So I got asked today if I was done with blogging, and of course I said no, though it's harder to do when my life is the boring usual routine and not a week of amazing people, scenery, and adventure.
One of the questions I had before we did this last year was "what is this going to cost us", and we got asked variations on that theme several times along the ride as well. So here's an accounting as best as I can reconstruct... keep in mind these are totals for both of us, not just one. Besides the big savings by sharing a tent and hotel rooms, I'm sure there are some other places where whatever we got for both of us was cheaper than what it would cost to get stuff for just one person, so it's certainly not *twice* what it would cost one person, but if you're trying to figure out cost for a single, it would be a lot less.
RAGBRAI registration x 2: $300 This is the bare minimum you have to have to be "legal" on the ride. This gets you your wristband, all the official RAGBRAI services, and discounts from some of the vendors. It also gets you access to the RAGBRAI luggage trucks, but we used Pork Belly for all that (see below).
Jersey ($10 cheaper when you order at registration time) x 2: $100 The jerseys looked sweet this year, though once we got ours, I didn't love the fabric, and the full zip made my gut more noticeable than was strictly necessary (I freely admit that is a problem under my own control). Also, the black jerseys were maybe not the ideal choice for the weather. That's the one I had on during my heat exhaustion experience.
Pork Belly Charter and Week Long Tent Service and East to West bus trip (2 riders and one tent): $1,535.10 You can read about what weeklong support includes here, if you didn't get enough from the blog. The showers are an absolutely key feature that played a big role in our decision to go with Pork Belly again. The tent service is absolutely key for us. Because we get into town late, the better campsites would usually be taken, and saving the time and energy required to set up a tent in 100+ degree heat is worth it for us. It's important to note that this is all optional... lots of people do just fine with only the official RAGBRAI baggage transfer and camping set up. We also pay for cancellation insurance, which, given everything, we find worth the peace of mind it brings.
Subtotal: $1935.10
Gear we bought especially for this trip. We bought some extra gear last year, like our cots and the solar charger, but this year we mostly had everything. I did buy a silk travel sheet so that we'd have something for nights where a sleeping bag was unthinkable, but not something cotton that would absorb sweat and humidity and stay damp all week. Travel sheet: $99.99 I also bought a couple of little Moleskine notebooks: $5.95 to keep with our map and cash so I could record spending and notes. These were great, just the right size. We also replaced last year's wholly inadequate tent fan with a new one: $46.99. It worked out pretty well, though the cord to the power pack was always in the way, and the fan itself fell off the magnet twice. Also, we wrapped it in bubble wrap inside our bag, which was probably key to keeping it intact through the baggage transfer process. We both bought new helmets (though this was definitely a matter of "want", not "need" as we have a whole stack of helmets in the garage - I just counted: 8). Lyle's new helmet: $116.20. My new helmet: $121.17. We both bought shower shoes, and I picked up a couple new pairs of non-cotton shorts with pockets to walk around camp in: $83.96.
Subtotal: $474.26
We also did some maintenance on the bike to get ready. This was stuff that needed to be done anyway, so maybe it isn't fair to charge it against the RAGBRAI total, but probably anyone going on a long bike tour should expect to spend some money getting the bike ready, so I'm including it. Cover screw for shifter: $2.83. New brake hoods: $15.78. Bill from the bike shop: $366.88. I'm not including the car maintenance, though it's something to consider in planning. Almost every car could do with at least an oil change, if not a tune up, before that kind of a drive.
Subtotal: $385.49
Food, gas, and lodging en route to Clinton. Sonic on the way out of town: $5.60. Dinner when we picked up our passenger in Pittsburgh - Texas Roadhouse: $30.97. Gas, Morgantown, WV: $43.41. Gas, Knightstown, IN: $39.34. Dinner in Clinton - Culvers (cheese curds, yum!): $20.31. The Dark Knight Rises tickets (because you can take the nerd out of town, but you can't deny the nerdom): $13. Hampton Inn Clinton: $150.08. Kindle version of book I was reading before I left : $11.99. Kindle version of bike themed book to amuse me on the bus trip after I finished the other book: $9.99.
Subtotal: $324.69
Long term parking in Clinton: $45. This is what we pay to get a permit to leave our car in a designated area that is, at least in theory, safer than finding some random street to park on in a city to which you've never been before. Box breakfast and lunches to take on the bus with us (pre-ordered with parking): $30. Having pre-ordered breakfast was a good idea, though they did have breakfast at the hotel for us. However, no guarantee breakfast at the hotel would be ready that early, so this was a good call. The lunch was sub-par, but possibly still a better choice than taking our chances when the bus stopped along with all fifty-some other passengers. However, packing something ourselves would have been the right choice, or picking up Subway in town the night before.
Subtotal: $75
Expenses along the way... (unless otherwise noted, these are all cash expenditures).
Saturday (Clinton) - Tip to bus driver: $10. Optional dinners, drink cards, laundry service: $95. These are all Pork Belly options. Were we going to do it again, we'd probably pass on the optional dinners and just eat in town, but the drink cards were handy and the laundry was invaluable. Two lemonades at the expo: $10. Pizza at the expo: $4. Sandwich, corn, and a smoothie: $10.
Subsubtotal: $129
Sunday (Orange City) - Donation to bike shop for use of their floor pump: $1.
(Granville) - Powerade, Bananas, Pie, BLT: $12
(Marcus) - Smoothies: $10
(Beekman's) - Ice cream and waters: $10
(Cherokee) - Drink tickets at concert: $9
Subsubtotal: $42
Monday (Aurelia) - Granola parfait, scramble bowl, gatorade, coffee: $11
(Hanover Village) - Water: $2
(Schaller) - Water: $2, Smoothies: $10, Bananas and 2 gatorades: $5
(Beekman's) - Ice cream and waters: $10
(Munchkins) - PB&J: $3, Waters $2. Barely passable, definitely not The Peanut Butter Jam
(Sac City) - 2 Waters and 2 Bananas: $5
Subsubtotal: $50
Tuesday (Auburn) - Water, gatorade, bananas, cinnamon roll: $11
(Lohrville) - Firetruck pizza, gatorade, mint lemonade: $14
(Farnhamville) - Smoothies: $10
(Gowrie) - Water and Gatorade: $9
(Dayton) - Fresh Squeezed Lemonade: $6. Chammy Butter: $2. Water: $1.
(Lehigh) - Gatorade: $4.
(Farmhouse past hill) - Water: $2.
(Cooling Tent) - Water: $3. Free wet towels, but they were worth $10 easy.
Subsubtotal: $62
Tuesday night we made the decision to take the bus from Webster City to Marshalltown after my heat exhaustion episode. SAG bus: $50.
Wednesday (Marshalltown) - punch card: $10. Punch cards let you get stuff from the Pork Belly folks in camp without having to carry cash. A ten dollar card is good for eleven dollars, so there's a little bit of a deal there. This was our third one for the week. Italian Restaurant for pasta in the air conditioning: $30. Homestay with Karen: $100. It was a "freewill" donation, meaning you leave what you can afford, feel comfortable giving, or whatever. For us, it was worth it, and we're in a fortunate position where that wasn't a hardship. Plus, we felt somewhat responsible she'd had an empty room as we'd originally asked her to hold it for a friend of ours that didn't wind up making it out there after all.
Subsubtotal (includes bus): $190
Thursday (Garwin) - Water: $5. Breakfast burrito: $3
(Clutier) - Chammy Butter: $16. Mind you, we'd brought two big tubes with us, but you go through the stuff fast, and it's worth it. The Chammy Butter in Dayton was just the little packets, but this was another whole tube. Donation to 4H kids for traumatizing their piglet by kissing it instead of Lyle: $2. Gatorade: $4.
(Snocone kids just outside of Garrison) - Snocones: $6.
(Garrison) - Lemonade and string cheese: $5. Smoothies: $10.
(Vinton) - Limeaid : $2. This stuff was not up to our standards at all. Must have had a soda base or something. Donation to Historic Depot where we had so much fun: $5. Water and popsicles: $3.
(Shellsburg) - Water: $1
Subsubtotal: $62
Friday (Czech Village) - Breakfast burrito: $10. Gatorade: $4 - and these were for quarts, not twenty ounces, great deal! Kolache (pastry thing): $1.
(Mount Vernon) - Water: $1. Lemonades: $8.
(Roadside) - Waters and freezer pops: $3
(Springville) - Smoothies: $8. More smoothies: $10.
(Limeade guy) - Fresh squeezed limeade: $3. Last year, this guy's limeade was so good we came home and bought a citrus squeezer. This year, it was very good, but our standards have gone up. Not quite life changing.
(Anamosa) - Chinese lunch: $30. Two Motorcycle Museum Entries: $10. Motorcycle Museum Postcards and T-shirt: $20.
(Camp) - Diet Coke - $1 (I had the punch card in my pocket, Lyle had the cash in his)
(Zio Johno's) - Italian Dinner to avoid yet another night of pork in camp: $43.65 (this went on the Mastercard)
Subsubtotal: $152.65
Saturday (Hale) - New tire: $45. Gatorade, juice, fruit, banana: $9.
(Oxford Junction) - New tube: $8.
(Lost Nation) - Gatorade: $3. Pasta and water: $3. Tenderloin sandwich and water: $9. More tire stuff: $20.
(Delmar) - Donation at Depot: $5. Powerade: $3. Water: $1.
(Charlotta) - Chips, tea, pie, gatorade: $7.
(Goose Lake) - Slushies: $6.
(Beekman's) - Ice cream: $6.
Subsubtotal: $125
Subtotal for "on the ride": $812.65
We carry $100 in cash in a ziploc sandwich bag, along with the log book, a pencil, and the route map, carefully folded to show distances between towns for each day. I count this out every night as we're laying things out for the next morning. I'm OCD about the denominations even, 20 ones, 4 fives, 2 tens, and 2 twenties. We keep another $100 in cash in the panniers for expensive days where, for example, we have to buy multiple tires and tubes. And we keep the plastic in our wallets, which are in the panniers, for unforeseen expenses, or when it's just more convenient (sit down restaurants, usually). I withdrew a thousand bucks from the bank before we left, left a hundred of it here with our dogsitter for her expenses, and took the other $900 with us. As you can see, we did it just about exactly right.
Lodging, gas, and food on the way home. Hampton Inn Clinton: $166.88. We were only here a few hours to shower, change, and clean up, but it's worth it not to have to drive hours and hours still in bike stuff. Not sure why I had to pay more for this night than for the Friday night before, but I guess it's a "all that traffic will allow" kind of deal. Candlelight Inn Dinner: $80.20. (Our passenger bought us gas leaving Clinton. Thanks!) Hampton Inn Goshen: $110.88. This was where we finally managed to find an available room at 3am, on our third try. Gas, Goshen: $32.32. Ice for the cooler on the way out of town: $5. Gas, North Hunting, PA: $45. Sonic, Greensburg, PA: $14.86.
Subtotal: $455.14
Grand Total: $4462.33
RAGBRAI seems like a pretty cheap vacation, largely because you don't spend it all at once, but the math tells a different story. This also doesn't include all the gear we had going in, cycling shorts and jerseys, the bike itself, cycling food we took that we already had at home (drink mixes, gels, Clif bars), paying the dogsitter, etc. It also doesn't include any of the costs associated with training rides, which were not insubstantial. Obviously, we could have done it a lot cheaper, but this is vacation for us, and we want to enjoy it. We also want to support the small towns that put so much effort into supporting the riders, and we feel good about the money spent there.
Next year, hiking the Long Trail. Cheaper, or more expensive? Stay tuned!
