More Class

Jenn and I had an opportunity to teach another TS101 class together, this time in Campbellsville, Kentucky.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Jim Moore, affectionately known by many in the Louisville Bicycle Club as Grizzly Dog (a Mad Dog nickname). He is a professor at Campbellsville University, and the most-recognized cyclist in that town.

Campbellsville is working to become a Trail Town, in effort to draw in more tourism dollars. Conflating, as often is the case, cycling with walking, the Task Force for this effort contacted Jim, who then contacted me. Despite having to address some unrealistic expectations (does Campbellsville REALLY need nine LCIs?), plans were made for a couple of Traffic Skills 101 classes, to be held on consecutive weekends. Partly due to the aforementioned expectations, one of the classes had to be postponed until spring, but the other went as intended. Another of those expectations had to do with the number of students involved, and I bought more materials than were needed. As I don't expect the materials to go out of date before next summer, I'm not too worried, but I'll be watching.

At any rate, we went from expecting twelve or fourteen students each of two weekends to having nine students one weekend. It was a great group, though--all were attentive, and some asked great questions.

Late last week, I learned that I would have two police officers as students. There was a bit of trepidation regarding this, as I have several colleagues who have reported unpleasant dealings with law enforcement officers, and especially with small-town officers. I decided that I would just keep an open mind, though, as these two could be quite pleasant to have in class. These two officers were quite pleasant. They were interested in my viewpoint, had had no real training regarding how bicycling in traffic follows traffic law, and despite that they had more athleticism than the other students, tried hard to do well during the on-bike sessions. Lunch-time conversation with them revealed that much of their job is public relations rather than lots of crime reporting. One reported that he rarely sees cyclists other than Jim (or Mister Moore, as the officer referred to him), and that he was glad to learn what the law says about cycling. I found their professionalism quite refreshing, and told them so.

The class went very well. Jenn and I had a good time working with the students.

Since we were in town, Jim took us out on a bike ride Sunday morning. We rambled along for about twenty miles, taking in a bridge over the Green River that was built in 1905 or so, near the site of a small battle that took place in the summer of 1863 (Tebbs Bend). Jim showed us a graveyard where several Confederate soldiers were buried (although some were apparently removed and reburied nearer their homes after the war). We got to enjoy some countryside that we don't get to see on a regular basis (having to drive two hours each way has that effect on frequency of riding a bike in the area).

It was the first recreational ride of that seemingly-paltry distance I have done in almost a year. I have taken much of this year off from doing club rides for an assortment of reasons, but now find myself more interested in doing some rides with the RCCS bunch. We'll see if that happens.