HATS February Newsletter

Pre-Valentine's Ride...Sunday February 8

The Annual Pre Valentines Ride is a tribute to the club's founders, Virgil and Jeanie Fruth. They believed that tandem riding was the perfect couple’s activity and that there is no better day to celebrate a couples event than Valentine’s Day. Ralph and Dixie Neidhardt are the Sponsors for this year's Pre Valentine Ride; the ride will be on Sunday February 08 starting at 12 noon at the Swinging Door Restaurant. Ride lengths vary from 20 to 40 miles. Following the ride, we will enjoy a barbecue dinner at the Swinging Door and the (in)famous Valentine Gift Exchange and some of the gifts are exchanged up to three times. It's guaranteed to be an afternoon full of good times and laughter. Plan to join the fun and bring a wrapped gift for the exchange ($20.00 limit please). The Swinging Door is on Highway 359 in Richmond...This link will take you to the restaurant website for driving directions...The Swinging Door





This edition introduces the new one page format for the monthly newsletter. We have designed it to lessen the navigation between the articles. Many of the regular features like the Archives, the Membership application page and the calendar are now accessible from the HATS Home Page at http:\\www.tandem-hats.org. Please invite your friends to visit our website and newsletter. If you haven't sent your annual membership renewal form and dues to Jim and Ruth, please take a few minutes to complete the waiver and mail you dues. After this edition, newsletter notifications will only be sent teams who are current with their annual renewals. The Club ride this month will be the annual Pre Valentines Ride on Sunday February 7. Up coming events will be the Tour de Houston in March and the Southwest Tandem Rally in April.	Pre-Valentine's Ride...Sunday February 8 The Annual Pre Valentines Ride is a tribute to the club's founders, Virgil and Jeanie Fruth. They believed that tandem riding was the perfect couple’s activity and that there is no better day to celebrate a couples event than Valentine’s Day. Ralph and Dixie Neidhardt are the Sponsors for this year's Pre Valentine Ride; the ride will be on Sunday February 08 starting at 12 noon at the Swinging Door Restaurant. Ride lengths vary from 20 to 40 miles. Following the ride, we will enjoy a barbecue dinner at the Swinging Door and the (in)famous Valentine Gift Exchange and some of the gifts are exchanged up to three times. It's guaranteed to be an afternoon full of good times and laughter. Plan to join the fun and bring a wrapped gift for the exchange ($20.00 limit please). The Swinging Door is on Highway 359 in Richmond...This link will take you to the restaurant website for driving directions...The Swinging Door

	The 2009 Chili (chilly) ride was a great success with 21 tandem teams meeting for a morning of riding followed by a buffet feast of warming comfort foods. Reggie and Linda Bowers drove from Longview; Roger and Marcie McBride and Ken Weigel drove in from Austin. Bujo and Jeri Waddell arrived from Galveston with plenty of progress reports on the reconstruction of their home after Ike made an unwelcomed visit back in September. The ride started at 9:00 after Mike explained the routes. There were two ride options...one was 24 miles and the other was 32...and there was the possibility to repeat some of the loop if you wanted to put a few more miles on the odometer. The weather was chilly...in the high 40's as the ride started and warming to the mid 50's by noon. Jeffrey Kolb invented his own route and ended up with close to 41 miles before Mary Jane rescued him...a good reason to carry a cell phone and a map. Two teams made a second loop logging about 51 miles. The Chili buffet was an sumptious display of soups, salads, chili, vegetables, cornbread and desserts. The challenge was deciding which to select! The buffet grazing and visiting continued into the afternoon. No one seemed to run out of stories about tandem experiences and everyone enjoyed sharing their tandem tales. Thanks Mike and Susan for hosting the HATS at Riverhaven!