Motorcycle content!

The Delaware Valley chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is holding a 100-mile bicycle ride this weekend. Here's a link to the event. Lots of people will pay a registration fee (and collect a bunch of donations), hop on their bicycles (well, I suppose they'll transport their bikes to the starting point), and ride all day Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th. Of July, 2010. Even though they'll be riding through some pretty rural parts of PA, they'll have intersections to cross and traffic to deal with. For some of the participants the event will be a race. Bicycles and intersections aren't a very good mix, let alone racing bicycles.



Enter the marshals. These folks are volunteer motorcyclists armed with spare inner tubes, water, cell phones, a bit of first aid, and traffic control training. They ride the route ahead of and alongside the cyclists to provide safe crossing of intersections and a modicum of protection from other road hazards. For some reason, this year marshals have been hard to come by—as far as I know only two from my club are participating. Those two are a guy who goes by his last name, Davis, and me. He's a crusty old sailor with a heart of gold, I'm his conscript.

Weather is forecast to be sunny and beastly hot. As in record-breaking. I think I'll carry all the water I can manage.

We are taking off work at noon Friday—we plan to ride most of the route backwards (the Sunday direction) to make sure all the signs are still in place and easy to see. We'll spend the night at a home only ten miles from the starting point. The guy's wife has MS.

We show up at the park in Green Lane, PA at 5:30 Saturday morning, ride all day, and spend the night at Millersville University. Sunday we do the whole thing in reverse. Gotta keep an eye on those Amish buggies, y'know.