Stronger Every Day

    Days 6 and 7 of RAGBRAI were a chance to really fly.  We knew we were close enough to the finish to push a little harder and not be too spent to make it all the way to Fort Madison.  We also were all feeling a stronger thanks to the previous 5 days of riding.  The roads were good and it was great fun to open up the throttle between towns.  One of my favorite sections was flying with a contingent of the Air Force Team for a few miles.

     

    The temperatures were markedly cooler and we were feeling good getting progressively earlier starts.  Wake up, have a little coffee and a banana then ride 10 or 20 miles to breakfast or iced coffee.

   Ride another 10 or 20 miles, stopping in route for pie, or some sort of food on a stick or more water.  

    There was live music and lots of dancing in some of the towns.  

    There was almost always something interesting to see.

    Bonaparte was a particularly pretty little town with a live band that could be heard from the park, up to the Des Moines River.  

 

   This small town is where the Mormon's crossed the river headed to Utah and it is still home to Amish families.  (Most of our pie was made by the Amish.)

    

    

    After Bonaparte, it was a short 30 miles to the Mississippi River.  I stopped a couple times to take a picture or two of some Iowa scenery.

    

   

  

   There was brief call of nature stop - and photo of a RAGBRAI bathroom.

    Of course, everyone had to stop at RAGBRAI mountain to take a photo.  In fact, it was nearly impossible to take a picture of just the people you knew, because it was such a silly popular photo opportunity.  

   The next stop was under 4 miles away - the Mississippi River for a quick tire dunk, a tour of Fort Madison, a little music and off to a celebratory team toast.  

   

     Team Ridgway finished RAGBRAI feeling stronger every day!  Before we could pack up and head for home, we were contemplating what to do next.  Nick is planning a 500 mile back packing trek in August and September while the rest of us are contemplating a three day tour of the eastern plains of Colorado in September.  I am contemplating the Tanana River Challenge next March in Fairbanks. (Chris, Janet ... are you game?)

     

 

Elevator Road

     It is easy to lose track of time on RAGBRAI, the days, the miles, the parties and the music just seem  to stretch across Iowa as you move from location to location.  As best as I recall, and it was only a few days ago, days four and five of RAGBRAI were two pretty similar days of riding.  Pulling out of some town, we passed a sign that said the name of the road was Elevator Road.  Huh, I thought, what is it about an elevator, maybe grain or it goes up and down.  

     No sooner did I think up and down than the road did just that.  Days 4 and 5 are days spent working up more steep short hills and rolling down the other side.  Certainly more work than Day 3 but not as much climbing nor as many miles per day as Day 2.  The mass of riders seems to have thinned a tiny bit and the riders that are still on the road - maybe 20,000 instead of 25,000 - seem ready to spend a lot more time exploring the sites along the roads.  

     Day 4 began with a beautiful ride through Des Moines and Joanne asking me to have Siri google the population of the city.  (203,000 at the last census.)  Then out into the suburbs up and down through pretty neighborhoods and off into the country.   When our team was discussing the ride on Day 4 tonight (Day 6) none of us really have any specific recollections.  Just riding over hilly and beautiful countryside.

     What I do remember about Day 4 was watching all the people riding this event.  There are people here with ever imaginable level of ability and with any number of disabilities.  The courage exhibited by some of the riders who are facing visible challenges such as amputation or partial paralysis but still riding is inspiring. The person that struck me the most was a fellow riding with his wife.  She was on a recumbent type seat in front of her husband who was sitting on traditional biking seat on this custom tandem. She was small, frail and apparently a person suffering with MS, but they were still riding together up and down over 50 miles of hills.  I think that at the end of the day, every person on RAGBRAI will have times that they felt like a champ, that they will have passed someone else and felt strong and every single person will be passed and see someone demonstrating skill, ability, courage, kindness or some other trait to be admired and will be inspired.

     Day 4 ended at the Knoxville Catholic Church, camping at the parish priest's lawn.  The Church fed us an amazing super and as suited the location, the evening was quiet.  A good night's sleep was had by all - not a common occurrence for our group.

     Day 5 began with the authentic Dutch town of Pella - also the home of Pella windows and doors.   Pella was only a few miles from the prior night's campsite, but the town was one of the most compelling stops on the ride.  Central Iowa College had open its doors to guests. people in Dutch costumes roamed the streets

and the town's authentic windmill loomed above the streets.

 Everyone seemed to stop in Pella to enjoy the canal,

the Dutch treats or a view from above of the community.  We watched the wooden shoe races and the  cheese races. 

     This one stop alone was longer than all the stops put together most days.  Of course, this is RAGBRAI, so the treat in Pella did come at a price as the temperatures continued to rise while we played in town.  

    We got back on the road with more than 40 miles still to cover!  The only thing to do at that point was to go with the flow.  We stopped when the need for water, corn fields or shade demanded.  We stopped for pie!!! We stopped for cute furry critters.  The result was a leisurely ride and some special experiences.    Sadly, I do not have a photo of one of my favorite moments from Day 5 - the puppy named Rascal.

     Someplace around noon, I was getting too hot.  There was not much out on this section of road but on the left hand side there was a family sitting in their yard selling water by the bottle and offering a silly wiggly kids water play sprinkler for anyone who wanted to cool off.  I stopped, walked through the sprinkler a few times - while the family took photos and laughed as the ice cold water hit my back.  I bought a bottle of water from a little girl who brought her young dog over to say hello.  I petted the little cattle dog - I need a dog fix too!  The girl's brother, seeing me pet the girl's dog became very concerned and asked if I would pet his puppy as well.  Of course, I said yes.  The boy ran off into the house and came out with a 3 month old looking cattle dog puppy and handed the puppy to me.  After a few minutes of having my face washed by the puppy (I felt so grimy and dirty I was worried my face might not be safe for the puppy to lick.) and lots of petting the little puppy, I handed her back to her proud owner who seemed so excited that the biker liked his girl Rascal.

    Day 5 also included a stop at a beautiful home that sits on top of a small hill.  It was later in the day and again, I was really hot.  My music had just started playing some old acid inspired Beatles song when I topped the hill to see a beautiful sheep, freshly shorn and groomed as though for show tethered by a bright orange strap to the ground in a field shaded by enormous trees.  Next, I saw a goat and a couple baby goats similarly cleaned and tethered.  I saw bunnies in a pen and bikers sitting in ordinary charges on the lawn.  I just had to stop and enjoy the menagerie and make sure it was not a hallucination.  All animals were again petted.

    Day 5 ended in a fairgrounds where we were treated to lots of music and a late night deluge of rain. The volunteers had warned us a heavy rain storm was heading for us but there were no tornado warnings.  I slept pretty well until the rain woke me up.  Listening to the rain hitting the tent was pretty wonderful, even though the inside of the tent felt like a steam room.  The rains of Night 5 continued through until around 5 am on day Day 6 - but Day six had a few real treats in store for us.

    

    

Woohoo .... cruising into Des Moines

     Everybody said that day 3 would be a blast and it was!  The day started a lot colder and stayed cool and cloudy most of the day.  While some folks bundled up, I put on a light button down nylon shirt and took off enjoying the breeze.

     The ride was a leisurely cruise to Des Moines through beautiful farmland and picturesque towns.  

   One town offered the biggest craziest party to date on this RAGBRAI.  I was so big our group was split up by the crowd and never did reconvene until we were in camp.

   There were banana bikes, a couple fat tire bikes and even a unicycle out there today.  

    People out championing causes from the Atheists of Iowa to Art for El Salvador to the fund to make sure daughters don't have to wear their moms' prom dresses.  (No, I did not make that up.)

   There was wrestling in one town and lots of live music.  Towns today welcome the mass of riders with flags, free waters and milks, lots of high fives as you rode by, cow bells, hoot and hollers.

But mostly, today was beautiful scenery and homes.  I did not take a lot of photos because roads were pretty crowded and I was just flying along today ... at least it felt that way.

 

Crazy fun ride through beautiful countryside

     Day One:  We are off!  There is no start time for RAGBRAI and as they say, there really are no rules.  It is not a race, it is a tour, a party and a fundraiser for every town, city, charity, or ambitious person with something to sell or "free will" away.  (Since there is a price for a permit to be an official vendor, lots and lots of folks set up shop along the roads or in front of their homes.  The stuff - usually bottles of gatorade or lemonade is free but you are free to put something in the pot to say thank you. Some of the very best stops are at free will locations.)  

     Everyone starts riding more or less when they feel like it.  We got a reasonably early start the first morning, rolling through the city of Counsel Bluffs with lots of spectators lining the streets and cheering for the mass of riders.  And boy is this event MASSIVE!  It became clear pretty quickly just how massive this event really is when we passed the US Air Force team lined up in the middle of the road waiting to start, en masse.  There were 90 members of the Air Force team, ranging in age from college age to post retirement age.  It was truly and impressive sight to see them in matching Air Force bike kits lined up and ready to ride.  We road past the assemble and within 20 minutes, some of them started passing us.  But the Air Force team isn't here just to ride as a pack and race to end of each day.  One Air Force officer told me that they are required to split up and not run in packs - which is a RAGBRAI no-no - and that they are present to ride and to help out in any way that they can.  In three days of riding, almost every rider on the side of the road with a problem seemed to have an Air Force rider at their side helping out.  

     Massive extends to the entire crowd of up to 25,000 riders on any single day.  There are times when you can look down the road and see a road covered with bikes across both lanes stretching out for as far as you can see - which sometimes is miles.

Every town along the route offers some kind of party as the route snakes through the middle of the community.  Bikers have no choice but to get off and walk through these towns and shop and eat and enjoy whatever thing has been planned. 

     At least one town on day three was about a mile and half walk just to pass through.

     Day one and even more so day two taught us a fundamental lesson, Iowa is not flat.  This year's route went through the Loess Hills of Iowa.  As far as I can tell, the hills consist of 80 plus miles of short steep 200 vertical foot rises and long steady upgrades all connected by some really fast rolls down hill. 

     The bigger hills sported something of interest at the top.  It might be scenery or a vendor selling homemade pie or BBQ sandwiches.  

One of the RAGBRAI food favorites, which I have not tried yet, is Mr. Porkchop.  The lines to eat one of these treats is huge.  

     Day one was pretty mellow with lots of happy riders and cheering spectators.  

     Day two the moving column of bikers was in some ways quieter and more subdued.  It was a long day with a lot of climbing and the weather was predicted to be hot.  Hotter than the day before and hotter than expected the rest of the week.  The day dawned cool but the water in the air condensed on everything.  The world was wet.  The road rolled out into corn and bean fields shrouded in fog.  The fog quickly lifted and was replaced by heat that soared to 95 degrees and humidity levels that matched.  Rumor has it the heat index was in the 110 degree range.  

  Day two ended with a real bang.  A major thunderstorm moved across the host town of Perry, Iowa.  We were camped at the Masonic Lodge - thanks to minion Al, who is a Mason.  There were only a handful of us sharing one of the nicest spots in town and when the storm hit, we had the ability to go in the lodge and ride it out for an hour or so.  Eventually, back outside in my tent, I fell asleep listening to the rain and by then distant rumble of thunder.

     

     

Let the games begin - RAGBRAI Day Zero

     RAGBRAI day zero is the day before the ride begins.  There are 10,000 registered riders, support vehicles and an estimated 15,000 unregistered riders here to cross Iowa together.  

     Team Ridgway reunited after our drives and set up camp in a meadow between the Bass Pro Shop and a Springhill Suites.  Then it was off to the rider orientation and the driver orientation for our self-proclaimed minion.  (YES, we have a MINION!!!)  We enjoyed the cool air inside the Mid-America Center pavilion and scored some sweet free swag at the dozens of vendor booths.  From free Gu to bike bottles and coupons for free meals in various chain restaurants.  The vendors brought their A game.  Interesting stuff to check out and prices that all looked pretty reasonable.  

    We found that there are a lot of Coloradans here and even a few folks from Montrose and Ouray!  The long term parking lot practically looked like the Colorado cars lot!  

    Speaking of people who are here, we saw Lance Armstrong from about 7 feet away.  He was hanging around a bike shop booth and people were lined up to have their picture taken with the infamous champion, doper and bully.  In truth, the line for a photo really was not very long.  It was longer than the line for shaved ice but shorter than the popular food booth lines.  No, I won't be posting a picture of Lance, though Al got a good one from a couple feet away. 

     Day zero is also the time for the first ride of the event.  We rode the short route down to the Missouri River, our official starting point.  The traffic on the narrow bike path looked a lot like the  Golden Gate BRidge at rush hour - tons of traffic going both directions in a very narrow space.  We took team photos and rode back together, with a little detour for me riding through a sprinkler system set up as a ride through cooling off point.

     Just a word about RAGBRAI organization - SNAFU!!!  Unlike rides I have done in Colorado and New Mexico, at least today there is more chaos than organization.  Everyone is looking and asking about water.  Where is the water and most of the RAGRAI staff really do not know.  I imagine things will smooth out on the trail, but I am really glad I was warned to bring more water than anyone else thought we should.  We went through a lot today and we were not really riding.  So, after some effort, we found water and filled up every container including the 7 gallon flat can I slipped into the RV yesterday morning.  

     In truth, it is not very hot yet, but us  high altitude living folks are not used to the heat combined with humidity.  We are struggling a bit to adjust.  The hottest place of all ... the vendor area which was on pavement and in full sun.  Tonight we sleep, or try to sleep given the tremendous noise from the interstate, the generators and the sounds of being in a city.  Tomorrow, the games begin!!!!  Up early and in the saddle.

You Can't Get There from Here -

     There is an old Yankee Magazine joke about a tourist who asks the an old codger from Maine for directions.  After pondering the question for a few minutes, the codger, in a thick down east accent replies, "Ya can't get there from here."  Such is the start of the RAGBRAI (that seems to mean the Des Moines Registers Great Bike Ride Across Iowa)  odyssey - at least sort of.  

     Day one for me was all about getting to Ridgway and getting my dogs safely housed at the Que Sera Sled Dog Ranch.  I opted to head through the San Louis Valley, over to Gunnison and down into Montrose Colorado.  The route is a pleasant drive that seems to spend most of the time heading in directions you don't ultimately want to go.  

     Somewhere around Alamosa the sky started to darken and the western monsoons looked like they might start firing off rain, hail and lightening.  Given how little rain this region has seen in the past year, the storm was a welcome sight.  

 

      After what started as a slow drizzle, the rain increased.  Lightening flashed in the distance andan occasional strike was close enough to the car to generate a good booming sound inside the car.  From Gunnison onward it got tricky.  The rain started to pour.  My bike was getting soaked and the dogs were getting a bit nervous.  They are not fans of thunder.

     It wasn't till somewhere in the middle of nowhere that it got a little interesting for me.  The semi that was ahead of me came to a quick stop angled somewhat across the road.  To my right, I saw rushing brown water flowing off the hillside and onto to highway.  Dirt and rocks from the size of a softball to the size of a basketball were strewn across the roadway and flowing off the downhill side.  Somehow, we all waited a few minutes and the flood passed.  Someone got out of his car and moved some of the  larger rocks and we picked out way through and around what was left after the flood.  Another mile or so and another rock field appeared along with a few flooded sections.

    This morning, 2 of my teammates and I left Ridgway for Iowa.  This is the "you cannot get there from here" moment.  From any point in Colorado, Iowa is east but from Ridgway, the only practical way to head to Iowa is to drive west until you are just miles from the Utah border.  Only then can you hop on a major highway and finally head west.  

    The drive was long and Leroy the camper van prefers to run at a slow but steady 62 mph.  

That gave us a chance to watch all the other RAGBRAI folks cruise by us with all kinds of bikes.  A tiny car with 5 super high end bikes, a pick up truck with a touring bike with butterfly bars and a MiniCooper from Flagstaff with a couple bikes on the roof and a sign in the window,"From Flagstaff AZ to RAGBRAI or Bust."

 What a beautiful trip west it is!  From Grand Junction to Denver over and through the Rockies, across the continental divide and onward out onto the Great Plains! 

That's the RAGBRAI adventure ... day one!  We have a comfy hotel and about 5 more hours to drive tomorrow.