him missing school.
Now for the great news! Last week Lynda Hines (Steven's mother) decided that she would allow Steven to participate 2 days during the week as well as give up some her time with, which included Mother's Day. This was really awesome of her to do. She has a good friend with MS and understands the good that these fund raisers due to help those with MS.

Now we need to put our training into high gear, as the ride is just a month and a half away. We also need to kick off our Fund Raising.

--Bill Piepmeyer