Saturday was the best of times... and the worst of times. Vandalism at it's worst.

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The charity of choice for me and the missus is the American Diabetes Association. Every year they have a major fundraiser where many business and corporate entities come together to support hundreds of intrepid bicyclers who brave the heat and terrain to do the "Tour de Cure," one or more of 4 courses ranging in length from 10 miles to a bruising 108 miles.

These are all fantastic, giving people who have stood up for a cause.

This is our third year in this activity. The last two years, we acted as CinC Ice, taking care of all of the ice needs for the rest stops and the base (Start/finish) in the "Summit to Surf" events from The Summit of Mt. Hood to the town of Hood River at the confluence of the Hood River and the Columbia River.

Yesterday, the site was moved to a base in Hillsboro Stadium and points North, West and Southwest.

Friday, we joined with La Center City Councilman Troy Van Dinter and went out to "sign" the 68 mile route. Being completely unfamiliar with the area, it took on the order of 7 hours to get it done. But along with 3 other teams, all iof the courses were carefully marked with the safety of riders and motorists utmost in the minds of event organizers.

So, the next day, we get out there and begin to patrol the routes while assisting in the rest stops... only to discover that many of our route marking signs had been torn down, stolen, or moved.

Fortunately, no one was hurt as a result, but dozens of riders were misrouted into dangerous situations and up extremely difficult climbs on hills to nowhere.

Thus, we have a situation where we have people giving of themselves combined with people, or a person, whose idea of "funny" is a sickening statement of some people in society today.

This "joke" put people's lives at risk. Let us hope it never happens again.