Summer of 2010 may seem far away, but to an avid cyclist it's only 248 days until the start of RAGBRAI®, the world's largest bike ride. Some 25,000 cyclists from all over the world come to Iowa and pedal their way across the state. Next year's ride will be held July 25-31, 2009...and I really need to start my training before long!
So why in the world am I telling you about RAGBRAI® in a Christian education-related email? Because it's a great opportunity to...
- meet lots of interesting people (and this is definitely not an understatement)
- care for your body (1000 miles of riding = around 50,000 calories burned!)
- enjoy a unique form of outdoor tourism (Corn. Corn. Soybeans. Corn.)
- engage in long conversations (gotta do something besides look at corn)
- eat a lot of homemade pie (guilt-free...you'll burn it off!)
- build community between your congregation members
- invite non-church friends to join you for a fun week
- and even meet other progressive Christians educators. RAGBRAI® doesn't usually have many church-affiliated teams (the few I've run into are often from conservative seminaries or Christian colleges), but my congregation's team would welcome you with open arms!
RAGBRAI® is an amazing experience (the ride was even #7 on National Geographic's list of the 50 "Best American Adventures" last year) but it does definitely take a good deal of planning and training, and team registrations have started. People of all ages participate, and it's possible to ride for as little as part of one day or as much as all seven days.
If you have any interest in exploring the possibility of joining my team as an individual, or if you'd like to form your own team but would like to get some advice, please contact me soon. December is a great time to start talking to the cyclists in your congregation to gauge their interest, and January is the perfect time to start your team recruitment efforts. It would make a fun trip for a youth group to do together, or perhaps you might encourage several families to form a team and enjoy a relatively low-cost vacation together.
The possibilities are endless, and I guarantee you'll have an incredible time! Go visit the RAGBRAI® site and find out what you've been missing!
~ by Tim Gossett
p.s. Also see these related archived articles...
Reflections after a week on my bike and Blessing of the bicycles