Photo by Deborah McCaslin
     Just as the sun was edging into the horizon and dawn was on the dew, the riders were off on day one of BRAN 28, the Tour of Excellence. These three took a moment to stop at the first rest stop and stretch.
 

By DEBORAH McCASLIN
Chief Publisher

    Callaway, population 637, set out the VIP treatment last weekend and well over 1,000 visitors: bicyclists, friends and families answered the call. The community served as one of seven overnight stops for the BRAN (Bike Ride Across Nebraska) 28 - 2008 Tour of Excellence.
    Winner of the 1997 Best Host Community Award, Callaway was selected this year as the locale to kick off the adventure.
    As a host community, Callaway was invited to select one rider to join the tour for free. Fees sit at $125 per rider, $95 if you are under 18. Claude Sorlie, 63, was Callaway’s choice.
    To train, he says he’s logged 1,035 miles since March 1 of this year.
   

  “You don’t want to ride BRAN without training,” he assured, “And I’m not getting any younger.”
    Community chair for the event, Callaway District Hospital CEO Marvin Neth, understands what it takes -  he’s been there himself - he’s ridden the tour. This is the community’s third time to host, so being selected to host didn’t come as a surprise. But, being selected as the community to start the tour, and especially being selected on the “Tour of excellence” route did.
    As the starting point, the community was asked to plan for 600 bike riders, and at least 400 support staff and family members expected the first night to see the riders off.
    “We are very humble about this,” Neth said. “They chose us – they chose us to start the tour. Everyone has worked together to have things ready. They’ve worked very hard.”
    Callaway Chamber President Dave Chesley agrees.
    “In a town our size, it takes everyone. When the BRAN officials approached and wondered if             Callaway would host the start we started asking what folks could do. It was just a matter of getting it all pulled together and Marvin took care of that. BRAN provides a host community guide that is full of things to think about … the only thing I wish we could have provided, was a better road to ride from Callaway to Arnold. We warned folks not to leave before daylight.”
    Chesley and Neth started listing all of the activities different groups were offering: places for folks to gather, rest, eat and linger, their homes for anyone who didn’t want to sleep on the ground. The community started working on the project last fall.
    “I think it is just awesome how this community pulls together to pull these things off,” Chesley said. Three community meetings helped identify what folks could do.
    “But the best thing is now, when you mention to someone you’re from Callaway they say, oh yea, I’ve heard of Callaway. You don’t often hear ‘where’s Callaway?’” Neth added. “Some folks traveled a long distance to get here. One rider from Texas arrived two weeks ago. He came to check out the roads.”
    By Saturday night most everything was in place, including the Custer County Sheriff’s Posse to help with security and Custer County Emergency Manager Troy Smith to keep an eye on the weather.
    It was only the weather that had Neth nervous. Saturday’s 60 percent chance of rain turned to 100 percent by late Saturday night when the skies turned ugly and emergency horns sounded sending folks from campground to schoolhouse to take cover.
    “Why is it that most memorable BRAN events usually involves the weather?” asked Joe Burke, a 72-year-old rider from Atchison, Kan., going on to recall his most memorable BRAN. “It might have been the day we rode from Hemingford to Hyannis with a full on head wind. The wind made the spokes of my bike whistle. I didn’t know they could whistle. A 100-mile day is easy if you don’t have the wind.”
    This year’s BRAN is Joe’s 12th ride, and luckily by Sunday morning the weather was exquisite.
    “I’m one of the old guys who’s not smart enough to call it quits,” he said. “I keep coming back. I try to do some exercise every day so it gets to be a habit. And it might as well be on a bike. It has become a habit for a lot of the these folks.”
    Joe remembered Callaway from previous visits and had nice things to say about the choice of this year’s route.
    “All but two of the nights (where the BRAN riders will stay) are previous best community winners, hence the name, ‘Tour of Excellence.’
    The 454 mile trek goes from Callaway through Arnold to Dunning, to Ainsworth, Butte, Creighton, Petersburg, Shelby and then on to Yutan for the end of the ride.
    This is the 28th year for BRAN and Al Roeder of Omaha believes he is the lone BRAN rider on the trail this year to have completed all 28. He’s 61. He and his daughter ride a tandem – she joined 22 years ago.
    “I had to do the first six without her, she was too young,” he said. They’ve always entered with a tandem (bike) and it’s always been blue with pink trim.
    “We have a good time,” he responded. “We always have a good time. They (the rides) have all been fun.” The riders spoke of the yearly event as a gathering of old friends, a great social event through some beautiful countryside, especially the rides through the Sandhills.
    Roeder said he talks to the cows as they travel, something that used to embarrass his daughter when she was little, but now she says she finds amusing.
    “I moo at them and sometimes they moo back,” he chuckled. “She (daughter Shannon) counts how many (cows) look up.”
    Folks wave at Al as they walk by, he gives a nod in their direction and goes on to answer what he finds most challenging about any of the BRAN rides.
     “The hills aren’t a challenge because half of them are down. The challenge is always the wind and the weather,” he added. “It’s June and it’s Nebraska. You can have 100 degree weather one day and 30 degree weather the next. You never know what’s coming.”
    He’s proud they have never had to be ‘sagged’ or picked up by the support vehicle. “If you get tired you take a break.”
    He rides the front and she takes up the rear. “Back is the worker part of the tandem,” he says.  “She trusts me up front. We make a good team. I used to carry her, now she carries me.”
    Wall to wall tents cover the football field next to the school. People help each other set up camp, check out their bikes and renew old friendships. Golf karts, and bikes serve as primary modes of transportation. Neighborhood youngsters ride through on bikes of their own.
    The hospital provides a rest stop complete with tables and chairs under a big umbrella for BRAN members to catch up on old friends. The sign out front says it all: “Callaway District Hospital (ity) Welcome.”