Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Ginger Ale...its what I drink on all domestic flights, no idea why

Hey hey hey, Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I am pretty excited for my weekend plans; plans that will continue all the way through next weekend. 

Being from Iowa, and having grown up in a family that was into cycling, RAGBRAI was a summer fixture in our house before our family summers were devoted to driving my sister and I to soccer tournaments and camps all over the Midwest. I'm headed back to do the week-long party across the state of Iowa on a bicycle with my parents, but under slightly different circumstances than RAGBRAI's past. 

Two years ago, my dad had a freak thing happen and he is now paralyzed from the waist down. My parents used to spend a lot of time together on their tandem, but once my dad was paralyzed, that wasn't an option anymore. As part of his recovery he started handcycling and mom would ride along with him on her road bike. Differences in speed made staying together difficult, but they still wanted to experience cycling together. Enter Utah Trikes. 

Utah Trikes built a super awesome handcrank tandem tricycle for my parents...mom sits in the front and pedals while dad sits on the back and handcranks. Pretty amazing. I was able to visit Utah Trikes a few weeks ago when they picked up the custom built rig and was thoroughly impressed. Ashley and his team at Utah Trikes are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and they are incredibly talented engineers and fabricators. I captured these images of the team hard at work to finish up the tandem for my parents. 

And here's what the first spin looked like (still a work-in-progress in this image, but you get the idea). 

On Saturday we'll head off to start RAGBRAI XLI, which I think is my parent's tenth and my third. They are doing the ride on their new tandem with support from Adaptive Sports Iowa. I'll be along to document their experience and help out the Adaptive Sports Iowa crew (ASI has roughly 60 riders they are supporting throughout the ride). I'll be using the hashtag #RAGBRAIstroz on Instagram and Twitter as I capture their experience. Should be fun!