Day 5 – July 24, 2013 – Knoxville to Oskaloosa – 52 miles
“It really IS about the ride!”
Joey and I spent the day together and early on decided to
stop and talk to many, many people – and it was a blast. The first days of RAGBRAI were about the
physical challenge and experience. I
learned about the encouragement of doing the same thing with lots of others who
are moving in the same direction. It was
about the motion of RAGBRAI and about the riders. The next phase in my RAGBRAI involved
thinking about the experience from the point of view of those watching the
parade of riders pass by. Today, it
became spiritual as Joey and I took a long time to do the 52 miles but had
amazing conversations and experiences that were much more fun than just
finishing the miles.
This one is probably the best. We rode by a farm out in the country and
there were three little kids holding Sharpies shouting “Sign our shirts!” Of course, I couldn’t resist that! So Joey and I swung around and went through
the yard and back to the kids. They came
down and we signed their shirts. Then we
started talking to one of the ladies who was clearly a relative. I asked her if the farm was hers and she said
that it belonged to her nephew. Then she
told us his story. He is 25, and had
bought the farm when he was 18; an amazing accomplishment for such a young
man. He was married with two kids and
recently had an accident resulting in him being paralyzed from the neck
down. He is now in Chicago and living
out of the hospital with his wife and kids, but there are clearly many
challenges ahead. We got to look at
picture of his beautiful family pre and post accident. His aunt, June, was pretty teary eyed. I was too.
We talked about how the bible teaches that while there may not be a reason
for everything that happens, God can bring reason out of even the worst of
circumstances (Romans 8:28). We talked
about miracles and prayer. It was a
powerful moment. And I realize that
while the riders experience RAGBRAI in motion, the watchers and towns
experience RAGBRAI as a moment – a day in which their normal world is invaded
by people, most of whom will pass them by without a thought. If those little kids had not been crying out
about signing their shirts, I would have done the same. The man’s name is Loren Lettington. Please pray for him and his wife and kids.
There were the grandkids at the Bailey Farm – all wearing
Bailey Farm shirts and serving amazing homemade granola bars. There were the kind people at the Independent
Bible Church in Bussey, IA. They were
the first place coming into the town and had LOTS of granola bars and water and
had opened their church for use of the bathrooms. We talked with the pastor and found out that
his son, Josiah, is in school to become a missionary. Pray for him too! There was a petting zoo. There were the moms and their four or five
sons just sitting watching the riders and the boys marveling at the different
kinds of bikes and wondering if they could do RAGBRAI. There was the 10 year old kid at the lemonde
stand outside his house who could to the Rubics Cube in a minute. Amazing.
I talked with 5 or 6 high school kids at Oskaloosa about being on RAGBRAI
and about graduating from high school and getting out of town. And there was more.
There is a guy who is running RAGBRAI. He’s a bit crazy! But Joey sort of summarized the great joy we
found in the journey today when he suggested that our goal for tomorrow should
be to get to Fairfield after the runner guy!
A little trouble on the route today for our leader,
Gene. He has had some tire problems and
blew three tubes in a row. He ended up
being helped by a guy who had a new tire and a new tube which was cool. But the best quote of day came from Gene as
we were back at the RV:
Gene: “On the whole, I think the ride went really well
today.”
Joey: “Gene, you had THREE flats today.”
Gene: “Oh yeah, there was that. But you just have to deal with that. It happens sometimes.”
Great attitude Gene!
We could learn something about living life from that.
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