"The Carolina Tarwheels Bicycle Club dares, no DOUBLE DARES you to accompany us on one of our weekend bicycle rides!"
Thus began a letter from John Crill to Drew Smith, WTVD News
11 sportscaster. When I received a copy of the letter in September, I
didn't think much about it. I don't even own a TV, and so had never
heard of even WTVD, much less Drew Smith and Drew's Double Dares.
However, when I received e-mail in November saying that Drew had
taken up the challenge and would be coming on our Cosmic Chicken Ride
the following week, it all became much more real.
I thought some of the other club members might be interested in
joining the media circus, so I dropped a quick e-mail note to the
Tarwheels mailing list. I hadn't imagined just how enthusiastic the
turnout would be, though. 43 riders greeted Drew when he pulled up in
a Channel 11 news truck.
The Cosmic Chicken Ride starts and ends at Chicken Bridge, with a
rest stop at Cornucopia Country Store. Cornucopia is well know for
its eclectic selection of goods, some of which would have been quite
at home in Berkeley 25 years ago. Hence the "Cosmic Chicken
Ride." After handing out maps (tie-dyed to match the ride
theme), some opening shots of John issuing the Double Dare, Drew
accepting, and various Tarwheel members egging them on in the
background, we were off.
Drew had brought a mountain bike, and admitted to being only an
occasional rider, so it wasn't long before most riders had
disappeared into the distance. We weren't quite alone, though. Drew's
Double Dares are featured on his show. For this dare he'd brought
both a camera man and, it turned out, a helmet cam. The ride turned
into a game of leapfrog with the camera man. He'd accepted an offer
for a ride from someone with a hatchback, and alternated jumping
ahead to take footage of us as we rode by with hanging out the back
of the car taking footage of us riding along. Drew didn't seem to
mind bringing up the rear, and in fact used the opportunity to ham it
up for the camera ("Here I am at the half-way point. Dead
last.")
We used a few judicious shortcuts, known to and used only by the more
unscrupulous ride leaders, to arrive at the rest stop with the rest
of the group. Here Carla unveiled her masterpiece: tie-dyed chicken
sugar cookies! As several riders remarked, "They match the
maps!" It was here that we discovered that this was both by far
the best attended Cosmic Chicken Ride and the last one. It was
Cornucopia's final weekend! A sad end to a traditional Tarwheels rest
stop.
This was also where Drew had to leave the ride. That gave a particularly enthusiastic group of Tarwheelers, led by John Crill, the opportunity to encourage Drew on camera to continue ("Come on Drew! Let's go Drew! Only 12 more miles, Drew!"). This, coupled with Drew in the background sprawled out on the picnic table, was a "made for television" close to Drew's Double Dare.
Hams, one and all.
The Cornucopia and WTVD 11 truck photos are courtesy of Phil Easler. The group photos were taken by George Henke. Click on inset photos to see a full-size snapshot (average size: 75KB).