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.