Welcome

I'm setting up this blog to chronicle the fulfillment of a dream of mine many years in the making, that is, the riding of the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI (pronounced rag-br-eye). The ride goes for seven days and 471 miles. I believe the shortest days' route is 53 miles, and the longest is 83.

When I was 16, my best friend (whose name is also Craig) and I started riding our bikes all the time with the goal of riding in Ragbrai. As with a lot of things that young peoples' zeal purports, it didn't come about. But the dream of riding from the Missouri to the Mississippi River across my home state never left me. It simmered down to a tiny ember, but it didn't go out.

In the last two years I have lost a great deal of weight and found myself back in the land of the Illinois Prairie Path. I'm finally ready to seriously do this Ragbrai thing. I rode 3,312 miles last year, and I just passed 2,000 this week for 2008.

I intend to chronicle my journey here, and I actually wish I had started sooner. It is July 1, and Ragbrai begins on July 20. If you care to know, you can come back to this blog where hopefully I will post updates, even on ride days, camped out in small Iowa town libraries, tapping away on their computers.