RAGBRAI Day 7

Washington to Muscatine - 49.7 miles

The final day!  It was a short and relatively flat day too, which was much needed after a long week of riding.  My body was feeling every one of those previous 6 days on the bike and in a tent!  At this point, I had blisters all over my feet, sore shoulders that just kept getting tighter, and a very sore tushy.  I was ready to hit Muscatine and head for home!

Columbus Junction was our first town of the day, and it had a pretty cool swinging bridge (that I didn't go out onto because lines!).  I'd had a muffin for first breakfast somewhere along the route, but also grabbed some convenience store breakfast pizza while coming through town.

I pushed hard through the other towns, stopping only briefly for Gatorade here and there.  I was on a mission to the river.

After one final long hill, I passed the Air Force team all gathering to ride together to the Mississippi.  It was pretty neat to see this team of people who had spent their whole week helping riders gather just behind me and elicit many cheers and yells of thanks from fellow cyclists and locals cheering us on from the sidewalks. 

I dipped my tire around 1pm central time, then went in search of the route back to the high school where my car was parked in long term parking.  It was, of course, 2.5 miles up some small road back to the car. I was halfway back when I realized my keys were in my baggage, which was still down by the river!  I turned around, got my keys, then headed back up the hill to the car.

After driving back down to grab my bag, I had no cell service, but luckily had driven around Muscatine before the trip, so I knew how to get out of town.  Cell towers were overloaded with all the cyclists and families there!  I tried to grab a quick lunch from Taco Bell on my way out, which turned into a 45 minute wait in line.  Thankfully I had already changed out of my disgusting bike clothes, and could sit in relative comfort with the air conditioning on.  What a relief.  5 hours later, I was home - yay!

RAGBRAI Day 6

Ottumwa to Washington - 68.5 miles

Today was a longer ride, but also one of the best ones, due in no small part to some wonderful tailwinds towards the latter part of the day.  I also turned it into a day to eat all the junk food I had been skipping all week, so I consumed a corn dog, cheese curds, another Amish stuffed pickle, and finally some fresh Amish pie.

We pedaled past two wineries today, which I neglected to stop at.  I'm pretty sure that's called "doing it wrong".  For whatever reason, alcohol has not sounded good to me on this trip!  Which seems to be the exact opposite of how many other riders are approaching this week!

We rode along some beautiful high ridges.  I never knew how hilly Iowa could be!  I was flying towards Washington at the end of the day because of that tailwind, which thankfully allowed me to make good time into town.  I stopped at a local business just before town that was giving away free beer, just to say I had a beer on RAGBRAI.  There were too many party people there, so I consumed my summer shandy and moved on.

We camped at the fairgrounds, and I somehow stumbled onto the one single shower instead of using the open showers that had been set up in the cattle barn.  Downtown, I found some Chinese food, then wandered around trying to find some adequate wifi to make my evening phone calls.  When even McDonalds failed me (these small towns cannot support 15,000+ people trying to utilize their public wifi!), I was lucky to stumble upon Washington's public library, which was staying open until 11pm just  for us cyclists to have a cool place to hang out, charge phones, use a real restroom, and access their wifi.  It was a really lovely gesture on their part, and I enjoyed an hour or so in the library.

I ran into our friend Jim in the shuttle line back to camp, and when we arrived back, Angie and Beth had bought hard cider and puppy chow and invited is to their tent to celebrate the end of the trip. We had a good time hanging out and chatting for a while before we all got too tired to stay up any longer.  There was a band playing until sometime after 10:30, so it was a later night than usual, but that was ok given that it was the final night of the trip and we had a short day to Muscatine ahead of us.

Here's a photo of the four of us from the following morning:

RAGBRAI Day 5

Centerville to Ottumwa - 51 miles

Today's ride was one of my favorites of RAGBRAI.  It started out with a little hill climb into the town of Rathbun, ten we approached the Rathbun dam.  It was a beautiful morning ride over the dam, with Rathbun Lake off to our left.

Moravia was our next stop, with a cute little railroad depot next to the tracks.  I stopped for my famous BLT lunch, and then hopped back on the road.  I tried to not spend too much time in the other two stopover towns so that I could make reasonable time to our host town of the evening, Ottumwa.  I did pause at the Beekmans homemade ice cream stop to take a photo of the sprawling line.  It was extra impressive today!

We stayed at a beautiful sprawling park in Ottumwa, with lots of mature trees and lovely lakes.  I got camp set up, and stood in line for close to an hour and a half for a 5 minute, $5 coin operated shower in a semi truck.  There's a line for everything on RAGBRAI - with over 15,000 people on the route each day, the veterans have learned to just take it in stride.

After I got cleaned up, I took the shuttle to downtown and browsed the vendors set up on a bridge over the river.  It was a really nice setting for the expo that evening.  I was really not in the mood to sit on the curb and eat a street food meal, and luckily I found a Mexican restaurant after walking across he bridge.  It felt amazing to sit in a real seat and let the food come to me!

Charging your phone is always a challenge too, so I found a construction site wired for electricity and plugged my phone in.  I laid on some wood for the construction site for a while, called my dad, and just rested while my phone charged.  It's funny how you adapt to bicycle touring  by lowering your standards of living.  Everyone is sprawled out on grassy patches, eating messy food on curbs, and searching out power supplies anywhere they can find them when bicycle touring.  You do things you would never normally do, but it quickly becomes your new normal.

After the shuttle ride back (I sadly decided to skip seeing Rick Springfield in concert because it started after biker bedtime, or 9pm), I sat by the lake and talked to my wife and mom.  Not a bad way to end the day. 

RAGBRAI Day 4

Leon to Centerville - 37 miles ( for me)

I had a plan to sag early today, to try to get in early and let my tent and everything dry out from the dew, and to give my saddle sores a rest (TMI, I know).

There were a lot of little cities between the two stops today, which was nice.  Humeston made an impression with a bull you could actually pay to sit on.  I had to get the shirt.  The back says "My other ride is a bike!"

I was taking a break at the top of a huge hill when the sag wagon came along, and I decided it was my time to join them.  There were only about 4 other people when I joined, but we packed that van in the next 10 miles.  I couldn't even keep my eyes open in the van, and neither could anyone else.  It was a quiet ride to Centerville.

Once I got there and unloaded, I wanted a shower, and someone at the info tent overheard me asking about them and offered to give me a drive up, which was so nice.  People in these towns are genuinely happy we are there.  So I showered in the shower truck again, then got on a shuttle to downtown instead of the campground, so I just went with it.  Ran into Angie and two of her friends, and we had a slice of pizza together.

I went on a hunt for wifi, since I had no cell service and couldn't let anyone know I was still alive.  I found it at an old fashioned ice cream shop, also selling food on the sidewalk.  The guy working the register was nice, and we talked about him being from Colorado and how weird the Midwest is for its homogeneous small towns.  Nice guy.  I laid on the grass in the town square for a while and just watched the sky.  It was a beautiful and relaxing evening.

I wandered and had a maid-rite for second dinner, since I'd never had one.  Basically just ground beef on a bun, but it  hit the spot.  The I wandered back o the ice cream shop for wifi, charging my phone, real bathrooms, and ice cream.  Spent the rest of my evening in there just lounging.

Got back to camp, and spent 30 min blowing up my air mattress.  What a pain!  We could hear the nights entertainment, Hairball (the band that covers 80's Hair band hits) all the way from downtown, at least a mile away.  Then, a couple who must have been down there partying starts to set up camp within inches of my tent.  And they argue, and speak in normal voices, even though they know everyone else is asleep or trying to get there.  Jerks.

RAGBRAI Day 3

Creston to Leon - 58 miles

Today was much better than yesterday.  It had fewer of those never ending climbs, but still the same heat and humidity.  There were only 4 towns on the route, and about two turns total, and I think the fewer number of towns there are to suck me in, the better.  I move faster without distraction.

Diagonal was a cute little town with an adorable printing press museum.  I took a short tour before the town spit me out right into a huge climb.  But at the top, there was a deer farm where you could feed the deer.  I didn't stop to feed them, but I did stop to watch the one donkey in the pen chase the deer around.

More hills, even if they weren't as bad.  I finally stopped and had some of the Beekmans homemade ice cream, made by steam engines that you can hear from half a mile away, that is a RAGBRAI staple.  Delicious peach amazingness.  Then I had an Amish-made pickle stuffed with cream cheese and bacon.  Also amazing.  Pickles are a big deal because they are supposed to keep your legs from cramping.

 I honestly don't remember if anything else exciting happened, other than getting cell service briefly outside a town before the end town.

Thankfully Beth keeps saving me prime tent sites when she arrives hours ahead of me at these places.  I set up my tent on the high school baseball outfield, then headed into the school to shower.  Showers on RAGBRAI are an experience.  This one was in a girls locker room, with only 5 working stalls.  I waited in line for an hour to get clean.  Then I wanted to get the lasagna dinner they were serving at the high school, but left the cash at my tent, and they were nearly out of dinner.  Luckily, by the time I got back with cash, they had two servings left, which I promptly devoured.  I had eaten first dinner of string cheese, hummus with pretzels, and a whatchamacallit at the Hy-Vee coming into town.  I have forgotten how much you can eat while bicycle touring!  But I devoured this dinner too.  After charging my phone in the various hallways of the school, and using their wifi, it was 9:30 and I was exhausted.  It was an easy sleep in the tent that night.

One more thing about RAGBRAI that is amazing - people leave their electronics charging everywhere and just walk away. Electricity is at a premium on this trip, and everyone trusts everyone else as a community not to take what isn't theirs.  Same with bikes - no locks, no matter how long or far away you'll go.  It's a unique community of people, but I like that part of it!

RAGBRAI Day 2

Shenandoah to Creston - 55 Miles (for me, anyway)

Today was a real killer - it was over 75 miles with some of the worst sustained hills imaginable.  I heard several RAGBRAI alumnus say that it was one of the worst days they ever remember on RAGBRAI, other than some of the days in 2011 when there were heat indices over 100 degrees every day.

It started out ok - the first 40 miles went by quickly, and I felt pretty good.  We stopped in a couple of towns - Essex, Bethesda, Villisca (where I skipped the tour of the axe murder house, and now regret).  I had lunch in Villisca - veggie stir fry with jasmine rice, which was yummy.  

Post lunchtime is my biggest striggle point of the day.  My legs stiffen up when I take any sort of break, and I usually take a longer break for lunch, plus it usually marks the point in the day where the weather switches from warm, to steamy hell-hot, and the devilish sun sears my skin as it starts to set behind me. 

I also got my first ever flat tire today.  I noticed it getting flat, and figured it just needed some extra air, so I stopped to pump it up.  While I did, a guy from the Air Force cycling team (there are about 150 of them on RAGBRAI, and they have been helping people out along the route as a sort of PR campaign.  It's a really nice gesture) stopped to ask if I needed help.  I told him I was good, pumped it up, then peddled on.  I got to the top of the hill, went to get on the bike after a break, and noticed everything in the rear end went all squirrelly.  The tire was completely flat.  I pulled off to the side, luckily right next to the Air Force guy who has just offered to help.  He told me to take a break while he changed the tire for me - so nice!  After that, I was back on the road.

I stopped at a farmhouse to see a giant boar at some point.  Then I made it through two more towns after lunch, and halfway between the second to last town of the day, when, after climbing (or pushing) to the top of a lingering monster hill, I turned a corner to be faced with two more staring me in the face.  Totally demoralizing!

At the same corner I had just turned, I noticed several bikes turned upside down, which is the RAGBRAI signal for the sag wagon to stop and pick you up.  This is a free service provided by RAGBRAI, no questions asked.  I stopped and talked to the group, and quickly decided to join this "I've had enough of this crap for today" gang. We gathered more members the longer we waited, and eventually had 7 waiting.  Two were picked up by a friend of one of the guys stopped with us, one got on an almost full sag wagon, and the rest of us waited almost 2 hours for a sag with room.  oh, sag wagons at RAGBRAI are basically 12 passenger vans with lots of bike racks attached to a trailer towed behind.

A few guys from one of the heavy drinking teams stopped while we waited for the sag - drinking is huge on RAGBRIAI, with several beer stops along the way.  I don't know how these people drink all day in the hot sun and still cycle 50+ miles.  Beer doesn't even sound good to me this week - but they cracked open a few cold ones from the pockets of their bike jerseys and enjoyed them at mile 55 anyway, before heading off to get another 20 miles in.

We made the long drive to Creston, where thankfully Beth and Angie had saved me a campsite (they are fast), and I set up camp and then headed downtown on the shuttle to grab dinner.  Having the same dinner options every night is getting old, but it could be worse...I could be limited to convenience store food only.  I tried a local place, but it was seat yourself and totally packed.  One guy on his way out as I came in said "good luck", so I should have taken that as a sign and moved on.  I had soba noodles and veggies for dinner, charged my phone, then headed back to camp for the night.  

I should mention that nearly everyone I've met on this trip had been very nice and personable, rider or  volunteer or local.  I talked to a rider on the shuttle bus home named Ned - a 75 year old who had to sag in because his legs cramped up.  He said he was energized by our conversation since I believed in his ability to do this ride.  So sweet!

RAGBRAI Day 2

Shenandoah to Creston - 55 Miles (for me, anyway)

Today was a real killer - it was over 75 miles with some of the worst sustained hills imaginable.  I heard several RAGBRAI alumnus say that it was one of the worst days they ever remember on RAGBRAI, other than some of the days in 2011 when there were heat indices over 100 degrees every day.

It started out ok - the first 40 miles went by quickly, and I felt pretty good.  We stopped in a couple of towns - Essex, Bethesda, Villisca (where I skipped the tour of the axe murder house, and now regret).  I had lunch in Villisca - veggie stir fry with jasmine rice, which was yummy.  

Post lunchtime is my biggest striggle point of the day.  My legs stiffen up when I take any sort of break, and I usually take a longer break for lunch, plus it usually marks the point in the day where the weather switches from warm, to steamy hell-hot, and the devilish sun sears my skin as it starts to set behind me. 

I stopped at a farmhouse to see a giant boar at some point.  Then I made it through two more towns after lunch, and halfway between the second to last town of the day, when, after climbing (or pushing) to the top of a lingering monster hill, I turned a corner to be faced with two more staring me in the face.  Totally demoralizing!

At the same corner I had just turned, I noticed several bikes turned upside down, which is the RAGBRAI signal for the sag wagon to stop and pick you up.  This is a free service provided by RAGBRAI, no questions asked.  I stopped and talked to the group, and quickly decided to join this "I've had enough of this crap for today" gang. We gathered more members the longer we waited, and eventually had 7 waiting.  Two were picked up by a friend of one of the guys stopped with us, one got on an almost full sag wagon, and the rest of us waited almost 2 hours for a sag with room.  oh, sag wagons at RAGBRAI are basically 12 passenger vans with lots of bike racks attached to a trailer towed behind.

A few guys from one of the heavy drinking teams stopped while we waited for the sag - drinking is huge on RAGBRIAI, with several beer stops along the way.  I don't know how these people drink all day in the hot sun and still cycle 50+ miles.  Beer doesn't even sound good to me this week - but they cracked open a few cold ones from the pockets of their bike jerseys and enjoyed them at mile 55 anyway, before heading off to get another 20 miles in.

We made the long drive to Creston, where thankfully Beth and Angie had saved me a campsite (they are fast), and I set up camp and then headed downtown on the shuttle to grab dinner.  Having the same dinner options every night is getting old, but it could be worse...I could be limited to convenience store food only.  I tried a local place, but it was seat yourself and totally packed.  One guy on his way out as I came in said "good luck", so I should have taken that as a sign and moved on.  I had soba noodles and veggies for dinner, charged my phone, then headed back to camp for the night.  

I should mention that nearly everyone I've met on this trip had been very nice and personable, rider or  volunteer or local.  I talked to a rider on the shuttle bus home named Ned - a 75 year old who had to sag in because his legs cramped up.  He said he was energized by our conversation since I believed in his ability to do this ride.  So sweet!

RAGBRAI Day 1

Day 1...Glenwood to Shenandoah - 55 miles

It was a late night in Glenwood - fireworks, drunk people, sleeping next to the porta-potties, and being anxious about the day ahead (and probably sleeping on the ground) did not lead to restful sleep.  Not to mention I was sleeping near the baggage trucks (you give RAGBRAI your luggage every morning and they truck it to the next stop), which start setting up at 4:45, which also is when some weirdos get up and get ready for the day.  I got one good hour of sleep from 5-6.

On the bus from Muscatine to Glenwood, I met a lady named Angie, who is also a RAGBRAI virgin (that's the term around here) so we decided to hang out and set up camp near each other.  She has a few friends doing RAGBRAI too, and we met a few of them at the expo in downtown Glenwood.

I got on the road about 7:30, and they started the route right up a nasty hill, because, of course.  We stopped in the small towns of Malvern, Randolph (really just a church on a hill), and Tabor on the way.  It was very hot, but got cloudy for the remaining part of the day, which helped a lot.  I felt strong throughout the day, which honestly surprised me.  I did stop a lot on hills, and occasionally walk up them, but that's par for the course for me.

It was a pretty good day of riding.  I picked up my luggage, set up my tent, went downtown to the expo with Angie and her friend Beth, who is also super nice, and we had food truck dinner and ice cream.  They headed back, while I plugged my phone into the side of city hall to charge.  Phone power and cell service are valuable commodities out here!

Then it was back to the campground (fortunately RAGBRAI has free shuttles at the overnight towns, so we didn't have to ride) to head to bed.  I took a shower in a shower truck.  It had rained and thunderstormed earlier in the evening, so it was a damp night.  But I slept much better after being completely exhausted.  And I survived, which is important.