No picture for this story. Way back when our tandem was new ('89), my wife and I took it out on a little shakedown tour. Just as we got back on paved roads, a pick-up truck passed us and then stopped a little ways up the road. The driver was drinking a beer and beckoned us to stop. Since we couldn't exactly outrun him, we pulled up and chatted. He told us it was too darn cold and rainy for anyone to be out riding a bike. After a bit, he determined that there was no way we should stay in a tent that night and gave us directions to his house. We agreed to stay there. Well, when his wife the sheriff deputy got home, she insisted on coming out to get us because she also thought it was too cold and rainy to ride a bike. We were only a couple miles from their house when they found us, and we convinced them that we would be just fine riding the last bit to their house.

We spent a fabulous evening learning more than we thought possible about tomato farming, rice farming, police work and Burt's new-found love, organic grapes. Burt and Mary advised us to change our route since, unbeknownst to us the forest roads we were planning on riding were still covered in several feet of snow. It's always nice to get a bit of local knowledge.