Happy Birthday Jacob!

This is a photo of my son, Jacob, photobombing a family picture I was taking recently

14 years ago today at approximately 5:00am in the morning I was sleeping in a motorhome in Oskaloosa, Iowa when I was awakened by a phone call. It was Mrs. Guitar Ted. She said, "My water broke...". That set in to motion a series of events which saw me leaving my post as a mechanic on RAGBRAI, getting dumped off in front of a HyVee grocery store with my duffel bag, and trying to get a hold of my sister, or anyone, to get me back to Waterloo so I could be there when my baby was born. We knew it was to be a boy, and his name would be Jacob.

Well, as it turned out, that was the last time I wrenched on bikes for RAGBRAI. It was a bonus that I got off the route early, and my sister did get me back in plenty of time for the birth. I wasn't sure I'd make it at all there for a while, as I sat on a pile of water softener bags out in front of that grocery store, looking like some kind of hobo. Fortunately, RAGBRAI's presence in the town masked my oddity. So, this rascal's birthday is always a good reminder of that day for me.

Anyway, it's been a blessing to have had him come in to my life and I just wanted to give him a special shout out on the blog here.

Happy Birthday, Son!