UPDATE: Tuesday, Jul 25, 2023 · 12:38:02 PM +00:00
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greenandblue
Teammates decided they want to go for the second half of RAGBRAI. Today, we are going to services and helping family before leaving for Iowa. We hope to join up with Ragbrai ride from Ames to Des Moines on Wednesday.
Sorry about the delay in updating. It’s been hectic here.
This is a follow up to Busta RAGBRAI.
Busta and I are well. Well, I am battling plant poisons and microbes on my skin after putting in a fence Tuesday, so a delay helps for that. It’s not bad enough to keep us from Sioux City, IA and the start of RAGBRAI tomorrow. Family well being however…
We are about as ready as can be. Rode the bike truck on test rides. Busta is running pretty good. Gears and brakes are working. Fixed a rear flat, so we’re good for minor repairs. Wrapped up riding last weekend. Preparing for the festival and road trips, as seen below.
RAGBRAI includes themes, such as a mile of silence and who are your riding for. I was thinking of some things to do along the lines of posts from the Katy Trail, as well as people and groups to ride for.
We had a few people in mind to ride for and commemorate. Some we ride for, including family battling chronic illness or cancer. For others, we ride in tribute. When one crosses from the former to the latter, riding is secondary. Survivors and deceased must be attended to.
First, a family member of a teammate passed away. We delayed leaving until after the service on Saturday. We’d miss the expo, but not the ride.
Then a close family member to us all passed a couple of days ago. Services are Tuesday.
That is all I am sharing about this personal loss to numerous relations on this forum. If I had not posted Busta RAGBRAI, I would not be posting about these losses.
I will try to get my teammates to join RAGBRAI Wednesday morning. If they decide it is not worth it, I will try to get somebody else to use our vehicle pass to support me and Busta joining ourselves. One other doubtful option would be to be dropped off and ride solo for the end of RAGBRAI, and then another 200 miles home on our own. I have not looked into that possibility yet.
I am more seriously considering riding locally carrying my own tributes this weekend. Perhaps we can go to the Arch, or a pick your own peaches orchard. Peaches gotta be good right now.
I would love to give RAGBRAI a try. Been hoping to join for decades, just not enough to search out a team on my own beyond family and friends. It is so much nicer to be with a team in a festival on closed roads than to pull a loaded trailer over shoulder gravel, glass and garbage and past driveways and intersections next to speeding cars, trucks and semis.
This was the first time anybody asked me to go to RAGBRAI. We might still make it, but not until Wednesday.
I am hurting, but not as much as others trying to figure out what to do after their hopes and plans for lives together were so cruelly lost.
To finish on a brighter note. We are making progress in bicycle camping using tarp, shade cloth, plastic shelf legs, tent pegs, straps and a bike prop. The last part is key. We can’t do anything other than lean on things without a stop, lock and prop solution. We stop, strap the brakes to stop the wheels, prop up the bike with our click stand, and strap the handlebars to stop turning. The bike is then, locked, propped and ready to cover in a tarp tent, with a couple of shelf legs pushing it up. Other than maybe a second click stand for safety, this is what we are looking to ride with. Here are a couple of pictures.
Thanks for reading