RAGBRAI!

it's late july in iowa, and, aside from being hot as fuck outside, that can only mean one thing: RAGBRAI! this year rich and gus rode the final leg, iowa city to davenport, on what i once thought was my and rich's tandem bicycle but what has somehow morphed to become rich and gus' tandem bicycle. damnit. they powered through about 65 miles of corn and soybean fields with thousands of other riders to arrive at the mighty mississippi river, which was mainly mighty dirty and a tad smelly from what i could sense. i, on the other hand, got to spend the day with a demanding 5-year old, seething that i wasn't out on MY goddamned tandem, and picked them up at the river.

it was truly sweltering for their ride. initially, we were concerned that gus might not be able to do the whole 65 miles--he had never ridden that far before, it was really hot, etc.--but rich ended up having his ass royally handed to him by gus (biking-wise). i think it was because gus a) is younger, b) has stronger legs, and c) seems to have a body that is able to regulate its temperature properly, probably because he has an iota of common sense that tells him to drink something when he's hot. rich came ***this close*** to needing an IV to cool down as he did in west texas years ago for the same exact reason (biking in the heat)--don't even get me started on having to drive 100 miles to find an urgent care center out there--but apparently that heat stroke knocked out the portion of his brain that reminds him to drink some fucking water when it's triple-digit heat indices outside and he's biking. either that or there really is just something wrong with his internal temperature regulatory system, in which case i'm totally sorry for mocking his disability.

anyway, they--ahem, GUS--did a fantastic job on RAGBRAI and they had a great time until the end when rich was hallucinating from the dehydration, but gus loved it...so yay!

and...they're off!

after the ride, and the only reason rich is standing is because he's pinned between the bike and the car

my biggest boy, after 65 miles of riding