Author: Rich

I love riding my handcycle, but it does have certain disadvantages. A few days ago I was cruising along a wonderful trail, enjoying a great ride on a gorgeous Colorado day. Leaned into a right-hand turn to go under a bridge and OOPS! With no warning, my bike and I were thigh deep in about […]

Retirement has certain blessings. One of those involves returning to my former school as a guest speaker and observing looks of envy on the faces of previous colleagues. I tried not to talk about the sense of freedom and the winter trip to Florida—okay, I didn’t try very hard. What’s the point of having an […]

This weekend was about remembering. Somewhere among the burgers and celebrations a lot of us paused to remember. A friend said he thought we should pay more attention to what we’re remembering and why we’re remembering. I agree, especially with the WHY part. But my friend’s comment got me thinking about the different ways we […]

The act of beginning boldly opens the door to a darkened room. I’ve told you before–we weren’t prepared for the 1500-mile Mississippi River bike ride in 2011. Not enough training, insufficient planning. My longest-ever ride prior to Day 1 was 35 miles while training for an eight-week ride on which I needed to average 40 […]

If I could just do a little better. Not perfect, or great, or even really good…probably can’t get there. But would just bit better finally be good enough? You and I think those thoughts occasionally, don’t we? We wonder if maybe, just maybe, a little bit better might get the approval we so desperately seek. […]

A colleague and I had sort of a running joke about Sisyphus. If you don’t know his plight, he’s a character from Greek mythology who offended the gods. As punishment, Sisyphus was ordered to push a rock up a hill. Each time he reached the top, the rock rolled to the bottom. He was condemned […]

Every year someone asks Becky and me why we don’t do RAGBRAI. If you’re not familiar, RAGBRAI is the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Something like 10,000 cyclists ride about 500 miles across Iowa every year (since 1973) in the world’s largest bike-touring event. By all accounts RAGBRAI is a lot of fun. […]

“Are the tours coming together like you planned?” It’s a question I hear about this time every year. I’ll turn to a story from a few years ago to explain how my answer’s changed over time. # # # Day One of our long-awaited Mississippi River trip went precisely according to our carefully crafted plan–until […]