03 May 2006

the trail to victory


Real Salt Lake will be getting their first win of the year Saturday, when they take on the Columbus Crew at Rice-Eccles Stadium. You can't help but feel a little sorry for the Crew this year. With just one win and one tie versus three loses and only four goals scored, it would be hard to call this team anything but horrible. But at least they have a nice GM. Look for a huge game from Mehdi Ballouchy, who did a nice job in the middle after coming on as a sub last week.

I won't be watching the game though, because I'll be spending Saturday and Sunday on a bicycle on Missouri's Katy Trail. Katy is not unlike the Monon trail in that it's a rails to trails project. But whereas the Monon trail only runs 20-some miles in total, Katy runs 225 miles across most of Missouri, from St. Charles (just northwest of St. Louis) to Clinton, which is 75 miles southeast of Kansas City.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone that didn't see the benefit of a bike trail like The Monon trail. Anyone who has ever used it could tell you how worthwhile it is to spend a couple hours walking, biking, or skating, and interacting with (or just looking at, really) other people from the city. Rail to trails projects do this for communities all over the country. These trails are also beneficial in that they bring a sort of eco-friendly positive tourism* and business to small communities that most people would never visit if it weren't for the trail.

I also think that communities with a wide network of trails are attractive to young people as places to live. In a city that reportedly has issues with brain drain, I think that might be worth noting.



*eco-friendly positive tourism? this whole post ended up reading like a bad high school research paper

Other important notes:

1) If it's Bike to Work Month and you actually bike to work, shouldn't there be some sort of prize? I'll take a tank of gas for the stupid truck I traded my VW golf for. Coming soon to a classified ad near you...

2) Among the higlights of Indiana Bikefest is the opportunity to "Ride by basketball legend Larry Bird’s summer home". Just in case you forgot what state you're in.

3) I don't know who designed the promo poster (or graphics or whatever) for Bike IN 2006 (the bike festival in White River State park on May 20th and 21st), but they did a fine job. I'd like a poster for my garage.

3 comments:

scot said...

I was gonna wax poetic about the Crew getting a much needed victory, but that was before Hejduk tore an ACL leaving him out for the year. Awesome.

I will be missing the game as well as I will be backpacking in Utah. It's odd to miss such a battle of the titans as this, but at least we'll both be outside having a blast as opposed to work or something.

Mike said...

i'm not going to lie, this post was mainly written to bait you into saying something.

that is indeed bad news about frankie.. he tends to be a little over agressive, but i definitely wanted to see him at the world cup.

enjoy utah.

scot said...

I feel too badly for RSL to say anything too combative. I sorta view RSL fans as kindred spirits in suffering as far as MLS fans go the past few seasons. :) Now, if you were a Chicago fan like Jim, or a DC fan it would be a different story!

That said, I think Pope already has one eye on Germany and that will allow that potent Crew offense to maybe explode for two whole goals. Hopefully thats enough. 2-1 Crew!

Enjoy your ride, that too looks pretty awesome.