R: Turns out we didn't really keep up on the travel blog throughout RAGBRAI. In our defense, biking is hard work! Plus Matt was getting really whiny about how he had to wait around for us to blog when he wanted to be out on the town. (Yes, it's our blog, so we can blame others for our lack of follow-through. If Matt really feels the need to defend himself, he can post a comment!) We're hoping to pick up the pieces and get all of our eager blog-fans up-to-date on the rest of the trip in some subsequent posts. For those who can't stand the suspense (spoiler alert: neither of us died from too much biking as we're still here to update you after-the-fact), check my brother's blog starting with this post: http://mathman72.blogspot.com/2009/07/ragbrai-xxxvii-trip-to-council-bluffs.html. He made the time to blog most days (or was at least able to get himself caught up through the rest of the ride unlike me and Jen.) As we pretty much hung out with him the entire time, his blog tells you a lot about our week from his perspective.
But keep checking back here in the coming week(s) for more on our RAGBRAI experience, and exciting plans for our upcoming vacations!
Admittedly, the lack of blogging probably wasn't just Matt's fault. Here, I enumerate other scapegoats for our blog-slacking:
1) Lack of available power-sources to recharge the laptop. All these greedy, power-hungry people seemed to think they needed to charge their phones every night and with a limited number of outlets, we were lucky to find spots for our phones to charge before they died, let alone for the laptop. And the phones were important because if we got separated during the ride, we could best find each other by calling. Plus we were waiting for Janelle baby news.
2) Free wireless was not easy to come by in small-town Iowa, so even when our computer had enough juice, we had no convenient way to upload anything we may have had time to write at the camp site. And dragging the laptop into town to the Iowa Telecom booth just to get the internet soon wearied me, the pack mule carrying the computer in a backpack for the rest of the evening we spent in town. And I'm just not economical enough in my word use (Exhibit A: this blog post) to be able to write up something quickly (and cleverly) while standing at a computer set up in the Iowa Telecom booth. Next time, we'll bring a jump drive.
3) By the time you bike all day, get in, get your camp site situated (okay, I admit we had a tent boy to do some of the dirty work for us for a few days later in the week...more on that in subsequent posts), relax with a frosty beverage and rehash the day's ride with your teammates, find the showers, wait in line for the shower, take the shower, dry off from the shower, decide on a place for dinner, walk/shuttle to said place for dinner, wait in line for said dinner, eat said dinner...well, after all that, you maybe have time for one other evening activity. Some days, finding the beer garden was the one preferred evening activity.
4) But really, it's all Matt's fault. I hate accepting blame.
But keep checking back here in the coming week(s) for more on our RAGBRAI experience, and exciting plans for our upcoming vacations!
Admittedly, the lack of blogging probably wasn't just Matt's fault. Here, I enumerate other scapegoats for our blog-slacking:
1) Lack of available power-sources to recharge the laptop. All these greedy, power-hungry people seemed to think they needed to charge their phones every night and with a limited number of outlets, we were lucky to find spots for our phones to charge before they died, let alone for the laptop. And the phones were important because if we got separated during the ride, we could best find each other by calling. Plus we were waiting for Janelle baby news.
2) Free wireless was not easy to come by in small-town Iowa, so even when our computer had enough juice, we had no convenient way to upload anything we may have had time to write at the camp site. And dragging the laptop into town to the Iowa Telecom booth just to get the internet soon wearied me, the pack mule carrying the computer in a backpack for the rest of the evening we spent in town. And I'm just not economical enough in my word use (Exhibit A: this blog post) to be able to write up something quickly (and cleverly) while standing at a computer set up in the Iowa Telecom booth. Next time, we'll bring a jump drive.
3) By the time you bike all day, get in, get your camp site situated (okay, I admit we had a tent boy to do some of the dirty work for us for a few days later in the week...more on that in subsequent posts), relax with a frosty beverage and rehash the day's ride with your teammates, find the showers, wait in line for the shower, take the shower, dry off from the shower, decide on a place for dinner, walk/shuttle to said place for dinner, wait in line for said dinner, eat said dinner...well, after all that, you maybe have time for one other evening activity. Some days, finding the beer garden was the one preferred evening activity.
4) But really, it's all Matt's fault. I hate accepting blame.
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