Laundry

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.

RAGBRAI Food Review

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!

Home for a Night

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.

Padding

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!

Real Bikers

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."

Great Combination

Giant fans and dessert. Way to go, Paton, IA!

Off to a Great Start

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!

Trying a Different Approach

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.

We then made our way into town, stopped by to ask some locals setting up a snack stand where we could get indoor breakfast (I was tempted for a moment to answer affirmatively when they asked if we had biked all the way from Atlantic at 9am, but knew I wouldn't keep a straight face), and then went a few more blocks to HyVee based on their advice.

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...

An Adventurous Start

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.

Sustenance

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."

RAGBRAI Tradition 263

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.

Our Century

In cycling the term "century" means a ride of 100 miles (I know that probably just blew your mind). On RAGBRAI last year, we discovered that the organizers always plan one day with an extra optional loop which the serious-to-hardcore cyclists can take to get their mileage up to 100 for the day, and complete a century during the week long ride.

We found ourselves challenged enough with the normal distance each day of RAGBRAI, generally averaging somewhere between 60 and 70 miles, so we definitely passed up on the century. In fact, I believe by the time we got to the optional loop, the organizers were actually telling riders it was too late in the day to take the loop and safely make it to the overnight town before dark. After that experience I had a hard time fathoming the idea that we would ever complete a century with our current cycling skills and equipment (we have hybrid bikes and no special toe clips or clip-on pedals to improve our efficiency).

What a difference a year makes! We planned our first round trip ride between Ames and Des Moines for today, which we estimated to be 92 miles. At the crack of 7am we were leaving our driveway, taking the bike lane on South Dakota out of Ames to Slater where we jumped on the High Trestle Trail to Ankeny. Once we reached the trailhead, we headed west on 1st Street towards Saylorville Lake until we got to the Neal Smith Trail, and completed the final leg into downtown Des Moines.

We reached our lunch destination of Fong's Pizza around 1:30pm, and found we had gone 48.1 miles! Some of that distance was extra riding we did while trying (and occasionally failing) to follow a detour near the end of the Neal Smith Trail, due to the high water of the Des Moines River. But still, with the slightly-higher than expected mileage, I realized that by the time we rode back home, we would be within a few miles of a century.

This was too good an opportunity to pass up! But first, I had to convince Amy. I casually suggested it while we were leaving Fong's to plant the idea in her head.

Here is a picture of her pondering this thought while we were on the north side of the Saylorville Lake dam.

By the time we were on our way back through Slater I had pretty much gone to self-pity, explaining that this would probably be the only time in my life I would ever be this close to a century; how could we not ride the extra five or so miles!?

I am not above self-pity.

I also promised I would never ask her to do a century again. Ever.

Amy came around, and once we got to Ames we took a few (quite a few) extra laps through the streets in our neighborhood in order to get up the requisite three digit odometer reading.

The final tally: 100.2 miles!

Made Right

We stopped in Tama for lunch today and had what I like to refer to as "more than just a loose-meat sandwich." The Maid-Rite is a tasty meal, made all the more special to me because we always stopped at this particular restaurant, The Big T, in my youth on the annual family outing to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Trestles and Trails

This past Sunday Mother Nature finally remembered that it is Spring and turned the outdoor thermostat up a few degrees, as well as giving us a break from the rain that never seemed to end last week. We jumped at the chance to get back out on our bicycles and put in a solid day of RAGBRAI training.

While we have been able to squeeze in some 15 mile rides after dinner every once in awhile, we have been feeling the pressure to get in some longer rides (a typical day on RAGBRAI is 60-80 miles). After eating a late breakfast we decided we had enough time to head out of Ames on South Dakota Ave and try out the new highway bike lanes completed this spring that go the entire nine miles south to Slater (a town made infamous in this post).

There is nothing quite like the feeling of riding smooth-tire bicycles on fresh asphalt (and by fresh I mean having been laid within the past year; asphalt laid earlier that same day would provide an entirely different and likely less enjoyable cycling experience). On the reasonably flat grade we felt as if we were gliding over the surface, propelled by the pollen spores bursting from the drainage ditch grass along the entire route. At various points Amy checked her speedometer and found that we were going 20+ MPH with our normal effort! This was a nice boost over our experience on RAGBRAI last year, when we could only get close to 20 MPH if we really pushed ourselves for short bursts on the flatter stretches. Apparently turning off the suspension in the front forks of our bikes really does make a difference--thanks to the fellow Bike World RAGBRAI charter member who gave us that tip last year after we returned. We're looking forward to putting it into action this year.

We reached Slater in what felt like no time at all, and as we turned onto the two-block long main street I was wondering if we'd have any luck finding a place to eat in the small town. Fortunately we saw some fellow cyclists who looked refreshed and ready to ride leaving the Take Down Bar & Grill. Clearly we had found the right spot for lunch.


We grabbed seats at the empty bar, ordered some sodas and burgers with fries, and watched NASCAR which happened to be on at that moment. Since racing isn't exactly my favorite spectator sport, I was elated when the bartender handed me the remote! I quickly found game seven of the NBA Playoffs game featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. the Memphis Grizzlies, which we both found to be much more entertaining. Amy and I discussed the intricacies of the game, including how challenging and irritating it must be to play basketball with a big bushy beard like this guy.


Alas, our basketball watching was not for long, as an old timer named John soon came in, greeted the bartender by first name, then grabbed a seat near us and said, "I wonder if there's any NASCAR on... you ain't watching this are ya?"

Of course I didn't want to come across as the city slicker down from Ames who thinks he runs the place, so I obligingly bent the truth a little with my response.

"Nope."

The food was great, and as we ate our meal some more of the locals showed up, all of whom knew John. It was fun listening in on their conversations, including the story about a girl at the bar the previous night who had just moved there from Jacksonville, FL and though she would like it, but wasn't happy with the small town feel or the fact that, according to her, everyone who lived there was "creepy." I'm not sure how someone from Florida decides that Slater, IA would be a great relocation destination if they're not into the small-town thing, but perhaps she'll try relocating again a little further south to West Des Moines for the Jordan Creek Mall and more of a big city feel.

As for us, Slater and its Take Down Bar & Grill will definitely become a favorite bicycle destination of ours.

With our bellies full of energy-stoking calories, we headed out again, and jumped on the 25 mile long High Trestle Trail which forms a sort of boomerang shape with its tips pointing to the south and west, and the midsection "elbow" (that's a boomerang term, right?) pointing at Slater. Having heard a lot about the just-opened High Trestle Bridge, a 13-story tall, half-mile long pedestrian bridge over the Des Moines River, we were really interested in checking it out and riding over it.

Thirteen miles later, we came upon the bridge, and it did not disappoint! The following pictures don't do it justice, but they provide an idea of its awesomeness. For all those East or West Coasters who think Iowa is completely flat, I invite you to visit this bridge and gaze upon the impressive hills of the Des Moines River Valley. We may not have the Rockies or the Grand Canyon, but I would still pay money to see some crazy daredevil with a jetpack fly across this valley.


I cannot fathom how the concrete was poured for the path surface. The columns rising out of the river were already there from an older railroad bridge, but the surface was completely replaced, and apparently some brave concrete truck drivers had to back down the completed portion of the path to deliver the material needed to complete the next section. Wow.

The artistic touches on the bridge are interesting as well. The spiraling frame structures are intended to evoke the feeling of looking down a mine shaft, which were numerous in the area a few centuries ago and mined by immigrant Italians.


After continuing on a few more miles to the western endpoint of the trail at Woodward, we turned around and rode back, crossing the bridge again and stopping in nearby Madrid for a quick calorie boost with some ice cream at the Filling Station, which appropriately enough looks like (and probably once was) an old-timey filling station.


Finally we were ready for the thirteen mile trek back to Slater, followed by the last nine miles to Ames. Well, one of was ready at least. The other one (who may or may not be me, but if you could see me now let's just say I would be giving you my "shifty eyes") should probably have spent more time on the stationary bike at the rec center and less time perfecting their free-throw stroke over the past winter. More on that in a bit.

While the wind was relatively friendly to us during the first half of our journey, it seemed to have shifted when we turned around in Woodward, and from that point forward we would have constant headwind coming out the north east, which wasn't so great since our remaining directions of travel were east and north. After slogging through some grueling miles we finally arrived back at Slater, and found the oasis that is a Casey's General Store. Known for their gas, pizza, and sandwiches, we stopped in and consumed two out of those three (determining which two is left to the reader as a guessing game).

Amy's superior training regimen left her in pretty good shape, but I was feeling a bit run down from all the wind we rode through on the way back to Slater. After sitting on the curb for a while, soaking up some sun and consuming our dinner, I figured I was good to go for the last nine miles to the edge of Ames.

Turns out "good to go" was an overly optimistic opinion. "Ambivalent about lower limb amputation" would have been more apt after riding through a few miles on the highway bike lane with nothing but empty corn fields between us and the wind. My legs were becoming less and less functional with each passing farmhouse, and by the time we had inched back to Ames at an average speed of 8 MPH, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to walk down the stairs to my home office the next morning. We totaled 55 miles for the entire trip, which was a great accomplishment (last year we didn't get a 50+ mile ride in until July), but afterwards I realized I should have worked my distance up a bit more gradually and put in as much winter training as Amy.

Happily, I am writing this post a few days later, having stayed off the bike all of Monday and most of Tuesday, and at this point the consistency of my legs has improved from jelly to cookie dough. Hopefully another few days and they'll be back to a solid state.

As has happened more times than I'd like to admit in the past six months, I am once again learning the lesson that my doctor has explained quite well in layman's terms during my previous couple of visits.

"You aren't nineteen any more."

Eventful Weekend

You might say this turned out to be quite an eventful weekend.

Titletown

We got things started Friday night with our second attempt at watching the Iowa Energy, Des Moines' NBA Development (aka minor) League team win the D-League championship for the first time in its short four year history. Each round of the D-League playoffs consists of a best-of-three series, with the first game at the lower-ranked team's site, and the second and, if necessary, third games at the higher-ranked team's location. The Energy made it to the championship round and won the first game in Texas against the their opponent, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers!

The team has gained a decent following over the past few years partly thanks to former Iowa State Cyclone Curtis Stinson leading the team on the court, playing at a high level as the starting point guard. The level of excitement around the team took a huge leap when the buzz started in central Iowa that the team had a great shot at winning their first league championship in game two last Wednesday.

Most people figured, hey, if the team can win game one in front of a hostile crowd on the road, in Texas of all states, then winning at home in front of one of the best crowds in the league with the championship one victory away should be a walk in the park, right?

Unfortunately, that's probably what the players thought as well, and we (along with current ISU men's basketball coach and free-throw machine Fred Hoiberg!) sat among the D-League all-time record crowd of 14,000+ in Des Moines as the Energy let the game get out of hand in the third quarter, and the Vipers evened the series one game each.

That left the final and decisive game scheduled for last Friday. We had been planning to get in a long bike ride to kick our RAGBRAI preparations into high gear Friday after work, but then the cold and wind conspired against us, so we decided instead to make the trip back down to Des Moines for the game. While the tickets were quite reasonable at face value, we got a real deal from someone we met on the street walking to the game: two tickets for five bucks each, sitting in the sixth row near one end of the court.

Turns out that we were fortunate the weather canceled our biking plans, as we ended up witnessing a great game and, best of all, the celebration afterwards as the Energy hoisted the championship trophy. I have never before been doused in so much confetti!



Dang Good Pizza

Being in attendance for such a victory meant that we had to celebrate, so we headed to Court Avenue and partook in some of the best pizza known to central Iowa at Fong's Pizza. Here is a photo of one of the many delicious slices of crab rangoon pizza that we consumed.



Full disclosure: a loss in the game would have been an excuse to drown our sorrows in cheese and crust, so we were pretty much doing Fong's no matter what!

Hackstravaganza

Saturday was the annual Cyber Defense Competition, hosted by Iowa State University at Hilton Coliseum, and my second time participating fully as a member of the Red team. There were 25 teams from Iowa high schools across the state registered as Blue teams, tasked with protecting a mock computer network for a fake corporation while the Red team members try to hack in to read and write flags to protected locations on hard drives. The Blue teams lose points for each successful intrusion by the Red team, and the team with the most points wins honor and glory and some nifty prizes.

The highlight of the day for me was during the "fire drill" in the afternoon when the Blue teams were required to leave their work spaces, and the Red team members got to walk around for twenty minutes looking for unlocked terminals and useful information laying out in the open. I happened across a piece of paper where a team had written down all their administrator passwords and promptly snapped a photo with my smartphone.

Obama vs Osama

Of course the most significant event of the weekend was the announcement on live TV by the President Sunday evening that Osama bin Laden had been found and killed in Pakistan by a team of Navy Seals. While previous generations had Martin Luther King or JFK, 9/11 was the first event seared into our memories, and I remember walking across campus in Ames that morning on my way to a parallel programming class when I met Bethany from our dorm coming the opposite way between Music Hall and Carver Hall. As I was about to offer a friendly "Hello," she stopped me to mention some bizarre news about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. It would be another few hours before I returned from class and learned that what seemed at first like a strange accident turned out to be anything but.

It is hard to believe that nearly a decade has passed since that day. While I don't believe the elimination of bin Laden has suddenly rid the world of terrorism, the event does provide a sort of cathartic satisfaction that also seemed to be felt everywhere from DC and NYC to the campuses of Penn State and Iowa State.

One can only imagine the thoughts going through the heads of the Executive branch in this incredible photo apparently taken at the White House as the events were going down in Pakistan. Hopefully the successes in fighting terrorism continue for this and future administrations.

Lofty Goals

As I continue my journey of recovering from an ankle sprained twice within two months (January and February), I have worked my way back onto the basketball court at the campus rec center. Rest assured, I am only shooting free throws and practicing my 180-degree turnaround fall-away jumper, and I am consistently turning down all requests to even out odd-numbered groups of Chinese graduate students who want to get a pickup game going.

Tonight I had to resist the extra special incentive for trying to get in a pickup game when I saw various members of the Iowa State men's basketball team taking on all challengers. While standing on the sideline I got this picture of Calvin Godfrey putting up a jumper while fellow freshmen Jordan Railey and a partially-obscured Melvin Ejim look on.

There is something oddly intriguing about wanting to get in a game like this just so I could someday tell my future children, "Hey, see that guy with the name Godfrey playing professional basketball on TV? He dunked on me once at the Rec! Awesome, right!?!?"

The sky's the limit, baby. The sky's the limit.

Biking on the Rebound

With the Iowa temperatures creeping up into the seasonably Spwingter zone of the mid-forties, we got the bicycles prepped and took a short ride out to the mall and back. Of course a bike ride to the mall is not complete without a stop at Cookies, Etc, followed by a stroll up and down the hallway to browse a little at GameStop and count the depressing number of vacant storefronts.

Fortunately I am in a healthy enough state to ride the bicycle. While the ankle band in this picture is intended to keep my pant leg from rubbing on the chain, I would probably be well-advised to also wear such a band with reflective warning tape next time I attempt to play basketball at the rec. The last time I tried a few weeks ago (without a warning band) I managed to sprain my right ankle for the second time in two months. Perhaps the reflective tape would have caused the other players to think "That ankle looks like trouble" and they would give it plenty of room for the foot to land and perhaps even lend a hand to help guide it squarely to the ground.

For some reason (like, oh, maybe the first time I rolled the same ankle just before New Year's), my brain failed to tell my right foot to straighten out for landing when I jumped for a rebound, and I came down on the side of it. Though I felt like I had rehabbed my ankle plenty since the first sprain, in hindsight I probably didn't spend enough time retraining my reflexes to react properly. As my physician told me, "you're not 19 anymore."

Perhaps it's time to put the basketball shoes away for awhile and focus on bicycle season.

Or in a few weeks when I feel like I'm ready to go again, I just need to remember that I'm an outside shooter, and let the 19 year old college kids deal with rebounding.

Happy Pi Day!

We returned to Perkins to celebrate Pi Day 2011 with slices of peanut butter silk and french silk pie. Adam wanted pumpkin and was heartbroken to learn that it is seasonal. I think I see a homemade pumpkin pie in our future.

We prepped for our Pi Day extravaganza with a trip to the rec. I'm going to go ahead and pretend that my slice of pie had fewer calories than I burned in my hour on the exercise bike.

Although we enjoy celebrating Pi Day every year, we are really looking forward to 2015, when the date will represent the first five digits of pi (3.1415) rather than just the first three. Of course, none of this will matter if the world ends in 2012. We'd better live it up while we can.

Speaking of living it up, I had a revelation tonight: because pi's decimal representation never ends or repeats, theoretically any date could be represented in it. Woohoo! Pie every day!

As a special bonus, because we haven't posted in a month, I leave you with pi represented to 50 decimal places. You're welcome.

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510

Happy Valentine's Day!

Adam and I don't do a whole lot for Valentine's Day, partly because Adam's birthday is on February 8 and on February 14 we're still recovering from that! But we are happy to take advantage of an excuse to go out for a meal.

Our Valentine's Day dinner of choice this year was sushi at Fuji Japanese Steakhouse. We were among the first 100 couples to be seated for dinner tonight, so they gave us a rose!

Adam spent a few minutes artistically arranging the rose and a jar of soy sauce before he snapped this photo.

We ordered a rainbow roll plus two Valentine's Day special rolls. They were so delicious that we ate half of our food before we remembered to take a picture. We've never had sushi or sashimi at Fuji that didn't taste fresh, and after we moved back, it quickly became one of our favorite Ames restaurants.

We rounded out the evening with some frozen custard from Culver's. Sushi and custard are a guaranteed recipe for a successful Valentine's Day!

ARGH

Men lose again. Nope, don't want to talk about it. Oh wait, there are a couple things I want to mention:

• I love it when Hoiberg gets all up in the refs' faces
• One of the KSU guys tried to BITE one of our guys. What is up with that?!
  

In other news, Adam says this cartoon is about us. I do not disagree.

I think we will have a post tomorrow that involves a cool picture or two. We shall see. In case you are going through picture withdrawal, you can check out our Missouri/New Orleans/Missouri album from our trip in January. Click on the pictures for commentary.