I've always tried to squeeze as much out of life as I could... but my Mother is convinced that after my cancer episodes, I am determined to live one and a half lives in the one I have. Looking at the next month, she may be right.

5 years ago I was talked into riding my bike ride across Iowa in an event called "RAGBRAI" (The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.)  After fighting cancer twice in my own body, I had become a member of a family of Cyclists Combating Cancer. Many members had ridden RAGBRAI and loved it. One in particular, Bob Sega LOVED RAGBRAI. The year he left this earth, I decided, with the support and urging of Mark Kargol, another Cyclist Combating Cancer, I decided to do it... and I was HOOKED!

Oh my goodness, it was so much fun! Like... Crazy Fun!  Like... Summer camp for grown ups in lycra, where all you had to do was get up and eat, ride your bike, eat some more, ride some more and eat and play, and then camp out. No stress and a lot of joy.

Since that first time, Ken and I have brought a Spokes of Hope team with us. And it has been a delight to share the experience with them and see them light up with the joy of RAGBRAI as well. It is so addicting that as soon as it is over, you want to start planning for the next year's ride.

Last year I committed to Special Olympics International that I would would serve as a Technical Delegate for the 2015 World Summer Games to be held in LA. The moment that I realized that there was a conflict with the timing of RAGBRAI I felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

People who have done RAGBRAI can relate, I'm sure. I was in mourning. Then when I saw the actual dates... That RAGBRAI would be starting earlier... it would be possible to sneak a few days in before going to LA for the World Games.

So... the plan is...Drive to Iowa to join some of the people that I rode with the first time and then leave the ride early to high tail it home to catch a plane to Los Angeles for the Games.

I have had friends ask me to post and blog about my next couple of weeks... thus... the blog.

It's my way of sharing my experience with my friends who couldn't make it.

Currently, I am in a Toyota Sienna mini-van with three bikes strapped on the back. Dan Musgrove is driving, Kurt (the rider who's place I took on the team my first year) is the co-pilot and Nate Musgrove, our Sag driver is sitting in the back with me catching up on his reading... on our way past corn fields without end and cows standing in the bright shadeless fields of Iowa, on our way to the starting location where the adventure begins!

As we get closer, the excitement builds as we see more and more old school buses packed with riders and bikes, painted in bright sloppy colors with team names smeared across the sides. Let the party begin!