WE'RE DOING IT.....AGAIN!

The only thing wackier than riding a bicycle across Iowa with 10,000 others in mid-July is doing it two years in a row.

The Merrow Team, with Arthur and Annie riding, and I driving Big Red, the support vehicle, will once again make our way through the corn and soybean fields of beautiful Iowa, sampling the corn dogs, ice cream, and beer as we go.

Just to make this year an even bigger challenge, our path to the starting line in Council Bluffs rivals the logistics of the invasion of Normandy for its complications. Arthur took off in Big Red, headed west, on Monday night (at last report, he was in western Illinois).

Meanwhile, my only sibling's only son will be married in the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis this coming Saturday. We are a small family. We turn out for family events. Arthur will park near the starting line in Iowa, then fly back to Annapolis on Friday. I'll take the train down from Connecticut to Annapolis, and after some wonderful family time, we'll fly back together at the crack of dawn on Sunday.

Meanwhile again, Annie will have arrived by car pool from Colorado to Council Bluffs, found the camper, slept in it and stowed her gear, then taken off with the ride early Sunday morning.

Her parents (that would be Art and I) will retrieve the camper and catch up with the gang at the mid-day stop. As Arthur has noted, we are only one flat tire away from chaos....but the stories that will come out of this adventure will keep us going all winter.

I hope to post reflections on this adventure, cell coverage permitting, as we make our way east. Thanks as always to my friend Will who makes this blog colorful and congratulates himself that he doesn't have to pedal a bike through mid west heat [Blog copy editor's note: You got that right!] to go along on the RAGBRAI.

Onward!

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IMAGE CREDITS: 1- Moose Drool Ale - Fayetteville Flyer ; Naval Academy Chapel - Wall Street Journal; Iowa Cornfield - the website "Fields of Cake"