95 Years Young!
I just finished an approximate 500 bike ride across the state of Iowa. Ragbrai is an annual pilgrimage west to east through cornfields, flatlands and small towns that finishes with a dip of the bike tires in the Mississippi River. Tent campers and RV dwellers pedal six days, and this year I joined them.
I learned, or was reminded, of a few things:
1.) You can do more than you believe
I saw people missing limbs, a fourteen-year-old with leukemia, a 95-year-old (pictured right) a couple of guys in a speedo (NOT pictured), families of six, and scores of other very average-looking above average folks riding bikes. As I looked or spoke, with them I kept thinking how are they doing this? But then again, just two years ago there’d be no way I could do this before getting passionate about cycling, learning, riding, and training.
2.) Goals are Good
This ride was supposed to be a warmup for a 35-day ride across Australia with a group from Compassion Int’l. That ride has been canceled for me due to something called Covid-19 but having that as a goal to push towards this week has been everything. I knew a month ago that Australia was out, it dinged my motivation. I’m glad I had Ragbrai to keep me going.
I fly home confident that I want to ride across the USA at some point in the next two years, yet wondering how I can convince my lovely wife, Kristin, to go with me.
Sean (L) at the end of a 7-day-500-mile-ride.
3.) It’s better together.
I confess I’d never slept in a tent until this week (I’ve learned this is odd), but I had my long-time younger than me friend, Sean Badeer (pictured) going with me to show me “how” to do this. I couldn’t have done it without him. And we laughed at ourselves (and at everyone else) many times. Long conversations while pedaling made the trip possible and passed the hours. We also shared our meals and invaded the RVs of a team from Sioux City (pictured below).
It’s also better with about 20,000 other people going with you AND with small-town Iowans cheering (literally cheering) for you from their front porch. Children made signs of encouragement, many were yelling encouragement.
It was amazing and reminded me that most people are good people who just want the best for you (and will even let strangers like me sleep in their air-conditioned basements).
Team Shook-Squeakers L-R: Tim, Dirk, Dan, Steve Sean, Lauri, Karl, Me, Amy
4.) Achieving is good.
I admit I was a bit choked up on the final miles to Clinton, Iowa towards the finish line as I thought about how just two years ago I was a veteran couch potato and yet had just managed to rider across an entire state.
There’s a scripture that goes something like in your weakness He is strong but I might also say in your strength He is strong too. You may not be able to do something today and that’s ok…so get after it, get strong in that, overcome it and achieve it.
Now…Seattle to Baltimore by summer of ’23. Who’s with me?
it’s only 3,000 miles. Lez do it.