RAGBRAI Redux

RAGBRAI has come and gone, but the memories linger. At dinner the other night, where we were meeting the parents of one of our son's girlfriend, we were talking about priorities (which is another way to say we were exchanging information on values--what is important to us), and vacations that make memories was a value that everyone around the table shared. That is what the 39th RAGBRAI felt like to me.
Pictured here are my husband and number 2 son--they had done almost no preparation for biking 450+ miles across Iowa as of the 4th of July weekend. Thank goodness my BIL brought bikes with them to Vermont, where both father and son woke up to the fact that they would never make the journey in one piece if they did not start doing some serious riding ASAP--which they did. To a remarkable degree, and while there was much soreness to go around at the end of RAGBRAI, they both made it and had fun doing so.
Why is this important? I think it matters because there is a limited amount of time we have together as a family, and these intense trips (beyond the physical activity, it was also impossibly hot and humid throughout the week--all that was missing was some severe weather, which we know Iowa is more than capable of supplying--it did so the two days before RAGBRAI started, but mercifully held off on while we were living in the out of doors) make for intense memories. For that, I am quite proud of them both. And my brother and his wife for making the whole thing happen.