Bicycling across any state, big or small, is quite a feat!  However, the Hawkeye State has turned it into an art form! Every July the Des Moines Register organizes and hosts the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, better known as RAGBRAI.  Back in 1973 it was the harebrained idea of two intrepid newspaper reporters who rode across the state.  Held every year since it has become an Iowa tradition.  Changing the route year-to-year over the past 44 years it has passed through 800 towns and peddled across all 99 Iowa counties.  Read More

It feels strange once it’s done, naked and exposed. I hadn’t planned to, although it wasn’t the first time. It has been at least four years. The decision to do it developed over many miles and a-half-dozen weeks. It wasn’t for ascetic or sexual reasons. However, there is something feminine about the look of shaved legs, even on a man. It brings a certain thrill and eroticism. Years ago and again this time, I rationalized it for practical reasons and that “everyone is doing it.” Just why would a middle-aged man (hate that I now fall into that category!) go on and on about shaving his legs? Read More