 I'm Ryan and I'm Allie. After falling in love, we decided to ride bikes across America, collecting love advice along the way. This is Love Cycles. No flatties, no laddies, no cruddies. Coming from a rag-brie world at 6.20 in the morning and people have been up for well over an hour, which makes sleeping in hard but also motivating to get up and start moving. Luckily the weather is great. So let's have another beautiful day, uh, rag-brion. Whoa, what is this? Oh, hey. Look at that shirt. Where'd you get that? Oh, no big deal. My friend Dante traded it for my shirt that was falling apart and look at this far superior piece of craftsmanship I got. January 15th, 2017. I was uh, I was in the doctor's office. Something was going out of my heart and the doctor told me, he was like, listen, if you're done and I was like, what do you mean I'm done? And he said, you got, you got two choices. You're either going to change your ways or you're going to die very young. I was 544 pounds and I developed AFIP. So now it rived me in my heartbeat and I left there that day and I started a diet and I set goals for myself and I lost 44 pounds in the first month and 74 pounds by the end of the second month. And then I started swimming for a little while but then I got on a bike and I started riding. And that's where I found you on on YouTube because I was just constantly YouTubeing different stuff, trying to learn about it and just your positive nature and how positive you were about everything. And I realized like I developed kind of a funk where I was real pessimist and I was constantly really negative and I thought, I need to be like that guy. I need to constantly just be smiling and happy and learn how to be that kind of excited and I think a big part of it has to do with the fact that you ride a bike everywhere and you're just you're more in touch with I mean the world with life. And so I decided I was going to live a less car-centric life and I stopped driving. We owned two cars. Everybody was like, dude, what happened to your car? I was like, no, I got a car but I got to lose this weight. So combined with a very strict diet and a whole lot of bike riding, I rode everywhere from that point forward. I never drove a car unless I was taking my wife somewhere or taking something bigger than I could take on a bike which was very seldom because you know, I had bikes with big racks and everything. So I was 245 pounds in 16 months. I've been in a process across the last year training to be here at Rag Brigh. And so I did the first day yesterday. I'm doing pretty good. I'm taking off today. Everything seems to be going great. And I'm just trying to take it one day at a time, man. That is awesome. And I'm so excited to bump into you. That is so cool. Oh my man, here we go. Oh, this is so cool. What a great moment. You have no idea how much of an inspiration you've been to me in all of this for real, man. That means a lot to me. That's real because like you I seriously like all I all I want is to be able to get to the point that I could smile and look as happy as you are. And I showed my wife, you guys, his videos about the two of you traveling across country because I want I'm trying to encourage my wife to get into this with me. And we just had a baby. I mean, that's a huge part of all this for me because my baby like here, I'll show you a picture, man. Yeah, let's do it. I don't want to get to a point where like when I'm 45 or 50 or something, they're like, I can't do this kind of stuff with her. I want to be able to take on these adventures and go do cool stuff with her. And you know, I have this dream that someday maybe me and my wife be able to go on bike trips. And you know, I can have the baby at some point one of those little trailers and then eventually maybe I'm one of those little those little piggyback bikes that hangs off the back or whatever. And then eventually there's my kid riding right alongside me. And hopefully my kid never knows what it's like to be obese. I was morbidly obese and a big part of it was because we just growing up like, you know, my parents encouraged us to go outside and play and everything, but I just was never really an active child. And so I want to try to encourage my daughter to be as active as possible and get out and see the world and just do cool stuff. Go on some adventures. Your story is incredible. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, really incredible. I'm glad that you're a big part of it. Yeah. Well, hey, you're an inspiration to me and best of luck with everything. I gotta get a photo with both of you because my wife's not going to believe this. It is so nice and cool today. It's actually raining on us, which is pleasant. It's the perfect temperature. And if that big old fat midwestern rain, which isn't that cold, it's just nice and it's cool. It's refreshing. How's the new shirt? Oh, you know, when you look good, you feel good. And this morning I feel I'm really looking good. I love your bike. That is awesome. Looking good, boys. Thanks. First stop of the day, Manning. They've been advertising everything from pie to cinnamon rolls to ice cream, pancakes, everything. I'm going to eat it all. I'm hungry. Do you have the best pie in town? Yes, we do. I think Allie's going to eat a little bit of gluten. Get some pancakes. Where has it? These nice people are doing this free will. You just give us suggested donation. That is pretty cool. This is an amazing moment for Allie. She has her own plate of pancakes. She's been very jealous of my pancake eating the entire ride. And now she's doing it. I want to say some words about being gluten free. I don't eat gluten because 99% of the time my life is better if I don't eat gluten. But then there's that 1% of the time where life is better when you do eat gluten. And this is that 1% of the time. It may feel a little bit sick later, but you know what? It's totally going to be worth it. Cheers. I really enjoy the vibe of all the stops at Raghbri. Everybody just kind of takes over the little town parks and takes naps and plays in the playgrounds and it's just fun. It's hard to explain. I know I keep saying it a lot, but this is just a really fun event. Everybody is just smiling and having a good time. This is a Scotcheroo. It is a peanut butter and rice crispy chocolate concoction. And it's actually not too sweet. I'm pretty sure this is one of the more nutritious things I've eaten in this Raghbri. It's always hard to get moving after eating so much. It's going to look like Hollywood movie sets. They're perfect. We are in line to get a piece of corn and they're taking us through this interactive. It's kind of like a museum teaching us all about Iowa corn. And it's interesting. 99% of the corn we see is not for eating. Not for us to eat anyway. Livestock eat it. Or it goes to ethanol. And to our left we have an advertisement for GMOs. You're not going to see that in Boulder. The corn in this area will not fit in those. That is incredible. Not even close. And do you guys grow corn year-round? No, it's only a summer crop. I mean I imagine America is pretty reliant upon Iowa for corn. The number one producer of corn, number one producer of soybeans, hogs, eggs. In all the United States. Yeah. Wow. Ethanol, number one producer of ethanol, number three in beef. And 96% of that is family farms? Yes. So preserving that way of life is really important. It's very important. It's difficult. Especially people in my generation. Being on the farm was a tough, tough proposition. And so a lot of farms, we lost a lot of farmers. A lot of these family members went off to find their work and other more stable jobs. Like I still work on the family farm. But I'm a teacher on the side. And then I help out at events like this. And so a lot of people have to do that. But then also technology came along and allowed our parents to farm longer into lives. So my parents are personally farming into their 70s. Who grows the sweet corn? Like small families or who grows? Yeah, there's a variety of people. In Iowa, sweet corn is less than 1% of our corn crop. And so we have a lot of families that will raise sweet corn and sell locally at stands and stuff like that. Commercially growing sweet corn is less in Iowa. Usually, commercially growing sweet corn is in some other states where they have a lot of times it's irrigated because they crop. There's a few years laying down there. There you go. Some of my favorite summertime memories are eating corn from the garden. It's even more delicious. I'm having chatted with one of the farmers who grows it. Who is this dude? This is our new friend Kevin. We just met him here at Ragnbrock. Some love advice for us. Been married one year. Just a year. June 3rd was one year. Yeah. And my best advice so far has been intentionality. Just love is never going to stay the same and it shouldn't stay the same, right? It should be dynamic. But in order for it to change, you have to intentionally change. Every single day, try to love your partner as best as you can. That's been my best advice so far and marriage has been the best decision I've ever made in my life. Love you, Jess. I had a picture of who my wife would be, but one day I was just praying and I kept feeling it was actually in Paris. She dropped me off in Chicago and I just took a flight to Paris because I've been studying French for a really long time. I just wanted to go there. I've never been there. And every single night in Paris, I just kept thinking of her. And it was stupid because she said she liked me and I didn't because I had this, again, this picture of who I wanted to marry. Honestly, I don't know, sometimes when you submit yourself to God there, the stuff that you get back is better than you could have ever imagined or planned or tried to create for yourself. Because he is in your hand, he has your life in his hands and he knows what's best for you and I think if you just follow that, life is going to be amazing. So she didn't fit that idea that you had, like you had this picture in your hand with the right and where do you think you got that original idea? I don't know, honestly. That original idea probably just came from what we've seen in social media, what society has considered beautiful or sexy and all that. And there's so much more than just physical beauty. It's ridiculous how many more levels there are besides just what we see physically. And the physicality, right, it just, over time it wanes and someone changes the way they look with just that haircut or, you know, if you start working out for a year. But yeah, what's inside and if you work, exactly, right? You got to get used to wrinkles. That's all I'm saying. And everything's sagging. I'm both man and a baby. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, so my experience with Raghbhai has been amazing. The people are easily the best part and best reason to come back year after year. But it's also fun stopping in all these little towns that otherwise would not get any sort of traffic. But you see what I was really about, you see what the Midwest is about and just what society was before all these big cities kind of rose up and hurried up the pace of life. You start to just see what really matters and that's just people. This machine behind me might sound loud and obnoxious, but it produces some of the best ice cream in the world, Beekman's Ice Cream. And when you hear that sound from far off in the cornfields, you know you got an ice cream stuff coming. What's so amazing about this ice cream? It's homemade by the Beekman. It's my family. 2,000 years later. We made it! Yeah! Can I get a large chocolate and... Oh, we got the ice cream. Now we're gonna go find an ice-shaded spot and eat it. There's not a lot of shading on there, so sometimes you have to get creative. And right now we're gonna hang out under this big tractor. What do you think, Allie? It's cool, creamy, and delicious. These machines are freaking huge. We're almost at Jefferson and we saw a bunch of bikers just loading up into this tractor. We're like, we want to go wherever that tractor's going, so we don't even know where we're going. Apple dumplings with fresh ice cream from the orchard. How is it? It's delicious. Better than pie. This orchard is also like a fun house. There's lots of fun things to do, like jumping on this giant bouncy mat. Come on, Allie! Okay, that's enough. I don't want to throw a pie on this thing. Now it's time for the spooky corn maze. One eternity later. We made it out, which is a good thing, because it is really hot in there. We are in Jefferson, in the backyard of Beverly and Glen. We have not met them yet, but they're supposed to be a really, really nice little couple. What's the trick? How did you guys do it? I don't think we ever thought anything other. Well, when you get married, we didn't. Nowadays, it seems like they kind of think, if it doesn't work, why? I don't think we ever thought that. I mean, we loved each other. We got married. We had arguments, yeah. But I don't know. I guess it just all worked out. Hopefully, we set a good example for our kids. Cheryl is the oldest, and then two years later, we had Dennis, and then two years later, Linda, or 18 months. And then 14 months later, Gary, and then 13 months later, David. Were those all planned? No. I never saw my parents argue. I'm sure they did, but not in front of weak kids. That was a no-no, and I don't think we did either. What was it about her that you saw that you decided this is the woman? No. Well, probably because she just lived down the road to the corner and a half mile up the road. Because she's right. I didn't have dates in high school when we had our high school dances. You know, I was one of those guys, you know, along the sideline that just stood there and watched. You know, I don't think you ever thought I didn't in terms of fall in love. We just know how much we liked each other, how we wanted to always be together, and it gets to the point where you don't want to be apart. She was a good, you were a good tractor driver and all those kind of things. Is that why you picked me? Because dad raised me as his son?