2009 Wrap-up and 2010 Goals & Aspirations.

Pic lifted from My Kind of Country

What a great year to spend time outdoors! The NOA blog had 500 posts in just over 9 months! And 7,095 unique hits since the end of March. I've had a great time sharing my adventures with you and hope you've made an effort to spend more time outdoors.

You've seen our family have a ton of fun outside and watched me mature as a cyclist. I started riding in 2008 and put on 2,000 miles. During 2009 I racked up an additional 4,681.78 miles on the bike and blog readers have followed me on the following outdoor adventures:

91 round trip commutes to work and back (aprox 20 miles)

10 one way work commutes (aprox 10 miles)

Our 11 yr olds purchase of a new Felt MTB from Bike Pedalers

My first endo at Wilderness Park

Shooting at Lincoln's Izzak Walton

Bike riding on York's trail

Phil Keoghan's Coast to Coast book signing

4-wheeler riding with our 17 yr old at Halsey Forest

My Hunter Education Class

Bike riding on Columbus' trail system

The Ride of Silence

Fishing trips

Airboating on the Loup River

Camping

Biking to Southpoint's Friday Nights Live Concert

Biketacular & the return of the Capital City Criterium cycling races

Riding to Beatrice

The Haymarket Farmers Market

The GPBC Slow & Go ride

The 5-day Tour De Nebraska

Seward's Firecracker Ride

Larry the Cable Guy's 4th of July Show at Memorial Stadium

Riding to the Uncle Sam Jam fireworks show

Riding the Prairie Spirit Trail in KS once from Ottawa to Richmond and once Garnett to Iola

Two rides to Bennet

My first fixie ride

The Cairo Cornstalk Festival

Many canoe rides at Holmes Lake

The Cornhusker State Games Century Tour and Opening Ceremonies

The Wilbur Czech Festival ride

The BBC Rollin' To The River ride

3 Taco Rides in Iowa

The GPTN Discovery Ride

The Heatstroke 100 ride

My first century followed by two more later in the summer

Bass Fishing in North Central KS

The State Fair

The Bike Swap

CROPS walk bike ride

LPD bike auction

Several bike rides to Cortland

23 Tuesday night Nacho Rides

Our 11 yr old's 2 turkeys in one shot

Biking to my first Husker football game and 1st Stars hockey game

The purchase of my new Felt Z-70 road bike from Bike Pedalers

Bike Pedalers grand-opening party and Race Across the Sky after party

Loup Valley's annual Ducks Unlimited Banquet

The 350.org ride

3 Critical Mass rides

A ride to Raymond

2 rides to Ceresco

Riding to church

Riding on Grand Island's trails

Our 11 yr olds first buck and my buck during this year's rifle season

2 of Pepe's Free Bike Commuter Breakfasts

2 Tuesday night rides with the hipsters to Pepe's

3 alley cat races

Snowmobiling and sledding on Christmas-eve.

I'm not bragging, just wanted to see a tally, but it's not about the numbers, it's about the fun I've had. And I'm so thankful for all the great people I've met and spent time and miles with during 2009.

I'm healthier, happier, greener, more responsible, fun and social than I've ever been. I'm looking forward to building on the time we've spent outdoors and making 2010 the best year yet.

My big cycling/blog goals for next year:

10,000 unique hits on the NOA blog during 2010.

25 NOA followers and 500 facebook friends by the end of 2010.

Another year with no serious wrecks.

6,000 miles on the bike during 2010.

5 Centuries during 2010.

125 round trip work commutes during 2010.

And another tour during 2010.

Hope to see you spending time with friends and family outdoors in the year to come!!!

Have a Happy New Year!!!

Never shoot at a hard surface or water.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims family and the shooter and his family. This is one of the cardinal rules taught in Hunter Education. Please take the class if you haven't and be sure to follow all safety rules. Click here to read the full story.

Hunter Education class ends successfully.

Guest speaker, Nebraska Game and Parks Officer Murray Johnson shares experiences and advice with students.

Congratulations. Good luck and best wishes to all the graduates.

Practice the skills you've learned on both the range and in the field.

They are an outstanding group of outdoors men and women. And will be a valuable addition to the sport.

I couldn't be prouder of the individuals that took this weeks class.

1st session of Hunter Education a big success.

What a great Hunter Ed class. Their really outstanding outdoors men/women.

No turkey yet, but some PF swag to show for the weekend.

Our 11yr old spent yesterday at the river near Cairo turkey hunting with his grandparents, then went to Loup City's annual Phesants Forever banquet. He'll be taking my Hunters Ed class this week too.

Picked up some blown-up gun barrels from G.I. Loan for Hunters Ed

Special thanks to Grand Island Loan & Pawn for the use of their blown-up firearms. Its one thing to explain to students how a firearm accident can happen, it's alltogther another to show them the results. Thanks to these teaching aids, students are able to visualize what happens when firearms are misshandled.

A quick outting this weekend.

Burr! Over the weekend I did get out once and went to a Volunteer Hunter Education Instructor appreciation dinner at Platte River State Park. It was my first time there. And I loved it. It’s a gorgeous park and I encourage you to go there, I know we’ll be back when the weather is better and we’ve got time.

Before the dinner I took a few minutes to go down a path on my bike and see a cool waterfall. Other than my State Park Permit, (which was a x-mas gift – thanks Doc!) it’s free to go. Can’t wait to go back and try out the rail to trail converted bike/ped bridge and some of the single track MTB trails, it’s a great place! While there I saw several of the trail runners cross the finish line on their 12 K. race.

The dinner was awesome! Thanks Mike & Herb and ladies from the office. It was a great chance to compare notes with other instructors.

My Hunter Ed Class Is Full Already.

Thanks for the great response. To find another class check out the NGPC site.

Lincoln Ve-low run. The 80's. The Flat. & Hunter Ed is posted.

For the record I had a spare tube and air pump on me. But I knew the wife was going by, so a quick phone call to her and she came to rescue me. Thanks again babe! We'd arranged to meet at the office on 56th & Cornhusker so after she gave me a lift I fixed the bike at the office and was ready to have a 'tubular' ride back home. "Yea, that was a shout out to my peeps from the 80's." You know, I'm still trying to get my kids to start rolling up the cuffs of their jeans real tight around their ankles and revive that trend. But their not cool like we were back in the day I guess.

Since I was as far west as 19th & P anyway I went on to MWC to pick up the latest copy of Lincoln Ve-low. I'm such a wanna-be huh? It's really a very cool little mag about the local bike scene. And it's only $2 a copy! Hey, it's also a good excuse to pop into MWC. If you've never gone in there, it's a really groovy bike shop on 12th & P. Shortly after leaving there I was deflated.

The ride home from the office was a sweet ride south from Havelock to the John Dietrich then east to the 84th St. trail and take that south to South St. Then across Holmes Lake's Dam. Had a nice tail wind. Thanks God, I appreciate it. Final score - 17.28 mi. this afternoon on the bike and 5 miles in the wife's SUV.

I'm teaching a Hunter Education class at the end of the month and it's posted on the game & parks site now. Sign up early. Class size is limited and it fills up fast. I'm looking forward to it.

Hunter Education

When we got the kids BB guns and started shooting with them in 2004, it didn’t take long and several of the neighbor kids showed up (our house was always the hangout anyway) with their BB guns wanting to join in.

If they were going to shoot around me they had to be safe. And when I one day saw one of them shooting off his back deck at a can in their yard and pointing toward our house I was more than happy to have him join us for some lessons on firearm handling.

I thought that if I’m going to be showing these kids how to shoot, I’d better make sure I’m telling them the right thing. I signed up to become a volunteer Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Firearm Hunter Education Instructor.

I have since taught in St. Libory at the Catholic Church and Palmer at the firehall with Arlo. In Grand Island with Mel and the others at the Grand Island Rifle Club. In Cairo and Boelus with my dad, Dave, Harold, Larry, John, Heath, Rick, Paul, and several others. In Seward at the Efree church, and in Lincoln at the Hunter Ed office and classroom.

Being an instructor has been a way I can give back to the sport and teaching with so many other instructors during the last 4 years has given me a wealth of knowledge and forged friendships with some great hunters. It has also served as a constant reminder that I need to conduct myself in the most positive light in the class room, on the range and in the field.

Nebraska is in need of more instructors and I encourage you to check out the game and parks website to sign up and become a certified instructor. Hunting has benefited wildlife in so many ways! But the number of hunters is dwindling as hunting and shooting are in competition with T.V., video games, and the over scheduled lives that our kids are faced with. It’s a great way to help insure the future of the sports we love and teach our youth about being safe, respectful and responsible outdoors men and women.