2007-07 RAGBRAI Bike Ride (Part II)

Tuesday, July 24

Today was a beautiful day for bike riding. There was no wind to speak of for the first half of the day, and when it did start to blow, it was from the south and we were mainly heading east by that time. The route was a little shorter, only 72 miles, but we were only on the seat for 5-1/4 hours. We still didn’t finish until about 4:30 since we stopped quite a bit.

A lot of people decorate their helmets in various ways. One team from Minnesota had added loons on the top of their helmets. I also saw a helmet with an armadillo shell on it, and another with a giant ear of corn.

One of the traditions on RAGBRAI by one of the teams is to mark the road kill with beads and/or stickers. If the road kill was on the road before the ride, the RAGBRAI puts out a sign to warn riders of the road kill. Among the animals we saw an opossum, snake, rabbit, and a few unrecognizable piles of road kill stickered and necklaced.



One of the hardest working guys on the route had to be the guy riding the unicycle. He has to pedal every revolution of the run. He had a large tire to get a few more feet per revolution, but he can’t coast down hills. The hardest working woman would have to have been the gal on the rollerblades.

Breakfast today was at the country club outside of Eagle Grove, where they served sausage, and egg on and English muffin with hash browns with orange juice. They were also having a putting contest where you could win some money for sinking a long putt.

Eagle Grove had a 50’s old town theme with the Mayberry gang (Barney Fife, Otis the drunk, and Aunt Bea among others), Elvis, and the residential street was lined with classic cars. They had also lined the entry to the town with flags to create a very moving sight.

One family was on a bicycle built for 3 with a double trail-a-bike behind, so all five were on the same bike. It was quite a feet of synchronization to get them all going. Many people carry a lot of their gear with them, rather than use the gear transport trucks. They have trailers behind their bikes filled with their gear. Some decorate their bikes with streamers, bells, flags, etc.

Another interesting stop was at a farm that had about a dozen beautifully restored antique tractors on display in their front yard. They were also giving away some locally grown fresh watermelon and ice cold water. It really hit the spot.

Today’s highlight was the ultra light rides being given by 3 pilots at a farm just on the west side of I-35. Jeannie took a ride and said it was so beautiful and green all around. Due to the hot weather and limited lift, the pilots were limiting the weight of those that could go up with them. They were taking off and landing on a farm driveway.

As we entered our campsite, we saw a group of riders off in a mud puddle totally caked in mud. It probably felt great after the ride, but the cleanup must have been a lot of work.

We wandered downtown to see if we could get on line and update the website since friends and family back home were wondering if we were really riding our bikes or just making our way across Iowa in and RV and enjoying some good food. We saw a sightseeing tour being offered in a wagon being pulled by a tractor and narrated by one of the locals. The local telecoms would set up WiFi sites in each overnight town, so we were sometimes on the prowl for this service..

Wednesday, July 25

We had another good day of bicycling today. The wind was light and from the south, the trail was mainly heading south and east from Hampton to Cedar Falls. We did have a nice stretch directly out of Hampton that was running north, so we got our first 20 miles behind us very quickly.

A lot of the teams that run RAGBRAI have old school buses decorated with a theme or painted up with their team name. They usually have racks on the top for the bikes and then seating and storage inside. Teams will also hoist flags and banners to make it easier for team members to find the bus, RV, or tent as they come into the camp.

The ride was very crowded today, due in part to the nice weather, and also since we were headed to a large town, it appears a lot of people from Cedar Falls wanted to ride into their home town. One of those joining the ride was Shannon's sister, Bridget. Even with the large crowds, there are relatively few accidents. Most of the riders are good at communicating their intentions as they turn, slow or change lanes.

When we stopped in Dumont, they had an air inflated climbing wall which they could send 2 people up on at a time. I had never seen one of these before.

In the town of Applington, the locals had created a statue of old bikes piled onto an ancient rusted pickup truck. I was thinking how hand that would have been to get all the spare bike parts I use, or make some wild hybrid bikes.

The campground tonight is in the open fields around the University of Northern Iowa UNI-Dome. We went to the concert inside the UNI-Dome featuring the Blues Traveler band. Sitting up high in the bleacher seats, we found the sound to be terrible. The dome is all concrete and steel, so the sound is bouncing everywhere. We moved down to the floor level and were at least able to understand the words being sung. We then stepped out to the outdoor concert area and listened for a while before heading back to camp.

Today was supposed to be the last riding day for most of us, but after looking at the map and checking the weather, Mike and Ray decided to join Jeannie (who is riding the whole week) on the Thursday portion of the ride before heading back to the Twin Cities.

Thursday, July 26

The weather cooperated, as did the route making this the fastest day of the ride. We didn’t do as much stopping and sightseeing since we were anxious to get home and there weren’t as many towns along the way today.

As we were heading up to the route, Ray’s tire popped. Looking down, he saw a half-inch long slit in the side wall of the tire. He had just had the entire wheel replaced the day before since he had broken a couple of spokes. The tire could have gotten damaged during the change in wheels as he had a flat tire about 7 miles outside of town the night before. He headed back to camp to change tires and tubes, but ended up just changing wheels with Michelle to save time since she was not riding this day. He then pedaled on to catch up with Mike and Jeannie.

One of the interesting bikes today was a small wheeled bike, geared to get the most distance per pedal, but it took a lot of muscle to in such a high gear.

Mike’s brother Gary was also riding on the RAGBRAI. We would meet up with him various towns along the way. As you ride during a given day, you will see some of the same people many times as you get on a similar schedule. Sometimes you pass the same person 4-5 times a day. If you are riding faster, but staying longer in towns, you will pass people who are going slower, but have shorter stays. It’s a classic example of the tortoise and the hare.

We stopped at Pastafari for a pasta breakfast. They grill salmon steaks too which you can get with your meal. This was one of the few places we ate that wasn’t community based. They follow the route and set up their kitchen each day somewhere along the route. We enjoyed eating at places put together by the local communities to support the local towns and their churches and clubs. This is a huge fundraising opportunity for these communities to get this many hungry bike riders going through their town.

The afternoon brought us through Amish country. We first noticed some large draft horses in a farm yard, then the white houses, and finally some horse and buggies along with classically dress Amish men, women, and kids. Many were selling beverages and homemade food at their farms. One farm field was full of activity as they were gathering up the cut hay and piling it into their wagons.

We entered our final stop in Independence a little after noon, and packed up the RV for the trip home. After 360 miles of riding, lots of sun, music, characters, plenty of food and drink, and good times, we had many good memories of our ride across Iowa.