RSCC/SWOG News
The Veteran Newsletter
22 April 2008
The RSCC/SWOG clubs have begun their riding year with a return to the Sandusky County segment of the North Coast Inland Trail, Clyde to Fremont. This is the traditional first ride of the clubs to allow folks to shake down newly purchased equipment and get a start on shaking the kinks out of legs that have "rested" over the winter. It was a cool day and few riders, unfortunately, showed up for the day. It is hoped that more members will show up for rides as the weather improves with the advance of the seasons.
Members of the clubs attended the second Annual Sportsman's Banquet at the AmVets Post in Sandusky. Linda Johnston, Vol. Services, did another outstanding job of pulling together this event for the various "extra-curricular" groups that involve residents. The RSCC/SWOG joined the dart ball team members, camping club, pool league players and others who have participated above and beyond the norm for this annual recognition dinner. Thanks, Linda, for all your efforts to recognize the best and the most positive of the OVH!
The season stretches out before us as the weather warms up. The members are working on getting the few wrinkles ironed out on the rescue scooter and trailer. We've worked on new battery issues and are seeking a program change to the on-board scooter control computer to increase the speed of the Ranger All Weather "Disney Scooter." This extremely heavy-duty scooter is a commercial unit designed for Disney World but it is governed to a too slow 2.5-3.0 MPH. We need to have the motor freed up so we can use it for our purposes. It will pull a miniature "landscape" trailer that will be capable of carrying a "dead" scooter and its rider or a biker/triker and vehicle to the sag wagon at the next available cross road. We're working with the people in Iowa to get the computer chip reprogrammed to allow up to get it up to a more normal 4.9-5.0 MPH. Nothing is ever without its hurdles to overcome!
The rides, this season are arranged in increasing length leading up to a post-Labor Day ride in Clermont, Warren and Green Counties. This will be a TWO (2) over-night ride in SW Ohio on the Little Miami Trail, a long, sinuous state park that follows the Little Miami River from the Ohio, at Lunken Airport, to Xenia. This will be second ride on the LMT, and we'd like to complete the trail this year! Last year, we got rained out at Corwin with a very severe thunderstorm. We'll be down near our Southern Campus, in September, and if it is raining, maybe we'll run over and introduce ourselves to our "cousins" down south? We'll be having dinner the first evening at the Milford Legion Post and the second night, on the way back to OVH, we'll stop with friends from last year's LMT ride at the Beavercreek Memorial VFW Post (near Dayton).
Speaking of meeting post members, we're also striving to hook up with military service posts on our more far-flung rides. We're going to ride the Western Reserve Greenway Trail in Ashtabula County and will, hopefully, have an evening meal with folks in Geneva, Ohio, at a post there before heading back to Sandusky.
We're going to have a picnic supper with the Korean War Veterans Association members in the Mansfield area in conjunction with our ride on the B & O Trail in Richland County. This will be a change in the usual ride since we're going to start at Butler and ride NORTH for a change and pull off the trail at Lexington, the home of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Track.
The rides are designed, this season, to lengthen as the season progresses so we are "in shape" for the two-day ride on the Little Miami Trail. After that, we'll have a shorter ride in a favorite place, the Findley State Park - which accords REAL off-road, in the woods, trail riding. We'll venture down to Amish Country in Holmes County and ride the Holmes County Trail with its new extension to Killbuck, OH. There, we'll meet with a new post for dinner that late afternoon/early evening. Jason Brooks, the VCSO, and his folks will be there with us to assist, and this means a great day! Jason took over the Holmes VCSO post from his father, David, and continues the tradition of a splendid ride experience in that unique county of Anabaptist and Plain Folk ambiance.
We'll also visit the Cuyahoga County Metroparks favorite haunts of the Mill Stream Run and Rocky River Metroparks, the Kokosing Gap Trail, the Slippery Elm Trail, and the Cuyahoga River Valley National Park's Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail. In the middle of the summer, we'll do our amphibious invasion of the Lake Erie Islands; South Bass Island/Put-In-Bay and Kelley's Island in league with the Dom Rec. Therapy Dept. These rides are the "old chestnuts" of our ride repertoire, and would be sorely missed if we didn't do them.
It could also be that Sandusky County just might get the next section of the North Coast Inland Trail done late in the season. If the Sandusky County Park District does get the Fremont-Lindsey-Elmore segment completed, we might just have to do an "extra" ride for the trail opening. Nothing like being there on the day when the trail opens! Might as well "wave the OVH flag" on opening day!
All in all, we'll be busy with the clubs this year. We invite all our readers to enjoy Ohio's trails and adopt the benefits of cycling and scooting about. Somehow, nothing makes a busy, hectic, and trying day come together better than getting out on a trail and chasing a ground hog, or two, into their burrows trailside or running a rabbit off the tarmac into the brush! The Blue Jays and the Cardinals seem to get a kick out of it, too!
Yours in wheelin' about,
Lance N. Franke, Staff Liaison, RSCC/SWOG
22 April 2008