Personalized License Plate Ideas

In my own honor......I have decided to get personalized license plates. I am soliciting ideas from my blog readers. It has to be 5 characters. In five seconds of thought I came up with:

BIKER
BYKER
IBIKE
IBYKE

Any ideas you have would be great. It doesn't have to be about biking. That is just where I started.

Leave your Ideas as Comments!!!!!

Poster Child

So I walk into the 'World of Bikes' where my friend Andrew works. And the first thing that he says to me is: "Dude, how did you become the model for the license plate post card?" I replied: "What?" I was a little confused. We continued to debate, it became obvious to Andrew that I had no clue what he was talking about. He said: "So they never contacted you and asked permission to use your picture?" I said: "No, what are you talking about?" He then showed me this postcard, which has been distributed to bike stores and DPS offices all over the state of Iowa. I am the poster child of biker awareness for the state of iowa and I had no idea. Can you just see it........The classic bell, helmet, shirt and tie, basket with lunch box, and the blue cruiser bike. I even have my wrist GPS, so I can measure exactly how far I have ridden and how fast I am going. I have a previous post on my blog from June about bike to work week when this picture was taken. Who ever took it must have thought that I was the most ridiculous looking biker, I definetely was on this day. Should I not get some kind of royalties for this?

Draw Bridge Across the Mississippi

My roomate Josh and I drove down together to Nauvoo for a young single adult conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. On the way down we were making up tunes and rhyming lyrics about heart break and dating. We had such a good laugh. We crossed the Mississippi at Fort Madison. It is not unusual during spring, summer, and fall to have to wait at the drawbridge for the barges to pass through. Once I was stuck for an entire hour (the drawbridges were not lining up correctly, these bikers tried to jump the gap, one of them popped his inner tube). On this day i actually made the drive twice to and from Iowa City(I didn't want to miss the BYU v UCLA blowout), both times I had to wait for the barge. I like being stopped. I always get out of my car and enjoy the Mississippi River vista and the fresh air. In the winter it is a great place to watch bald eagles. There are hundreds of them. It is an amazing site.

Josh sporting his suspenders.

Trip to Utah

I went to Utah for the weekend after labor day to see my parents, family, and some friends. Saturday morning I had a treat and i saw my little sister's cross country race. I love pictures of people who are in physical strain. They are so charming.





I was the only one with a camera that day so these pictures are for Lexie to download.

I was really impressed with Lexies form. She is a very graceful runner.

My cousins came over on Friday night. We went swimming . We tried to get our reflection in the skylights. I miss my cousins alot. We always have such a good time when we get together.

Me, Amber, Rachel, and Scotty.

Saturday morning my mom and i went for a bike ride together down to Utah Lake State Park. We had a great time. It was a gorgeous day.

Saturday evening I went with Tiffanie to Rodizios grill for dinner and then the University of Utah vs. UNLV football game. Tiffanie and I laughed alot that night. Our cheeks were sore. After the game we met my dad at Baskin Robins for ice cream. I wish i had remembered to bring my camera that night. When I left Utah, I felt very homesick for family and friends. But now I am over the blues and life has picked up again where I left it. I am looking forward to seven days of Christmas week that i will be in utah to see family and friends. I already bought my train ticket.

Kernels Game and Pancake Breakfast at the Airport

This is my friend Melissa and I at the Kernels baseball game in Cedar Rapids. Yes everything in Iowa has some reference to corn. We had a great time. It was shive-hattery's game night. So we sat around people from work including my good friend Keith.


My company is a corporate sponsor for this community organization that does service with people who have disabilities with speech and hearing. This organization has a pancake breakfast once a year at the Iowa City airport. I was expecting it to be just a few tables spread out in one of the hangers. Boy was I wrong.......it was quite the event. It was on a Sunday morning. It was a gorgeous day. They had a vintage car and airplane show. I am sitting in the cockpit of the life flight helicopter for the University of Iowa Childrens Hospital. The fire department was out there with a game for the children to play........even some adults....I won a hot pad. I invited my neighbor to go with me. She is a graduate student in speech and language pathology.

Iowa State Fair

A group of my friends and I headed over to Des Moines (French for Monks) for the Iowa State Fair a couple of weeks ago. In the past, I mostly enjoyed the amusement rides. This year I was more interested in the booths, animals, and expos. Not to mention a fried turkey leg that we all shared for breakfast. The big boar's name is Freight Train, he weighed in at 1259 pounds. I like this picture below because of the little boy covering up his nose as he walks by. It actually didn't smell that bad.


For everyone that didn't get enough of Shawn Johnson in the Olympics, here is a life size butter sculpture of her. Every year they always make a life size butter sculpture of a cow and then other sculptures that reflect popular culture from the current year. Last year, they had a life size sculpture of Harry Potter.


This is my friend Jessica and the lama that put the moves on her as soon as we took this picture.

The iowa state fair is the Largest fair in the world. The Saturday that we went they set an attendance record of 100,000 people in one day. That is about 1/30th of the state population. This is a good view of one of the busy streets. Jessica and I took the lift ride to the snap this picture. Everything at the state fair is overpriced. The lift ride was $6 for a round trip ticket. I will never do that again. The battered and deepfried snicker, oreo, and pineapple that we all shared were each $3.

The following pictures are from the John Deere Expo. I put up three so that my nephew, Daniel, can get all big eyed and excited about his uncle.

RAGBRAI

RAGBRAI: Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa

Iowa has this tradition that is the worlds biggest bike ride. It is called RAGBRAI and it is a week long event, with ~15,000 riders (10,000 registered and ? unregistered riders). Riders start on the west side of the state with their back tires in the Missouri River and ride across the entire state along a route that changes every year to do the 'Mississippi Dip,' or put there front tire in the Mississippi River. The next two picture show a large group of people arriving to the final destination of Le Claire and then lining up for their dip.

Iowa cities have really friendly and warm downtowns.


I had heard about it last year when I moved here. This year I did the last day of riding. It was a huge party on wheels, niles of corn fields, an occasional water tower, and intermittent pig farms that make your nose hairs curl.

I am so excited for next year. I am saving vacation so that I can do the entire thing. I'll just move my rack from my commuter bike to my road bike and haul my tent, sleeping pad and bag, and whatever else I need for an entire week. I have several friends that did the entire things this year so I have a fun group to go with. There was a lot of positive energy and the people of Iowa in all of the small towns throw a big party for all of the bikers.

Nothing says 55 miles of biking better then stopping f or a savory pork chop at mile 30. I am so excited for next year. What a great state with fantastic family traditions. To all my family, we should plan on this for next year or the year after. It was so much fun. I saw several five person families with a tandem bike with a pedal chariot on the back and a double chariot for the smaller kids being pulled behind the first chariot. It was awesome!!!!!

4th of July and Jazz Festival

We had great seats for the Iowa City 4th of July fireworks show. They launched from Hubbard Park on the Iowa River.


Because we sat nestled in the classic buildings that make up the UI pentacrest (on the front steps of the old iowa state capitol building) I felt like I was seeing a fireworks show from our nations capital.



The old iowa state capital building is behind and above me. It was a spectacular sight with the fireworks.


The next night My room mate and I took our neighbors Su and Megan out to the Jazz Festival. It was a really fun night. The weather was gorgeous. We had pork on a stick, fried rice, and gelato. Afterwards we went up to the Coralville dam and took a look at the spill way. It was the perfect evening.

More Flood Pictures

Devastation on Normandy!