RAGBRAI Day 7 - The Finale

Hello All,

It is Sunday evening and I am writing this final posting from my home in Alta Loma... RAGBRAI 2008 has sadly come to an end - a happy ending. I am really looking forward to RAGBRAI 2009. Once again, a general invitation to all of you - let's all go! We will start training in March and be totally ready by July... It is fun fun fun. An experience you will never forget.

On Friday evening, I tried to post my daily blog, but was foiled first by the Internet service, which was down, then by the blogspot site (www.blogger.com), which went down for service. I headed to camp to pitch my tent, take my shower (cold from the bag), and gather my buddies for a visit to the downtown Expo. This was our last night at RAGBRAI and I wanted to experience the party atmosphere.

Dinner for me and Brent was an "Indian Taco." Basically it was a taco on Indian frybread. It was a bit of a gut bomb - neither of us would try this again.


Our intrepid eater, Darin, tried the "Prarie Dog." I think this was a deep fried brat. Ick ick ick is all I gotta say on this one. It didn't seem to do Darin any harm. He must have a cast iron stomach!



We wandered around for a bit and got caught up in doing the "chicken dance." This was the first time Cathy got to experience this goofy bit of weirdness. Where did the chicken dance come from? Why is it so dorky and irresistible at the same time?


Good technique, eh?
Great action shot from our curbside photographer, Brent.


Here's some minimalist cycling attire. And you get to see a long row of kybos - a common site at RAGBRAI. The uncommon thing about this is the lack of long lines!

After the sight-seeing, we rode our bikes back to camp before it got dark. Then Cathy, Darin, and I walked back to the Expo for some beer garden entertainment. Brent decided to turn in early (can you say wimp?).

The beer garden was indeed as fun as could be. We were highly entertained by our fellow RAGBRAI buddies.

So this is why they put 3 pockets on the back of our cycling jerseys! Ingenious!

This guy was a bit intimidating to look at, but I had to ask him what was going on with his nose adornment. It turned out to be a mini-flashlight! He said it was very helpful when trying to get back to his tent after a night in the beer garden.


I never caught his name, but he turned out to be a fun beer garden companion. (And potentially useful. You never know when you might need a guiding light!)


Then behind us, I saw a guy with the most perfect mullet I've seen since Michael Bolton's hey day. I wanted to snap a photo of this hairy wonder, but didn't want it to be obvious. Darin came to the rescue and cajoled a whole group of people (literally pulling mullet-man into the shot) for the photo. Darin is the bomb (and a great partner in crime).


Just some more fun folks in the beer garden...


After a while, the music ended and a rather lame comedian took the main stage. We ditched this stage and found a live band playing a few blocks away. Here we danced ourselves silly and Darin pulled out a little air guitar with the bass player. Darin rocks!

In the end, we headed back to camp at a pretty decent hour (after an ice cream stop) and caught
a good night's rest before our final ride on Saturday.

On our final morning (Saturday), we had absolutely glorious weather. The sun was shining - there was no wind and no inkling of any storms looming. Happy day!

Here's our charter group buddy, Mike, wearing his very specialy cycling kit. He wears this only once a year (I think you can guess why). Usually he wears it on Father's Day, but for some reason this did not work out this year, leaving it available for a RAGBRAI day. How fortunate for us! Let me tell you - we could certainly pick him out in a crowd without any problem. He's a very brave man...

We started out our ride in the normal manner - the 6 of us (Mike and Art joined in) getting a rather late start on the road and riding for about 10-15 miles before stopping to find some breakfast. Brent and Darin had been hunting for pancakes the day before (all we could seem to find east of Des Moines was breakfast burritos for some reason). We finally found the closest approximation to pancakes - they called it pancakes on a stick. It looked like a corn dog, but was actually a sausage on a stick surrounded by a pancake. They provided a little container of syrup for dipping. I opted for the egg and ham on a biscuit for myself.



Then I ran into my CrossRoads friends, Amy and Scott. It's amazing to find 2 people you know among 10,000 cyclists!







Later on, we found this wonderful woman giving out free cold bottles of water. How generous. It was really nice and touching. She had her 2 rescure greyhounds with her. They were the sweetest things ever. I'd love to rescue a greyhound some day...

Any my Pink Squirrel hunting paid off! I found a pod (quad?) of them in a back alley!

These structures were so massive, they did not fit in the photo. I'm told they are grain elevators. Look how big they are compared to the bikes leaned up against them.

Here's Brent taking another leg break. He was listening to Van Halen on his iPod today and was hammering out at a pace of over 22 mph. I was right on his back wheel, enjoying the draft. We all really rode strong today. It was a glorious day to ride. We were glad to see Cathy's cape flying free once again!

Here's Brent about to commune with the corn.

Brent decided to finally take care of Cathy's cornfield virginity issue by force.

And there she goes! She doesn't look all that unhappy about it...

Here’s a cyclist’s view from the inner sanctum of the cornfield.

Happiness is a beautiful day, a good road, fellow cyclists, and a handy cornfield…

Here’s our 1st view of the end – the Mississippi River.

And back to camp for the dreaded bike packing…

Here we are, all packed and ready to go – seeking shelter in the shade of our truck.

And one last shot of our wonderful Cathy heading off for the airport and back home to Bellingham, Washington.

As expected, my Keen cycling sandals worked beautifully in Iowa and gave me an interesting tan line. (I’ve got some wicked swollen ankles going here – I suspect it’s from too many hours on buses and planes over the last 2 days.)

Thanks to all the encouraging messages. I understand comments were not allowed because I did not set up my blog to accept them. I’ll try to figure that out. I plan to keep this cycling blog going to further chronicle my cycling adventures. Admittedly RAGBRAI will always be one of the best experiences I could ever have on a bike…

Love to all… As Brent always says, “IT’S TIME TO RIDE!!”

RAGBRAI Day 6 - the Joy is Back!

Hello All,

First of all, sorry this posting is going out late. We lost Internet service on Friday, then when it was back up, the blogspot website went down for scheduled maintenance. Luckily I was able to save a draft of my blog and here you go. Later tonight I will try to finish up my final day of this year's RAGBRAI experience...

Ah, the RAGBRAI love had returned today! We woke up to cloudy skies, but no rain (hurray!). Even my tent was dry on the inside (yesterday everything touching the sides of the tent got wet). We found Brent's cell phone at the local Community Center, then found coffee for me and Darrin (whoo-hoo!) before taking off with a rather late start at 7:20 AM. We were told that we would have rain in the afternoon and many people left town early to beat the storm.

This bad news did not deter us - we cruised along, having a grand time. It was 69 degrees at around 10 AM. Very nice cycling weather overall. We had plenty of hills with over 3,000 feet of climbing over 65 miles, but - best of all - no headwinds today!!!


The headwinds over the last 2 days really drained the life out of me. And yesterday's rain put me in a very bad mood. Today all was well. I even got back in a paceline this afternoon, catching the wheel of a 2-tandem steam train. We got up to over 30 mph. Sa-weet! I love the pacelines. This is one experience that you have to be fully present and focused to engage in. You have to pay strict attention to the wheel you are following - you cannot let yourself get too far behind or you will lose the effectiveness of the drafting (and fall off), and you cannot get too close - if you kiss the wheel in front of you - you (not them) will go down in a heap. So there you are, hammering along at 25-30 mph, flying with so little effort, watching their wheel, watching their pedal strokes (for indications of whether they will change their pace), fingers hovering above your brakes, so you are ready should they slow down unexpectedly. It is an awesome and exhilarating experience.

We ran into a number of bananas today. I love these guys. They like to stay "hydrated" so to speak (usually with alcohol I think).

They normally hang out in a bunch. (I won't tell you what banana # 3 was doing to that inflated thing right before I snapped this shot.)

Here were the messages for today: "No Whining Today" for Laura; "Where's Painfreak?" for Brent; "Hammer This!" for Darin; and "Cornfield Virgin" for Cathy. Painfreak is our buddy back home (Mike) who always gets lost and just returned from a 2-week solo cycling vacation from Oregon to California. Cathy has been avoiding the cornfields. Maybe it is because some guy on day 1 read her message ("RAGBRAI Virgin") and told her he could take care of her problem in the cornfield. Darin, Brent, and I have been visiting the cornfields regularly. We like the corn, we commune with the corn, we christen the corn. Today I was a few rows away from Darin, and he was talking to the corn. He told me he encountered (orally, not visually) a couple of cyclists smoking some weed in the cornfield today. They cordially invited him to join in (he passed). As they say at RAGBRAI, "What happens in the cornfield stays in the cornfield!" I've also heard that what happens at RAGBRAI goes on YouTube (try it - you'll see).

Me and my happy crew: Laura, Brent, Darin, and Cathy.

A very friendly Iowan state police person helping direct traffic. We always say thank you. They are very nice and patient.

Breakfast: a "walking taco" (Doritos, taco meat, lettuce, and cheese in a Doritos bag - quite tasty) and a burrito for Darin (he had to buy 2 more later - this boy can eat!).

I was coveting this guy's jersey (Rock Racing - check out their cool website). But for $120 a pop, it is out of my price range...

We lost Brent early today, but found a fellow charter friend, Mike. He is blogging his experience at www.news.jacksonville.com/ragbrai. Check it out! Look how styling he is. Fully kitted out in the Liquidgas gear. His bike has golden handlebars. Ooooooo. He says to just wait to see what he will wear tomorrow. He says he only wears this particular outfind once a year. We are all in suspense.

Here we are waiting for the train to pass after coming out of a meeting town. We are basically following a trail that runs along the train route. We hear the trains at night and frequently cross the tracks.


Brent eating his Mr. Porkchop # 2 and Darin eating his first ever Mr. Porkchop. If you are into pork products, I would recommend Mr. Porkchop. (He has some fun videos on YouTube.)

Here's one of Mr. Porkchop's grill guys. He's a real farm boy!

The next thing you know, that "Superman" song started playing and me and farm boy broke out dancing. Very fun. Very spontaneous. This is what RAGBRAI is all about - having fun in the here and now.


Here's one of my favorite RAGBRAI hang-outs - the Internet bus. Let me give a thankful shout out to Iowa Telecom for providing free internet and phone service.

Here's the inside of our little technological communications world. Everyone was very friendly and patient in here each day.

And I got my first glimpse of the elusive Pink Squirrels today in the Internet bus. Now that I know they are here, I'm going squirrel hunting! (They are really so adorable.)

Tomorrow is our last day! Take care and love to all!

RAGBRAI Day 5

Hello All,

Here's my 2nd posting for the day. I have decided to try something new. Instead of coming into the final (overnight) town, setting up my camp, getting a shower, then going to the Internet bus (a painful experience when I'm riding in my street clothes); I am now hitting the Internet first thing when I blow into town.

So here I am, tired and still in my bike clothes trying to coherently cobble together a blog message for you all.

Things picked up after my last posting - I regained the will to live again. I must apologize for the sour mood I was in earlier. I was just not ready for RAGBRAI rain. I was so spoiled last year. We really had extremely perfect weather last year.

We had a most excellent lunch at the American Legion (here's Cathy in front of the AL hall). We actually ate sitting down at a table!!!! (Instead of grass or a street curb if you are lucky.) They had excellent pie (cherry for me, rhubarb for Darrin) and best of all - free coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so coffee deprived out here, I cannot tell you. I told Brent he'd make a fortune with a mobile coffee service for tent campers first thing in the morning.

Mr. Cornstalk makes his 2nd annual appearance at RAGBRAI. You may recall his premiere last year. Hmmm, the cornstalk is looking a little limp. But poor Darrin's is in worse shape.

Highlight of the day - we all got to sit on a long-horned steer. Some kindly farmer man had "Ralph" out in his front yard. He patiently (Ralph was even more patient) put cyclist after cyclist on top of Ralph for photo ops. I was looking for the expected donation can (why would anyone do this willingly?), but saw none. Wonderful Iowans!

Here's a close-up of Ralph. Looks are deceiving - he really was a sweetie.

This is to prove I'm not the only chain-greasey cyclist out here. This guy had an almost artistic "chain tattoo" as we call them.

Darrin got his first gander at Mr. Reverse Mohawk today and was totally captivated. The guy on the left rides with Mr. RM and doesn't say much. He looks scarier to me that the RM!

A close-up of the Reverse Mohawk. I think Brent and Darrin must think this is a sad waste of a perfectly full set of hair.

That's it for the day, photo-wise. Due to the rain (which we had off and on all day), I had to keep my camera safe in a ziplock bag. Along with my wallet, my mostly non-functional cell phone (curses to AT&T!), and anything else I didn't want to get wet. When you cycle in the rain, you can expect several things. Among them, everthing will get wet, a filthy dirty bike, a strip of mud splattered straight up your backside and up your back from your rear wheel kicking up water behind you (unless you have a bike fender,which we don't); and you cannot draft too close behind anyone, or else you'll have mud splattered all over your front as well.

It is currently not raining, but is cold and ugly outside. I plan to set up camp and get some food and huddle up in my tent for the evening. Brent says I need a trip to the beer garden to cheer me up. We'll see how it rolls. Let's hope for better weather tomorrow. In spite of all my whining today, RAGBRAI is a great great great experience.

Love to All!