Ragbrai is my favorite thing to do by myself. It’s hard. It’s terrible. It’s wonderful. It’s insane.
I don’t change my biking look much from year to year.
See that smile? Look at that smile. That’s not my “Oh, I’m having my picture taken” smile. That’s my “This is the worst best thing ever!” smile.
This Saturday, January 27, while I’m in the Book Garden at the Tacoma Home & Garden Show, the fine folks running Ragbrai will announce the route. I’m excited!
…Except I can’t go this year.
*huge, dramatic sigh*
In addition to the struggle of job vs bike training, my mom needs me. Longtime readers know that my father passed away in November of 2016, a little over a year ago. He died one week shy of my parents’ 50th anniversary. My mom is now alone and has been struggling with that. So we’re going to take a trip together, and it’s going to be…a thing. It’ll be a thing.
Pop quiz! What’s the one time I can go on vacation?
If you guessed the last two weeks of July? DING, DING, DING, CONGRATULATIONS! You’re a winner!
And so, I’m not going in 2018. Odds are low I’ll return in 2019 or 2020, either, because the demands of my job keep getting bigger, not smaller. Being over 40 with knee (and wrist, and neck, and back) problems I’d prefer to keep minor, I may never return for another week in the corn.
But those five I had, man they were the worst best.