Illinois Ag in the Classroom Ride

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday of this week riding my bike and teaching 4-6th graders about agriculture via a program called Ag in the Classroom. The event was put together by the Illinois Farm Bureau, and I had the chance to represent Monsanto and our support of this great cause along with my colleagues Doug Schemmer, Tom Bailey, me and Marsha Stanton(pictured here).

After an orientation dinner on Monday night sponsored by the City of Grayville, IL, we disembarked Tuesday morning bright and early (6:30 am) and headed through the rolling hills of Illinois. After fixing a flat (thanks Gary, Leslie and Paul), which occurred in the first few miles, Gary and I worked to catch up to the pack. After the first SAG stop, the medium and long routes diverged, Gary went long and I felt a need for speed - heading off by myself.

When we got to the schools, we performed "skits" which were designed to engage and entertain students while teaching them about how agriculture touches their lives in the products that they consume every day; from corn in deodorant, to pork in plastics, to soybeans in biodiesel and makeup... for example. The skit was modeled after the popular Disney movie High School Musical (I had never heard of this film before, but the kids were crazy about it!) . Here we all are in a gymnasium performing the skit.

My riding partner for the afternoon was Russ Ruenger pictured here pre-meltdown with me as “Mrs. D” after one of the skits. Yes, with my beard and acute acting skills, I had the pleasure of cross-dressing for two days. Unfortunately for Russ, he let me push him too hard after lunch and he burned up. Luckily for Russ, I didn't take his picture when he was all red and sweaty! That night, we all celebrated with some food sponsored by Wabash Valley FS at nearby Beall Woods State Park.

Wednesday morning got off to in inauspicious start, as I rocketed past the first turn and didn't realize my mistake for about 2 miles. When I hadn't seen a sign for awhile and didn't see anyone behind me, a little bell went off in my head and I stopped and waited. When no one came in sight, another bell went off in my head and I headed back the way I came. After asking a local resident where all the riders went, I finally got on the trail but had A LOT of ground to make up. I was making good time, but NO ONE was in sight and Marsha finally called with a concerned message about how no one from the ride had seen me in awhile. OOPS!

I caught back up, but really had to lay down some tread to catch up with the riders from the long group. There were some very nice stretches of 25 mph, but that wasn't sustainable. At about mile 50, I caught up with the long-group leaders Bob Standard and "Gino", but I was shredded and enjoyed drafting off of them for the few minutes before we coasted into our first school. After the first school, Gino and I hammered 5 miles to the next school, where we recruited the boys from Mendota (David and Jeff) and powered out a 15 mile pace line at 20-22 mph. Lucky for me, I was taking the SAG wagon back early to get home in time to watch Isaac. I couldn't have kept that going all afternoon.

Tuesday: distance = 77.5 miles, average 19 mph
Wednesday: distance = 72 miles, average 19.7 mph

It was a great few days and got me ready for the MS ride this weekend. THANKS EVERYONE!