2007-07 RAGBRAI Bike Ride (Part I)

(Mike has set up a team website at http://home.comcast.net/~mtwagner/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html for the Minnesota mixed nuts)

Saturday, July 21

The Minnesota Mixed Nuts is a group of 6 people who are doing the (Des Moines) Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). The team included Shannon, Jerry, Michelle, Mike, Jeannie, and Ray. We rented an RV for the trip this year, so we could cool down after the ride and sleep in comfort. We loaded up at Mike’s house and then went down to Apple Valley to pick up Mike’s nephew who would be our driver. One more stop in Lakeville for the last 3 members and we were off to Rock Rapids, the start of this year’s ride. We ended up camping in the park around the baseball field.

We walked down to the high school where the main headquarters was and the bike expo was being held. We picked up our RAGBRAI patches and Mike ran into a high school friend of his who takes pictures of the RAGBRAI event..

I had a a pulled pork sandwich and then met the rest of the group at the local church where they had lasagna and chicken dinners and I had my dessert—apple pie ala mode. We waited in line for about an hour and half for dinner, as they had run out and had to wait for the caterers to bring more in. WE got back to camp about dark, and sat around for a while before heading off to bed.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

We all got up early and hit the road about 6:50. We stopped in George for breakfast and had a breakfast burrito which was very good. Food is plentiful at every town and every body sells pies, no matter what time of day. The beer gardens open up early too. The wind was out of the south, so was a cross wind most of the day. The few short legs we had going northbound were a treat to ride.

Many people who lived on the route were out on their driveways watching all the bikers go by. Some were selling pop, water, and Gatorade. Many of the community service groups, school groups and church groups would have food stands in each of the towns.

We saw many interesting teams and people with all skill and abilities on the ride. Most noticeably today we say a gentleman with an artificial leg pass us (he was moving), and a paraplegic pedaling a special recumbent bike with his hands and arms.

A group of 3 ultra light planes were following the route early in the morning. Also, we saw some old bi-planes and some small planes towing messages were over the campground.

When we arrived in Spencer at around 3:00, we went to the fairgrounds where Cory had set up the RV. Our first order of business was to get cleaned up and showered off. The showers were inside the cattle barn and were the cleaning stations that they use to prepare the cattle for shows. Everyone lined up and waited their turn. Despite the conditions, the showers felt so good after a long hot day on the road.

We wondered around the fairgrounds and ate dinner at the Jaycees building. We had pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, and potato salad. We then wondered down the grandstand to watch a skydiving exhibition. One of the skydivers got caught in the wind and landed in an open area about 100 yards from the target.

Monday, July 23, 2007

We started off again around 7:00 and headed out to find a good breakfast stop. On the way, we saw some of the very large wind generator turbines going done the highway we were crossing. This backed up the rider traffic as we waited for the truck to cross. Early in the morning, the riders are all bunched up and it gets pretty crowded. We found some huge breakfast burritos in Gillette Grove.

I saw some interesting bikes today, including a bicycle built for 3, and a recumbent with a large sail on it. He was heading south into the wind when I saw him, so he was fighting a large drag caused by the wind. The best stop of the day was in Larens, where they had a Hawaiian themed “Lei”over for the riders. Besides the Hawaiian decorations, they had a volcano where the mayor was being photographed with the riders. All the local town folks were in Hawaiian shirts.

Just outside of Laurens, a family had set up a slip-and-slide out in their yard. Many riders (including Mike) stopped and took a ride. As we made it to Rolfe, we saw the banana man, who is riding the entire ride in a banana costume (it must be really hot). Rolf had decorated their street lights with hanging bikes.

When we were in Bradgate, we saw a lady who was carrying her dog in a front pack for the ride. The dog would ride in the pack when she was riding and place his feet on here padded cross bar.

As we entered Humbolt, we entered holiday land, as that was their theme for the overnight stay. We ended up with about the best site in the campground at the fairgrounds as we were at the top of the hill overlooking the whole campground. We discovered that Mike's picture even made it into the official RAGBRAI site. He is in the background watching and waiting to fill his water bottle: http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=D2&Date=20070723&Category=OPINION04&ArtNo=707230804&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=7&community=/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=D2&Date=20070723&Category=OPINION04&ArtNo=707230804&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=8&community=

2007-07 The Winners Circle at Canterbury Downs

We went out to Canterbury Downs in Shakopee on Friday for an evening of horse racing. When we got there, we ran into our neighbors, Mike and Nancy, who were out to watch Nancy's sister's horse, Dazling Danni, run. LeAnn's sister Sue and husband John were also out at the track, so we knew a lot of people.

It was a beautiful evening, although it was hot. Fortunately, the way that the track is situated, the grandstand shields the track level seating from the sun so it was not uncomfortable.

Before the big race, we were invited down into the paddock area to watch the horses parade and the jockeys mount the horses. Hailey got to shake hands with the jockey and wish him luck. As the horses approached the track area, we placed our bets and made our way to the track. Hailey went down to the finish line on the rail to get a good close up view.

Dazling Danni ran a great race and put on a huge burst of speed at the end to take first place. Everyone was very excited about the win and headed for the winner's circle where we got our photo taken with the winning team. We then went inside into celebrate with the proud owners.

Thanks to Nancy for the photos for this post as we ended up going there without our camera (a rare occurrence).

2007-07 Independence Day

We spent the 4th of July here in Eagan beginning with the local parade. LeAnn's niece Heidi invited everyone over to her and Julie's house for the day. They live just a block from the parade route, so it makes for a good starting point. We got down to the parade and put out the lawn chairs and blankets. The kids all invited friends along, so we had a good sized group out on the curb waiting for candy. Both of LeAnn's sisters and their families along with Ray's mom came after the parade to Heidi's.




Since this is not an election year, the number of politicians in the parade was less than in some years. The local boy scouts, girl scouts, dance teams, bands, churches and fire departments were all participating. The Shriner's bagpipe band in full Scottish garb was an unexpected treat.


After the parade, we went back up to Heidi's for an afternoon of swimming, bean bag toss, and rodeo golf. We also grilled hot dogs, bratwurst and hamburgers to go along with all the side dishes like potato salad, taco salad, and pasta salad.



As it got dark, we waited for the fireworks coming from the Community Center. While we were waiting, we made root beer floats (using keg root beer!) and we lit some sparklers. The fireworks started about 10:00 and lasted close to 25 minutes.

2007-07 Taste of Minnesota

On Sunday afternoon we headed down to Harriet Island on the Mississippi River to attend the Taste of Minnesota festival. The festival is across the river from downtown St. Paul, so there are some nice views of the city skyline.

Shuttle buses run from downtown to the festival grounds, or you can park on the festival side of the river and walk in. The festival has vendors selling their wares and crafts (sunglasses were the most popular item this year, there must have been at least a dozen vendors) along with local restaurants selling food and beverage. The variety of food is great, form Australian Breaky Pies, to Shwarma/Gyros, turkey legs, sweet corn, onion blossoms, ice cream, fresh squeezed lemonade, beer, wine and dozens of other options. Since you can't bring in your won food or beverage, your are a captive audience for the sights and smells of the food booths.


You have to buy tickets (scrip) for the food and beverage from various ticket booths on the grounds. This serves 2 purposes. The first is reduce the cash handling and build-up of cash at the individual food booth. The second is to make it seem like you are not spending real money for the food. It is also less easy to figure out what exactly they are charging you for the food.

There was a carnival area with rides and a midway to help entertain the kids. Radio Disney also had a stage where they were playing music and having dance contests. There is a large open area with a main stage for the bigger music acts. When we were there, a military band was playing as it was the middle of the afternoon. The bigger name entertainment took the stage in the evening, but we left around dinner time. The evening show was followed by a fireworks each night. The festival runs from the weekend through the 4th of July.

2007-06 Family Golf Outing

On Saturday, we went to the local par 3 course with Kara and Hailey and a couple of their friends along with our neighbors, Mike and Nancy. This is a nice course for beginners to learn on as almost everyone there has kids in their foursome, so there is not a lot of pressure for speed of play. The course is short, but there are some sand traps and water on it which provides some challenge for everyone.

The greens are not cut very close, so the ball does not roll real easily, which is good because if you can get on the green, it will usually stay. Kara was able to take advantage of this on the second hole when she had it roll up on the green from her drive and then 2 putted for par! Both LeAnn and Mike had a birdie during the round.

We had wanted to get the kids back out golfing again, but hadn't had much success, so we were glad we were able to get a couple groups together. We are hoping to get a few more rounds in with the kids during the rest of the summer so they can feel comfortable golfing in the future.

2007-06 The Bloomin' Idiots Ride the MS150

Over the weekend of June 8th and 9th, Ray, LeAnn and Mariah joined over 3000 other bicycle riders participating in the MS150 bike ride from Duluth to Blaine, MN. This 150 mile ride is a charity ride to benefit the Minnesota Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Our team this year consisted of 7 riders. Besides us, we had LeAnn's brother-in-law John, niece Heather, and two friends Russ and Sonja. Ray started riding for MS back in 1996 and others have joined along the way. The team this year has completed 45 rides between them. This represents 6750 miles, or about the distance from Minneapolis to Shanghai, China.

We placed our bikes on a truck in Blaine and boarded buses for the ride to Duluth. We camped overnight at the Proctor high school, and went down to Canal Park in Duluth for dinner. It was a very nice evening on the shores of Lake Superior, being much warmer than it normally has been. It was breezy though, foreshadowing what was to come on Saturday.

We awoke early on Saturday morning to get in line at 6:00 for breakfast. The line stretched around 3 sides of the gymnasium and took about 45 to get to the cafeteria. We were served pancakes made by the dozens on a special grill with an automated dispensing system for the batter. Heather was lucky enough to be singled out to catch her pancakes rather than being handed a plate with them already on.

We got on the road about 7:30 and were in the middle of the pack. This meant long lines at the rest stops, which are stationed about every 12 miles. They are manned by volunteers and are well stocked with fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, cereal bars, water and Gatorade. The wind also started to kick up and slowed us down. We made it to lunch about 12:20, and finally to Hinckley (the halfway point and the end of day 1) at about 4:30. We parked our bikes in the bike coral and headed off for a cold beer. John's wife Sue came up and met us in Hinckley for the evening festivities. After cleaning up, we ate dinner at one of the casino restaurants and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

We got up early again on Sunday skipped the pancake breakfast and instead opted for the quick continental breakfast at the hotel. This allowed us to hit the road at 6:30. The wind was very calm for the first 4 hours and we made very good time to our lunch stop in North Branch, making the 37 miles by 10:00. A few slices of pizza, some chips and fruit, and we were ready to hit the road for the last half of day 2. We kept up a good pace the rest of the way, and brought the whole group through the finish line around 2:30. Sue had been working her way to Blaine, meeting us for lunch and at the afternoon rest stops before catching up with us at the end. Heather's husband Jason and son Reed also came to the finish line to celebrate with us. We had some sore bottoms, tired muscles and bodies, one busted spoke, and a close call to a collision, but we still were talking about making plans for next year.

After completing the ride, everyone feels a sense of accomplishment, not only for themselves, but also for those they are riding for and who will benefit from the $2 million raised for the MS Society here in Minnesota. You can check out the MS Society web site and still make a pledge for any of the Bloomin' Idiots at Bloomin' Idiots Team Page

2007-05 Mothers Day Race for the Cure

On Mother's Day this year we rejoined the annual tradition of walking in the Susan G Komen 5k Race for the Cure event here in the Twin Cities. We had missed the last 3 while we were living in the Philippines. We started participating in this event in memory of LeAnn's sister Marsha, who died of breast cancer, by forming a team and calling it Marsha's Milers. We also walk in honor of Marsha's sister-in-law Margaret and LeAnn's sister Yvonne who are cancer survivors. Both Yvonne and Margaret walked with us this year, as did Ray's mom and LeAnn's mom, and numerous nieces, nephews and relatives from aged 1-1/2 to 80. We saw two other families from the neighborhood during the walk too.

When we first started walking, it was held at the Southdale shopping center and had around 20,000 participants, but is now held at the Mall of America and has nearly 50,000 participants. Business sponsors provide food and drink, along with information and give-ways such as key chains and literature. The bandannas from Ford Motor company are always a big hit.

The weather started out cold in the morning, but warmed up quite a bit by the time we were done walking. Due to the size of the crowd, it takes about 1.5 hours to walk the 5K. The start line is about 1/2 mile form the sponsor tents, so that adds to the time and distance. Everyone made it around without any trouble, and it ended up being a nice day for the event.