Message on the RAGBRAI Message Board

This evening, I posted a message to the RAGBRAI message boards about Dave. You can read my message and others' postings here:

RAGBRAI has lost a friend

Dave

I, too, have similar memories of Dave. Regardless of what obstacle was in front of Dave, he attacked it with a smile. His laugh echoing down the halls of Greenlawn Hall will be missed. I've included 3 of my favorite pictures of Dave from RAGBRAI 07. The first of Dave's "camera" he brought for the trip. On the way to the start of the the ride, we stopped and he bought a nice little digital camera and took a ton of great pictures. The second is Dave at his best. after a hard ride, enjoying a frosty beverage. Of course this was home-made root beer, but he talked about how good it was for the rest of the ride. The final picture is of Dave as he pulled to the finish of RAGBRAI 07.

I felt a loss by not riding in RAGBRAI 08, and now that sense of loss is much deeper. A dear friend is gone and I have lost my chance to ride with him. I cherish the memories of those rides, with him and each of you.

Remembering Dave

It is hard to believe that Dave is gone. I feel very blessed to have been able to spend a week with him on RAGBRAI eating his dust. "fittest old fart you'll ever meet" I believe was how Bruce described Dave. It was very inspiring to see Dave fly by people half his age on his bike as if they were standing still. To hear of his untimely death was a complete shock.

Please join me in posting a few of your favorite memories of Dave on our blog. His pile of raisins every morning at Mama's for breakfast, his encouragement to continue riding when I was tired and his beautiful smile and zest for life. An inspiration to us all.

To Dave's family, you have my deepest sympathy.

Keep on pedaling Dave.....

Congrats!

I followed your adventures online and congrats to all of you on a great ride! I just saw the photos and it looks like you had a blast.

Some Stats

Here are some stats from my cyclometer . . .

Total Trip Time: 37 hours, 4 minutes
This is the total time my front tire was spinning, including any walking through towns where I forgot to remove the cyclometer.

Average Speed: 14.26 mph
Same thing: it includes some time walking through pass-through towns (but also includes flying down some really cool hills!).

Max Speed: 36.72 mph
Can't really remember where I hit that, but there were some screamin' hills!

LOTS of pictures

I have posted a bunch of pictures on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisclark/sets/72157606392566129/
About half are captioned, and I will get to the rest soon.

Pictures!

Since Dad and I stopped at home today, I can get on the internet. We have not connected in any of the towns along the way, so I thought I would put up a few pictures of Velodox starting out the first day. Chris with the rig and our signage, the whole team geared up and ready to roll on Sunday, Carla's herder making the trip with us, and my road rash (looks even better now, all scabbed over).
There are of course many many more pictures to come.

Follow our progress

Dear friends,

You can follow our progress on RAGBRAI at http://bikeiowa08.blogspot.com/

We willbe sending messages live from the road by cell phone, using Jott.

-- Chris, Dave, Bruce, Carla, Tascha, and Larry

RUMBLES!!!!

Just a quick note to the team -- ENJOY THE RIDE and be safe. Please know I will be with you in spirit -- trust me when I say I would give anything to be with the gang right now.

An update

Hi everyone,

Well, RAGBRAI is just around the corner, and I have some sad news. I’ll not be participating in the ride this year. I had a long talk with Bruce yesterday and have slept on it, talked to Charmelle about, and so on. It’s really the right decision right now. I’m just physically and mentally exhausted from the move and remodeling. It’s been a tough 5 weeks of very long days, but Charmelle and I are in the new house and unpacking and the wedding plans are moving along.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe ride. Hope to see you all at RAGBRAI 2009.

Matt

is it next week already??

Hello
I just wanted to wish you all a great ride! I hope you have endured your training schedules and are looking forward to some fun in Iowa. Can't wait to hear strories and see photos.
Toodles!
Lauren