Jay’s Note: This is part fourteen of a running two-week adventure log for RAGBRAI. Each day I’ll be posting a journal entry and some pictures from our trip that begins in Virginia, lands us in Iowa for a bike ride, and then eventually gets us back to the East Coast. Part thirteen is here.
Woke up at 6am. Holy cow. After two weeks of 4:30 alarms, six o’clock felt like sleeping until noon. The slow start was on purpose, too — today we ran the RAGBRAI playbook in reverse. Slow down instead of go go go.
Funky dreams last night, for what it’s worth — lives past, present, and future. What could have been and didn’t happen, because it shouldn’t have. What might still be possible, if I listened. Very interesting stuff. I haven’t had dreams like that in a while.
The slow morning went to work I’ve been meaning to get to. I spent some time on my conference circuit proposals for the coming academic year — connecting folks to each other, connecting myself to other professionals, getting my design and academic work lined up for the fall. The kind of work that never gets done at 4:30am in a tent.
I also finally got some real reading in: Sid Meier’s Memoir! (the exclamation point is his, not mine). Fantastic. I love his approach to life — live by example, don’t call too much attention to yourself. His design ethos is a workman’s one, and it matches the way I think about my own work more than almost anything else I’ve read.
Then we went to a buffet brunch, which was Marc’s first. He’s six. He walked in, saw that much food in one place, and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. By the end both boys were too full and had learned a valuable lesson in moderation. (Experiential learning!)
We walked some of it off with a short hike through St. Louis Canyon. More of that tomorrow — today was just a taste.
After that, the pool. Sarah and I split our time between the hot tub and swimming around with the kids. The game these days is called “pass Marc”: Marc tells us how he wants to be passed to the next person — bomb, boat, or torpedo — and who’s receiving. Then we play catch, with Marc as the ball. It was real fun.
Back at the cabin, Sarah handwashed some clothes for logistical reasons — two weeks on the road will do that — and I submitted a talk proposal to SXSW EDU. You’ll be hearing from me about that one in a week or so. Then I lined up a few more conference talks. I already have two accepted and ready to go for next academic year. Nice.
That evening, Sarah and I went out for a drink while the kids watched Monk in the cabin. It’s my birthday! We talked through the logistics of getting home, and then the bigger stuff — where we want to be in our careers in a handful of years. Lots to think about there.
Got back to the cabin, wrote a little on a new book chapter, and then this. It’s been fun writing every day. We’ll see how long I can keep it up.
Tomorrow Sarah’s parents visit and we start getting ready to head out. Because the day after that, we take the long journey back to the East Coast, through the mountains of West Virginia.
The opposite of RAGBRAI, today. Exactly as planned.