bohnsack.com

Around three months ago, Elisa and I sold one of our cars, and I began bicycling to work every day. This has now become a very enjoyable habit that will be very hard to break. I plan on continuing year-round. Luckily, the winters are fairly mild in Albuquerque, so this shouldn't be too much of an issue, aside from getting some warmer biking clothes and a new headlamp for the darker mornings.

Nothing quite helps in initiating a healthy new habit like not having an alternative!

I'm back in Albuquerque from Tour de Kota and the car ride back with Elisa. Back posted commentary and photos will follow (maybe a day or two posted every day starting tomorrow), so scroll down starting then.

I made it to Watertown yesterday afternoon. Much is eerily the same. I drove to Highland park and walked around the old neighborhood for a while. Later, I called up Rodney and Carol. I drove over to their house and we spent the rest of the day talking and driving around looking at all the places I remember. Rodney showed me some fascinating research he's been doing into the history of my great, great grandfather Carl Ludwig Rau. He made a request to the National Archive and has received a good number of documents related to Ludwig's military service during the Civil War.

There are two important places I didn't visit: the farm and the lake, but I'll catch those on the drive home with Elisa.

Headed to Milbank for a bus ride to Yankton in a bit. It's cold (~ 48 F) and rainy in Watertown this morning. I hope that weather pattern doesn't persist, as that would make for significantly sub-optimal biking conditions.

Exhausted after a 12+ hour day of driving. Colorado was most beautiful.

Today: Albuquerque, NM -> Kearney, NE
Tomorrow: Kearney, NE -> Watertown, SD
Saturday: Watertown, SD -> Milbank, SD and then Milbank, SD -> Yankton, SD.

I'm finishing up work for the day and then starting to pack for my journey from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Milbank, South Dakota for the the Argus Leader's Second Annual Tour de Kota. I am very much looking forward to the tour. Bicycling touring in general is a magical kind of experience that recharges the mind and body. It's a challenge, but it presents an opportunity for a kind of weighty contemplation that's increasingly difficult in today's hectic world, but so important for the spirit. There's that and a kind of a connection to the people and the land that's priceless. Argument, politics, and deadlines disappear. They are replaced by Methodists selling breakfast sandwiches and pleasant ladies with hot dogs and Gatorade.

It's hard to fully describe the experience. When you travel down those rural roads and are meet with such open arms by people so happy to see you, you witness the essence of this fine nation. It is quintessential Americana, without question.

For certain, this tour will be different than the RAGBRAI that I did last year in Iowa. I won't have my good friend Spenser to travel with, and the tour won't be as big, in terms of participants. It will, however, be a powerful homecoming for me. Eastern South Dakota has been my family's home for many generations, and I haven't been back in an awful long time.

1890 - Great, Great Grandfather

1909 - Great Grandfather

1930 - Grandfather

1951 - Mother

1976 - Me (child on right) when I was roughly two and a half years old with Grandfather and Grandmother

A record of my Tour de Kota training program

I'm registered for this year's Tour de Kota:

Sunday, June 11th through Friday, June 16th - Yankton to Milbank (462 miles).

If you're interested in South Dakota, South Dakota Magazine has a great blog. Works well as a marketing piece too, 'cause I just couldn't resist subscribing to their magazine.

It also led me to this South Dakota blog aggregator, which can lead you to a lot of other SD content.

Also, the Tour de Kota is looking like a strong possibility for 2006.

You know those pictures that are made of of a bunch of smaller pictures? It turns out they're quite easy to make with the right software, and I'm thinking one of these things made with the right collection of personally important photos could make a very nice large scale print. I've some initial exploration with AndreaMosaic (free software) and come up with the following picture of Spenser made up of lots of different pictures from last year's RAGBRAI:

Original	Mosaic

Lot's things to experiment with in the future...

Update #1: Beef bites on my style
Update #2: I bite back

In case you've been waiting, all of my photos from this year's RAGBRAI were posted a few days ago.

I'm going to be back posting RAGBRAI stuff starting tonight - one day of the ride, every night. Scroll down or click on the appropriate link:

Some people think it's a feat to make it across Iowa on RAGBRAI. It ain't nothing compared to The Trans Iowa Race: 2 days, 300+ miles, self-supported, rural gravel roads, COLD, and only 9 finishers this year. Wow!

As one of my colleagues eloquently pointed out, it's Bushmania at the Lab - the President is slated to sign the new Energy Bill into law here later this morning.

In other energy news, I resumed my zero-emission low consumption of foreign-supplied energy bicycle commute to work this morning, following a week off after returning from RAGBRAI. Prius-driving tree-huggers can put that in their pipe and smoke it.

Route map for day seven

After seven days and 485 miles of cycling across Iowa self-supported, we reached the mighty Mississippi and Guttenberg, IA today.

It was a beautiful sight:

I feel slightly more elite than I did before the week began.

I took a few thousand photos. I'll try and post some of them, along with a little text in back postings over the next week.

Update: All the RAGBRAI photos have been posted here.

Route map for day six

Route map for day five

Route map for day four

Day three’s route map

Made it to Estherville, IA at ~ 4:00 today, after a hard evening in Sheldon, IA, where we had to leave our tents and seek shelter in the middle school, during a deadly thunderstorm.

Today's 84 miles weren't too bad, despite the rain we had during a portion of the journey. The last 2-3 miles were sweet. We finished the ride through a beautiful state park, and I smoked Spenser to the finish line during the last mile.

Tomorrow: 62 miles to Algona.

Despite the adversities encountered so far, this, the world's greatest cycling event for mortals, is well worth the effort. A glorious event. Highly recommended!

Day two's route map

65.5 miles, Dutch hospitality, a near death experience in a killer thunderstorm, and sleeping much of the night on a middle school gym floor:

The tent we almost died in (luckily only a few feet from the bike path that a police officer came driving down and a very a short distance from the school):