Wednesday, July 25, 2007

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY...


AND I'LL BIKE IF I WANT TO!

And that is exactly what we did this morning! It just so happened that RAGRAI was coming into Cedar Falls today, so a group of us decided to join the riders and ride with them into town! It was great. I'm not saying I won't be sore tomorrow, but it was a fun way to spend part of my birthday!



We actually rode in support of Marriage Matters, which is a federally funded Iowa program to strengthen marriages. We are in the middle of taking training and working with other couples to provide counseling and support to couples... from those who are newly engaged to couples who are just in need of a tune-up!


We are thrilled that our dear friends, Rick and Tracie (the middle couple in the above picture) are mentoring Ryan and Mallory as they prepare for marriage.






We had quite a welcome as we rode into Cedar Falls. They had created a HUGE yellow bike in honor of Lance Armstrong (who is riding all of RAGBRAI to raise support for cancer research).

(I had kind of thought the big party and all the hub bub was for my birthday, but I guess not.)





We did stick around a bit to grab a bite to eat before we rode the final 5 miles home. I came across deep fried sweet corn. Only in Iowa!!

Of course we had to buy some!







It wasn't too bad. I prefer my corn cooked the regular way and dripping with butter and salt. But it was good!










Steve got a teriyaki turkey tenderloin sandwich which looked yummy! He also helped me finish the corn.

Then we headed for home!













Kirstin had been busy and had some wonderful scones and flowers waiting on the table for me. Yum!













As you can probably guess, Sumo was very willing to go along this morning, and even had his helmet on and was in the trailer ready to roll. It would have been just a tad too far for him, so he stayed home and was part of the welcoming committee when we arrived.




Now to decide how to spend the rest of my birthday. Hmmm... I think there will be some knitting time involved!!




Until Next Time.....

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!
I like the blue socks you knit. What was the pattern and the yarn?
Woolstock

Robin said...

Happy Birthday. It sounds like you had a great time. I have seen the mass chaos of Ragbrai. It is amazing. I hope you have had a great birthday and get lots of knitting time in.

marit said...

Happy Birthday!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy happy birthday! I love your biking shirts, they are great. The program sounds really neat.
Enjoy the rest of your day.

Anonymous said...

Happy happy birthday!!

Russell said...

Happy Birthday, Janice!
Sounds like you had a wonderful day! There's a man from our church in Bakersfield who is doing the Ragbrai. They had a hilarious picture of him in the entryway on Sunday. It was his head on Lance Armstrong's body, crossing the finish line. I thought they had "Photo-shopped" it; but when I looked closer, I realized that they had just pasted his head over the picture, which made it even funnier to me.

Jknits said...

Happy Birthday - it looks like you found a great way to celebrate.

Sheri at The Loopy Ewe said...

Yay! Birthdays!! Glad to see photos from the big ride (and can't wait to see you soon.) :-)

monica said...

Happy Birthday. I was looking at the shirts before I read the post, Marriage Matters, sound like a great group. Deep fried corn on the cob, I have never heard of such a thing, but it looks yummy

hakucho said...

Happy Birthday. Everyone biking together was a very nice way to celebrate. Now that's a new one for me...I never knew they deep fried ears of corn. You know what they say...you can deep fry just about anything and it will take good :)

Happy birthday and happy knitting :)

Anonymous said...

Well Happy Birthday!!!
I feel so out of the loop lately with no internet! (blogging from the hotel right now!)
Your package from Alaska looks neat. Esp the yarn!!
Hope your birthday was wonderful. And I love those tiny socks you made!
Karen @ Weathertop farm