Valley Law Officers Train

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By Ildefonso Ortiz, The Brownsville Herald

Pedaling down a parking lot at full speed, sheriff deputies and police officers came to a screeching stop leaving a trail of tire marks, before speeding down another path avoiding orange cones, jumping obstacles and even climbing over pallets without getting off their bicycles.

They were not involved in a pursuit; they were riding through an obstacle course aimed at simulating one. The drill was all part of a 32-hour training and certification course from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officers and Standards Education.

read more at The Brownsville Herald

January Riding Is A Chill

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While southeast Texas weather this time of the year is not bone chilling to northerners, this Texas bicyclist struggles when the temperature is below 60.

I am determined to beat my 209 January average miles but my unofficial rule of not riding when the temperature is below 60 was broken twice this week in order to maintain the riding pace. Yesterday the cold front rolled through but I donned the extra thick long sleeve jersey, my windproof jacket, leg warmers and full finger gloves and headed out on my Raleigh M800 MTB.

Today the ride was just as challenging but I did not have my thick jersey to count on since I had not washed it yet. Two long sleeve jerseys and that windproof Descente jacket should have been enough but the wind was biting at my thin covering.

Despite this, I did manage 49 miles and now total 139 for January. Oh, for warmer weather.

Bush says he wants to hit Dallas trails

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President George W. Bush says he is looking forward to mountain biking when he moves to Dallas after leaving the White House this month.

The city has 23 maintained mountain biking trails totaling 200 miles.

I’m looking forward to finding mountain bike trails and mountain bike trail riders, Bush told The Dallas Morning News. I think they’ve got some good trails, which I’ve never ridden. So that’s going to be part of my routine.

from www.timesofthe internet.com

Vogel Family In the Valley

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Yes, we’re still here in McAllen – and we’ve been busier than I could ever have imagined! So busy, in fact, that I haven’t even written my daily journal entries. I’ll do the best I can to remember the past few days!

Yesterday we headed over to Mission to ride their mountain bike trails. Mission Trails, another bicycle club in the valley, has created a wonderful network of single track crisscrossing a paved bike path in Mission, and Jack graciously offered to take us out on the trails. We had a blast – even though it was a short ride. Davy especially enjoyed the trails and couldn’t get enough of zooming up the hills, then barreling down.

The Vogel family left June 8, 2008 for a 2 1/2 year bicycle trip traversing the Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Argentina.

Their blog is familyonbikes.org