16 August 2011 Ride; Dorothy Mangold, aka Ms. Ozark Roadie

 It has been such a delight to be up early in the morning as the clouds and colors have been extraordinary.  Every day it’s something new.  If I’m going to wake up at 4:10, at least there have been some good rewards.

Dropping Rachel off at school, I couldn’t help but notice the pants of one of the students.  I’ve always been a big fan of the cosmos!

I’ve been wanting to feature Dorothy Mangold who formed the Ozark Roadies about 6 years ago.  I met here and joined up with the Roadies after my AR-GA trip in 2009.  Today was the perfect opportunity as the two of us did a ride together today from Drake airport out to Mt. Gaylor and back. 

One thing I have found very interesting about some of the people who have gotten involved in biking is that have overcome adversity to then flourish as a bicyclist.  Dorothy said herself that she was a late bloomer, graduating from college with an MBA at 50 and getting into biking at the age of 62.  Her first ride in 30 years was at the urging of Sally Stone, who still bikes at the age of 80.  “Let’s ride from West Fork to Winslow and back,” Sally suggested.  Dorothy was hesitant.  “No problem,” Sally said.  “It’s all flat.”  It was all flat (basically), but 25 miles IS 25 miles and Dorothy could hardly walk when she finished the ride.

12.5 miles into our ride, we stopped at the Brentwood Rest Area.  We saw this man hitchhiking.  Later, about 10 miles further when we reached the top of Mt. Gaylor, there he was again , just walking off.  Felt somewhat like a Twilight Zone sort of moment where the man just seemed to appear like magic, always walking with his back to us.

But she was hooked.  Two years later, the beginnings of The Roadies took hold as a small group.  Slowly it grew and now there are consistently 25-30 people on a ride with a couple of outings seeing as many as 50 people.  The rides are almost every Saturday of about 50 miles and the location changes from weekend to weekend in the Northwest Arkansas area.   Those interested in getting on The Roadies email list can contact Dorothy at hotdot41@cox.net.

Getting it right.  We were determined to get a picture of both us in the frame with the tower in the middle.  There were three attempts before the ones below.

More than just having large numbers of riders on Saturdays, Dorothy is proud of what the Roadies means to her as well as to others.  She loves the social side of the rides as the group gathers afterward for a snack around a tree or meeting for lunch.  More than once she has heard from people how much they look forward to Saturdays and, as one might imagine, that does her heart good.  

In Winslow, we headed down CORD 38.  A very quiet and woodsy road.  A couple of miles down, we came across an interesting "road attraction."  A an odd collection of sculptures and bicycle frames and who knows what else.  Below is a sampling from what we saw.

Not a matter of "if" we would get wet but "when."  Fortunately, we didn't get the brunt of the large, looming, thunderous cloud mass.

We had our own fun and quite interesting adventure today.  Dorothy was in training for what she hopes will be her first 100 miler on September 24^th in Little Rock on the Big Dam Bridge ride.   That will be a big push over her highest ride, doing 70 miles to celebrate her 70^th birthday.  Thanks for the ride today and good luck in Little Rock!

As we approached Winslow, we passed a cyclist going in the other direction who had a cart in tow.  It was the type for carrying kids but we weren't able to see in.  Dorothy and I pondered where he might be coming from and where he was headed.

When we got back to Drake, some four hours later, and we were loading our bikes, I said, "Look."  There was the cart towing cyclist.  Now we were really intrigued.  A few minutes later, we drove off.  I happened to see our biking friend pull into a store and I pulled in to the lot as well.  I introduced myself and peeked inside the car; no kids.  It turned out that Jesse was on his way from Austin, TX to New York.  I have to admire his tenacity as he was pulling about 100lbs of weight.  He has a blog as well and if anyone is interested in following him the link is:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/highcastle-photography/175750531947

Good luck, Jesse!


After loading the bike in the van, I noticed the severe tread wear that had developed just today.

 I guess that's what over 5,000 miles of riding will do to a tire!  Guess what I'll be doing before going to bed tonight?

Today's Ride:  4hrs 28mins.  55.02 miles.  70-80 degrees with a small period of rain.  Miles YTD:  5,452.05

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