We survived some nasty hills at the end of today's 77 mile ride, and now it's time for Bike World's end-of-week coordination meeting and root beer floats. One day to go...
Amy informed me that I am lucky because she "hasn't threatened to kill me yet this week."
Looks like we're doing better than last year!
The gas station in Oxford has complimentary issues of Tractor House magazine available for patrons.
I am happy to report that both of my speakers are in working order after one tried to abandon ship yesterday. As you can see it is now being forcibly restrained with the power of duct tape.
Amy requested music by The Avett Brothers, and after we were going out of Ladora I got a nice compliment from a passing rider: "best music I've heard all day!"
While riding down a very steep hill near the end of today's ride, I heard a thud, and looking back saw that one of the speakers I had rigged up on my trunk bag had fallen off. This would be bad enough under normal conditions, but it was worse due to the hazard my speaker created for bikers cruising down the hill at 30+ mph. I quickly pulled off, jogged back up he hill 20 yards, and carefully retrieved my speaker while trying to avoid becoming an even greater obstacle.
Once this mission was complete I proceeded down to the bottom of the hill and met up with Amy at this location on a bridge looking out over Rock Creek State Park.
I really don't know if there is any food you can't find on RAGBRAI. This afternoon we stopped between hills for some Dutch pastries.
We had some awesome pizza from Gusto Pizza at the 80/35 music festival in Des Moines a few weeks ago, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity when I saw them on today's ride.
Since most RAGBRAI lodging is in the form of camping, one has to find creative ways to dry biking clothes after rinsing them down in the shower. Here is one method I spotted in our campground earlier today.
Just had the best meal on RAGBRAI so far (discounting our Hickory Park stop in Ames last night) thanks to Pronto, based out of Des Moines. Awesome burrito bowl with pulled pork. We'll definitely be looking for them tomorrow in Grinnell!
Knowing that tonight's overnight town, Boone, was just a short drive from Ames, we made arrangements with Amy's parents to get a ride from Boone to our home in Ames for some quality showering, bedding, air conditioning, and a visit to the greatest eatery known to man, which is, of course, Hickory Park.
Tomorrow we'll ride back onto the route south of Ames where it turns toward Slater.
Long-distance cyclists generally wear special shorts with extra padding to help ease the discomfort of sitting on a bicycle seat all day. These two ladies have added onto this strategy with some padding of their own!
We saw this message on a marquee in one of the pass through towns today. Good to see that, for one week out of the year at least, we are considered "real bikers."
We got up at 5am, left camp at 6am, and made it to Lanesboro, the second pass-through town, by 7:15am. With just over a quarter of the day's ride over, it's a great time to stop for pancakes!
After our experience yesterday on RAGBRAI, we decided that some drastic measures were in order for today, as the amount of total climb increases from 4,298 feet to 4,719 feet and the heat forecast was showing no signs of letting up. While Alfredo is zipping from town to town at warp speed on his classic early 90's era Trek road bike, we're still working with our hybrid bike technology, and most important of all we need to get the chain on Amy's bike fixed or replaced.
Since we knew today wouldn't be a good riding day for these various reasons, we planned ahead while hanging out with Team Daydrinker yesterday (they are true to their name, by the way) to work out a solution. Fortunately we live in a capitalistic society, and if there is a need (sagging for an entire day of RAGBRAI), someone will find a way to make money while providing a valuable service. A group by the name of Pork Belly Ventures operates a RAGBRAI charter service, and they also offer an all-day sag service from one overnight town to the next on a first-come first-served basis for 25 bucks. They take reservations the day before, and we were able to arrange for a ride all the way from Atlantic to Carroll.
At 6am this morning we made our way from the Bikeworld campsite 10 blocks down the street to Pork Belly Ventures and had a nice, quiet, AIR CONDITIONED ride to Carroll. Pictured below is Amy in front of the semi truck trailer that carried our bikes, waiting for it to be unloaded in Carroll.
And so here I am, polishing off a tasty Hy Five breakfast platter. Hey, this RAGBRAI stuff ain't so bad when you don't have to ride your bike!
Soon we'll find one of the bike repair shops to get Amy's bike fixed up, then rest and reset for tomorrow, when we only have 1,787 feet of climb and hopefully slightly cooler temperatures on our way to Boone (and real showers and a bed at our house in Ames, thanks to Amy's parents for the lift the extra 10 miles).
Now, to try and figure out why I didn't go looking for a tandem road bike after last year's RAGBRAI...
Some might not use the word "adventurous" to describe our first day on RAGBRAI (Amy, for example), but I think it will be looked upon as a favorable adjective in 10 years or so.
We made it through the first 20 miles on our trusty hybrids, which we upgraded from last year with better pedals and grips, but it wasn't quite enough to deal with hills that were very hilly, heat that was very hot, and humidity that was like a frickin' sauna!
After taking a lunch break at Mr. Porkchop a few miles before the town of Carson, we attempted to get going again when the chain on Amy's bike got wedged in a place on the rear wheel where chains are not accustomed to finding themselves. In my effort to free it I managed to cause a link to break apart, and ended up dropping the chain on the ground, free of being shackled to the bicycle gear system.
At this point it was fairly clear that fate was sending us a message. We got a ride into Carson from the nice owners of the farm where Mr. Porkchop was set up, and then began looking around for a RAGBRAI team with a bus who might be willing to take a few hitchhikers on to Atlantic, the overnight town where our tents and luggage were waiting for us.
As we surveyed the options, I saw one team bus close by with a few guys outside preparing to do something involving a funnel and beer. Thinking this might not quite be our crowd, we turned around, saw a bright yellow bus exuding sunshiny happiness, and headed that way instead.
We were in luck, as Amber and her fellow Team Daydrinker crew had room. We chipped in some gas money and obliged when they told us to pull up some chairs and enjoy a few drinks in the shade. Things were looking up as we knew we had a ride to Atlantic and some nice people to take us there.
Little did we know we wouldn't exactly be taking a direct route, but it was all part of the adventure. After riding the team bus to Lewis to wait for some of their team members to get off the ride for the day, there were two that got stranded a few miles out due to mechanical problems. It took some time and driving on gravel roads, and an accidental detour to a historical Underground Railroad house, but we eventually found them, then made our way the last 10 miles to Atlantic.
Once we got into town, Amy and I kept an eye out for our campsite with the Bikeworld charter while Team Daydrinker was trying to find the host family residence where they would be camping out. As luck had it, they drove right up to our campsite during this process. We stopped, thanked them for their hospitality, removed the fairly large tree branch that had somehow become attached to the rear of the bus (tall buses with bike racks on top don't mix well with low hanging tree limbs), unloaded our bikes, and made our way to camp around 8:30pm.
After taking the best showers we have ever experienced at the local YMCA, we got in a late night meal at Burger King with Alfredo and then called it a night. Hopefully today was the most "adventurous" day we'll have this week.
Alfredo looks right at home ordering a round of beers on his first RAGBRAI at the Keg Creek brewpub's grand opening in Glenwood. As another patron's shirt said, "Beer is Food."
As this is the beginning of our second RAGBRAI we can now start listing the many traditions we have established over the past 1.1 rides. First up: Saturday morning breakfast at McDonald's.
