Minus Ten Review - 38

Pics from ten years ago were sucked into a digital black hole, so you get a pic of an owl in a tree instead.

Ten years ago on the blog, thanks to the mismanagement of Tim Grahl mentioned in my last "Minus Ten Review", all my images are kaput. Nothing I posted image-wise survived from that time ten years ago this week. Bah! It is what it is......

However; the words did survive since they weren't on that server Mr. Grahl neglected to pay for the use of. So, let's see what I was yakking about..... Hmm.... Trans Iowa v5, of course, was a topic being discussed for sure. In my opinion, v5 was the version where Trans Iowa finally matured into its final form, if you will. There weren't any major changes, outside of moving to Grinnell, after this one. Here's a succinct description of the former event I wrote ten years ago:

"Your first set of cue sheets will guide you about the first 45 miles or so where you will stop at a check point and pick up a second set of cue sheets that will guide you on to the next checkpoint, and so on. Expect there to be about three checkpoints total. The course length will be in the 320-350 mile neighborhood. You will be required to self navigate, and self support your way on Iowa's gravel roads in a time limit of around 34 hours, give or take an hour or two. (Totals will be set at a later date) On top of that, you will have a time limit to reach each checkpoint before the checkpoint closes. If a checkpoint closes before you reach it, your event is over."

Again, my only regret about any of the above is that we didn't hold on to the cues until the moments before the race started. I really wish we'd have thought of that before the final T.I. It would have made such a big difference in the way the event went and the outcomes would have been totally different. Otherwise, this was spot on.

Another topic which came up, and is relevant to the blog today, was my announcement on September 15th, 2008, that I would be writing up my touring experiences as a series dubbed "Touring Tuesdays". I was inspired by Jason Boucher's recounting of a tour he rode which sparked memories of my own adventures. You can see re-postings every Sunday, for a while yet, concerning my second self-supported, fully loaded bicycle tour dubbed "The Race Against Death Tour". The series has been in re-post mode for a while, so you can search it by using the title, "The Touring Series" in the search box on the upper left of the header area here. I may have to make a separate page with links to all the entries at some point if there is enough interest in that.