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Covered Bridges Ride A Success

Rick James | Published on 10/12/2023

CBR 42 is in the books. Good weather, food and a large number of volunteers greeted approximately 1,000 riders that were unaware of the many challenges in making the 2023 ride a success.

Visit the Covered Bridges Ride photo album to see some pictures!

 

Most of the obstacles revolved around understanding what is the meaning of a reservation. Webster defines a reservation as “an arrangement to have something kept for a person or a special purpose”. An episode of Seinfeld found that some vendors can make a reservation but then not keep it for the intended purpose (i.e., his rental car not available at the airport).

 

We encountered a few of these situations ourselves:

  • The January 3rd reservation for our usual location at Tinicum Park was good until late January when in error the park booked a wedding for the same time.  Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us until the Spring after we had communicated our event date and they were not going to tell the bride she needed to change.     Fortunately a happy ending for us at the other end of the park with a maintenance staff that worked hard to assist us.
  • Rest stop van reservations in June were good until they weren’t in September when U-Haul informed us we could only have trucks.
  • The October 6th morning reservation for rest stop tables was good until it wasn’t on October 5th.  Then Ralph Peterson’s drive to pick them up was met with the fact that the vendor moved 2 years ago but never updated the new address on their website.
  • Bucks EMS was going to have their communication van on site for the ride until they arranged for it to be at another event.     Again, we were fortunate that Dean and his team were able to overcome the challenge.

Despite these issues and a key captain (Rich Sadler) testing positive for COVID days before the ride, I think it is safe to say that CBR 42 was a success thanks to our efforts and those that assisted us.

 

Thanks to our CBR Captains:

 

2023 Captains

Responsibility

Captain

T-shirts

Jan Solkov

Thanks for working with Smith Print to develop another good shirt design and captain gift and coordinating the distribution to volunteers. I saw a number of people admiring the shirts this year.

 

 

 

Town notification

Deb Scott

The number of parks, organizations, township and State agencies to contact for ride approval has almost become a 6 month process. Thanks for following up with the last one as recently as days before the ride! The cats are becoming harder to herd.

 

 

 

Barn Coordinator

Monica Coleman

CBR planning starts in April and there is a long road until the end. But when the ride is over and lunch is finished there is that last task of clean up and I very much appreciate all you do to lead the effort!

 

 

Bull’s Island

Linda Salkovitz

You mastered the role of Bulls Island captain in your sophmore year and now added "trucker" to your resume. Thanks for being flexible with the van/truck challenge this year.

 

 

 

Pipersville

Terry/Holly Hampton

Another year wearing multiple hats (rest stop captain, bridge safety spotter, baker, route design) and your willingness to do last minute safety checks on bridges.

 

 

 

Durham-Nox

Ralph Peterson

Thanks for answering the short notice call to pick up the rest stop tables on Friday when the vendor could not make a morning delivery. Unfortunately that effort was complicated by the vendor's relocation without informing us! Thanks very much for helping with the very last CBR task....returning items to the shed.

 

 

 

Weisel

Rich Sadler

Thanks for helping prep the rest stop material in the shed, washing utensils and checking inventory for and placing the COSTCO order. Sorry that COVID kept you away from seeing the benefits of your work. Hope you have a quick recovery.

 

 

 

 

Bob/Jan Hardner

Big thanks to you both for back filling for Rich Sadler. The help with the COSTCO pick-up, rest stop van loading, captaining Weisel, Tinicum clean up and retuning items to the shed was a huge assist!

Registration

Bruce Salkovitz

Another smooth registration process and adjustment to a new location.

 

 

Lunch

Steve Farb

The new location at Tinicum presented challenges to many but none more than your work arranging tent set up, tables, chairs, coffee/cider pots, grills, food warmers, and caterers. Thanks for your big role!

 

 

Routes/Road Markings/Cue Sheets

Kevin Hahn

Thanks for working through all the route changes and making sure they were reflected in the road markings. Doing that once is challenge enough but it is complicated when towns repave over your work. Thanks also for scouting out the ride start route at Tinicum, being available on ride day to assist with rest stop deliveries and your quick reimbursement of CBR expenses.

 

 

SAG/Bike Shops

Bob Childs

Thanks for reaching out to bike shops to assist at Tinicum and the rest stops.

 

 

Cookies & Baked Goods

Julie Cummings

Thanks for continuing the relationship with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and their work to bake a good variety of 250 dozen cookies for CBR rest stops and for your 6:00 AM coordination of the coffee/breakfast tent.

 

 

Traffic Control/EMS/Safety Spotters

Scott McLaren

Thanks for working to make a safe ride. I am aware of only one bridge mishap but it was not due to a lack of trying by your spotter. The rider told me he was warned about board gaps but ignored it and paid the price with a bent tire. Lucky for him that was the extent of his ignorance. Also, nice job getting some police to volunteer and save us an expense.

 

 

Volunteers

Rich Piascik

Thanks for the active communication to round up volunteers.

 

 

Volunteer Party 

Trish DePetris

Thanks to you and Dave for all the lunch support on ride day and "in advance" for your role in the upcoming volunteer dinner. Thanks for a most important post ride role!

 

 

Trash/Port-A-Potties

Rick Logan

Thanks for the extra effort needed to coordinate how to set-up trash and port-a-potties due to the new location at Tinicum. Appreciate you being at the park on Friday to be sure your instructions were followed.

 

 

Communications/Rider Support

Dean Hedin

The new location at Tinicum, the staff change at Bucks EMS and the late cancellation of the EMS van presented new issues this year but you and the SAG folks persevered and dealt with the needs of the day. Thank you and your group.

 

 

Parking

Scott McCrea

Like many others the new location had a big impact on you and the parking crew but you delivered. I'm still amazed at the good turnout of volunteers you get for a pre 6:00 AM start. Thanks.

 

 

Brochures

Linda Salkovitz

Thanks for doing this in addition to all the other areas where you help out.

 

 

Electricity

Ed MacNamee

The electricity supply was one of the positive outcomes of our new location at Tinicum. Thanks for making sure we didn't overload any breakers and assuring the coffee pots kicked on at 5:00 AM to assure the smell of coffee greeted all the early morning volunteers.

 

 

 

Park decorations

Sandi Ives

Glad to see you didn't have a shoulder injury like last year and appreciate your efforts to make the park maintenance area a little more attractive with decorations. Also, thanks for putting both shoulders to work to help Monica with washing and clean up.

 

 

 

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