RAGBRAI Day #7 - Washington to Muscatine, 50 miles, 1,314' of climb

In my last post, I failed to include the basement room that was made available to us for sleeping. Another wonderful luxury = no tent pitching!! Here's the basement room, including its friendly permanent occupant. Fred and Mrs. Fred inherited this home and its contents from the parents. Not sure if they are going to keep this homey stuff or????

When I sent this photo to Jett with the excited message of "this is were I'm sleeping tonight" she responded with "enjoy smelling the farts." Buzz kill that. Shortly thereafter, Fred offered the enclosed private porch for me and Tom to camp out in. Score! No (noticeable) farts from Tom. Mild snoring was his only offering. He's a wonderful traveling companion. 

And here we are starting out our 50-mile day in a Moore-On powered double-pace line. Typically on the last day, RAGBRAI is a hectic ride focused more on logistics and getting in early rather than having fun. When I used the charter company, they had two buses at the finish. The goal was to get in early enough to disassemble and pack up your bike and get it on the trailer, then get yourself and your bags on the first bus. All in the hot blazing sun. No showers for sure, but if you were lucky, you would be able to get some quick food. If you were late, you would not get on the first bus and would have to wait for the second bus, which would not leave until the last person was there. That would have been a nightmare... The last time I did the charter thing, Jett, Debbie, and very nearly missed the first bus. As it was, traveling back across the 500 miles of Iowa back landed you in Omaha around 11 p.m. I cannot imagine what time bus # 2 arrived.

Back to the double-pace line experienced on this day. Super-cyclist Karen and Craig  from Minnesotay (with the massive gastrocs) headed the best double-pace line I have had the pleasure to experience. We covered the first 20-25 miles at a pace around 19-20 mph. It was fun and exhilarating. Our Moore-On team was about 30 strong and another 20 people took up our wheels behind us. We had about 50 people roaring through! Karen was inspiring! Paul called Karen and the other girls the "crank sisters." And no, they weren't cranky - they just knew how to turn those cranks super fast! 

We lost Paul somewhere in the pace line before hitting this little town, then lost the rest of the Moore-Ons (but kept Tommy here.  You can see the swelling crowds. At this stage, the cyclists are a little antsy.

But still it is fun to people-watch.

The weather was still holding. We covered the first 30 miles so quickly, I was not worried about rain. Here we are crossing over another river.

And here is our first sighting of the mighty Mississippi River! We made it! Tom and I fought the crowds to dip our tires in the river, as is tradition. I did not have my camera handy, so no photos.. 

We easily found Wayne with our faithful Moronosaurus in a nice shady spot near the river. Tom and I were the first to arrive! This gave Tom time to disassemble and pack up his Surly while we waited. 

Wayne was great!

And one of the Moore-On girls, "living the dream" -  so true!!!

DeeAnn and Karen arrive and the bikes are loaded onto Jim's trailer.

Teamwork!

Here's the fully loaded trailor. Bikes in the back, bags in the front. My massive blue duffel (aka the body bag) provided good support for the rest. I love that thing...

Bikes and bags in the trailor and 11 Moore-Ons in the Moronosaurus. We were a cozy group!

My Sacto boys...

I sat next to JR, who was very chummy on the ride back. There is also Dee Ann and Tom.

Wayne, our captain.

Jim was co-pilot.

A stop at the gas station to tighten down one of the bikes.

Then everyone is passing out on the way home.

I had to add a shot of the Moronosaurus's impressive console - rich Corinthian leather, I'm sure!

And here's Karen and Wayne's neighborhood in Des Moines. We stopped here and all the Iowans departed, leaving just Karen and Wayne and the Californians. Karen served up 5 (6?) kinds of pizza, and we made short work of it! The standouts were taco pizza and bacon cheeseburger pizza. This sounds so wrong, but tasted so right!

And with Jim at the helm, we Californians head back to Omaha to spend the night, then catch flights home the next morning.

Paul, the great white hunter, was a fly killing machine!

A few of us headed out to downtown Omaha for a walk-about.

And a bottle of Napa cabernet! Yay!

And here is Paul, Tom, Tommy, and Neil the next morning at the airport. It was a fantastic trip. I loved getting to know these wonderful people. I cannot wait to do it again net year!