The History of TRIRI®
As Told by Director Barbara Anderson
The Birth of a Notion
Joe and I did not start TRIRI®. In fact, we hadn't even heard of it until its second year of existence when we assisted the director, Randy Cronk. TRIRI® began in 1983, a brainchild of the owners of Bloomington's Bicycle Garage and The Bicycle Garage of Indianapolis. Randy Cronk, while a Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University, found the original route (south central Indiana), made all the arrangements, and led the first two TRIRI® weeks. Joe and I became involved the second year as assistant directors (Joe rode his bicycle and I drove the baggage truck), with the intent of taking over the event beginning the third year.
The Andersons Take Charge
When Joe and I took over the event in 1985, it was sponsored by the Bicycle Garage in Bloomington and was still a money-losing proposition which showed great potential to get very big very fast. We set about finding a new route in the fall of 1984 and had great fun exploring southwest Indiana by car, although our young (8 and 10 year-old) children got really sick of weekends traveling those curvy, hilly roads. We found an entirely new route through historic southwest Indiana (we had never visited New Harmony or Vincennes before then). Our criteria for finding a route was and still is quite restrictive: we need reasonably smooth, lightly traveled roads which provide easy access to food, water and restroom facilities. The overnight campgrounds need access to showers and restrooms. The Bicycle Garage gave us some "seed" money to run the event, but most of the costs came out of our personal checkbook.
The BBC Steps In
The Bloomington Bicycle Club (BBC) came on board in 1986 as a TRIRI® sponsor. We coordinated the BBC's Hoosier Hills event and TRIRI® in a 10,000 piece promotional printing and mailing. The route was an all-new adventure through southeast Indiana (we had never visited Metamora, Madison, Vevay, Oldenburg or Batesville before that year). We had a desire to grow the event, but were limited to a cap of 100 participants due to limited services. We initiated a one-night catered meal for the participants to dine together; what fun it was to sit around the tables and share our experiences of the week. Frank Prosser, the Bloomington Bicycle Club newsletter editor, initiated the TRIRI® Diary idea when he had different participants write articles about their adventures for the BBC Newsletter.
The Good (?) Old Days
TRIRI® was quite a different ride in those early days. The first year, Randy not only organized, marked and led the ride, he also cooked breakfast for the 25 participants each morning (I understand oatmeal was a staple). The first seven years of TRIRI®, the participants had to set up camp and then ride up to ten miles to a restaurant for their meals. Many times at these small restaurants, the participants would step up and take orders, serve meals, and clean tables. At a couple breakfast places, the cook would just start cooking up plates of breakfast, and the participants would just take one of the plates. Then they'd tell the cash register operator what they had eaten and pay whatever she said. At times we became quite creative; some pizza parlors would deliver to our camping site if it was close enough and the order was large enough. We didn't always camp in state parks, we sometimes stayed in city parks or school grounds. A few places didn't have showers, but we did have a hose with a "shower" style nozzle on the end - now that was really cold water!
The Indiana State Parks Come On Board
The Indiana State Parks became a limited TRIRI® sponsor in 1989; it was a "trial run," so they could see if TRIRI® was the sort of event that they would be proud to put their name on. TRIRI® passed the test with flying colors, so beginning in 1990 the Indiana State Parks became TRIRI®'s major sponsor. Joe and I soon found out that when the Indiana State Parks set out to do something, they plan it out and do it extremely well. From then to now and into the future, the Indiana State Parks provide publicity in their Recreation Guide, overnight camping sites and facilities in state properties (state parks and state recreation areas at reservoirs), four large state parks tents under which they put picnic tables for catered dinners and breakfasts, the mobile state parks stage with its own sound system, a semi to haul the bags, three SAG vehicles, a stove for the caterers to use, and six staff members to travel with us and oversee the needs of the event. The entire Indiana State Parks and Reservoirs division from the director down to the staff of each property we've visited have proven to be hard-working, hospitable hosts.
Professional Caterers Accept the Challenge
TRIRI® was now in a position to grow! However, there was still the matter of feeding more bicyclists. Those small town restaurants just couldn't do it. In 1991, enter McDuff (sounds Shakespearean, doesn't it). The Assistant Director for the Indiana State Parks had a couple friends who were in the restaurant business in Indianapolis and had started a catering business in conjunction with that. They were a couple of adventurous entrepreneurs who accepted the challenge of feeding a horde of bicyclists "in the field," even after I had warned them that bicyclists eat like the front line of a high school football team. They kept coming back, refining their amounts and menus, keeping the TRIRI® wheels spinning. After McDuff had to downsize and cease their catering business in 2001, Schnitzelbank Catering, out of Jasper, stepped forward to accept the challenge of maintaining TRIRI®'S reputation for good food.
For our trips through northeast Indiana, Goegleins Catering out of Fort Wayne provide breakfast and dinner meals.
Potholes Along the Way
One thing we always know about TRIRI® week is that the unexpected is going to happen. It keeps us alert and presents many behind-the-scenes challenges.
A black cloud: When it comes to TRIRI®, one very hard working and hospitable property manager has good reason to dread our coming.
- Shakamak State Park: He was there
the year the water main between the park and the
town broke just before we arrived.
- McCormick's Creek State Park: He was there when a severe storm
suddenly blew up (literally) and blew apart all
four of the State Parks awnings. They found enough pieces
intact to put together two awnings, and a third awning
was created out of fixed parts from the other two a day
later.
- Potato Creek State Park: He was there when the newly dug wells went dry just before we arrived.
Truck breakdowns: Twice McDuff Catering ran into truck problems that threatened a timely serving of the TRIRI® dinner - and they knew they didn't want to face 500 hungry bicyclists.
- Chain O' Lakes State Park: The main food truck had gone to Indianapolis for restocking, and suffered a tire problem not too far from Indianapolis. The cooks and Joe finally figured out that if worse came to worse, they could call Dominos, because, "Dominos delivers!" Actually, through much cajoling (I think that's spelled with a $), the truck was fixed and dinner was actually served 5 minutes early.
- Clifty Falls State Park: One food truck came down with a serious problem (like transmission - lack thereof) about 30 miles from the park. As soon as the state parks staff knew about that, they mustered up all their trucks and a few volunteers (it's easier to find volunteers to fetch food than unload bags) and drove to the rescue. The McDuff staff got the rest of the meal ready, and by the time the rescue trucks got back, they just had to throw the rest of the items on the tables. Dinner was just a bit late.
- A few times we have had problems with our state park trucks: One ran into a deer on the way to TRIRI®, another pooped out in the midst of a long, hot day of SAG duty, and a third kept getting lost (he blamed it on the truck!).
Weather: A couple times really stick out in our memory.
- The year up north when the week started out around 100 degrees, so few people brought cold weather clothes. The last morning we awoke to a cold, rainy day with a headwind (and weather forecasts that said it would not improve). Due to fears of hypothermia, about two-thirds of the participants were sagged that day.
- Another hot, humid year down in southwest Indiana was equally miserable with such warm, humid nights people didn't have the opportunity to get a good night's sleep to recover from hot days of bicycling. We worked hard to prevent hyperthermia.
Waxing Philosophic
From the beginning, the philosophy of TRIRI® has been to encourage touring Indiana, a state that Joe and I have come to love. Through the years, we have added layer upon layer of discoveries and knowledge about Indiana and its historic, scenic and geologic sites. Where at first we thought it was a great thing for our bicyclists to get from campsite to campsite, we now encourage our participants to stop and sightsee, interact with the locals along the route, and take time to enjoy the beauty of their surroundings. Many participants have questioned why we don't set up regular rest stops as do most one-day bicycle events. Catering to our participants in that way has a tendency to remove them from the essence of touring; they would not become involved in Indiana.
We desire for our participants to have an adventure of discovery during their TRIRI® week: what the roads and countryside have in store, conquering the elements, locating necessary sustenance, pushing the body to the limit and maybe beyond, becoming a part of Indiana.
