Barney Moaner

This is not the famous Barney Moaner; just my brother Jon


The 40 year old Barney Moaner story may stray from the facts a bit, but I hope you enjoy this rendition. Biking through South Dakota, with my brother Dave and I friend I will call Barney, we ran into some road construction. Barney got that moniker because he referred to bananas as Barneys. We had strong headwinds for a couple of days and the temperature was just under 100. We were all thirsty, hot, tired, and ready to be done with South Dakota. As we make our way east, we passed a very nice paved north bound road. After another 5 miles we ran into a Bridge Out sign, with a long detour on a gravel road. Had they posted the road closed on the paved road, we would have had an easy time of it. Up ahead, past the Road Closed barriers, was a gulley with no easy way across. Barney picked up his bike, which was loaded with tent, sleeping bag, and clothes, threw his bike in the ditch, sat down, put his head in his crossed arms, and started moaning. At that point his nickname changed to Barney Moaner. 


While in college my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. My brother Dave suggested “Hey, let’s ride our bicycles there.” and I said “Sure”. This was around 1981 or ‘82. We invited a friend along. Months after that ride I added Seeing America to my bucket list. For days after that ride I never wanted to touch a bicycle again. We rode 100 miles a day, with all our gear, for 10 days straight. We were on horrid bikes, with my bike breaking a spoke a day.  When brother Dave heard our route, he had no desire to spend another day on a bicycle in South Dakota.

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