RAGBRAI

It has been brought to my attention that I never explained what RAGBRAI is! I forget that there are people reading this that are not familiar with Iowa! :-) So....

From their website....
RAGBRAI®, The Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa®, is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across the state. Heading into its 37th year, RAGBRAI is the longest, largest and oldest touring bicycle ride in the world.

During the last full week of July, a group of people ride their bikes across Iowa from border to border. Iowa is bordered by two rivers, the Missouri on the west, and the Mississipi on the east. So the idea is to dip your back tire in the Missouri river and then your front tire in the Mississippi. Each year they pick a different route across the state. It is not a race, just a bike ride. They limit the number of registered riders to 10,000. But add to that support crews and non-registered riders, and you have an enormous group of people pedaling across the state. People come from all over the world to participate. The ride averages 472 total miles with each day being anywhere from 40-80 miles.

Last year it came through Ames and we hosted some campers in our back yard and one rider in the house. Dan rode the day the ride came into Ames. We were so impressed with the whole production, and how much fun everyone was having that we decided to do it this year. Dan wants to ride every day, but I'll be happy if I get 2 days of riding in. I will be content to drive the van, take care of the kids and set up camp.

Does that explain it enough Stasi? :-)

Update

Well, I haven't had much to report for awhile. That's a good thing! Things are going very well on the whole. I am feeling great, my energy level is normal, I'm working out every week, so things are good.

First the fun news! Our team has officially been selected in the RAGBRAI lottery! Which is great! So the planning can start in earnest now. We have a team of 8 people plus our two kids (who will ride in the car) and we are really looking forward to it! I am pretty excited about the concert that is happening the first night - the Barenaked Ladies. I love their music and love the fact that they put out a children's CD. We will camp in the main campground that night, and then we will apply for housing in the other towns. But that just means that we will have someone's yard to camp in instead of the main campground. (easier access to bathrooms). It is bound to be a fantastic time! Can't wait! 73 days to go.

Today I saw the surgeon again about my voice and my scar. My voice is not 100% but it is a little better than it was a month ago, so he is satisfied with that. As long as it is making progress, he is sure it will come back in full force. But it may take 4-6 months. As for my scar, it is still attached to the muscle underneath. So, the first step is to inject it with a steroid to see if that will loosen the tissue up enough so that it will let go of the muscle. He did that today - two injections into the scar tissue (ouch!). We'll know if a couple of weeks if that will work. If not, I will have to have the other procedure which basically will be to cut out my scar. But I can do that at anytime, there's no rush. In fact, he recommended I wait until after the summer so I don't have to worry about a fresh scar while doing summer activities (like swimming, sweating, etc) Hopefully that won't be necessary though. So this is all a little annoying really, but not a huge deal. And if this is all I have to deal with after having cancer, I'll take it. I see the endocrinologist next week. He will check my hormone levels, and I'll have an ultrasound to get a baseline so they can tell in the future if I have anymore growths on the thyroid tissue that still is present.

That's it for now! Hope everyone is doing well! I wish I could tell who is reading this blog, or at least how many people are reading it. I'll see if I can figure out how to put a counter on it.