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Just catching up

As you can see, it's been some time since I've posted something on this blog. The biggest thing that happened since the last post was the Tour de Stooges, and that has taken up a great deal of time before May 1 and the days thereafter.

We had about 180 people on the Tour de Stooges, about half of what I was hoping for, but not bad considering the weather conditions: some rain, temperatures in the 50s and a stiff, cold wind from the north. Most people who did go out enjoyed the ride. Some brave people actually did the Moe Metric, the 63-mile route. I heard lots of good comments about how the routes were marked.

The way we handled T-shirts this year left something to be desired, and we need to improve that for next year. We underestimated demand for the shirts, that created some problems for some of the people who ordered shirts. I apologize for those problems, and we will take steps to avoid that problem in 2005. The weather turned out to be a blessing of sorts, and prevented even more problems.

We had plenty of leftover food. Some of it will be used on future Gateway Council rides, but the perishable fruit had to be given away to some of my co-workers at the Belleville News-Democrat, the Salvation Army homeless shelter in Belleville and the Violence Prevention Center of Southwestern Illinois women's crisis center. At least it helped other folks!

Thank all of you who rode on the tour, and a big thanks goes out to our volunteers and the folks at McKendree College. We hope you come back next year!

Roger 0 comments 2:06 PM