RAGBRAI Day Plus Two

I'm still trying to readjust to a life where we're not treated like rock stars.  I rode my bike to work today, and boy, being on the single bike after the tandem was an adjustment! RAGBRAI enthusiasm (and the fact that I'll be riding the single bike more as I train for a sprint triathlon in October) has us looking for a new single bike for Lyle, and we were over at the local bike shop today sizing frames. 

Last year I gained five pounds on RAGBRAI, but this year, with the heat exhaustion and all, I actually lost three.  Lyle gained a couple, but we expect that both of us will be back to our pre-ride weights within a week or so.  (It would be fine with me if the trend continued though!)

We've got the bike off the top of the car, the laundry done, and our thank you notes written.  I'll pick up prints tomorrow and drop them in the mail for the people who so delightfully enhanced our RAGBRAI experience this year.

We also owe all of you who followed the blog and commented, emailed, called, texted, etc. a heartfelt THANK YOU!  Knowing that a lot of you out there were following our exploits definitely helped us press on a few of those tougher miles.

As the RAGBRAI posts wind down, I'll keep using the blog for its intended purpose - reporting on adventures where we're out there "doing" stuff.

RAGBRAI Day Plus One - Pics

All the pics are posted on Facebook, and I made the album public, so (if I did it right) you don't have to be a Facebook member or a friend of mine to check them out.

Links:
Ragbrai 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3348446477906.2119941.1471151695&type=1&l=431001ebb9

National Motorcycle Museum

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3348630082496.2119944.1471151695&type=3&l=98d56ca443

RAGBRAI Day Plus One - Home

Made it back, our awesome dogsitter did awesome by us again.  Storm looks like he had a great week.  We are happy to be back to our own space and our own stuff, but it will feel weird to get up tomorrow and not pedal.

RAGBRAI Day Plus One - I81

It's amazing how far and wide RAGBRAI's influence ranges... about an hour from our house, we saw a minivan loaded up with bikes on their way home too.  Check it out.

RAGBRAI Day Plus One - Sonic

Made our stop in Pittsburgh and then rolled on to Irwin for gas and food.  This must be the roadtrip part again, because it's cherry limeaid time.

RAGBRAI Day Plus One

We're rolling out of scenic Goshen this morning after about five hours of sleep.  People are surprisingly grouchy when you drag them around on tours of booked up hotels in the middle of the night, that might be worth remembering for future reference.

We've stopped on the way out of town for ice for the cooler, and most importantly, I've traded my cycling sunglasses for my ever-present Oakleys. 

RAGBRAI Day Seven - I80

It's the middle of the night and there are apparently no rooms available anywhere.  Last year this was easy, but this year we're on our third hotel with no luck.

Finally found a place in Goshen, IN.  It's 3am, a few hours of sleep and we'll be on the road again.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Clinton

So many mixed feelings as we cruised easily into Clinton.  We dipped our tire in the Mississippi River and picked up our patches and then rode back to the car and loaded the bike before we retrieved our bags from Pork Belly.

Now we're checked into the Hampton Inn to get cleaned up and reorganized before we start the drive home.

I'll continue with RAGBRAI posts until we're home and unpacked, so stay tuned.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Beekman's

Now we are officially dawdling.  Beekman's was maybe a mile past our last stop, but whatever, it's our last Beekman's and there was no line.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Goose Lake

We've stopped here so the snocone connoisseur can compare products. 
Music, shade, nice people... do we really have to stop today?

15 miles to Clinton.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Charlotte

Awesome 8 miles.  We were flying, and in sync... this is what makes biking so addictive, and tandeming too.

Lyle got pie, and I got chips and we're chatting with a guy that's done RAGBRAI 24 times.

The next town is 4 miles and change away, hoping it's as fun as the last stretch.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Delmar

Stopped at the Delmar depot museum on the way into town... pretty cool with a lot of vintage recruiting posters and stuff.

We're poking... partly because of Lyle's monkey butt, but partly because when we finish riding today, that's it for RAGBRAI this year.

In other news... I am in dog withdrawal and have had to ask two people if I could say hello to their dogs (they both said yes). I'll be sorry to see RAGBRAI end, but happy to be home with Storm.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Flat City

So we had a great stop in Lost Nation.  Lyle had a giant pork tenderloin and I had a bowl of plain pasta with parmesan cheese.  Pasta makes me happy.

We even found our friend Phoebe on the road for the first time this week.  And then, as we were all set and motivated to ride, I noticed that the rear tire was completely flat.  Argh.

Back to the mechanics. 

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Lost Nation

Easy seven miles or so into town.  The kybo line is about a half mile long, so I am resting in the shade and laughing at Lyle.

I saw someplace with pasta, so we may manage lunch.  Otherwise, it'll be smoothies again.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Hale

We are not off to a great start... we got a little bit of a late start out of camp, due to Kybo lines and then disordered packing, so it was maybe 6:15 before we left.  And then, two miles out of town we had a flat, so we had to change that on the side.  The tire that's been giving us trouble all week has a hole, and it busted the tube.  So after we got into Hale we waited in line for the mechanic and bought a new tire... hopefully that will be the end of our mechanical difficulties.

It's about 8:15 and we have gone about 15 miles.

RAGBRAI Day Seven - Oxford Junction

As we were finishing up in Hale, Lyle considered swapping for a different bike.

This was just after we were forced to stop feeling sorry for ourselves on account of our mechanical problems when we saw a guy on a carbon fiber frame that had busted his frame.  Yikes!

Made it up the so-called monster hill that really wasn't so bad and cruised into Oxford Junction.  Lines here are too long to stop, but the mechanic did have our sized tube, so we have that little bit of insurance now.

Onward!

RAGBRAI Day Six - Camp

We bailed on Pork Belly's pork dinner tonight and hit up the Italian restaurant.  Too much food, but it was good.

The Ramblers are still playing in camp, and they're very listenable.

As always, I can't believe the week is almost over.  Tomorrow is almost 70 miles, so we'll see how we do.  We have a hotel waiting on us in Clinton, so there's no hurry, we just want to have fun and be safe.

No awesome pic from camp, so here's one we took along the way of a custom multiple.

RAGBRAI Day Six - National Motorcycle Museum

We wondered, when we first heard about it, whether a "National" museum out in rural Iowa would be able to live up to the name.  I'm convinced that it does.

This place, at least for those of us that have interests in those other kind of bikes as well, is a treasure trove.  They have some old pedal bikes as well, but this is obviously a place intended for the motorcycle enthusiast, and boy does it deliver.  I have taken a bazillion pics, enough they'll have to be broken out into a separate album, and I think we've already been here an hour and a half.

They've got motorcycles from pretty much every era, and anything notable done on one, including big exhibits for both Evel Knievel and Easy Rider.  If we ever make the Sturgis pilgrimage, this will have to be a stop.

RAGBRAI Day Six - Anamosa

Got into town without stopping at any of the little towns... they may have been so small we missed them.

It's still early enough to be hot, so we stopped for Chinese food.  That ought to help with my salt depletion for sure.  Really good buffet.  My fortune is "Fate loves the fearless."

As a result of a very inappropriate comment that cannot be repeated in this blog, I had to buy him a beer, so we're fitting in better with the rest of the RAGBRAI crazies now.

There's some big prison here, and the town's theme is "Ride It Like You Stole It".  They had people in prison stripes waving as we rode into town and were blasting "Bad Boys". Lyle got a big kick out of that.

His fortune is "You make people realize that there exist other beauties in the world."  I leave the comments to y'all.

RAGBRAI Day Six - Springville

We're trying not to get into camp too early today, because we've been warned that there's no shade.  So we took a long break here in a yard and napped.  Two smoothies (each) later we're ready to do another 5 miles to the next town.

The heat has broken, but kids are still spraying bikers with water guns, which is great.

RAGBRAI Day Six - The Road

We're three miles out of whatever the next town is, stopped for water and a freezer pop.  Check out the bikes...

Day Six - Mt. Vernon

With a short day today, we took advantage of the opportunity to sleep in.  We apparently weren't the only ones with that plan because we were stuck in a lot of bike traffic getting out of town. 

Czech Village put on a big breakfast bash for everyone and we enjoyed a short break there. 

The 14 miles from there to Mt. Vernon were hilly, but we did pretty well.  Both of us were more than ready for a break when we got here.  So was everyone else, because for the first time we were in bike gridlock.  We literally couldn't move anywhere as we waited for the crowd in front of us to thin out enough we could push through.

It's about a quarter til 10 and we have about 25 miles to ride.

RAGBRAI Day Five - Cedar Rapids

Got into camp late after a day of taking it easy and trying to avoid problems.  Ate while we were still in sweaty bike clothes.  There are a lot of things Pork Belly does right, but their catering is not the kind of food I need after (and before) a long day of riding.  Tonight it was some Czech goulash thing.  Pasta would be better in my book, but other people do seem to dig this stuff.

There's some band playing, and I think it's a Oom Pa band, but I keep thinking they're Oompa Loompas, but they're not.

Tomorrow is a short forty something mile day, and we're planning to take it easy again.
Here's the view from our tent.

RAGBRAI Day Five - Vinton

Easy 10 miles into town, and we are hanging out at Vinton's historic railroad depot, which is kinda a mini-museum.  It's pretty awesome, with a lot of old hobo info and the station master's office set up as a period appropriate reproduction, including a working telegraph.

Eleven miles to the next town, but we may take a nap first.

RAGBRAI Day Five - Cute Kid Lemonade

Before we left Clutier, Lyle adjusted his seat a little and put some more Chammy Butter in his shorts.  I am exercising a lot of restraint in not taking pics of either his monkey butt or him dealing with it on the side of the road.

While I was not taking pics of that, two ellipticals came through, so here are some more appropriate pics.

Lyle seemed more comfortable these last few miles and we are speaking to one another again.

There were signs for a while about "cute kids lemonade", but when we got here, there were neither cute kids or lemonade, just grown-ups and iced tea.  Still, they have water and kybos, so it was a worthwhile stop.

Onward to Garrison.

RAGBRAI Day Five - Clutier

We needed this stop... tandeming is a team sport, and like every other team sport, there are moments when the dynamic falters.   This town is a ride in, turn around, and ride back through, unlike most others where you ride through.  So we parked the bike and walked in and out... took a break in the shade and got some gatorade.  The next town is another 17 miles, and we will definitely need food by then.

So, since Lyle was being difficult, I kissed a pig.  The pig did not appreciate it, and the 4H kid thought I was nuts, but here's a pic for you.

RAGBRAI Day Five - Garrison

We stopped just a couple miles out of town for snocones and Lyle convinced the kids selling them that he was some kind of world famous snocone conniseur (look, I know it's spelled wrong, but I'm too tired to get it right and Google won't connect). 

We rode an easy couple miles from there into town and had lemonade and string cheese while we decide what else we want.

RAGBRAI Day Five - Garwin

Rode what the route says is 15 miles into our first town.  My watch says almost 17, but we had a couple extra miles from Karen's.  Despite our good intentions, it was still almost 6 before we left and it's almost 8 now. 

I just chatted with a guy from Austin that's riding the whole thing with his dog in a trailer.  Something tells me that Storm would not be down for that at all.  In one of the expos, we did see a trailer that's a treadmill for the dog to help "pedal".

Seventeen miles to the next town.

RAGBRAI Day Four - Homestay

We're settled into an actual bed after actual showers in actual air conditioning.  Life is looking a lot better than last night.  There's a thunderstorm rolling around outside, making us even happier to be under a roof tonight instead of a tent.

I feel like this kind of thing is what brings people back to RAGBRAI year after year.  Karen, our host, has four bedrooms upstairs that she rents to students and people coming through.  Her brother owns a B&B in town and when he fills up he points people to her.  Emily and her husband have one, and two other riders - one from Davenport and one from San Francisco - are sharing the room with two twins.  We had a really nice visit with them and Karen and her great grandson, Dayton.  I could go on and on about her, but it's getting late, so suffice it to say she is easily today's highlight.

Tomorrow is another 80some mile day, so we'll keep working at the hydration and power on through.

RAGBRAI Day Four - Marshalltown

We had a nice chat with some riders from Chicago this morning while we were waiting for the bus.  They're public defenders and I got to scratch a little of my Washingtonian "what do you do?" itch.

The bus ride was okay, air conditioned and with a power strip for the phone, but I would have been more comfortable if I'd taken my Bonine first.

Once we got into camp and reclaimed the tandem, we tried hard to push some more fluids and find some food.  There were no food vendors in camp, so we caught the shuttle bus downtown to find someplace that met the "I want to sit down in ac and have someone bring me food" criteria.

Awesome RAGBRAI moment, we were relaxing at a table waiting for our server when a woman asked if she could join us.  So of course we said yes, and had a delightful chat with Emily from Portland.  Better still though, she turned us on to a woman in town offering her home to bikers tonight, so I called and we'll be headed over there tonight to sleep in a real bed in ac.

As Emily said as we were finishing, a kismet moment.

RAGBRAI Day Four -Still In Webster City

I'm resting on a picnic table here at the mostly struck camp and waiting for the bus that will drive us to Marshalltown.  It's shady and quiet except for the noise of the guys taking down the last tents and preparing to get that all moved.

There were so many people who decided not to ride today that they have two 56 passenger buses full.  We're on the second one, so we probably have about another hour and change to wait.

Here's a behind the scenes pic of the guys loading up to haul things.

I slept really well last night, and have managed to drink a little OJ and water this morning (and keep it down, so far), so things are looking up today.

RAGBRAI - More Info

For those of you clamoring for more (or just more objective) details, check out the following links...

RAGBRAI.com (everything official, like the route and all that - there's also a ride preview that has a lot of good info on what's going on in each town)

pkbelly.com (Pork Belly Ventures, the folks dealing with our bags and tent and all that)

And... by popular request... anytimeshower.com (possibly the best perq of Pork Belly)

RAGBRAI Day Three - Webster City

Well this is not a day for our baby books... after that stop at the top of the hill we made it another few miles and stopped at another yard.  Then we made it another few miles and stopped where someone had a shade tent set up with cold towels and water.  At this point it was clear that I wasn't doing well... we were only about four miles out of town, and after relaxing for quite a while and cooling down and trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to force myself to drink water, we soldiered on.

Those of you with sensitive stomachs might want to skip this paragraph... we made it to within sight of our camp when I gave Lyle the "pull over right now signal" - familiar to my siblings from years of car trips - and hopped off the bike to puke up what little I had in me.  Ever puked so hard your abs cramped into a knot?  It's not fun.  This is way too much info, but to give you an idea of how dehydrated I am... I peed this morning about 3:45 and haven't gone since...

So it was about 7:30 before we finally rolled into camp, and after a quick shower (which involved more puking), we hung out with Col. and Mrs. Ladd for a little bit - long enough for her to flex both her mom muscles and her physician assistant muscles.

So tomorrow we'll be riding the bus instead of the bike and trying to let me recover enough to ride successfully on Thursday and the rest of the week.  Sucks for Lyle, because with the tandem, that means he has to take the day off too.

And... Three Dog Night is playing in town tonight, but with the way the day went and how far away the camp is, we're content to just lie here in our tent and sorta barely hear them rather than going downtown to deal with the hike and the crowds.

I'm not including what would be the right pic for this post... the puke (go ahead and thank me in the comments), so instead here's a pic of the bike this one guy is riding on what I think he said was his thirteenth RAGBRAI.

Today's unblogged highlights included people in lawn chairs in their front lawn spraying cyclists with garden hoses to cool them down and a little guy standing out there high-fiving people as they rode by.

We saw a skateboarder out there today.  So roller blader, unicyclist, skateboarder, bone-shaker, elliptical bike thing, bunny triple, triple with no one in the middle, lots of disabled cyclists on adapted bikes (hand cycles, trikes, or with attachments for an arm prosthesis), every possible kind of tandem and recumbent, and the dude riding barefoot.  And the week isn't even half over yet!

RAGBRAI Day Three - Some Farmhouse Lawn

We stopped briefly in Lehigh to get some gatorade and check the air in the tires.  We're going so slowly that we were hoping they were soft, but it turns out it's just that we are.

Some masochists in Lehigh were racing up something called Schoolhouse Hill... this is RAGBRAI's idea of a fun optional activity.  Obviously, we passed.

Once we left Lehigh we climbed a pretty good hill and then rode into the wind some more before getting to the worst hill of the trip.  You can tell when you're getting to a bad hill because little kids have water stands that say things like "last water before BIG HILL". It's a great way to build excitement. This hill almost made us walk, in part because the front derailleur wouldn't shift to the granny gear. It did make a bunch of people walk, including one guy who jumped off right in front of us and we almost crashed into. Lyle's superior bike handling skills saved the day again, but it was a near thing. We think we have about 13 miles left to get into camp.

RAGBRAI Day Three - Dayton

We have finally arrived in Dayton.  It's about quarter til two. We've ridden straight into a headwind for about 18 miles.  We'd really wanted to ride the Karras loop (which would make it a hundred mile day), but support at the loop town ends at 3, and the first half of it is still into the wind. We've decided that discretion is the better part of valor, given that we've still got 4 days of riding.  It sucks, but we feel like it's the right decision.

In other news, we saw the unicyclist today, along with a guy riding his recumbent barefoot.

The upside to not riding the century today is that we hope to get into Webster City in time to connect with family friends.  Our stop at their house last year was a highlight of our whole trip, so we're looking forward to seeing them again.

RAGBRAI Day Three - Gowrie

So we turned out of Lohrville directly into a strong headwind.  Toughest 5 miles we've done in a while.

RAGBRAI Day Three - Lohrville

We pretty much rolled straight through Lake City, with just a short stop to drink the water they were passing out on the way in.  Free water that volunteers hand you while you're riding is almost enough to make you feel like a real cyclist.

We're waiting on breakfast pizza cooked in the back of a firetruck.

This is Lohrville's first time hosting RAGBRAI (their theme is "the ride's forty year old virgin") and it's one of our favorite stops so far.

RAGBRAI - Blogger Problems

Not so much a RAGBRAI post as a tech post... if anyone knows what to do about Blogger posts that die in publishing limbo, let me know... I'm having enough trouble managing power and connectivity out here, the constant attempts to publish are making things worse.

RAGBRAI Day Three - Auburn

About 11 miles in so far.  We got a slightly earlier start today, about 5:45, to get a jump on the miles and the heat.

Nice fire department bake sale for breakfast.

We passed a unicyclist this morning.

RAGBRAI Day Two - Lake View

We finally made it into camp about 3:30 today.  The last several miles to our charter's site were off the route and we just slogged through them.

Lots of reports of people having trouble with the heat today, and in fact both of us were cramping in the shower.  So for now we're trying to stay out of the sun and hydrate while we look forward to The Elders concert tonight.

On a humorous note... as an ambulance drove past us today (probably to pick up someone with heat problems) there was a group of cyclists riding in its wake.  The people around us shouted "lawyers"!

RAGBRAI Day Two - Magic

So as we'd moved through Sac City and were taking one last break in the shade, we experienced this year's first example of the famous Iowa hospitality.  Marge Feilmeier invited us into the air conditioning at Jackson Medical Supply.  We had a lovely visit and were so appreciative of her time (and water and ac)!  It turns out that she and her husband will be visiting DC in September and we hope to see her again then.

When something unpredictable and awesome happens on the Appalachian Trail, hikers call it "trail magic", so this would be RAGBRAI magic except that everyone keeps telling us that all Iowans are this amazing.

Thanks again Marge!

RAGBRAI Day Two - Beekman's

Phone has been dead for the last two towns.  We've gone about 40 miles so far.  Smoothies and gatorade and water and a banana since Aurelia.

Pretty cool steam powered sawmill in Hanover Village.

Saw a guy with his dog along for the ride in a trailer, but couldn't get a pic.

We've got a little more than 20 miles to go.

Here's a better Beekman's pic.

RAGBRAI Day Two - Aurelia

We're about 8 miles in and stopped for breakfast.  Even though we left at six (okay, 6:05), we've been in traffic the whole way.  Bike traffic, not car traffic.

Stopped at the kybo (Iowan for portapotty) and made the cardinal mistake of leaving stuff in my jersey pocket, but got away with it this time, whew!

RAGBRAI Day One - Daylight Again

Hanging out in the Cherokee beer garden and Daylight Again, a CSN tribute band.  Having just seen Crosby, Stills, and Nash July 3rd, this is fun.  These guys are good, but so far no fights with the audience, so it's lacking a degree of authenticity.

RAGBRAI Day One - Marcus

Marcus was the meeting town today where folks hook up with the rest of their riding team.  With us being a half bike length away from each other, that's not much of an issue.

We had our first smoothies of the trip.

The cell networks through here are really overloaded, and I'm having a lot of problems getting posts to publish, so posts may be out of order and if you're trying to reach me, be patient!

RAGBRAI Day One - Beekman's

Stopped at our favorite ice cream place for a short break.

RAGBRAI Day One - Cherokee

Made it to the overnight town.  Saw a couple people go down while we were eating our ice cream, looked like they got tires stuck in cracks in the road.  Both were one bike accidents.  Then we passed a woman down on the side of the road that looked bad, and our neighbors in camp said they heard someone just passed out on the bike.  Lots of sirens.  One of the great but also bad things out here is that there is such a wide variety of skillsets.  And because the towns break things up and riders start whenever, the really slow folks are right out there with the really fast guys... so crashes do happen.

Right now, I'm standing in line for a shower at the really awesome Anytime Showers, which is basically an 18 wheeler trailer outfitted with shower stalls.

RAGBRAI Day One - Granville

We rode right through Alton and are stopped in Granville to finally get breakfast.  Easy ride so far, life is good.  It's about 8:30.

So far we've seen an all female triple team dressed as bunnies, a tandem team dressed as cows, a rollerblader, and every imaginable bike.

RAGBRAI Day One - Orange City

About 10 miles... it's just after 7am... Orange City is flaunting their Dutch heritage.  We've already been yelled at once for getting in someone's way.

RAGBRAI Day Zero - Checkin

We are checked in, with our bags and bike and have things set up in the tent.  It's hot, but this year I remembered not to wear cotton, so I'm more comfortable.  We're getting ready to go check out the expo.

RAGBRAI Day Zero - The Bus Ride

It takes something like eight hours to get from the end town to the start town by bus.  Tomorrow we'll start the weeklong ride back to the car, but in the meantime there's the purgatory of the ride.  Plenty of time to ponder whether we trained enough (not possible), tapered soon enough but not too soon (unlikely), have been good about hydration and nutrition (no).  Plenty of time to worry about the miles, the heat, possible mechanical or physical problems.  Plenty of time to remember Sartre's quote that "hell is other people". 

I know we're going to have an amazing week, interspersed with some challenging moments, but right now I want to get off this bus and get on with things.

RAGBRAI Day Zero

We are on the bus ready to head to Sioux Center.  The charter's notes said buses would load at 7am and depart at 8, but the our bus didn't arrive until 7:50 or so.  I had to remind myself that we're officially on RAGBRAI time. 

RAGBRAI Day Minus One

Today is about chores... drove into Clinton, IA from Columbus, checked into the hotel and got the bike all padded for transport.
Then it was moment of truth time where we hand the bike over to be loaded.  We won't see it again until we get off the bus tomorrow.