Chasing Rainbows

Normally on RAGBRAI we get really excited if our camp is near a pool. There is nothing better than taking a dip in the pool after a long day of riding. Well today involved a pool, but not at the end of the day. Today I had a morning wake up swim. Sometimes it’s hard to drag yourself out of bed to make it to the pool, but today I was awake early. Unfortunately it was raining and there was some thunder so I was afraid they wouldn’t be having lap swim. I called the pool and they were currently in a lightning delay but would be opening at 6:15, so I got ready to go swim.  It was still raining a bit, but thankfully no more lightning and I was able to get my swim in. Swimming in an outdoor pool at sunrise is pretty awesome actually. I’m still not the best swimmer in terms of speed, but I do enjoy it. I am sad to report that there were no mullets or fish net spotted at the pool. I wonder if Skippy is missing RAGBRAI like I am. 

While on the way to the pool I heard this little tidbit. Today is National Hot Dog day!  Happy hot dog day everyone!  It seems like there is a day for everything these days. What I found most interesting about this day is that they say the average American eats 70 hot dogs a year. SEVENTY HOT DOGS! Let that sink in people!  That is 5.8 hot dogs a month!  I have no idea how that is possible!  I think people like Joey Chestnut the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating champion (He ate 75 hot dogs in 10 min) are skewing the data. I’d really like to see the mode number for Americans because that mean number seems extraordinarily high. I don’t think I eat 5 hot dogs a year. How many hot dogs do you think you eat a year??  

When I got home from swimming I had to convince Gabby to go out to go to the bathroom. She wouldn’t this morning because it was raining...her hair gets frizzy when she gets wet so she doesn’t like the rain. Of course as soon as I get her outside it starts to pour so she ran back in the house. It was almost noon before I got her out. She has an unlimited bladder I swear!

Unfortunately for all of you, most of the morning was spent doing work and not a lot of fun!  I was working on setting up our new patient encounter tracking software. Real fun stuff!  Lol

It continued to rain off and on all afternoon so Gabby and I had some play sessions with her new cow toy. She still doesn’t quite get it when I say “get your cow”...she looks at me weird and then runs to the door or window. I think she associates the word “cow” with my dad and thought he was coming to visit. Here’s a pic of her with her real cow friends from her last visit to the farm.  

There was a break in the rain so I decided to get in a short run this afternoon. Well that was a mistake. I didn’t pay attention to the temps and the temp had risen almost 10 degrees with crazy humidity so I ended up running at a very bad time of day. I almost didn’t make it, but I survived. Running in the heat is not my thing, but I got it done and put another deposit in the fitness bank. Can’t complain about that!!

Probably the best thing about today was that pie returned to my RAGBRAI week. A nice peach blueberry pie should tide me over for the rest of the   week. It will go along nicely with my beef avocado stir fry!  I am definitely eating a lot more vegetables this week than a normal RAGBRAI. Hence why I NEED the pie!  

I saw this quote on the RAGBRAI page today from Don Kaul one of the founders of RAGBRAI. 

“You can’t find a bicycle ride and say: “Boy, if the sun shines and it doesn’t rain and there’s no wind, I’m gonna’ have a good time”. You say: “Man, I’m gonna’ have a good time no matter what happens!” And that’s what this is about.” - Don Kaul, 1976

That attitude is what we should all strive for. No matter what is going on in the world or what the conditions are we should always strive to have a good time no matter what!!

Update...the pie was delicious!  I’m thankful for leftovers tomorrow!  

It’s a good thing I didn’t post the blog because I was treated to another good rainbow tonight. Here are some pictures. The selfie picture and the sunset picture were taken from the same place just one was the Eastern sky and one was Western. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rainbow in RAGBRAI, so non-ragbrai week is winning that count!!

You can kind of see a double rainbow in this pic!!

Eastern sky selfie

Western sky sunset

Final sunset of the night!