Hey Mosquitoes,
Whhhaaaaaassssssssuuuuuup! If you don't know what that means, start watching more TV. Hope all is going well this spring for you. Since the last time we have talked, there has been a lot (two words) of changes and information come my way. Have you been out on that bike yet? If not, you had better saddle up because this year is suppose to be one of the toughest of all time. You should find a RAGBRAI map enclosed if you get this by regular mail. I am assuming that those of you who have e-mail can access the map by going online to www.ragbrai.com or www.ragbrai.org. If you would like a map and don't have one, let me know so I can send you one. Don't let the miles this year fool you. There will be a lot of big hills waiting for us. The last set of notes I sent you was just before the BRR ride and we had a great time in Perry, as usual. Many of us even outlasted Klink on Saturday! I think he is getting kind of old! Ha! There was also the Fez ride in Solon the other weekend, which was a little more subdued than BRR, but still was a lot of fun, from what I hear. I would also like to congratulate ISU on their basketball run this year and we should say way to go to the HAWKS for winning the NCAA wrestling tournament for the sixth year in a row. The whole Mosquito committee was down in St. Louis cheering on the Hawks. Up next is getting the football team turned around. The spring game is on April 15th. Many of us will be in Iowa City for that if you are going to be around.
There are a couple of individual accomplishments that I would like to bring up. First, the Laffeys had a baby girl, Madeline. Everything is going well, and she even has her first Hawkeye bib. You have to train them early! I was trained from birth, and look how cool I turned out! Anyway, congratulations from the team. Another accomplishment I would like to mention is that Lee Maassen passed her CPA exam out in Colorado. Hopefully she can find us all more tax breaks for next year, like maybe between her and Brent, they can get Team Mosquito merchandise to be a tax credit. If anyone else has anything cool they would like noted, send it to me, so I can share it with the team.
Now lets get down to business. We have been trying really hard to get a motto for this year and have been somewhat unsuccessful. Please help us out with ideas or we'll have to stick with Team Mosquito: Ten years!!! Don't forget to send in your dues if you haven't. You will not be getting any more notes if I don't get your dues, and I will take you off of the list of way cool people. They are $15 this year. A lot of that will be going to the maintenance of our web site. Remember that long address that I gave you last time for the web page, well forget that, all you have to do now is type www.teammosquito.com to get the web page up. Klink managed to get it up and rolling. Now you can tell everyone to find us there and it is really easy to find. We are definitely one of the coolest teams around. Many of you will notice that we have a "larva" page on there. Send us pictures of you little ones and we can show them off to the whole world on there.
There are some upcoming rides that you all need to know about. The first one that I can think of is on April 15th. That is not very far away, and it is the same day as the Hawkeye spring football game, but since Klink is going, and Jarc is hosting it, I thought I would put it in here. If you want to be lame and go on this ride instead of the game, call or e-mail Klink. The next ride is the Bud Ride in North Liberty. This is a ride that we have participated in for several years and always have a blast. It is on May 13th this year and I don't really know any details on it yet, but call me and I can take care of you if you are interested. Remember that the Mosquito ride will be on June 17th this year up in Waucoma. (I think that we will pass on the Red Dog this year though.) I want to see all of you there. Not only is that a great ride, but also Christine and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary that day, and would like nothing more than to share it with all of you!
The last thing I would like to mention is a thing called the Back of the Pack Foundation. This group helps to fund the creation and maintenance of biking trails around the state. Klink or Chicken man can tell you more detailed information if you want. This foundation is trying to get RAGBRAI groups that hang out in "the back of the pack" to donate some money and let people know that we are more than a bunch of hoodlums. I don't know where they would have gotten that idea in the first place. If you are interested please send me some money separately to Team Mosquito. Our team will be donating to this cause but the total amount will depend on what I get from all of you.
I think that is all for now, so send me your dues, check out the web site and give me some ideas about a motto for this year! Ride on!
Blaine McLaughlin
Team Mosquito Committee
