To the rescue!!!

Ok - who else learned how to spell rescue from the movie The Rescuers? R.E.S.C.U.E. rescue aide society... I may have been 25 when I first heard it, but it is cemented in my mind now... I found myself humming that yesterday.

My GRADUATE son went on a bike ride yesterday. He's a serious bicyclist and got the bug from my brother. My brother, Mark, is an avid bicyclist and encouraged us to get Ryan a good bike (meaning expensive) for Christmas a couple years back. Mark rides on the RAGBRAI bike ride every year. In case you don't know what that stands for... neither do I... The last 4 letters stand for Bike Ride Across Iowa tho and boy is it! You start on one side of Iowa on the hottest day of the year and ride across (approx 70-80 miles per day) for an entire week until you hit the other side. There are thousands of bikes on the route and you don't want to be driving on those roads when they do. It is a sight to see.The above photo is Ryan early that morning before Mark "de-nerdified" him. Gave him one of his Team Marley t-shirts and ripped the sleeves off. Gave him a head-band and wrist bands, changed the pedals to the new clip type that I'd bought for it, took off a few too many reflectors and made it COOL! Check out Ryan's farmer tan! He'd been detasseling all that week and had been wearing a tshirt with sleeves. Below is the "after"... He'd ridden about 70-80 miles this day and I think that's Mark's bike.Mark & Ryan.

Mark has been on this ride for many years, some with his kids. This includes the year he broke his back, a few years ago. Last year, Ryan rode with him for one day when the route swung past us and got hooked.

So this year, he's gearing up early and is going to be prepared. He rode approx 30 miles a few days ago, 10 miles Tuesday and yesterday got to 7 miles. It's not that he's slowing down... On Tuesday, he rode 5 miles into the wind and got a nice lift back home, so that was a good workout. Yesterday, he rode 6-7 miles away from town and was coming up to a stop sign. Now with the good (expensive) bikes, you have good (expensive) bike shoes too that hook into the pedals. He got his shoe stuck and couldn't pull his shoe off the pedal, so when he got to the stop sign, he fell over... If you can imagine THAT sight...

He had his cell phone with him so he called me. How do I know where 600th ave and 190th street cross??? I'm not a farmer! So he had to describe to me the turns he made to get where he was. I took a break from work and drove there. When I drove up, he walked toward me carrying his bike. Blood trickled from one knee and he had an attitude... Apparently the bike chain had come off when he fell over. Poor kid.... doesn't know how to put a chain on... I got my hands greasy later showing him how. There was a car at the stop sign, but they didn't help, just watched him fall over... Ryan compared them to the story of the good Samaritan and how they weren't it...

I guess I was... but maybe only because he's my baby!!