Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Rear View '17: Part 2

The look back on the year for 2017- dubbed "Rear View", is a traditional year ending series on the blog each year here. This is Part 2.

March ended with the tragedy of Mike Hall's death and a few days into April and we got the news that Steve Tilford had died. What a bad couple of weeks there. But that was only a precursor to a death which would hit a lot closer to home for me on April 16th. That was Easter, and it was also the day my father in law died, which then threw life into a tizzy with only two weeks to go before Trans Iowa v13.

There was one bright spot in the midst of early April and that was the Gent's Race which had its own story once again. We missed one of our team mates but gained a new one in Steve Fuller's wife Kathy. Sam was struggling mightily, wanting to quit, but "sucking at it"so much he was going to actually finish before a tire came undone on him with three miles to go.

Three freakin' miles!

Then came Trans Iowa v13. Wow! What an epic one too. Six finishers. Rain, wind, and mud. Just a crazy time. I was wrecked again after this one, but much more in the physical sense than emotionally.

After that came a Geezer Ride which went off without a hitch in May, then it was time to get ready to go to Kansas to do the "DK My Way" ride, which turned out to be a success. Unfortunately my friend Tony had a bad day in the DK200, wrecking out and trashing his Fargo in the process so badly he had to replace the frame. At least he was okay!

We got home from that adventure for a bit more relaxing time previous to my running of another Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational in July. But the Wednesday's off were filled with rain during this time and I missed a lot of opportunities to ride due to that.

Next: Part 3

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