In addition to model railroading, I can be found riding my road-racing bicycle on the streets of Houston. Growing up in Holland, everybody learns how to ride the bike. It is practically mandatory. When we moved to Houston, Texas, I was too scared to ride in the streets here. While I was in college, I was involved in a religious group, and we took a trip to China in the summer of 1985. A group of fifteen of us bought mountain bikes in Hong Kong, and then spent a month in mainland China. We took the train about 450 miles inland, and then rode the bikes back to Hong Kong. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. After I got back to Texas, I bought a $150 road bike to ride for fun and exercise. After getting married I bought a new bike, costing about the same. I used that to ride as often as my schedule allowed. In 1999 I bought the Cannondale bike pictured below. This is a serious road-racing bike, and required a serious outlay of cash, but it was worth it. The ride difference between that one and the "cheap" bike is tremendous. I have now logged well over 5,000 miles on this bike. Weather-permitting, I try to ride at least once a week, usually twice a week. My usual trip is a about 21 miles. I love it!

Riding on the road is always dangerous. Here are 7 tips for automobile drivers when encountering bicyclists on the road, copied from the RoadID's web site:

1. Cyclists are only required to ride as close to the right as is safe. Often times the road surface and traffic conditions look different to a cyclist than they do to someone in a car.
2. It is legal for cyclists to move from the right into the lane to avoid hazards like glass, potholes and other debris, so be patient.
3. When passing a cyclist slow to a safe speed and give at least 3 feet, or more, of room to their side when overtaking them.
4. Do not speed past a cyclist in an effort to make an upcoming turn. It is easy to misjudge how fast cyclists are traveling and you may violate their right of way and injure them.
5. When making a turn or entering the roadway from a driveway or parking spot, use your turn signals. Even if you don't see a cyclist, the cyclist will see you.
6. Don't harass cyclists; it’s illegal and unsafe.
7. And, please, don't text while driving. It's not safe for anybody.

Due to time constraints, I had to put my old hobby of bass guitar playing on hold for the past number of years. My Mom bought me an acoustic classical guitar when I was 15. I loved to play it. Then when we moved to Houston, Texas, I met some friends and we decided to start a band. We had a drummer and a guitar player/singer, so we needed a bass player. I went to Sears and bought a cheap one with a small amp from money saved up from mowing yards. It was enough for our little garage band. However, we wanted to get louder and maybe even play outdoors. So, I saved some more and bought a Peavey bass with a more powerful amp. It looked something like this one:

After college and after settling down after getting married, I saved up some money for a "real" bass guitar. I had always been interested in exotic-looking guitars, so I found a local dealer of Kubicki basses. I bought the "Ex Factor", 4-string fretless. I had never played fretless, but I wanted to give it a try. I absolutely loved it. The sound and the freedom appealed to me. The "Ex" in the Ex Factor bass meant that I could flip a clip and have the low-frequency string go down to a D from an E. Cool. I owned it for about 10 years and sold it in 2003.

If four strings are good, five strings must be better, right? So, I saved up and bought a Carvin Icon IC5W 5-String Claro Walnut Active bass. I also bought one of their larger amplifiers. The bass was fretless as before. However, I found that the extra string (thicker, top string) got in the way. I was always thinking it was the normal E string. I found it hard to play. The problem with Carvin basses is that you can only get them factory-direct, so there's no way to try them out before you decide you like them. As you can see below, the bass is absolutely beautiful.

Professionally, I own and operate Fourth Ray Software, a commercial software development and publishing company.