MPZOVERLOOK
Milepost Zero Bicycle Club Newsletter Spring 2007 Waynesboro, Virginia
“COOKIE LADY” Special edition!
Club Mission Statement: To promote personal fitness through bicycling; To provide opportunities for members to socialize with others who have an interest in fitness through bicycling; To promote greater public awareness of bicyclists’ rights and responsibilities; To support and promote appropriate bicycle routes and trail systems; To teach proper care, operation, safety and bicycle etiquette; To protect and defend the rights and privileges of bicycle riders.
CLUB RIDE SCHEDULE:
Saturday club rides will start on Saturday April 7th from WestwoodElementary School. This will be self led groups as there are no rideleaders assigned at this time. All levels of riders will meet at9:00...Departure time is 9:05 sharp. The groups will split up and decide on their own route, distance and pace. If you are interested in being a ride leader for the Tuesday night and/orSaturday rides, please contact Russell Culver at or 942-2645.
TUES/THUR RIDES: The club rides will start this coming Thursday April 5th at 5:30pm at theWaynesboroHigh School. Craig Bennett and Harry Colman have agreed toco-lead the Thursday night ride. It will be a 20-30 mile loop ride.
The Tuesday night rides will start on the following Tuesday April 10th fromConstitutionPark. We do not have an assigned ride leader for this ride yetbut this is a great ride for Beginners and those of us who are just gettingout for the first time. The route is and out and back so you can dowhatever distance you want. The speed is conversation pace.
Hope you can join us!!
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RIDES IN AREA:
APRIL 28:Waynesboro Road and River Relay. Come participate or help out. Call Russell
April 21: OCEAN to Bay ride. 25 or 50 miles. Deleware.
April 24-29: Tour of Virginia. If you are a “racer”
Sunday, May 20, 2007 1st Queen City Cycling Club Century (and less), Staunton, VA., $15
June 9-10: MS Bike tour-Charlottesville.
June 22-27: BIKEVA.350 miles in Williamsburg area.
If you know any good rides coming up, E-mail
TRADING POST:
For Sale -Yakima Bike Rack. Fits on a Scion or other small to mid size car. Holds two bikes
w/ fork mountquick release clamps. Has wind deflector to keep noise down, and it looks cool.
$100.00 or best offer. Craig Bennett 540-241-1445
Milepost Zero Bicycle Club Socials-A Beginning:
Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 4PM at The Cookie Lady’s, June Curry’s bike house.
We’d like members and their families to come and meet June and see the bike house. As you know, our club donates money to June. Come and see how this money is used. June wants to meet you. This social does not include an organized ride as do the others, but come and eat cookies with us. We’d like all members to participate and to share your ideas for future socials.
Thursday, May 17th after the club ride- 8ish-Craig and Pam Bennett’s campfire pizza
This is one of my favorite, pizza after pedaling. BYOB and your lawn chair.
Thursday, June 21st at Harry and Ann Colman’s after the club ride
Come and celebrate the first day of summer with us!!!! More details to follow.
Wednesday, July 4th at Russell Culver’s - Our President serves pancakes before the ride. Delicious! Details to follow, but mark your calendar now.
Prez Sez:
A new-year new effort and it does take effort to get the bike out, cleaned off and get on it. But it feels so good once you get started and the results are worthy of the effort.
Below are a few things that MPZ has accomplished in 2007:
1, a roller demonstration by Tim Gathwright.
2, a presentation by Jeremiah Bishop a member of the Trek/VW, USAMountain bike racing team.
3, opened up and cleaned out the June Curry bike museum.
4, provided the City Manager of Waynesboro a comprehensive manual on how to make Waynesboro a BikeFriendlyCity, The manual was developed by League of American Bicyclist.
5, Authorized funds for a professional start / finish banner for Tour de Valley.
6, Have a socials coordinator.Look for more fun! Right Ann!
Dues are due!! This will be the last MPZ Overlook newsletter you will receive or other email bulletins. It’s ONLY $10.00 or $15.00
Russell
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Opening The Bike House by: Pam Bennett
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Clean Up Crew: Ann Colman Ed and Jacenta Tutwiler Richard Huttinger Pam Bennett Stephen DeDalto (all the way from NYC!) Russell Culver
One week before clean up day, Ann Colman and myself went to June’s to take sort of an ’inventory’ of what needed to be done on clean up day and purchased beforehand. Thanks to Joyce Cook’s class at BethanyLutheranPre-School, most of the food items needed had already been delivered. June and her helper, Debbie Bryant, had also done a good bit of shopping to get groceries for The Bike House. We made a decent list of other needed items and did a little shopping before returning on March 21st to roll up our sleeves and get to work!
Blinds needed dusting; floors needed sweeping and mopping; dishes needed washing; rugs, blankets, towels and tablecloths needed laundering; signage needed updating; roofs needed caulking; fuses needed replacing; picnic table needed moving….whew!
June came down to welcome and thank us before the clean up team got busy for about 6 hours (fueled by chocolate covered donuts) and got a ton of stuff done! Halfway through, Debbie brought down hot biscuits, ham, cheese, and all the fixins for fabulous sandwiches that were much appreciated.
I am pleased to report that a friend of a long distance MPZ member heard about our work day and came down from New York City to assist. Thanks Stephen, for showing up armed with a caulking gun and cleaning supplies!
Likewise I am pleased to report that indeed, Russell Culver is capable of using a feather duster with much efficiency and Ed Tutwiler’s hands do fit properly around a mop handle. (Jacenta, don’t let him forget it either!)
Ann and I plan to periodically check with June and Debbie to see if there are needs that we can assist with, now that there are a few additional funds set aside specifically for opening, operation and closing of The Bike house for 2007.
My thanks to everyone who came out on a cold dreary morning to help clean, repair and organize The Bike House. I had fun working with all of you! June and her helper Debbie were most appreciative of our efforts as well (see June’s note).
On a more personal note:There are a few needs that perhaps MPZ members could assist with from time to time that are not necessarily related to The Bike House: 1) June often needs rides to and from town for groceries, doctors appointments, etc. She can take a cab, and does, when she has to, but it is very expensive ($30 or more). If anyone is willing to be added to a list of potential drivers that she might call on from time to time, please let me know. 2) She is always in need of minor repairs around her house and The Bike House. Although the property was sold to the neighbors behind her, they too are busy folks and some minor things that need attention in a timely manner could possibly be handled by a MPZ member with a little handyman experience. If you are that person and might be willing to coordinate with the new property owner on repairs and payment for them, or even if you are just willing to volunteer your time and effort, please get in touch with me.
I can be reached at or 540-447-6882.
Thanks,
Pam Bennett, MPZ Member
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March 21, 2007
Dear Milepost Zero Club Members:
I was so delighted to see everyone that came to clean up the Bike House today! You did a wonderful job and worked hard. I just can’t do this all myself anymore and my helper Debbie and I never could have gotten the Bike House ready for the bikers without you.
I thank the club members for all of the support through the year and for the extra support this year with getting the Bike House clean and buying some extra supplies. The workers worked all day in the cold and it looks so good. It was just like Santa Claus had come! They did a superb job. It doesn’t even look like my place!
I hope to see you all soon and invite you to come anytime to see me. I hope you will plan a get together here before biking season really gets busy. Just come up one evening for cookies and tea and see the Bike House while it’s clean! To each individual, God bless you and my love and prayer are with you for a safe journey, where ever you go!
Love,
June Curry “The Cookie Lady”
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Cookie House Registry ______by Pam Bennett
A group of cyclists have embarked on a huge undertaking! They are trying to establish The Cookie House Registry, by digitizing all of the photos in June “Cookie Lady” Curry’s photo albums, of all the cyclists that have visited The Bike House. This is, no doubt, a way to more permanently preserve the rich and long history of this treasure in our own back yard!
Visit the web site at and check out the huge collection of interesting photos, journals and articles that go all the way back to the beginning of the Trans America Bike Route (Rt. 76)
When the 2007 updates are added, you will find the March 21, 2007 Clean Up Crew from MPZ on page number one! We are the first to grace her photo album for the year and framed 8x10 resides in the front room of the Bike House.
is under Copyright © 2006-2007
By Joe & Susan Bousquet, Hank Raines, Mike Riscica and Jeff Lee
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Like Lance Said…. “It’s Not About The Bike”by: Pam Bennett
Everyone who loves cycling knows about June Curry, “The Cookie Lady” and her Bike House (and if you don’t shame on you!). We’ve all heard the age old story about the more than 11,000 cyclists who have visited The Bike House, how June used to bake cookies for them, how The Bike House is like a museum and shrine dedicated to cyclists, bicycles and world travel.
What you might not know is just why people set out on such long cycling journeys, such as the Trans America Route, in the first place. No one knows better than Cookie Lady, and she wants you to know too.
She has talked at length with almost all of the cyclists that have visited The Bike House upon their arrival. It’s her way of getting to know them, where they are from and what possessed them to do these cross country, or at least long distance, rides. It’s also how she gets to travel around the world without ever leaving the comfort of home. June tells me that she would love to travel but has never been able to even consider it because all her life has been spent taking care of people. First her uncle, then her father, now the cyclists….and they are her life, literally. Therefore, she travels the globe via the stories, cards, letters and personal conversations with those who pass through her door.
Many of them come because they want to see the country at the slow, eye opening, detailed pace, that a bicycle affords them. Many ride because they want to reach a goal, a milestone in their lives that they can bear really big bragging rights to. Many ride to find peace, see if there is still good in the world, and to solve problems life has handed them….and that’s the part June wants you to hear about.
June has many stories about healing of the heart, mind and body that has taken place as a result of a person’s journey by bicycle. She will tell you about a group of young boys on bicycles who stayed at The Bike House as part of a rehabilitative program for troubled youth. She will tell you about the man riding because he needed to kick alcoholism and thought this was a sure fire way to do it, and he did! She will tell you about the family with children who traveled by bicycle in order to grow closer as a family unit. She will tell you about the lone rider who had known so many angry and ill mannered people that he was starting to loose faith humanity as a whole, but found it there were indeed good people out there.
Go visit with June, just for an hour or two, listen to her stories, and you too will be able to travel the world via Afton, Virginia and see the miracle of healing, even as it takes place daily in the eyes of June Curry herself.
“Then, on to the Cookie Lady’s (really). She ran the hostel (Bike House), and had a really amazing place. It was a whole house which she kept just for cyclists doing the Trans America. She charged no money, but took any donation you were willing to give, and she kept the house stocked with food. All the walls inside every room were plastered with articles, postcards from around the world written by grateful cyclists who had stayed there through the years. This generosity was such a contrast to some of the mean-minded people I had come across lately, and I resolved not to judge all locals just because of a few bad apples.”
Quote from a cycling journal written by Neil Gunton
Underground Railroad Bicycle Trail. By Mike SolomonToday, in the light of a new age, after three years of planning, cyclists can learn of some of America's Underground Railroad history from a new bicycle route of 2,100 miles that tracks from coastal Alabama up to Canada.
On the route, cyclists can ride from Mobile, Ala., through river valleys and wildlife refuges. It's then on through Kentucky and Ohio before reaching Lake Erie, Niagara Falls and its end-point in Owen Sound, Ontario on Lake Huron's Georgian Bay, the final destination for many freedom seekers.
Mobile was chosen as a starting point because it once served as an entry point for slave ships. The Canadian end point of Owen Sound bills itself as "the Underground Railroad's most northerly safe haven" and is set to celebrate its 150th year of being a place where runaway slaves made their homes.
The route is now at least four years in the making. There are also spurs planned that will connect different regions to the original route. One spur is planned from Erie to Pittsburgh, with the hope of eventually connecting to Washington, D.C. Other than the lush green scenery and the many small towns the route passes through, a host of museums, historic parks and visitor centers along the way will bring the history of this remarkable period alive. Maps available from:
VIRGINIA BICYCLE MAP
Editors note: VDOT makes the map sound great; and it is nice, especially since there are two photographs in it with 3 Milepost Zero members! But the map has much to be desired if you are a bicyclist looking for a safe route to cross the state or go “anywhere”! Most states now have bicycle maps showing hundreds of miles of safe routes to ride throughout the state. Oh well, can’t have everything!
Who are they?