Stupid Thing #7 - Sweet Corn Challenge

We've managed to get all of our stupid things in so far this year, with only a slight alteration or two. Our July stupid thing, however, was almost a no-go due to a special guest interruption by Jen's gall bladder! We were driving down to Ohio Friday night when I was beset with intense abdominal pain. We thought it was only reflux resulting from a poor (in hindsight) decision to have nachos for my birthday dinner that night. By 5:00 a.m. I could hardly stand the pain, so Shif drove me to the ER and we spent most of the rest of the day doing a comparison study of the American vs Canadian health care systems. It was a bit surreal because, after hours of intense pain, within an hour of being given some magic pharmaceuticals, I felt completely fine. It looked for a bit like I was going to become a temporary resident of Akron, Ohio, while I had gall bladder surgery, but the doctors determined the evil gall stone had moved and I was fine to head back home and have surgery in the land of socialized medicine.

This put us in a bit of a quandary regarding the July stupid thing, which was the reason we had traveled to Ohio in the first place. I felt fine by bike-ride time Sunday morning and the doctors said I couldn't really make the situation worse by exercising. I was fairly tired from lack of sleep and a wee bit of stress, and more than a little gun-shy about the whole thing, so we decided that we'd skip the hilly 25-mile route we were supposed to do and just do the much more relaxed family 10-mile ride. We even got a police escort.

Us, our friend Missy, and some of her friends before the ride.
They did the serious ride while we were pedaling
with the 6-year-olds. There were four route choices - 10, 25, 50,
and 100 miles. The century ride also featured 'optional
horrendous hills.' I think we made the right choice.

Lining up for the start of the 10-mile ride. We heard that the
Sweet Corn Challenge is the biggest one-day bike ride
in Ohio, with around 2500 riders.

On the road.

The photographer is obviously trying to make another
trip to the emergency room.

Woo hoo!

Some other highlights of the trip. Who says
rural Ohio is all cornfields and white bread? Above, a
Serbian Orthodox monastery. Below, a Sikh temple.

The best part of the Sweet Corn Challenge - lunch! Pulled pork,
fresh sweet corn, and more. And you get more sweet corn
to take home. Sadly, the gall bladder diet meant I
wasn't allowed to eat the cookie and I could only nibble
on the pulled pork.

Thankfully, the gall bladder still hasn't caused any trouble. I probably won't have surgery for a few months yet, but I'm feeling fine. In fact, we've already finished our August stupid thing.... pics soon!