 What’s the deal with the black & white saddle shoes?  Click here for the story of our farm in Greene County, Iowa. Here's looking at life at Simple Serenity Farm  Carla’s sister & brother-in-law Chris and Tony Woods, of Des Moines, were at the farm on Sunday, August 22, helping Carla do the lawn mowing and other yard work that we’ve struggled to keep up with lately, with all our medical appointments. The Woodses brought along their 18-month-old granddaughter Ari, who was a delight watching all the action from the porch with Chuck, catching up on her reading and then getting a moment on the lawn tractor seat! Click here for larger format Earlier photos in this series Iowa Hall of Pride netINS, Inc. Butler House on Grand B&B Sam's Barber Shop Douglas T. Bates III, Attorney KMA Radio's ''Chuck & Don Show'' Barack Obama story & coloring book The Monks of New Melleray Abbey RELATED LINKS About Offenburger.com Biographies Want to Reprint? Want Updates? ARCHIVES Chuck Offenburger's columns Christie Vilsack's columns Carla Offenburger's columns Carla's book reviews Jared Strong's columns Guest Columns The Simple Serenity Farm columns Farm Photos, 2006 - 2008 Our Iowa News Digest Along Our Way 
|
|
 Kevin Cooney, TV news anchor & avid bicyclist, to speak at Raccoon River Valley Trail banquet By CHUCK OFFENBURGER January 6, 2010 PANORA, IOWA Kevin Cooney, the veteran KCCI-TV news anchor and an avid bicyclist, will be the featured speaker for the third annual membership banquet of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association to be held here on Saturday, February 20.
Proceeds from the banquet and the auctions are used by the RRVT Association to help develop, market and promote the trail; for special events held on it, and also to promote all the communities along the RRVT. The banquets each of the last two years have been attended by more than 150 association members, who’ve donated about $8,500 each year with their auction purchases. Kevin Cooney and his wife Mollie have both been news anchors and reporters for the Channel 8 news in Des Moines since 1982. Kevin started working at the station, in the production department, in the late 1960s when he was in high school, and began doing sports reporting for TV8 in 1972 while he was a student at Iowa State University. After graduating from ISU in ’74, he became a full-time TV8 news and features reporter. In 1979, he and Mollie left to join the news staff at KNTV in San Jose, California, for three years before returning to KCCI. They’ve been anchors on central Iowa’s leading TV news team ever since. Kevin said his bicycling began in his boyhood, “riding a 3-speed English race bike however far it was from my house to Holy Trinity” church and school, but he basically gave it up in his high school years. In adulthood, he and Mollie “started riding occasionally on a couple of super-heavy Schwinn ‘Collegiates’ we had, but we never really rode much until about five or six years ago. “Our daughter was showing some interest in biking then, and I bought her a nice new road bike,” Kevin said. “As soon as I hopped on it and took a short ride, I thought, ‘Wow! That’s a real bike!’ ” He said when he realized how much smoother his daughter’s new bike rode than his own Schwinn and an old mountain bike he also had, he ordered a Specialized “Sequoia” model for himself. A year or two ago, Mollie moved up to Trek road bike and “now she’s really become enthusiastic about riding the trails,” Kevin said. He said his own cycling mileage has “probably averaged 2,000 to 3,000 miles a year for the last several years. I haven’t been able to keep a total number of miles I’ve done over the years, because I’ve got this problem of odometers continually falling off my handlebars and getting lost.” He said he usually does “two to three days of RAGBRAI each summer. I’d like to do a whole one, but RAGBRAI always happens during the July ratings period for TV news, so I can’t be gone for a whole week then.” He said he especially enjoys it “when I can commute to work by bicycle, but I also like going on morning rides. Since I don’t go in to work until about 2 in the afternoon, I can go out for a good recreational ride in the morning. I usually head out on the trails when I ride, and I love it when I can get in 30 to 40 miles. I think I’ve ridden on every trail in central Iowa, but the ones I do most often are the Raccoon River Valley Trail, the Saylorville trail going north out of Des Moines and the Great Western Trail going south to Martensdale.” He has also ridden on “BRR” (Bike Ride to Rippey, from Perry) several times, including the below-zero one in 2007.  In more normal weather, he treasures his time on a bike. “What I like most about bicycling is that it really clears your head,” Kevin said. “It’s both mentally and physically therapeutic. I’ve been a runner through the years, and running does the same thing for me. But the difference is, bicycling over running, that you see more and go farther.” The Cooneys have a family membership in the RRVT Association, and Kevin said he thinks Mollie will probably be joining him in attending the banquet. Items to be available in the auctions will be listed on the RRVT’s Internet site by mid-February. You can go to that site by clicking here. You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.
|
