Full of photos

A number of things have transpired since my last post. Biggest and best of all being that I was able to ride a couple days of RAGBRAI this year. Usually, it is the same week as the MS TRAM that I have been providing support for, for a number of years. Being the week before, Ken and I crafted a plan for a small loop to include a couple days of the route.

I can't really describe what happened. People ask me how it was and I just have to say that it is in the top 5 experiences of my life. From the food, drink, people, dancing, riding, tom foolery, and carousing, it was an almost perfect combination of everything. What I can describe is yet another adventure that Ken took me on in order to get to the route. We parked in Knoxville and rode over to Indianola to pick up the official route. Ken had warned me that we might have to ride some or all gravel, and I am not one to shy away from some lack of pavement. Little did I know that the rain from the night before had turned our closed road into a quagmire. After deciding that the road couldn't be THAT closed, we had to push our bikes because our wheels wouldn't turn due to the mud packing in under our fenders (so much for thinking I had ample clearance).





As you can see, Ken was simply in his element. Having the time of his life.













This is the view from our first night campsite. This is the entrance to the dean's office. Nice view.
Here is the porch where we spent the second night. We had a little rain, but all-in-all, not too bad.

So, we rode for a couple days and then headed back to Knoxville via paved roads. Great time. Almost the best time I have ever had on a bike. Can't say enough good things for this ride.

So after coming back from Iowa, I had a day to go to work and catch up on things before heading off to TRAM for 5 days. Fortunately, everything was pulled together so it was just a matter of packing the van and driving off to Ortonville for the start.

TRAM, was the best ever. Weather was perfect. No huge bike problems. Was able to hang out with a number of people that I hadn't had in years past. It was just great. At one town, we were shopping in the local grocer and came upon the paper bag that is on the ground. It says, "99 cents + tax. Grab bag. No peeking. All sales final". Well, we couldn't pass that up, so we bought it, didn't open it, and sold it for 99 cents (no tax). Turns out it had a beer baster.


The problem with having a couple of super fantastic weeks in a row, is that the real world calls. So this past week has been me getting back into the swing of things. Luckily, I enjoy my work so that isn't much of a problem.