The Riders

Stephen Blagg: Retired four years ago after 43 years with the Army (22 in uniform; 21 as a civilian).  Now enjoying the good life, with just three important things in my life: my faith, my family, and cycling.  The relative priority changes on a day-to-day basis.

New Guy Deserves Two Photos. I'm adding this photo showing a typical touring bike set-up. Both Stephen and Stuart prefer front panniers. The typical bike weight distribution is 60% back wheel and 40% front wheel. Front panniers balance wheel load, lower the load for better control, and reduce mechanical issues with wheels (broken spokes/cracked/bent rims).

John Kulig: My ride is a Trek 520 with panniers. I live in rural (near Pidgin Falls), Wisconsin and was raised on a dairy farm. I attended UW-Madison and then UW-Seattle during graduate school. I have pretty much recovered from my liberal education. I retired in 2013 from a career in banking and enjoyed my time foreclosing on little old ladies. I was president of the local community bank for about 20 years and then worked as vice-president of the commercial division of a large credit union. In the early 1990's I did a little bank consulting in Eastern Europe.

My wife Kathy and I have been married forever and we have four children, all married, and 11 grandchildren and all are under age 14. Besides filling the grand kid's heads full of information their parents don't quite approve of, I spend a little time hunting and fishing with my son. I had two years of high school Spanish but cannot speak any of the language, as I was paying attention to other things at the time.

John has been our electronic route finder, being the most skilled with his Garmin. However, paper maps remain the most reliable method for our 60+ age group. John gets lots of grief for the occasional gravel road and no credit for being able to route us to lodging or city escape routes.

Our Reserved Group Leader, Stuart Bonning: Lives in Westminster, Maryland. Stuart is a retired logistics/international shipping professional, totally unrecovered from  his liberal education and work experience, and knows quite a lot about nearly every subject, the most valuable of which is Spain. Stuart is our leader, translator, and police negotiator. Here he is calling the riders to assemble for the Monday evening rides that he leads with members of his Frederic Peddlers Bicycle Club.

Larry Newman: Takes terrible selfies, lives in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife Nancy and standard poodles, Eli and Lily (We have Big Pharma covered). I’m a semi-retired business consultant and partner in Shipley Associates. http://www.shipleywins.com/index.php  I’m a former farm boy from Iowa, University of Iowa Hawkeye engineering graduate, and bicycle-touring member of the Church of the Derailleur. (Don't look it up; we are unlisted.)

My group riding role is amateur bike mechanic, amateur chef (doesn’t take much to qualify as chef with this group), and hors d'oeuvres/adult beverage shopper, mostly because I have a trailer. I attempt to post a mildly entertaining daily blog featuring the Dog of the Day, oddities, trivia, local people, scenery, and John’s excellent photos. Selfie photo taken in 2014 on an Atlantic Ocean beach north of Lisbon.

 Dogs of the Day. Lily (13 months) and Eli (11 years) posing outside Bozeman, MT.