Mea Culpa
First of all: one thousand Mea Culpas (that's Latin for "My Bad") for not having posted a decent blog entry since last week. As you know, if you are visiting this blog, I am in Iowa, riding across the entire state to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation as a member of Team Livestrong. So far it has been an outstanding ride! Well, with a couple brief exceptions which I will get into once I post my daily update...a couple of days late, but as they say in corn farming: 'better late then never!' (I have no real knowledge that the saying I just typed has anything to do with corn farming, so, apologies to the entire vegetable industry)
So I am presently sat in a trailer, compliments of Iowa Telecom, one of the major sponsors of RAGBRAI. They have trailers placed throughout the route and provide internet access for those of us that are so technologically fixated that the idea of riding a bike 77 miles (our distance for todays route) without internet access is just unthinkable.
The town's name is NevAda, Iowa. Notice: I capitalized the first A because, that is how they pronounce it. As I ride into town, a large man in a stovepipe hat, black formal coat and bow tie greeted me: yep. Abe Lincoln. Now, many of you may say Abe Lincoln?! He's from Illinois! But the Lincoln Road runs from Philadelphia literally right through this town. So they've got an Abe Lincoln here. Lovely.
So for the serious stuff, I've seen some pretty significant crop damage since leaving Missouri Valley on Sunday Morning. There is STILL standing water in many of the fields we are passing by. Stunted corn (in the over watered areas only) but all in all, the corn crop looks STRONG! Lush would almost be a word I would use to describe the brilliance of the green leaves and the soy beans look strong as well. Now, there are a couple of things: 1) I am no biologist or botanist and 2) I have only seen a sliver of the damaged areas. We knife through those damaged areas on our bikes, usually at a rate of about 16.5 miles per hour, but trust me: at that speed, the scenery is just so much more intimate and real.
The GREATER damage I have been seeing was the day before yesterday. Iowa has been having some SIGNIFICANT summer storms and with those storms comes what they call 'Straight Line' winds. These winds can range up to 90 mph...and it will literally 'lay the corn down.' It looks like dominos after they have been meticulously set up by someone and then knocked down. Strips through acres upon acres of corn, laying on its side. See, the heavy rains result in the corn not establishing a deep root base. If the water is plentiful, the roots dont have to dig deep to find moisture. So they develop short root systems and if, well, more likely WHEN a big winds comes along, voilas: laying down corn. Scary.
The people: I will be posting a blog later today called Serendipity, but I want to introduce you to another LiveSTRONG rider. His name is Kelm. Kelm is currently battling cancer as we speak. He is ALSO riding a bicycle across Iowa. One of the kindest, gentlest guys on our team, he has become an almost unofficial mascot of the team. I will be giving you more details about him, but honestly, every day, I hit this wall...sometimes multiple times. It's the wall of 'what the heck am I doing here in the middle of Iowa on a bicycle, surrounded by cornfields' wall. And the image that keeps me going, is not just my Sister anymore, it is also Kelm and the 7 year old boy that had one wish last year while he was battling cancer: to ride with Lance Armstrong. He did. And you know, there are some pretty tough guys on this team...but that day, as we built a protective peloton around him and Lance, not ONE of us had dry eyes. I blamed it on the sweat from my brows, but we ALL knew better.
It's moments like that where I think: why isnt EVERYone out here with us? We ALL should have experiences like this, riding with that boy and riding with Kelm. If we did, maybe cancer wouldnt be laying so many of us down.
Keep the rubber on the ground and remember to LIVESTRONG!
-Sean Brown, from NevAda, Iowa
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