WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

115 miles, 8+hrs in saddle, memories for a lifetime

"Perfect timing" Tommy blew a tire just as we pulled up to the parking lot. Thanks to the bike gods.

Never underestimate the power of the ju-ju to get you over the big hills!

Still smiling after 2 hard days in the saddle.

After the first rain storm. 2 to go.

A little soggy, but a century is still a century.

My "dad quit screwing around" look!



Still smiling on Sunday morining , before the skies opened up.

Not moving very well on Sunday morning.


Friends from Muscatine, IA at dinner.

Explain why college is so cool again?




This cheeseburger in Galena was amazing. A few hills later, not so much!

First rest stop, still fresh.

The best place to start is by saying THANK YOU to all the riders who passed by with encouraging words. Things like "nice job young man", " you pulling your dad to Dubuque" or my favorite, and the one i'm most proud of "I wish my son would do this with me"! There are not enough words for me to describe how proud I am of Thomas on this Monday morning. At 10 yrs old he had no clue of the hardship of riding 115 miles in 2 days, over challenging terrain, in some of the worst weather that I have ever ridden a bicycle in. My hope in the beginning was to have an experience that we could share. Time has a way of getting past us all. With challenging schedules, it is easy to just go day to day, and the next thing you know your kid is 10 and it scares the hell out of you as to where the time went. I also didn't want the experience to be so grueling, that he would never want to ride a bike again! Needless to say, he was one tired kid last night, and so was I. The stress of watching over him, especially on the steep and wet downhills, removed a few more hairs from my receding hair line. His lines on the uphills were a little squirley also as he put all he had into moving forward. But everyone was courteous to this fact, (except one pro kit dude out of place). This guy could have taken a page out of Brian Moritz's "nice guy"book! Here is a guy having a great race season. He could have just blown by us an said "on your left". But he took the time to slow down, say hey, and even take a photo of me and Tommy. A+ on the cool guy scale! Team Izzy will be rooting for ya at the next race. To conclude the weekend, my wife told me late last night after talking to our son about his experience. He told her that he had a great time with dad, and can't wait till next year! Or something like that, at least that's what I heard............. Ty