Overheard on RAGBRAI

In everyday life you often overhear funny bits of conversation, and RAGBRAI is no different. Here are a couple I heard today:

Art of Arguing on Bicycle

Man talking on cell phone while riding a recumbent bicycle up a steep hill: "I don't know why you're even asking me. We had an agreement, now you're changing it, and I'm on a steep hill!"

Teaching Moments

Woman riding a tandem bicycle with her son in the neighborhood of six or seven years old, after riding by sign proclaiming Dubuque as Iowa's first city: "Did you know that Delaware was the first state?"

Son: "On earth?"

Project 365 Day 212: Two Rivers and 442 Miles Between

The journey is over, and I think we'll take the next week (month? year?) off as far as biking goes. It was quite an incredible experience to bike every mile through northern Iowa from the Missouri river to the Mississippi (where I dipped my front tire in this picture), and along the way we saw a lot of neat places and met some nice people. We'll probably go back to at least Clear Lake and Charles City sometime on our own to explore more, based on what we saw while spending nights there this week.

As for the future of our RAGBRAI careers, it remains to be determined when or if we'll do the ride again. We learned a lot about how to do RAGBRAI properly by doing it for the first time, learning from some mistakes along the way. Number one mistake: doing the whole week on hybrid bikes with plain old pedals. The majority of people with road bikes and clip-on pedals could go 1.5 to 2 times as fast as us, and we're in pretty good pedaling shape. Faster speed means less time on the bike, which means less aches and pain and more time to check out all the great communities on the route.

We'll give ourselves some space from this past week, and perhaps in a cold winter snowstorm sometime in January we'll start thinking about how nice it would be to ride on some county highways... on road bikes!

RAGBRAI: At the End

This banner was a happy site to see, marking the end of the journey. Luckily (sarcasm) I got to ride an extra 3 miles just to get to the parking lot where the Bikeworld charter was loading.

RAGBRAI: Pedaling to the Port

The end (of RAGBRAI) is near. In this picture I am pedaling through downtown Dubuque towards the port.

RAGBRAI: Potter Hill

The last day of RAGBRAI included the hardest climb. Potter Hill, about 8 miles outside of Dubuque, had an average grade of 10% and a peak grade of 19%. It was only a mile long, but I could only make it halfway up in my lowest gear before I had to stop for a breather, at which point I turned around and took this picture of everyone else struggling up. About half tried pedaling up and the rest walked. While my pedaling was not much faster than walking (if at all), I am proud to say I finished the hill on bike after my rest.

Project 365 Day 211: Biking Down Memory Lane

Today's route on the bike ride took me through Rowley, IA, my first hometown. I stopped at the street corner of this house, where my parents lived and raised me until I was one year old. Apparently I had a penchant for running out towards the busy street while my mom was hanging laundry, which I believe helped them make the decision to move to a more rural setting just outside of town.

On the way in I also stopped at a food stand selling Gatorade and candy bars to raise money for a school wrestling team. It was on the family farm of an old K-12 classmate of mine who I hadn't seen for 12 years, and as I pulled into the driveway he was there getting out of a truck. We caught up for a bit and agreed that it should hopefully be less time before we see each other again. Living in Iowa will make it easier to attend the occasional class reunion.

Amy pulled off the ride today due to nagging pains and numbness from the intense bike riding this week. Doing 50 to 80 miles a day for 7 days straight can really take a toll. Luckily we're on the east side of the state, close to both our families, and her parents were able to meet us near Rowley. We enjoyed some homecooked food courtesy of my mom, who brought it over to my dad's office, which also happened to be on the route near Winthrop. I was very happy to have Amy's company this past week, and hopefully both of us will recover from aches and pains quickly!

Tomorrow I'll ride to Dubuque, dip my front tire in the Mississippi, and then meet up with Amy for the bus ride back to Ames.

RAGBRAI: Waiting Out the Rain

We've had a rainy morning since leaving Waterloo, and it has only gotten worse as we got close to Shady Grove. Luckily there is a large machine shed on a farm for us to take shelter in while the storm passes. Here's a shot of a tractor and some random riders.

Project 365 Day 210: Dining in Luxury

During RAGBRAI we have found that gas stations are one of the most reliable destinations for our culinary needs. Take the Kwik Star we stopped at in Parkersburg today for example:

1. They have Diet Coke (from a soda fountain, not a can or bottle).
2. They have tasty food items from hot dogs and brats to salads and fruit
3. They have instant shakes in a variety of flavors

What more do you need? Nothing.

Only two days to go...

RAGBRAI: Funny Shirts

On RAGBRAI we have seen many funny shirts and bike jerseys, most of which are unsuitable to repeat here. This guy was wearing a good one however. The team name is "Team Iwanna", and then each person has a different subtitle of what they want, such as a Dove Bar or a Taxi. This guy wants to "know whose idea this was."

In our case, Amy has often reminded me whose idea this was (hint: not hers).

As far as I know, no divorce papers have been filed yet.

Project 365 Day 209: Art in Chucktown

We had a good day, thanks to a shorter distance, cooler weather, and somewhat tempered headwinds. Last night we got to experience our first very loud lightning-filled thunderstorm while sleeping in a tent, around 2am. The storm pushed through over about an hour's time, and probably helped cool things down for us today.

We finally made it into Charles City (aka Chucktown) at 2:30pm and were pleased to find Bikeworld had a campsite near the entry into town, instead of the usual spot near the end of the entry route.

We used the extra time today to check out what was going on in Charles City and found this impossible-to-resist photo opportunity of Amy next to a giant statue of a girl reading a book. Notice that Amy's expression is a bit more positive than in the last one. Clearly, it was a better day!

Tomorrow will be the longest day of the week, heading into Waterloo. Luckily the cooler weather should stick around. One day at a time!

RAGBRAI: Swaledale

Here is a photo of the early morning scene after we had just arrived in the first pass through town of the day, Swaledale. That may be one of the coolest city names in the entire state!

When entering small or medium towns, most riders end up dismounting due to traffic coming to a standstill from the congestion. It makes for a good photo opportunity though!

RAGBRAI: Fixing Some Bad Luck

Here is what was left of my handlebar-mounted mirror after some local punk in one of the pass through towns apparently pushed my bike over while I was temporarily away disposing of some trash. Amy saw it happen, and the guy likely had been enjoying a beer tent a little too much.

After riding for a few days with a broken mirror that sort of worked I finally took advantage of some extra time last night to pick up a new replacement from one of the mobile bike shops. Hopefully this will prevent the possibility of 7 years bad luck (or 7 days in the case of RAGBRAI).

Project 365 Day 208: Facilities

For an outdoor expedition, I've been impressed with the hygiene facilities available. The port-o-potties are pretty standard, but there are a lot of them, the TP is generally stocked, and they have hand washing stations outside with soap. The water is operated by foot pump.

Also available (but not pictured) are portable shower facilties operated by third parties. They cost $5 per use, but after a hot day like this one, with a heat advisory, we'd probably pay $50! The water is actually hot, as well.

We've made it through some challenging days of hills, long distance, and heat. Tomorrow will be the shortest day so far ("only" 50 miles) and hopefully cooling off.

One day at a time!

RAGBRAI: Smoooooothies

We have been blowing straight through a lot of pass through towns, since many just have a beer garden and DJ, which isn't really our thing. We couldn't pass up the lure of smoothies today, though, in Britt, IA, I think it was. Pineapple juice, strawberries, bananas, and ice, blended into a fine fruity drink. Even the Old Spice Guy would find it refreshing!

Project 365 Day 207: Our Experience So Far, In A Nutshell

As usual, a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, Amy told me she would put her best face on for the self-portrait. If this photo were going to be part of a curated special exhibit at the American Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, it might be captioned "I used up all my vacation time for THIS?"

We have learned that 90% of the riders are on real road bikes (think skinny tires and curved handle bars, i.e. what Lance Armstrong rides). This, along with the clip-on shoes most of them wear, is what enables them to pass us on our hybrid bikes, going uphill, seemingly at twice our speed.

Salvation of our marriage may depend upon acquiring a tandem roadbike sometime in the next few days...

RAGBRAI: Improvised Clothesline

Our camp this evening is in Algona, IA, near the YMCA. Just behind our row of tents is not a body of water, but instead a cornfield.  Luckily the ears of corn on the stalk make good hooks for hanging wet clothes on to dry. Hopefully I remember to get those in the morning.

RAGBRAI: Hamballs in Plover

The church grandmas in Plover made hundreds of these hamballs as part of a fundraiser for getting the church roof repaired. They were excellent, and the wording of the road sign advertisements were also well done: "Welcome to Plover, where the men are good looking and the grandmas have balls."

RAGBRAI: Slipin' and Slidin'

We came upon this giant slip-n-slide at a farm where Mr. Porkchop and some other food vendors were set up.

Project 365 Day 206: Hardest Day Complete (We Hope)

One major aspect of RAGBRAI that we knew we would not be used to was riding in large groups. We quickly became familiar with the importance of signalling your intentions for stopping and pulling off to the side or getting back on the road in the stream of bikers. These are done by yelling "Biker Off!" and "Biker On!" respectively.

And sometimes, the group ahead of you is slowed or stopped for some reason and you need to be prepared to do likewise. Here is a picture of such a situation just outside the Farm Boys food stand, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

We made it through what we've heard was the hardest day of this year's ride. Lots of hills, especially long and steep ones, but we rode all and didn't walk a single one. We had some fun on the corresponding downhill slopes, reaching speeds around 35 MPH. It was a challenge, taking us most of 12 hours to go 68 miles, but there was a lot of stopping, resting, and eating involved as well.

Here's hoping for an easier Tuesday!

RAGBRAI: Farm Boys

We saw a huge crowd stopped up on the highway about 15 miles out of Sioux City, and found that it was because many were stopping for some Farm Boys (that's the vendors name) breakfast burritos in a farmers yard. We joined them and enjoyed some shade with our meal. I also had my first cornfield pitstop, if you know what I mean...